Okay, my last thread about Sophie was after she was given anti-depressants, which is something we've been flirting with for about a year or two and finally decided it was time.
Last year around this time (December 30th), I lost the love of my life and my soulmate, my cat Mutty, 19 years old. So Sophie's problems kind of fell to the wayside and now I am seriously regretting it.
She hasn't had a full workup and urinalysis in about two years. Everything was fine then and she weighed 7lbs.
The *REASON* for the last vet visit was mainly because as of lately (the past few months), Sophie has been drinking A LOT of water and her teeth seemed to be changing color. I'm a stay at home wife and I see her literally camped out next to the water bowl for a good portion of the day just sitting perched up there in a sitting position.
The vet weighed her, and she is now 9lbs. She asked for all the symptoms and I told her exactly what has been going on, and she said that Sophie appears to be in overall good health but we would order a full workup for after the new year. She didn't even MENTION anything to do with her kidneys. >
Sophie has an anxiety problem (hence the anti-depressants), so we decided at that point to go the anti-depressant route. The vet didn't seem one bit concerned as she said Sophie seemed in overall good health.
Well, after this appointment, I've gotten more and more concerned and started looking up symptoms of renal failure in cats.
Sophie:
~Is always drinking water...always. (I can't tell if she's urinating more because we have three cats, so it's impossible for me to tell, especially since she refuses to urinate when I'm around, I never ever see it happen..and I remember when Mutty was dying, not of kidney failure, but of cancer, she was urinating so much it would soak the bottom of the litter box...nothing like that is happening.)
~ Hunches over the water bowl and perches next to it for the majority of the day. (my biggest concern, it really really scares me)
~ Has thrown up just 2-3 times (that I've noticed) where it's only been very foamy liquid.
~ Has gum disease (diagnosed at her vet appointment, her teeth have turned a grayish color on some teeth, we set up a "cleaning")
~ She doesn't let me pick her up, but she never has so I can't tell if there's pain or whatever in her middle area. When I try to pet her back, she pulls it down and runs.
Now, she's gained 2lbs since her last full workup two years ago and her appetite seems to be the same....in fact, she kind of seems to eat MORE than she used to.
I am *SO SCARED* because quite frankly, we cannot afford treatment. The tests themselves are going to be ridiculously expensive and that we have already planned into our income. I should also mention, I love my husband dearly, but he is not an animal lover....he appreciates our cats and loves them because *I* do...but I can understand his frustration with how much we've spent already, so the whole "treatment options" thing, I know is going to be off the table, as we can barely afford to live ourselves right now.
Does this sound like renal failure to those of you that have gone through it? At three years old?!! How expensive is treatment??? I ask that KNOWING we won't be able to afford it.
What if you can't give proper treatment...what happens then? Do I even want to hear the answer to that?
I have three cats and a dog and they are EVERYTHING to me. Sophie is very very very special to me, as she was the cat my husband and I got our first year together after a very bad miscarriage...she helped me out of a deep depression.
Over the years, she's just gotten meaner and meaner (could this be a symptom?). The vet has always said she has an anxiety disorder...a pretty bad one...but I can't even touch her anymore. At all without her tearing me to shreds. The thing that scares me the most beyond all the symptoms, is that a few times over the past few weeks, she's crawled up onto my lap and purred herself to sleep. This is NOT like her at ALLLLLLLLLL. And reminds me of when Mutty was dying last year (and we didn't know it) and she would always need to be on top of me.
I probably sound like a basketcase but I'm so scared of what the future holds. I want to rush her in for her tests tomorrow, but we simply do not have the money right now and no, we do not have the credit for carecredit and the like.
Any opinions and advice would be greatly appreciated more than you know.........
Thanks for reading.
Last year around this time (December 30th), I lost the love of my life and my soulmate, my cat Mutty, 19 years old. So Sophie's problems kind of fell to the wayside and now I am seriously regretting it.
She hasn't had a full workup and urinalysis in about two years. Everything was fine then and she weighed 7lbs.
The *REASON* for the last vet visit was mainly because as of lately (the past few months), Sophie has been drinking A LOT of water and her teeth seemed to be changing color. I'm a stay at home wife and I see her literally camped out next to the water bowl for a good portion of the day just sitting perched up there in a sitting position.
The vet weighed her, and she is now 9lbs. She asked for all the symptoms and I told her exactly what has been going on, and she said that Sophie appears to be in overall good health but we would order a full workup for after the new year. She didn't even MENTION anything to do with her kidneys. >
Well, after this appointment, I've gotten more and more concerned and started looking up symptoms of renal failure in cats.
Sophie:
~Is always drinking water...always. (I can't tell if she's urinating more because we have three cats, so it's impossible for me to tell, especially since she refuses to urinate when I'm around, I never ever see it happen..and I remember when Mutty was dying, not of kidney failure, but of cancer, she was urinating so much it would soak the bottom of the litter box...nothing like that is happening.)
~ Hunches over the water bowl and perches next to it for the majority of the day. (my biggest concern, it really really scares me)
~ Has thrown up just 2-3 times (that I've noticed) where it's only been very foamy liquid.
~ Has gum disease (diagnosed at her vet appointment, her teeth have turned a grayish color on some teeth, we set up a "cleaning")
~ She doesn't let me pick her up, but she never has so I can't tell if there's pain or whatever in her middle area. When I try to pet her back, she pulls it down and runs.
Now, she's gained 2lbs since her last full workup two years ago and her appetite seems to be the same....in fact, she kind of seems to eat MORE than she used to.
I am *SO SCARED* because quite frankly, we cannot afford treatment. The tests themselves are going to be ridiculously expensive and that we have already planned into our income. I should also mention, I love my husband dearly, but he is not an animal lover....he appreciates our cats and loves them because *I* do...but I can understand his frustration with how much we've spent already, so the whole "treatment options" thing, I know is going to be off the table, as we can barely afford to live ourselves right now.
Does this sound like renal failure to those of you that have gone through it? At three years old?!! How expensive is treatment??? I ask that KNOWING we won't be able to afford it.
What if you can't give proper treatment...what happens then? Do I even want to hear the answer to that?
I have three cats and a dog and they are EVERYTHING to me. Sophie is very very very special to me, as she was the cat my husband and I got our first year together after a very bad miscarriage...she helped me out of a deep depression.
Over the years, she's just gotten meaner and meaner (could this be a symptom?). The vet has always said she has an anxiety disorder...a pretty bad one...but I can't even touch her anymore. At all without her tearing me to shreds. The thing that scares me the most beyond all the symptoms, is that a few times over the past few weeks, she's crawled up onto my lap and purred herself to sleep. This is NOT like her at ALLLLLLLLLL. And reminds me of when Mutty was dying last year (and we didn't know it) and she would always need to be on top of me.
I probably sound like a basketcase but I'm so scared of what the future holds. I want to rush her in for her tests tomorrow, but we simply do not have the money right now and no, we do not have the credit for carecredit and the like.
Any opinions and advice would be greatly appreciated more than you know.........
Thanks for reading.
