Cat is NQR. Any ideas?

[Simkie]

@vxf111

Why did God make something as wonderful as a cat and give it such SHITTY kidneys? Renal failure seems to get most cats before anything else can. It’s awful.

I fully believe there’s something we don’t understand about feline nutrition that leads to a lot of them dying of kidney failure Some of it is certainly that dry food isn’t really suitable for them, but I suspect it’s more complicated than just that.

@Sherry99 there is not enough joint stuff in the food to make a difference. 1/2c of dry food is in the 50g range. That gives you 20 mg of glucosamine and 15 mg of chrondroitin if your little girl is eating 1/2c of food a day (the feeding guidelines say 1/4 to 1/2 c per day for a cat that weighs 5-9 lbs; she may be only eating 1/4c.) Cosequin contains 125 mg glucosamine and 100 mg of chondroitin, with directions to dose once to twice daily. Huge difference!

Have you found the cerenia useful for her vomiting? I’ve never seen much improvements in my cats using just cerenia, but do like it quite a lot when paired with zofran. Cerenia has some neat visceral pain relief qualities, too. (But if I’m picking one antinausea med, it’s zofran, no question!)

I have a kitty on mirtazipine right now (along with pepcid) and I’m just so pleased with her improvement. She’s eating better but she’s also just happier. It might be worth a trial with your kitty to see what changes. There’s no reason to hold off on some of these meds until end of life

[Sherry99]

@Simkie

Have you found the cerenia useful for her vomiting? I’ve never seen much improvements in my cats using just cerenia, but do like it quite a lot when paired with zofran. Cerenia has some neat visceral pain relief qualities, too. (But if I’m picking one antinausea med, it’s zofran, no question!)

She doesn’t puke when she’s on it, but since her puking is intermittent, I can’t be sure.

Cosequin is back on the list to ask the vet about. I did have to ask about the famotidine (pepcid, I have a stash of the generic for myself)

@ravenclaw have you tried mixing some of the dry kibble or some treats in with the wet? I just tricked her into eating some more wet by tossing a few of the good treats on top of it. She also only gave into eating it after she came home from the vet after her ultrasound. I had to withhold food and water for that test so she was pretty hungry. Then I didn’t offer her kibble. She held out for a couple hours then gave in (I wouldn’t have withheld the kibble much longer). Once she ate some she seemed to realize that it wasn’t actually terrible or poison. She’s been more willing to taste it since then.

[Simkie]

@Sherry99

I did have to ask about the famotidine (pepcid, I have a stash of the generic for myself)

Oh, is she not regularly on the famotidine? That’s a really easy one. You can go up to twice daily, too. Has made a great difference for me, in several different cats!

[Sherry99]

@Simkie she is on the famotidine regularly now, but she wasn’t until recently. I meant that I asked the vet if it was ok for her to have, the vet didn’t tell me about it. Unfortunately for her weight a full 24 hour dose is less than 1/4 of a 10mg tablet. Apparently she was down to 6.25 when they weighed her last week. I noticed that when she pukes, it’s around 2 or 3 am. I talked to the vet about giving it to her twice a day, but that means I now need to get the pills into 1/8ths. It’s not easy and to her credit, the vet said it didn’t have to be exact, but I don’t want to OD her or have her dose vary too wildly from day to day.

[Simkie]

@Sherry99 I’ve had kittens weighing less than 6#s on twice daily dosing of 2.5mg (quarter of regular strength tablets) with the thumbs up from the vet. Are you giving in the morning or at night? If in the morning, moving that to the pm–maybe right before bed?–could help that overnight puking.

But since your little meow is dropping weight, mirtazipine does sound like a good option!

[Sherry99]

Hm, my vet was worried. I wonder why. For now she’s getting a slightly shaved down quarter am and pm, but we just started that the other day. So we’ll see.

[rubygirl1968]

You’ve gotten great advice but had to say your girl is gorgeous! I hope she feels better soon. Fluids and pepcid should help a lot with that.

[shiloh]

Well, it sounds like her attitude is good at least if she can still whizz thru the house a zillion mph and continue with naughtiness. I just don’t get the vomiting and not eating - what could be causing that? So frustrating - if only they could talk…

@vxf111 - yes to what you said about the kidneys!!!

@Sherry99 - where did you get your salmon oil and what brand was it? I have two that might benefit from that.

[Sherry99]

@rubygirl1968 thanks, I hope so!

@shiloh I know that’s what so weird. She’s acting totally normal, except for the occasional vomit. Even the not really eating isn’t weird for her.

The petco near me is doing curbside pick up so I got it there. It’s Wild Alaskan Salmon Oil. It has the NASC logo on it. I preferred one on the Chewy website that said on the bottle they had independent outside testing to confirm, but it would take a little bit to get here so I went with petco. I might get the one from Chewy during my next auto ship to try. The reviews for this one were pretty good, but a couple people said their cats wouldn’t eat it, or one would, one wouldn’t. Preferences, I’m sure my chonker would eat it. But she really doesn’t need the extra calories!
https://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/product/wild-alaskan-salmon-oil-cat-food-supplement

[Simkie]

@shiloh

I just don’t get the vomiting and not eating - what could be causing that? So frustrating - if only they could talk…

Out of whack renal values do cause them to feel pukey It’s just part of the renal failure dance, unfortunately. Sucks! I always use the willingness to eat well (or at least pretty well) as the barometer for continuing. You can treat the nausea and inappetance, but once they stop wanting food despite the meds, I figure quality of life is not good enough to continue and call it. Thankfully we have a pretty effective toolbox that can really make end of life still good for them

Hope that twice daily famotidine does the trick, @Sherry99!

[shiloh]

Agree. I have had too many cats pass from this. All you can do is try to make their last days good ones.

[ravenclaw]

@Sherry99

@ravenclaw have you tried mixing some of the dry kibble or some treats in with the wet?

I’ll give it a try. I am currently trying to find something that he will eat more reliably than his grazing bites of dry food. He wasn’t very interested in Boar’s Head roast beef or chicken flavored baby food. I have a few more things to try this weekend.

I really hope some scientists are doing research on kidney failure in cats. It happens to so many of them and it’s so heartbreaking. I hope someone can figure out something that can reliably help treat it or prevent it.

[Sherry99]

@ravenclaw good luck, mine also likes “fresh kibbles” I’m going to buy a shallower dish, she only eats the top layer of kibble. Also maybe try different temperatures of the wet food, from warm to hot.

She puked again this morning. At least she was considerate enough to go to the bathroom before she puked this time. Yesterday she was still in bed. She had some Cerenia this morning with her famotidine.

more research

[shiloh]

@ravenclaw

I really hope some scientists are doing research on kidney failure in cats. It happens to so many of them and it’s so heartbreaking. I hope someone can figure out something that can reliably help treat it or prevent it.

YES! This 1000x. I am so sick of losing kitties to this. It seems so preventable or at least curable.

Still jingling for your kitty.

[Sherry99]

Update, Cerenia and 2x a day famotidine and she ate most of her wet dinner last night and breakfast this morning! Granted I only give her a 1/8 of a can mixed with boiling water but still! She got more Cerenia today and I think she’ll get some tomorrow too. I’m also just going to give her 1/4 of a tab of famotidine 2x a day. I really thing it just wears off too soon once a day, and 1/8 of a tab is just not enough for her. What can I say she takes after me I’m currently weaning myself off of really high doses of omeprazole and famotidine.

[rubygirl1968]

Yay for the good update! I hope it continues!

[vxf111]

YAY! Glad for the positive update

[Sherry99]

Another update, I did not give her any Cerenia this morning, just the Famotidine. So far no puking! She’s also eaten a fair bit of kibbles. I can’t wait for the new shallower bowl to get here. She’ll only eat about 2 kibbles worth of depth before coming to give the look. You know, that one that says, I’m starving and there’s no food! Which I’m very happy to see because that means that she wants more! But the bowl is about 2.5 inches deep and she’ll only eat the top .25 inch of food. She skipped the wet for breakfast (ate kibbles) but she ate about half of the wet lunch.

[vxf111]

Sounds like she is on the upswing.

I found the paperwork. The stomach worm Comet was treated for was physaloptera which I had never heard of in my lifetime of owning cats.

[ravenclaw]

Glad she is still doing well! I have found that sometimes if you stir the dry food around with your hand, they will eat more. I don’t know if that makes the food smell fresher. You could try that instead of having to add more food all the time.

I have given Dewey a 1/4 Pepcid (famotidine) every day since Monday. I think he is eating more and he seems a little more active on the Pepcid. Maybe it was good that he threw up on Monday morning because it let me find out that Pepcid helps him even if he hasn’t been throwing up much.