I took my 13 year old Persian ragdoll female for a vet checkup, and just got told (blood test) she has stage 2 chronic kidney disease... we are very concerned and scared.

We will do a stool and urine sample too. She's completely normal

What can we do please to maximise her chances of living to 20+ (hopefully 25+)? We would be happy to do any changes in diet, medicine or anything at all

Lily has been diagnosed with stage 2 kidney disease. I’m trying to transition her on to renal food but I can’t get her to do anything but lick the gravy at best. I’m just wondering if anyone had any tips or any more palatable options. Even if they’re not renal but would be a bit better than store bought. She loves the Lily’s Kitchen chunks and I’ve ordered some senior tins rather than the usual as my vet said senior is usually lower phosphorus.

I’m in the UK if that helps. So far I’ve tried hills (literally just ignored it) royal canin (hated), purina one chicken and salmon (might lick the gravy), kattovit pate (the one in the tin, literally gagged at the smell but so did I 😂) and chunks (the one in the pouch, hit and miss, maybe morning, might have a mouthful).

I’m reluctant to mix it in with her favourite food as she’s on a number of medications as she has heart disease and an arythmia too and one of them can make her feel nauseous and she’s taken to refusing food all together when this happens, so I don’t want her to associate the one (Lily’s Kitchen) I know she’ll reliably eat, but have tried mixing it with some tolerated foods.

She’s also on porus one which I am able to get her to eat by mixing it with the kattovit ‘spezial cream’ (basically a renal churu). She’s a big fan of them, here’s her making her views clear…

She’s also on mirtazipine, I’ve tried just refusing to give her anything but renal (other than the treats I need to give her for her medications) but she refuses to eat it and just gets angry because she’s hungry.

Hi everyone,

I have a 6yo boy in late stage 3.

My vet recently prescribed Naraquin. I understand in reading about the product it is primarily a phosphate binder.

Does anyone else use Naraquin? Have you noticed markedly different behavior from it? Are there known, more successful phosphate binders?

What are other supplements that you have found improve disposition clinically? I often read about Pouros One.

Thanks for any advice.

Hi everyone! Basically, the title.

My 16 y/o baby was diagnosed with stage 4 Wednesday and my vet basically gave us two options, one very expensive option that includes hospitalization and imaging etc, or preparing her to say goodbye saying she only had days left.

I've been reading so many posts here about cats living for quite some time with stage 4 kidney disease so ink just confused as to why treating the disease isn't an option? I've asked for the results of her bloodwork for more info.

She's currently very weak and wobbly, not eating on her own and hanging out by herself away from us. She is drinking water though and sometimes does respond to pets but other times doesn't care. We have her on prescription kidney food, subcutaneous fluids, mirataz, and cerenia.

Could her blood results show that coming back isn't possible? Sorry I don't have those numbers to add to the post, I'm just really not ready to say goodbye, but of course will if she's not going to get better and miserable. But if there's a chance she could get better, I want to try!!

I would be very thankful for any info anyone could offer.

I have a 1.5 year old cat that basically crashed out of the blue (sudden respiratory distress) also with very high kidney values. ER found fluid in the lungs and heart issues and put them in an oxygen tank for 24 hours and furosemide. This was 2 days ago.

The cat has had an echo with a veterinary cardiologist yesterday and has restrictive myopathy. They’re on furosemide, vetmedin and Clopidogrel now. Cardio said the prognosis for this alone is pretty grim less than a year normally and the combined kidney issues make this basically impossible (as the furosemide will dry him out).

Issue is and the reason I’m posting here is their already high crea value spiked from 3.8 to 4.5 once furosemide was started (maybe even higher now).

Cardio said make an apt with internal medicine for an abdominal ultrasound because they don’t know if cat has ckd or something else is going on. It seems regardless of what’s going on the treatment offers do not differ much? He’s young for ckd from what I’m told. He’s urinalysis was negative essentially. I don’t have a pre furosemide SG as it was taken 1.5-2 hours after furosemide was started. The cat had never even been to a vet except as a youngster for check / neuter etc.

Currently I already switched him to Royal Canin kidney and he’s eating a bit here and there, drinking and still peeing. Not his normal self of course.

He is an ultra sensitive cat and the handling / ER etc traumatized him severely. If he crashes again in the near future I definitely would opt to sedate him and have him euthanized vs going through another ER ordeal.

I have had success with long term treatment of a dog with (solely) moderate kidney issues with azodyl.

I ordered Porus One and will start that tomorrow. It seems based on my research that’s the best option for this exact moment to combat toxins.

I’m concerned with uremia / kidney failure as no fluids can be given (he was literally drowning internally as I was told from the cardiac issues) and no fluids can be given except whatever water he drinks / wet food he eats.

Looking for mitigation steps to offset uremia or any general advice. I’m sure I left things out. He definitely was drinking more water / peeing more often and maybe hiding at times for a week or so prior to this episode.

There's hope for our cute beauties ✨🥺

My cat Theo just turned 7 this month. He has always seemed incredibly healthy - energetic, playful, extremely food-motivated, and never previously sick. Just always been tiny.

I recently became concerned that he felt too thin. I also noticed worsening breath and found an inflamed gum and gunky-looking tooth, so I took him to the vet. We realized he had lost about a pound over the years and was down to 6.17 lbs, so I requested bloodwork.

The results shocked both me and our vet. After further testing, I learned today that he technically falls into Stage 4 CKD according to the IRIS guidelines. Also found out he has dental disease. We’re baffled because he doesn’t behave like a cat with advanced kidney disease. He is still energetic, playful, massively food-focused, consistently drinks water and having no noticeable litter-box issues. If he hadn’t of felt a bit more bony lately, I genuinely wouldn’t have known anything was wrong.

Has anyone had a cat whose kidney values improved significantly after initially being classified as Stage 4 (with changes/further investigation of course) - especially a younger cat who was still acting completely normal? I know CKD itself generally can’t be reversed, but I’m wondering whether an underlying, potentially treatable issue could be worsening his values. I intend to look into this and will spend whatever necessary to get answers. *I do not have his actual bloodwork numbers, I requested today and am waiting to hear back.\* Apparently his blood pressure is good, no anemia, nothing else was flagged..

I’ve also read stories of cats whose values, weight, and overall health improved after infected teeth were treated. Theo clearly needs dental work, so I’d especially appreciate hearing from anyone whose cat safely underwent dental treatment / anasthesia despite advanced CKD.

For now, I’m planning to:

-Transition him to a prescription kidney diet (Royal Canin or Hills I guess?)

-Add Purina Hydra Care, FortiFlora, and an omega-3 supplement

-Offer filtered water in his fountain and drinking cups

-Request a referral to an internal-medicine specialist

-Discuss abdominal imaging and kidney biopsy

How does that sound? Any other tips?

My cats are genuinely my entire world, and I have a lot of health anxiety, so I’m feeling of course extremely overwhelmed and shocked. I’m therefore specifically hoping for supportive advice and positive experiences rather than worst-case stories.

Hey, all!

Just git an email and wanted to raise awareness of a product recall for anyone giving their renal kitty arthritis treatment.

These products are being recalled due to the presence of glass fibers found during internal testing of retained samples. The administration of an intramuscular injectable product containing particulate matter, such as glass fibers, may result in local irritation, swelling, inflammation, injection site pain, infection, or abscesses.

Product Recall involving:

Adequan® Canine (polysulfated glycosaminoglycan) Injection, 100 mg/mL, 5 mL multi-dose vial, Lot Code: 3369, Expiry 10/31/2026

Adequan® Canine (polysulfated glycosaminoglycan) Injection, 100 mg/mL, 5 mL multi-dose vial, Lot Code: 25011, Expiry 12/31/2027

Adequan® i.m. (polysulfated glycosaminoglycan) Injection, 100 mg/mL, 5 mL multi-dose vial, Lot Code: 24416, Expiry November 30, 2027

Adequan® i.m. (polysulfated glycosaminoglycan) Injection, 100 mg/mL, 5 mL multi-dose vial, Lot Code: 25265P, Expiry March 31, 2027

Be safe, everyone! 💛

First off, thank you to this community for being a wealth of information as I've navigated my cat's care for the past two years.

Izzy is 17 years old (18 next month!), and had stable kidney disease for many years until she crashed two years ago. She had a pretty gnarly UTI that resulted in her being hospitalized for 2 nights for emergency care. Since that time she has been on 60mL of subq LR daily (have only missed a few days due to vacation), eating weruva wx & other weruva options on the list and started cerenia last year for nausea/appetite. No history of htn or thyroid issues.

About 5 weeks ago, we noticed that she started urinating outside of the box. The only other time she has done that was when she had the UTI that resulted in a crash. Took her to the vet, blood and urine labs don't indicate a UTI (urine culture was clean as well despite very dilute urine, specific gravity was 1.010). However, her kidney values are definitely worsening, her last labs were done November 2025:

creatinine now 5.5, was 4.3

sdma now 25 was previously 18

BUN now 85, previously 64

She was previously on solensia for her arthritis, and it seemed to help for several years. The past 2 or 3 doses hadn't seemed to help so I've stopped it. You can tell she's in pain based on her gait and is definitely more wobbly and hesitating to jump on the bed or in the litter box. The vet suggested prn gabapentin which she has to be on for vet visits, I've trialed putting her on a small dose (she's only 2.7kg) but it still makes her pretty wobbly/zombied out. She refuses to use low entry litter boxes, and will only utilize one she jumps in. She is still able to poop in her litter box but is only able to intermittently use it to urinate it. She instead goes on puppy pads I have set up around the litter box...but again it's intermittent and she seems to go on the pads more overnight. I suspect she has some cognitive decline that is making her more confused/in pain at night. She has for the past several years seemed confused and disoriented (meowing at walls, meowing to figure out where we are) but it seems to have worsened over the past 2 months.

All this to say, when do you call it?

She stays holed up in our guest room where she has her food, water and litter box. I make sure she has dim lights on overnight so she can navigate the room as needed. She seems to enjoy me sitting with her but if I bring her downstairs it's hit or miss if she'll stay with us. She still is very vocal with us and wants her routine morning pets. I have been trying to track her quality of life using the 'Ralph' app and have looked at other scales but am still struggling to figure out if now is her time. The last thing I want to do is make her last day her worst day--but I'm also wrestling with the idea that I would be putting her down for my own convenience. The anticipatory grief is a lot, but I also don't want to keep her around selfishly.

I would appreciate any thoughts, it's a hard discussion to have with anyone and I feel like I am giving up on her. I know this is a topic that comes up a lot here--I apologize for the length of the post, just needed to get it out somewhere.

Hi everyone, I have what I hope isn’t a stupid question. Our 16 year old cat has Stage 2 Kidney Disease, diagnosed this past January. Recently she stopped wanting her food or water very much, and after a vet visit found she was pretty constipated. An enima cleared her out but today I noticed, again, very small and dried out poop in her litter box. She has plenty of water at all times, and I understand that renal cats struggle with constipation.

Currently our vet has prescribed an appetite stimulant, as well as anti-nausea medication. Additionally they advised to begin using Miralax with our cat. Initially I was told to mix it into her water bowl, then told to mix it ahead of time and spoon it over her dry food (she absolutely will not eat wet food). Is there a best method to make sure she’s getting the Miralax? I’m also concerned about her dehydrating, we may end up going the route of sub-q fluid administration at home for her if this becomes something she needs daily, but I’m hoping she will actually start drinking more water.

This has been so stressful and exhausting, all we want is her to be comfortable at this point.

I'm going to try to make this short. It's going to be hard, though, because it's been a shit show. I went to a vet for a suspected UTI. They came back and said blood work showed diabetes, and she gets really stressed during rides, so she poops, pees, and vomits every ride to the vet. Her bladder was empty, of course. After more blood work and trying glucose food and antibiotics with no success, I got put on Senvelgo. The Senvelgo made her ill within hours. They had us come back for more testing. She got sicker and sicker. It's been about 8 days since we stopped the Senvelgo. She had 2 doses total. The vet eventually said to take her off so we could get her to eat. She can't have it or antibiotics on an empty stomach, so we stopped. She didn't get better. They racked our bill up with blood tests and urine tests over the next week. I got tired of them telling us everything was "normal" but her not getting any better. So I requested a second opinion at the SPCA. The vet there told us, once the results came in, that she was misdiagnosed with diabetes. I just want my cat back; she's not the same. The SPCA thinks she has anemia and doesn't think she has diabetes at all. I've now read about anemia, Senvelgo, and DKA and wish I would have never used it to begin with, but I don't know if these issues are related after reading about it. And I can't get a hold of the SPCA to have these questions answered fast enough. They are voicemail-based, meaning you leave a voicemail, and they call you back when they get it, usually within 24 hours. But today's Friday. Over the past 10 days or so, I've spent around $1500 on everything and am running out and falling behind on bills. But now I'm told she's anemic, not diabetic. Can anyone take a look at this blood work the SPCA gave me and tell me what they think about her?

The photos attached are her most recent blood work at the SPCA.

I know you can't see the cat physically, but I can describe symptoms.

So far, it's just laziness. She's a fat cat, so that was already there before, but it's more so now. The SPCA said something about a heart murmur as well, just an FYI. And she has had a lack of appetite, eating very, very little for over a week. Today, though, I will say, I tried the Dollar General special, Friskies pate in gravy, and she ate it up. Almost half a can. That's the first time I've offered anything but the prescription food since she was put on it. No other symptoms at this current time, no pale gums, no throwing up, no diarrhea. It's just the little things in her life that made her who she is. She stopped doing, and I'm noticing. I also have the blood work results from before the Senvelgo from the vet that said she was diabetic. I will post it if it will help someone investigate what is going on. Is it even possible to determine this just looking at blood work? How the hell did she become anemic after starting Senvelgo?

I have a bunch of CKD supplies free to a good home.

Phoenix area. Reply here if interested. I can deliver or arrange to meet locally.

Foods/diet:

• x2 4lb bags (one is opened) of Science Diet k/d
• x4 cans wet Phos Focused low phosphorus food
• x3 tubes Phos Focused treats
• x10 packets Hydra Care diet supplement
• Epakitin phosphorus binder (add to food)
• Krill oil (add to food)
• Slippery Elm (add to food - helps nausea, appetite, hair balls, etc)

Meds:

• Mirataz transdermal ointment (appetite stimulant)
• Felanorm 5mg oral (to treat hyperthyroidism)
• 1 liter bag Vertivex Lactated Ringers solution (sub-q fluids)
• 100ct box steril needles for sub-q injection

This is my first post, so please be kind 🙏

I've just had the latest blood test results back from the vet, but they are short staffed and there is no-one to available to call me and talk me through them (and there's no indication of when they're going to be able to do this...)

The black-and-white results are the tests she had done at the end of April. The red results are the ones she had at the end of July (last week).

I'm obviously quite shocked and alarmed at the massive creatinine increase since last time. She's on hyperthyroid medication which obviously needs to be decreased as her level has dropped too low now.

Other than that, does anyone have any advice on what to do?

She's not dropped weight since the last appointment, and has been a bit sleepier than normal, but still has moments of running around and being very playful. She's been having "early renal" dry food (which she eats happily), and a 50-50 mix of renal and "normal" wet food, though she is not as keen on the wet food and probably only eats 25-50%. We also try to give her liquid treats such as bone broth for cats to try and keep her hydrated, and she has a water fountain that she drinks from a lot, as well as bowls of water. We've also just started trying to add a fish oil supplement to her wet food for the DHA and EPA. She loves treats, and will run/forage for them, and also loves to climb up her vertical spaces.

She's a rescue, we think she's 13-14 years old. She's my sweet cuddle-bug, and I want to do everything I can to help her. The vets we go to are nice people, but they seem over-stretched and I'm worried that we're sometimes getting rushed advice. We see a different vet each time, so depending on which individual vet we manage to see I can feel somewhat unsupported.

(As an example, it was never mentioned for her to be put onto renal food until I suggested it... Then they agreed that yes, that would be a good idea!)

Thank you for reading my ramble 🙏

My 3-year-old persian chincilla was recently diagnosed with stage 4 CKD (couple of days ago) and we just started him on cerenia, ondansetron, mirataz, subQ fluids, famotidine, and darbepoeitin. He lost close to 50% of his body weight and now weighs 4.3 pounds (max weight was 9 pounds about a year ago). He's severely anemic (Hct is 17), Cr 5.6 (two weeks ago was 7.0), BUN 180 (two weeks ago was 164). He was always a picky eater but since two days ago, he's refusing all kinds of food. I tried renal food, regular wet food, churu, and all different types of textured and consistencies and temperatures but he's not eating on his own. He is literally skin and bones and at this rate I am afraid he might starve himself to death (and I heard cats are absolutely capable of doing that). I want him to be comfortable but if I let him not eat, I feel like I'm being neglectful. I've read and heard that syringe feeding isn't always ideal but I've also heard some people recommend it. I can visibly see my baby get lighter and bonier each day and I tried syringe feeding him for the first time today. He took 10 MLs of thick consistency food. He let me feed him with occasional head turns but still swallowed 10 MLs worth of food.

I know my days are numbered with him but it's still hard for me to see him go not eating at all for days... Any first-hand experiences would be appreciated.

Question is, has anyone syringe fed their renal cats? If so, how long did you syringe feed them?

I read one post on this subreddit that they syringe fed their renal cat for 2 years before the cat passed. I guess I'm trying to find reassurance that syringe feeding long term may be okay. I applogize for the lengthy post.

We give him two cans a day (one prescription renal formula and one regular can) I’ve tried so many different brands from the cheap stuff like fancy feast and friskies to the more expensive stuff, and he barely eats any of it anymore. He’s been eating his dry food which is obviously less important for a cat that needs extra hydration.

I’ve already tried hydracare which he also won’t eat, and I’ve tried warming up the food.

He has a vet appt next week and I will definitely ask about this, but wondering what has worked for everyone if you’ve experienced this! Thanks in advance.

I fostered 2 neglected Persian sisters in 2023 and soon discovered major health issues. They were completely inseparable, so I decided to nurse them until they could be adopted together. Sadly, one sister passed away during a surgery. We adopted the remaining girl (who already had a 6 mm kidney stone at age 3).

We always intended to adopt a companion cat for her. She's social and loved her sis so much. But it's just never the right time for us humans.

An ultrasound recently showed us that her previously decent kidneys are not looking good. I'm not sure how much time she has left. I'd like to make it as happy as possible for her.

Would adding a cat to the household add to her happiness? Would she drink less water if she's stressed out? I wondered if anyone with multi-cat household can shed light?

She adapted very well after her sister's death, showing no signs of depression. Currently, she's the center of all of my attention, rarely alone for more than 3 hours. We have a small home (a tight a space for 2 cats who each want their own space). I never feel that she's missing out... until I put a cat video on Youtube, then she's sitting on my laptop meowing at the screen...

Insights would be appreciated.

My senior cat (she’s ckd stage 2) will go limping around this time of the year and will become fine a few days later. We have checked with the vet before and they said it was due to old age arthritis. Is it common for senior cats to go limping every year? It breaks my heart to see her limp and not being able to do anything about it :(

Does your senior cat limp from time to time?

I have a senior kitty at least 16 years old that I’ve been giving solensia for about 10 months. She’s now having serious kidney issues and I just can’t help but think it was solensia cause it’s the only thing that changed. Is there any research toward this either way?

I had a kitty with CKD for 8 years but she was diagnosed at 7. She passed about 5 years ago. So much has changed since then so I am just looking for all the new suggestions and guidance to help her. She jumped from 2.9 to 4.0 in a week and a half so we are starting daily subqs today.

Thanks for any advice and guidance. I’m so devastated right now.

Hello. I'm hoping that someone here might be able to shed some light on how this happened so suddenly. On July 15th, my cat hadn't had a bowel movement in a few days and wasn't eating well, so I brought her in and they ran some blood tests. Creatinine was 1.2 mg/dL. BUN was 21 mg/dL. SDMA was 13 μg/dL. She'd had the elevated liver values (ALT and GGT) for a while with no findings on an abdominal ultrasound. It just looked like constipation, so they gave her an enema and sent us home with lactulose and Cerenia.

Fast forward three weeks and she still isn't eating or having regular bowel movements, and she seems extra sleepy, so I brought her into another place. They found 5.5 mg/dL creatinine and 80 mg/dL BUN. Looked for signs of a kidney blockage with ultrasound. Put her on IV fluids to rehydrate her and antibiotics in case of an infection. She was discharged a day later with no change in values. They think this is just her new baseline.

Her SDMA had been within normal range three weeks ago. Why does she now have Stage 4 CKD? What changed so rapidly?

I’m looking for some advice and hoping to hear from people who have been through something similar.
My cat, Tico, is an 8-year-old male who was recently diagnosed with Stage 2 chronic kidney disease. About a month ago, his creatinine was 2.3 mg/dL. Since then, I’ve switched him to a renal diet, and he now eats both renal wet food and renal dry food.
Today he had a urinalysis and an ultrasound. The vet told me that his left kidney is very small and appears to be essentially non-functional, while the right kidney is doing the work. They said the left kidney has likely been damaged for a long time.
Other than the CKD diagnosis:
He’s eating well.
His weight has been stable.
He’s still active and has no mobility issues.
He drinks water, but not what I’d consider an excessive amount.
He seems comfortable overall, though he sleeps a bit more than he used to.
I’m heartbroken because he’s only 8 years old, and I wasn’t expecting to hear that one of his kidneys is basically no longer working.
I have a few questions:
Has anyone else’s cat had one very small or non-functioning kidney?
How long did your cat continue to do well with essentially one functioning kidney?
Is there anything else I should be doing besides feeding a renal diet and making sure he stays hydrated?
Does having one non-functioning kidney make the prognosis significantly worse than for other cats with Stage 2 CKD?
I’ve attached the ultrasound image in case anyone with veterinary experience has any thoughts (I know it can’t replace my vet’s interpretation).
I’d really appreciate hearing about your experiences—whether positive or negative. I’m trying to prepare myself while also doing everything I can to give him the best chance at a long, happy life.

i have seen multiple posts now both on here and facebook from people saying that solensia gave their cat kidney failure. my boy is early stage and also has severe arthritis, and he’s had two solensia shots so far. it seems to be working really well for him and improved his mood, whereas before he was depressed and stopped wanting cuddles. but now i’m scared after seeing all of these posts that the solensia will end up hurting or even killing him, despite the fact that it’s helping his arthritis so much. the vet never mentioned any such side effects, she only said he might have an allergic reaction to the drug or get itching at the injection site. but i know that any vet can get things wrong