Elderly CKD Cat Jakey Has Progressed to Needing Fluids (IV outpatient followed by regular SubQ at home)

[epona]

This is a testament to Jakey - and to the care you have given him!

It also makes him really easy to give him any treatment needed.

Sonic, who was both a blood relation and raised in pretty much exactly the same way, same ethical breeder and then adopted by me, was an absolute *nightmare* when it came to anything remotely medical being done to him.

When Jakey needs his claws trimmed, I can just tip him over onto his side a bit and do all his claws while he purrs. Sonic needed 3 people to wrap him up in a towel, I used to have to take him to the vet to have his claws trimmed by a team of people.

I do wonder whether we might have been able to save Sonic when he declined rapidly and was diagnosed with late stage CKD/renal failure out of the blue if he hadn't been so treatment-averse, and I just try to remember the trouble I had trimming his claws, or administering ear drops when he had an ear infection - he didn't even bite or scratch, and was very cuddly with me, but try to do anything medical and he was very very stressed, struggling with all his might and screaming and hissing his little head off, it wasn't about the difficulty for me, it's the stress he went through for even minor things, a hospital stay and then fluids at home every couple of days would not have been feasible for him. I miss him so much.

I don't know why he was like that because he had pretty much the same life as easy to handle chilled out Jakey.

 

[epona]

The perspective is a bit odd in this photo, cos he had his face right up near my phone so his head looks massive...
But he has both his front paws folded into my hand, so I am holding his paws.

Love my sweet little Jakey boy

 

[silent meowlook]

He is beautiful!!!
Oriental Shorthairs are part cat, part alien and part clown. They are definitely different. I love them and their huge personalities as well as their vocal stylings. They are such unique critters with each one being so unique from each other.

Unfortunately, in my experience, they do seem to get kidney failure, IBD, and dental disease. Just what I have seen, I haven’t gone a study.

I think it is great that you are having success with the fluids snd he is feeling better!!!

 

[epona]

He is beautiful!!!
Oriental Shorthairs are part cat, part alien and part clown. They are definitely different. I love them and their huge personalities as well as their vocal stylings. They are such unique critters with each one being so unique from each other.

Unfortunately, in my experience, they do seem to get kidney failure, IBD, and dental disease. Just what I have seen, I haven’t gone a study.

I think it is great that you are having success with the fluids snd he is feeling better!!!

I've had 2 OSH and they are just amazing, I want to have OSH or Siamese for the rest of my life.
I like cats that kind of want to be glued to me and talk to me a lot.

Sadly, it was my beloved DSH moggy Radar that had a lot of (quite frankly very expensive, including having to have all his teeth extracted due to an auto-immune disorder in which his immune system was attacking the roots of his teeth) health issues and died young of cancer, involving a secondary brain tumour, at age 13 - my 2 OSH came from an ethical breeder who I would wholeheartedly recommend and both did better than my darling moggy Radar (and were also better socialised!).

Jakey is nearly 18 so it's not unexpected that he might have health issues at this age, (and he has CKD, not renal failure yet) regardless of his breed.

 

[epona]

Honestly with this daft sausage, I can tell he's feeling loads better because he falls off thing with greater frequency

 

[epona]

I'm still in that early on stage of fearing that I might accidentally spear him with a needle into his flesh or something, but that's about me and my nervousness - it's actually going OK.

We've had a couple of oops moments - once when we started injecting the fluid was coming out somewhere so the needle had gone in and back out the other side and we had to stop and start again. And once when he pulled forward a little bit and the needle came out - he'd already had 39ml of his 40ml at that point so no worries.

We have a follow up vet appointment next Monday (21st) to see how he (and we!) are getting along with the fluids at home, also for him to have another Solensia arthritis shot, which also seems to have helped a lot in terms of his levels of activity and willingness to eat.

He seems well and really happy, eating well, his coat is lush (after being a bit rough before we started doing fluids).

The only slightly weird thing is, that he's stopped purring loudly - he used to purr all the time, he was a "look at him and he purrs at 120 decibels" cat - but now he doesn't. I don't think this is in any way an indication of lack of happiness, because in all other regards he is doing really well and is clearly enjoying his life!

 

[FeebysOwner]

Good news, and thanks for the update! Totally appreciate the 'boo-boos' with sub-Q fluid administration - certainly have been there, done that!

Don't know what would be behind the meowing decibel loss, but if that is the only thing to worry about, I'd say that overall things are going very well.

 

[AbbysMom]

I'm still in that early on stage of fearing that I might accidentally spear him with a needle into his flesh or something, but that's about me and my nervousness - it's actually going OK.

You are doing great! I have been giving Abby fluids for almost two years now and for some reason Monday did not go well. I had it come out the other side multiple times, did it too deep, etc. Unfortunately it happens even when you have been doing it for a while.

 

[fionasmom]

once when we started injecting the fluid was coming out somewhere

This is very common. I did it with my GSD who was very big and certainly had enough of a "target" area to insert the needle.

 

[silent meowlook]

I call it shush kabobbing , when I go in one side of the skin and out the other. It happens.

 

[Meowmee]

I'm still in that early on stage of fearing that I might accidentally spear him with a needle into his flesh or something, but that's about me and my nervousness - it's actually going OK.

We've had a couple of oops moments - once when we started injecting the fluid was coming out somewhere so the needle had gone in and back out the other side and we had to stop and start again. And once when he pulled forward a little bit and the needle came out - he'd already had 39ml of his 40ml at that point so no worries.

We have a follow up vet appointment next Monday (21st) to see how he (and we!) are getting along with the fluids at home, also for him to have another Solensia arthritis shot, which also seems to have helped a lot in terms of his levels of activity and willingness to eat.

He seems well and really happy, eating well, his coat is lush (after being a bit rough before we started doing fluids).

The only slightly weird thing is, that he's stopped purring loudly - he used to purr all the time, he was a "look at him and he purrs at 120 decibels" cat - but now he doesn't. I don't think this is in any way an indication of lack of happiness, because in all other regards he is doing really well and is clearly enjoying his life!

I am glad it is going so well. I would ask dvm about the purring, I am sure it is nothing serious. That happened to me too, lol needle comes out the other side and fell out occasionally. Fluid spraying out! One thing to do is lift up the skin tent high, insert needle slowly and pull back on their skin while you do it, it's less likely to poke through that way.

 

[epona]

We had a vet visit on Monday, for a follow up check and another Solensia injection, which I think is helping him to be more active. The vet thought the lack of purring might just be due to him being quite ill on and off this year what with his UTIs in the summer then decline in kidney function and ending up quite dehydrated - sometimes they can just lose the physical ability to purr due to ill health or physical trauma apparently.

We have other ways to monitor his emotional wellbeing, so although it's a little odd, it's probably nothing to worry about in the grand scheme of things (at least not in comparison with the state of his poor little kidneys). I did get a tiny purr out of him yesterday for the first time in ages, so maybe it will come back a bit now we're more on top of keeping him hydrated. He still wants cuddles all the time and he kisses my face a lot, I know he's happy even if he's not purring like he used to.

Other than that, the vet says he looks loads better than he was a month ago, more alert and his coat is lovely. I agree with this assessment, he's never been a massively energetic cat, but he's improved a lot. Vet said we can increase his fluids, he's on a fairly low amount right now but he's taken to it without fuss so we can up it a bit.

We understand that anything we do for him now is wholly about his quality of life, his last set of blood tests showed his kidneys are in a very poor final stage CKD state, but the SubQ fluids are doing wonders, he's clearly feeling so much better now he's not dehydrated.

We also got a vitamin B12 supplement for him, thanks to whoever mentioned that, good tip and our vet agreed it was a good idea and would help him to maintain condition and appetite.

 

[fionasmom]

He still wants cuddles all the time and he kisses my face a lot

 

[epona]

Jakey's purr is back a little bit.

I just want to say to anyone else with a cat going through medical issues - sometimes they can lose their purr, but do not focus on that if you are doing a quality of life assessment, it can be lost through illness or injury, but it doesn't mean they aren't happy if they stop purring for a bit (and maybe some will never get their purr back)- make sure to check other aspects of their life to determine whether they are happy.

 

[epona]

The poor little sausage is weeing a bit bloody tonight, he's not blocked and I will keep an eye on him overnight to make sure it doesn't require emergency treatment at any point - but (if it doesn't escalate) I'm going to have to phone the vet in the morning to get him seen.

Please wish the little lad some luck, he's been through the mill this year with UTIs on top of his CKD.

 

[FeebysOwner]

 

[fionasmom]

 

[Meowmee]

 

[epona]

Struggling to get a vet appointment, they changed their system where you used to be able to phone and book an appointment for the following day, and now you have to go online at midnight and find all the appointments have already been booked, or phone at 8:30 and sit on hold for ages.
This doesn't work well for me as I am autistic (last minute on the fly things are doable on adrenalin if need be and I can be remarkably calm in a real emergency, but finding myself in a race to book a 5 minute appointment so my cat can have a cystocentesis for urinalysis is ridiculous - and it would be 5 minutes, he's really soft and easy to handle), I find it difficult and stressful to navigate, and my cat still doesn't have an appointment and I have to go through the same rigmarole tomorrow.

 

[Meowmee]

Struggling to get a vet appointment, they changed their system where you used to be able to phone and book an appointment for the following day, and now you have to go online at midnight and find all the appointments have already been booked, or phone at 8:30 and sit on hold for ages.
This doesn't work well for me as I am autistic (last minute on the fly things are doable on adrenalin if need be and I can be remarkably calm in a real emergency, but finding myself in a race to book a 5 minute appointment so my cat can have a cystocentesis for urinalysis is ridiculous - and it would be 5 minutes, he's really soft and easy to handle), I find it difficult and stressful to navigate, and my cat still doesn't have an appointment and I have to go through the same rigmarole tomorrow.

That is awful.. it seems a lot of this sort of thing is happening lately.. I hope you get an appointment asap