At our (and the cat's) wits end w/subcutaneous fluids

[MarriedCrazyCatLady]

Hey everyone,

Our 13 year old cat has kidney disease, so we've put her on a low protein diet and have to give her subcutaneous fluids every other day. We went to the vet, they showed us how to give said fluids, and took her home. The first two weeks were great--she settled in and let us do it and would only squirm towards the end (we have to give her 100 ML).

Then one day things changed quite drastically. She just won't sit still for us to give it to her and fights us. We even went back to the vet to make sure it wasn't something we were doing wrong. The vet assured us that we were doing it right, and that we should maybe try a smaller needle. We tried that to no avail.

We have tried:

- As I mentioned, a smaller needle.
- Warming the bag so the fluids aren't cold.
- Trying to do the fluid process when she's chill, purring, and half asleep on my lap.
- Making sure we insert the needle into a different part than we did two days before.
- Put her in a purrito, which she VIOLENTLY fights until the bitter end, and knocks the needs out.

So here we are to the point where we don't know what to do because we haven't been able to distribute the full 100 ML for the past week.

Thanks for reading.

 

[danteshuman]

When we had to give Chester fluids every day for a couple of weeks his entire scruff was all bruised up! Is it possible that she can get a numbing cream or pain medicine?

Also I’m sorry to be that person, but can she recover so she won’t need sub q fluids in a month? What are her chances. I think you should talk to the vet (& also keep in mind that she can’t understand why you are doing this to her. She knows she is sick and the sun q hurts. ) So I might focus on her quality of life over having her live a long life. I am so sorry your baby is sick!

 

[Jem]

We gave fluids to my boy for close to 4 years, so I get it. He was not always cooperative, but thankfully for us, he was an attention addict, so most of the time we could keep him still if we scratched his favorite spot.
Ask your vet if you can divide the amounts of fluid to 50mls more often as it won't take as long to administer.
A trick my vet told me was safe is to gently squeeze the bag, it's makes the fluid run faster.
Have you tried distracting with treats or tuna water?

I'll keep thinking.....

 

[weebeasties]

We went the other way with the needle. We used a larger needle so the fluid went in faster. Buster was pretty good with the initial stick, it was only a problem when the fluids ran slowly. In the beginning, it was a two person job. One to hold him while the other administered fluids. Eventually, Buster got used to it and it only required one of us.

 

[LTS3]

There are tips here:

Subcutaneous Fluids – IBDKitties

There's a link on the site to a cat IV harness that may be helpful.

 

[MarriedCrazyCatLady]

When we had to give Chester fluids every day for a couple of weeks his entire scruff was all bruised up! Is it possible that she can get a numbing cream or pain medicine?

Also I’m sorry to be that person, but can she recover so she won’t need sub q fluids in a month? What are her chances. I think you should talk to the vet (& also keep in mind that she can’t understand why you are doing this to her. She knows she is sick and the sun q hurts. ) So I might focus on her quality of life over having her live a long life. I am so sorry your baby is sick!

View attachment 313161

Great idea on the numbing medication. And yea... we will see how it goes before returning to vet to see if there is any other alternative. Abby (our 13 year old cat) is as happy as a clam, and actually, is more energetic and playful than she's ever been. So this is definitely helping her. It's just gone down hill so fast when it comes to her tolerating it...

 

[MarriedCrazyCatLady]

We gave fluids to my boy for close to 4 years, so I get it. He was not always cooperative, but thankfully for us, he was an attention addict, so most of the time we could keep him still if we scratched his favorite spot.
Ask your vet if you can divide the amounts of fluid to 50mls more often as it won't take as long to administer.
A trick my vet told me was safe is to gently squeeze the bag, it's makes the fluid run faster.
Have you tried distracting with treats or tuna water?

I'll keep thinking.....

Thanks for you suggestions. We can try to do the bag squeeze so we can get as much in as quickly as possible. And when we started, we started with the treats. I can try that again to see if that helps at all.