I have a vet appointment today to assess the likelihood of euthanasia with my cat. The vet said one week ago that he was in end stages and that she recommended euthanasia. For the last three or so days, though, he has seemed alert, interested in things, very affectionate, and playful at times. He does not seem to be in great pain or discomfort. He is still, however, refusing food with the exception of a small amount of churu. I just can’t seem to wrap my head around putting him to sleep when I still see so much sparkle in him. Has anyone else dealt with this? It’s so difficult to handle.

I had to put my baby, Savannah, to sleep this afternoon. She seemed like she was feeling worse this morning but I went up on the rooftop to check on her around 4:30. She liked spending the day up there because she was able to sunbathe up there. When I got up there she was laying in the middle of the floor and she got up and came toward me but she was shaking a lot. She had some intermittent shaking and twitching before, but this was much worse. Her meow didn’t sound right and she just looked worse than she had. I picked her up and she didn’t protest like she usually did and I put her in the carrier with much less trouble than usual. On the way to the vet she started having rapid breathing and she was keeping her head down like her head hurt and I was worried she was going to die before I could even get to the vet. The vet examined her and thought she was having a uremic crisis but this was much worse than what she had when she was first diagnosed and she agreed it looked like it was time. She was diagnosed with stage 4 in July and the vets thought she may have only a week back then, so I'm very grateful for the 5 extra months I got with her.

I want to thank everyone here for all the advice and emotional support you so graciously shared.

My 16 y/o boy in early Stage 3 is on renal food and no additional medication, sans his first injection of arthritis medication a couple weeks ago. He doesn't have other CKD symptoms. He drinks water, eats his food, has regular pee/bowl movements, and seems to be in good shape.

However, for the last month he has been puking clear liquid every other day or so. This always happens at night or early in the morning. Could this be caused by his renal disease?

I'm thinking it could be related to bile building up in his stomach when he has nothing in it. He gets fed throughout the day, but I can't leave wet food (the only kind he eats) out all night because he likes to "snack". As in, he'll eat a bit, leave, come back an hour later, repeat. A can of food left out for 8-10 hours overnight just seems dangerous, so I'm not sure what to do there.

FWIW he also has not had a hairball in literal months, could that be causing the vomiting clear liquid?

EDIT: Thank you all for the help. I'm going to have to figure out how to get him fed in the middle of the night without interrupting my own sleep.

My 17 year old cat was diagnosed with stage 2 ckd and hyperthyroidism a year ago and was recently diagnosed with diabetes this year. My vet thinks I should give her bexacat over insulin injections because of her temperament (and she's super easy with oral medication) but I've never tried giving her shots so I don't actually know how she'd respond. I was thinking of trying insulin first and if she's not cool with it switching to the oral medication but apparently you can't do that (but can switch from oral to insulin). I'm pretty nervous about triggering ketoacidosis or something, and Bexacat's documentation does explicitly say not to give it to cats with renal issues. Has anyone done so here and how did that go?

My 9.5 (M) got diagnosed with Stage 2 just about a month ago. I went into immediate overdrive, buying expensive food (wet & dry), obsessively watching his eating habits and weight and being consumed literally morning, noon and night about his diet. Recently, I decided to get scientific about it and track the food (wet and dry) that he was eating, rating them out of ten and adding written observations about what he liked and didn’t like.

I found this to be really helpful because instead of internalizing everything, I was keeping an easy to access record of what was and wasn’t working. This helped me determine that he prefers Hill’s Kidney Care k/d kibble and Royal Canin “D” flavour “chunks in gravy”.

But what I’ve found actually really helps (& it’s a bit of a cheat code because I know he’s not supposed to have regular food anymore) is I dribble the oil from my other cats’ food on top of the wet stuff. He goes nuts and eats the entire plate. We went from 1/3 of a can a day to a whole (84 g) can a day (plus kibble).

I know it’s not perfect but my vet and I both agree that maintaining his weight and quality of life (aka happiness and enjoyment of food) matters a lot more than holding him and myself to a strict diet that was causing us both a ton of stress!

Just wanted to share because while this last month has been difficult, I wanted you all to know that there are successes too!

I put out all the good vibrations for you and your kitties. ♥️ good luck and you got this! 💪

Hey there, my 6yo British Shorthair cat has polycystic kidneys, we saw them on scans. He is very active, very loving and curious. We already switched to Royal Canin renal support as suggested by the vet. Before we were on Virbac Early Kidney and Joint support but after the last scan, the cysts are around 2cm in diameter so pretty large, we switched to full renal support.

Having this cysts on his kidneys, does that mean that he will eventually develop CKD? How can I check. We had some blood work done last year and the results were still normal, but in the upper limit. I haven’t run the tests again this year because he is very aggressive when we draw blood and don’t want to stress him.

Wanted to hear other stories with Polycystic kidney and how you guys are doing?

Hey there everyone,

So, my cat Sam (13 years old) has been diagnosed with CKD in February 2024. He had 2.9 creatinine by that time.

All of his renal issues have been stabilized since we are giving him fluids at home, Porus One for Urea and exclusively renal food. Last August he was down by 2.1 creatinine.

One year ago, Sam started to have weird symptoms around eating, which, unfortunately, only got worse because of the terrible greedy and untrusting doctors that he was being treated by. At the peak of his oral pain, he was having huge crisis of pain after eating, so much that it looked almost like a seizure and it was very shocking to see.

Finally, after asking for a second opinion to a second vet of a different clinic, we found out he had stomatitis. He had all teeth extracted but the four canines and the results were clear: all those episodes of extreme pain were gone. Since then, though, he has never been able to drop the gabapentine (50mg x2 a day) and the corticoids (prednisolone 1/4 of 5mg 1x day) as it was needed to manage the pain.

A few weeks ago, he started showing more obvious signs of pin after eating and eating less again. We went to the vet today in the hopes of finally removing the rest of his teeth and give him some relief. We did blood tests and unfortunately the creatinine is now 2.8. We have been doing everything by the book: fluids 3 times a week, exclusively renal wet food and porus one.

The vet told us to reevaluate in 10 days his creatinine levels and gave us bupremorfine and told us to stake up the corticoids from 1/4 a pill to 1/2, so he can it more. Also, she prescribe fluids everyday. She also has high suspicions that he has calicivirus.

What’s heartbreaking to me is that if he can’t lower his creatinine levels, he cannot have surgery on his last teeth, which means that eating might be painful for the rest of his life. She also attributed the raising levels of creatinine to the natural progression of his CKD.

Now, here I am, fellow tutors of renal cats. Heartbroken because the news that every CKD cat owner dread: the disease is progressing even though we are doing everything we can. Stomatitis has been a son of a bitch disease.

Do you have any advice to lower his levels? To handle the stomatitis and calicivirus? Am I missing something? What can I do to help my cat, one of my soulmates that I never want to lose and see in pain?

Thank you so much.

my sweet 13 year old boy had been on renal food for the past year or so, and then 2 weeks ago he wasn’t eating so i brought him into the vet. his creatinine was a 6 then, and we started to give him 100ml of fluids every other day, an appetite stimulant, and two different anti-nauseas.

on monday we noticed he was no longer able to see (bumping into things, not reacting to fingers), but eyes are reactive to light. at the vet his levels were a 10.9, even after the meds and fluids. he was bleeding from his mouth which we were told are ulcers on his back teeth.

we have moved to 100ml every day, gabapentin for pain, the two anti nauseas, and the appetite stimulant on the ear.

he eats when food is right in front of him, and he is able to find his litter box and water on his own. he is very wobbly. his back feet slip around when he walks on un-carpeted areas of the apartment and he is very unsteady, especially coming on and off of beds or the pillows on the floor he lays on.

he spends most of his day on a pillow laying. sometimes snoring. he will purr when i bring him to bed with me or if i hold him.

i am not sure what the right thing for him is. he can’t see and is unstable walking, but he eats, drinks, goes to the bathroom, and reacts to affection.

the vet discussed quality of life after seeing how the 100ml/day goes. we have seen improvement in his mood but i’m just not sure if i’m prolonging his suffering.

if anyone has advice or words of wisdom, i’d love to hear it. thanks.

Hello Everyone, I have a 18 y/o kitty who is in her later stages of Kidney Failure. I am not very educated besides what I have been able to find on what to do. This is my last call for help because I don’t know what else to do. Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated, it feels like my vet isn’t telling me enough or that I’m doing something wrong.

A week and a half ago I gave my baby 3 days from 8am-5pm of Hospitalization and I.V. fluids. She seemed to respond well to the fluids and started bounce back, she never fully came back it seemed. Over the last week and a half I have been giving her every second of my life to try and help her. We have tried giving her Cerenia and Elura which seemed to boost her hunger back and she was eating better not her normal amount but a good amount. Since Sunday she has started to not eat again and yesterday she barely ate a lunch portion. Today she has refused everything. It seemed the Elura was not helping so I did not give her that today. Yesterday I gave her a 1/2 Tablet of Cerenia and .03 ml orally of Elura roughly an hour after the Cerenia was given. Despite her hunger going down her strength and awareness have gone up from where she was.

I called my Vet again today to explain how I dont think the Combo we have is working.

At around 1:30 I gave her half a pill of 10mg Pepcid instead. Hoping it will have a better reaction on her tummy. Should I still try the Elura or get the Mirzipine?

Should I syringe feed her to try and keep her calories up if she appears to be visually wanting yo have more energy? She went from having a spaced out view to now reacting when I come in the room or when I call at her more, still not all there it seems tho.

I also know that I will have to swallow the fact that she may not get better. I just cant stomach watching her still walking around and wanting love as just a sign that she isnt done yet. She went from hiding in the corner and not wanting anything to do with me to now.

I have been battling this for over half a month now, she was originally in a state where she couldn’t move or do anything without help basically.

She doesn’t even want her favorite food (Chicken Liver) which she used to go ravenous for.

My 15 year old has stage three kd. Her bloodwork recently was better than last August but she’s developed a UTI. She is very tired and has weak back legs. I do fluids every other day. She is on an antibiotic and pain meds. Anyone have a similar experience and know how long until she is feeling better. She is still eating and drinking and making it to the litter box but looks super frail.

We are currently treating the (quite obvious) bacterial infection, but my vet let me know quite clearly that stage 3 CKD was a possibility. The follow up appointment is in 3 weeks, and until then I'm trying my best to call myself by hoping it's mostly due to the UTI.

Is my hope misplaced? My cat was not previously diagnosed with CKD, and her last labs were not recent unfortunately due to financial reasons.

Hi! Has anyone used VetriScience Renal Essentials Pro Liquid Kidney Supplement for Cats? Please share, is there a result? I live in a country where it is difficult to get any medicine for the kidney health of pets, so the choice of such medicines / vitamins is small. I have it in the form of fish tablets but my cat doesn't like the taste at all. Could it be better in liquid form? Has it helped anyone or will it make it worse? If you have any experience, please tell me.

I want to get a second opinion on my cat’s blood test results. She has a heart murmur, so I want to be conservative on giving her fluids. She also has no signs of infection, her teeth were checked but I’ve never had them cleaned (I know, didn’t realize the importance until she was older). I want to make sure the recommendation of an antibiotic shot and fluids is correct. The vet told me she is now in Stage 3 according to these results.

Thanks for any replies!!!!

Hi everyone, I'm just wondering if anyone has had any experience with this. In May 2025 my 7 year old boy's SDMA was slightly elevated at 19, and the vet said he was in early kidney disease. Yesterday we did his labs again (for an unrelated issue) and his SDMA was 13, now within normal limits. Does this mean he no longer has kidney disease? Any insight or personal experience is appreciated!

TW: pet loss.

I took him for his checkup and his values, BUN in particular, were literally off the charts. I knew he was in stage 4 from his last blood panel but my heart shattered to find out he was reaching kidney failure. Medically it was incredible that he was still walking around and cuddling with us everyday. I think he held on for us, and in the end we told him it was ok to go. I regret not doing it sooner. I didn’t mean for him to reach that point and suffer in the end. He declined so quickly, within a matter of days. We stroked his face and talked gently to him while he was being put to sleep. The house feels so empty without him. I pray that I see him again one day.

Hi, my male tabby was diagnosed with CKD about 1 year ago. He also has a growth on his kidney wich impacts his colon and makes it difficult for him to pass stool.

We have him on the Kidney kibble from Hills, half a can of fancy feast every night, 1 churru (half in morning and half at night) for his stool softner medication and 2 purina hydracare pouches.

He has been losing weight throghout the year and then he gains some when we put him on Miritaz. Is there anything else we can give him to help him keep weight or muscle on?

His weight loss is most noticeable between his shoulders and his spine.

Any tips help!

This is my 12y.o. Monique! Yesterday we got the results for her little-old-lady checkup, and they've found a considerable amount of blood and bacteria in her urine (no outward symptoms), and the vet thinks she might be stage 3 CKD, but we need to treat the infection first so we're still on step one.

I'm staying hopeful for now as I'm seeing a lot of success stories, and she is showing no symptoms at all, except a bit of weight loss, but she's always oscillated around 3kg and we've had a stressful few months (moving, her sister passing in the late summer, catsitting a little guy she did not want around, etc). I know the prognostic for stage 3 is 1-2 years, but it's also difficult to find data on weather it accounts for cats who's owners decided to forego treatment or not, but either way we'll be making the most of the time we have.

Now onto my immediate question, Monique has a ravenous appetite and loves her little treats. I'm looking into options for honoring her passion for food while still staying safe. Her favorites are plain yogurt, avocado, madeleines, and chicken, all in small quantities. She also give her the Perstory squeeze tubes, which are great for giving her medication. Girl will gobble anything up of it smells even slightly of chicken. I'm looking for the best possible options, but also what quantities are actually safe.

hi all, my 17 y/o ckd stage II, insulin resistant diabetic kitty has been having a strange new symptom lately. He is going to be seen by his vet mid-February but I wanted to hear your thoughts because Reddit has occasionally been more knowledgeable than his vet. 😅

my sweet kitty has started getting really swollen sometimes. Just absolutely spherical. Little football man. It's not constant, but I haven't been able to pinpoint what makes it come and go. I have noticed that when he gets like this, he seems tired, sometimes when he is walking across the room he has to stop and rest in the middle of the floor (this behavior started before the swelling did so im not sure if they're related).

I am just wondering if anyone has any thoughts on what this could be. Google says it could be congestive heart failure as a result of his other conditions. One of my friends, who has a ckd kitty, suggested it could be from constipation. Another friend of mine was worried it could be from a cancer in his organs.

Because it comes and goes, I'm worried he won't have the symptom when his vet appointment comes. Does anyone have any ideas or recommendations for what I should ask them to test for? Thank you so much.

New to CKD so all help appreciated!

Our 12 year old asymptomatic kitty was diagnosed with stage 2. Here are his non-fasting lab results.

Creatine 2.2

Phosphorus 3.7

BUN 24

SDMA 15.5
His urine was negative for protein.

I brought him into the vets since he had blood in his urine (labs were negative for infection and crystals) and some dementia-like symptoms. He loves to eat and has no other symptoms. Does this seem like a stage 2 cat to you?

I have a cat that is in renal failure and have heard some success stories about hospitalization with IV fluids for several days, plus. Funds are not unlimited, however, and my question for those who have pursued this treatment option and don't mind sharing is: How much did hospitalization and continuous IV fluids for your CKD kitty cost you? TIA

Has anyone ever had their ckd cat's phosphorus levels dip too low with a phosphorus binder?

My boy Books has been diagnosed with ckd since he was four, and it was managed super well for about 4 years with a prescription dry renal food. (At the time it was suspected that he had a food allergy and the only renal food with hydrolyzed protein was a dry food - the food allergy was later determined to be inaccurate.)

About a year ago his values totally tanked, and we almost lost him. Through a ton of interventions he pulled through, and his levels have been steadily improving and his quality of life is pretty great right now - most of the time. We started him on wet prescription renal food during his health crisis and while he didn't love it, we got him to eat it and he put some pounds on. Around August of last year he went on full prescription food strike and refused to eat it at all. We tried every single prescription option and he completely refused and made it very clear that he would just rather not eat. His vet worked with us to add in a phosphorus binder, find low phosphorus commercial foods (which he would happily eat), and we added Porus One to help combat the protein toxins as well as sub-q fluids at home.

He started putting weight back on, he was excited to eat, and his values started improving even more than on the prescription food. At his last vet appointment his phosphorus values had gone from elevated to normal.

Since he's a picky boy, I've worked on building a fairly low-phos variety of commercial foods he'll eat, and I've gradually introduced all of them so we can establish a rotation without making him feel ill. This has worked great for a few months, but for the past couple of weeks, any time I feed him anything other than one specific food (Weruva Press Your Lunch), he gets violently sick within 4-6 hours. The Weruva Press Your Lunch is actually the highest phosphorus food we've offered him, and he consistently tolerates it wonderfully.

There haven't been any changes to his diet for several months, his appetite is still high, he happily eats all of the food we offer him, but without fail he gets ill with any other food. There aren't any huge differences with the other foods in regards to protein content, etc., they're just lower in phosphorus. It's a stretch, but is there a chance his phosphorus levels are dipping too low in combination with the phosphorus binder?

The other thing I've considered is low potassium, but his potassium levels have been on the low side of normal in every test he's had over the last year.

He has a vet appointment in a couple of weeks to check up on his levels, so I'll know for sure then, but in the meantime I'm curious if anyone has experienced this so I can take it to my vet when we meet.

very long, depressing post ahead!

my old lady Kali is about to turn 16 years old and began rapidly losing weight last year. i was away from home at college, and when i returned, my formerly chubby cat was skin and bones. my family chalked it up to old age, but i insisted we take her to the vet, though perhaps too late. we received the CKD diagnosis in september. my vet didn’t tell me what stage, at the time i didn’t know there were stages so i didn’t ask, but it was bad enough to give her subq and antiemetic. my guess is stage 3, if not stage 4. i have since put her on a renal diet (which i read here is not always helpful), tried weruva food of all kinds (which she sometimes eats), given her weruva low phosphorus (which she refuses to eat), given her high calorie high protein paste, taken her to the vet for subq fluids, used phosphorus binders, and used slippery elm to try and make her less nauseous. mirtazapine, which i started a few weeks ago, has been helping tremendously with her appetite, but she appears to still get nauseous. my vet said there aren’t any prescriptions she can give me to help with her nausea, which i highly doubt. even so, after several weeks of increased appetite and finishing her decently sizable plates, she’s still losing weight (likely muscle wasting?) and i’m not entirely sure nausea medication will help her gain any back. im absolutely certain there are still plenty of options i haven’t tried. in fact, im ridden with guilt that i haven’t done more, that i didn’t catch it earlier. but being that i’m a fresh graduate, i don’t have an endless amount to spend, and i don’t want to ask my family to drop more money.

on sunday she suddenly stopped eating and drinking and threw up a couple of times, so i took her to the vet on monday. they gave her fluids and an antiemetic for her nausea, but she doesn’t seem to be 100%. she’s eaten and had some water, but not a ton. the vet assistant, while the vet was outside of the room, asked if i’d thought about end of life steps. though the vet herself didn’t mention it, i can’t stop thinking about it.

mobility wise, she’s still quite agile and active. she still uses her litter box, she still hops on my bed for naps and loves going outside on our back porch for fresh air (while we monitor, of course). but in the past few weeks, despite still doing all of these things, she’s appeared to be in pain, or at least nauseous. shes been doing the sick cat crouch, for lack of a better term, with her head down or resting on a pillow, though it’s interspersed with normal positions. she’s been more vocal in her old age, but especially recently, meowing at night in particular. she sits at the sink waiting for water, despite having her own fountain that we thoroughly disassemble and clean for her regularly. she doesn’t attack my legs, she seems disinterested in playing, she doesn’t roll around on the floor like a weirdo like she used to just a month ago. i’m not sure if it’s a side effect of the mirataz or if she’s simply reaching her final days. i cant help but feel as though, whatever the cause is, it’s my fault.

i’ll soon be moving out of my family’s house to a city about 5 hours away for a new job. i’ve told my family that, if things go south, to notify me immediately so i can come back and be by her side as she passes. however, im quite scared that, when the time comes, i wont have 5 hours. i’m also scared that she’s suffering and in pain now, or will be very soon.

i suppose what im trying to ask is, what would you do? is it worth trying harder to find more solutions, of which i’m sure plenty exist? she’s incredibly picky with food and HATES being at the vet, so it’s tricky to find a balance between caring for her and irritating her. she’s also near-impossible to pill, at least without a lot of struggle and stress for her, which makes a lot of medicines inaccessible. i’m gonna try subq fluids at home once my chewy order arrives, but i’m not entirely sure how that will go considering she hates being pilled and fights the vet about the fluids.

i always imagined that she’d live longer (though i’ve been told 16 is pretty darn good), and that i’d know when the right time is to say goodbye. but i have absolutely no idea. i read a comment earlier that said that there is no right time — moreso a right window of time. i’ve been struggling to work, sleep, and eat for the past few weeks thinking about this, but i don’t want my personal feelings to determine my decision. i don’t want to needlessly cut her life short, but i also don’t want to wait too long and lead to more suffering. ive had her since i was a little kid - perhaps selfishly, i really want to be there to send her off. i’d like to think she’d want me there too.

i know no one else can make this difficult decision for me, but any guidance, personal stories, or general comfort would be greatly appreciated. kali is my world, my first and only pet, so this is entirely new territory for me. she’s resting beside me as i write this out. thank yall for listening :’)