# Kidney Failure & Hyperthyroidism in cats



## cprcheetah

Tabitha is a former office cat at my last job (my vet/dad semi retired and closed his location) and she is about 12 years old, my sister had her at her house but Tabitha was literally wasting away to nothing (my husband didn't want 7 cats which is why she didn't come home with me in May), she was 6.9# on 10/1 and today was 4.7# (which is why she came home with me, she's not giving her the medications) she should probably weight at least 10# she is a maine ****/norweigan forest cat mix. 

She has hyperthyroidism as well as Kidney Failure. She will be going with me to work tomorrow for some current bloodwork, it's been a while since she's had it done. I am going to probably try to transition her to Raw food as she will not eat canned food other than licking the juice off of bits. She will eat raw though as she's stolen it from my dogs when I had them at work. Right now she's just eating Kirkland Signature Dry food. I will update once we have her blood test results, but I am SO worried about her. She is still active and happy doing her 'reer reer' meowing. She's a sweetheart.

I am syringe feeding her (although she is very upset about it) at the moment some Innova EVO to get some 'good' nutrition in her, I'm not freaking out about the kidneys at the moment because she is in danger of developing Fatty Liver Syndrome if she doesn't have it already. Needless to say I am BEYOND irked at my sister for letting her get in this condition. She was about 10# in May, underweight at that.


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## MollyWoppy

Oh hell, I can't imagine a big cat being that skinny. Windy is 7lbs, shes not a big cat and I get people tell me that she's too skinny (my vet is very happy with her weight though), so to I was just trying to imagine what she would look like if she lost another 2 plus pounds. It makes me shudder actually.
I really hope you can get Tabitha eating again very soon. It does sound like it is really worth giving raw a try, especially since she seems a bit receptive to it.
Good luck, I really hope the blood tests show that nothing else is wrong and that she soon starts to put on a touch of weight. Thanks for taking her in as well, your husband deserves a big kiss for letting you have just one more cat.
Please let us know how she gets on at the vet.


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## cprcheetah

I am BEYOND irked at my sister. "I was like have you not noticed she's wasting away to nothing? Are you giving her the meds? Well every other day MAYBE!" OMG! SERIOUSLY! Pissed off at her. It's not like the meds are that hard to do as it's a transdermal gel (rub on her ears) twice a day. Glad I went up to her house today and got Tabitha. All I had to do was tell my hubby that Tabby cat was 4# and he was like bring her home NOW! He's seen her at her 'prime' of about 13# and he was in tears when he felt her today.

Here is a picture of her although it's hard to see because she's all fluff lol!








Here she is at about 13# (she really isn't that obese she's all fluff)









Look at the difference in her face (this is now)


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## hmbutler

That last picture looks like a slightly underfed teenage kitten, not a fully grown fluffy 12 year old cat!! My cat is a short-haired cat and she is about that size when you look down at her!

Fingers crossed she makes an improvement with you and goes on to live a happy and healthy life in a home that clearly cares for her!!

ETA: When I say teenage, I mean in terms of "growth" - like a year old or so, when they get lanky but haven't yet filled out. Just to clarify I don't mean teenage as in years lol


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## cprcheetah

MollyWoppy said:


> Oh hell, I can't imagine a big cat being that skinny. Windy is 7lbs, shes not a big cat and I get people tell me that she's too skinny (my vet is very happy with her weight though), so to I was just trying to imagine what she would look like if she lost another 2 plus pounds. It makes me shudder actually.
> I really hope you can get Tabitha eating again very soon. It does sound like it is really worth giving raw a try, especially since she seems a bit receptive to it.
> Good luck, I really hope the blood tests show that nothing else is wrong and that she soon starts to put on a touch of weight. Thanks for taking her in as well, your husband deserves a big kiss for letting you have just one more cat.
> Please let us know how she gets on at the vet.


She is eating some dry food, but I don't know how much as my sister has 3 cats and hasn't been monitoring. The Hyperthyroidism as well as the kidney failure can both cause weight loss. And she was just diagnosed with the Hyperthyroidism a month ago but my sister hasn't been consistent with giving her the meds she needs. I am keeping her separate from my cats (during the day) so she can have free access to food, and will be syringe feeding her as much as I can get into her for the next few days. 



hmbutler said:


> That last picture looks like a slightly underfed teenage kitten, not a fully grown fluffy 12 year old cat!! My cat is a short-haired cat and she is about that size when you look down at her!
> 
> Fingers crossed she makes an improvement with you and goes on to live a happy and healthy life in a home that clearly cares for her!!


I know isn't it sad? I can literally feel EVERY single bone in her body. She is STARVED for attention too which she has always been an attention hound which is why we kept her as a clinic cat. She actually was bottle fed by one of our former employees, so I've known Tabby since birth. Danielle actually adopted her and then when she was about 5 years old had kids and Tabby isn't fond of kids in the least bit so she brought her back for adoption. This is a cat who literally had to have a tranquilizer JUST to walk in the door of the vet clinic, she actually attacked her owners face once when she was bringing her into the clinic and she had to go have stitches. Well we had her for a month and she mellowed out and had been a clinic cat ever since (so for about 7 years). She LOVES dogs as Danielle had a sheltie whom 'nursed' her lol. So she was always walking up to the dogs and rubbing on them and loving them. I feel so bad seeing her like this. I hope we can turn things around for her.


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## DaneMama

Poor baby....keep us posted on her progress!


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## cprcheetah

Thank-you everyone, this has been a heck of a week, with the car, then tabby and me stressing about having surgery on my toe next week. Tabitha is in good spirits, she has already assumed one of her favorite positions....she stretches her paws on you and asks to be picked up kind of like a 'kid' does. She's been purring her butt off non stop (okay when I was force feeding her she stopped lol) since she got home. Just call me the crazy cat lady with 7 cats now lol! Munchie & Pipsqueaks (my siamesers whom are 1/2 brothers a few years apart) 1/2 brother is back up for adoption as well.........HARD to resist.


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## hmbutler

Come on, is there really much difference between 7 cats and 8 cats at this point?? lol


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## CorgiPaws

hmbutler said:


> Come on, is there really much difference between 7 cats and 8 cats at this point?? lol


This logic is scary!! lol. 
...trust me. 

I wondered today, "what's 20 more lbs of dog at this point?" Doh! Corgi fever, I has it. 


Back on topic: Keep us posted on the progress, and good on you for taking her in!


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## cprcheetah

You guys are TERRIBLE! LOL! That's what I keep telling my hubby, what's one more? LOL! 

Update on Tabitha: Vet, hubby and I all agreed to wait on her bloodwork as right now she's pretty sickly girl and we didn't want to stress her too much, although she's purring, and playing a little even so she's adjusting beautifully into my home. We are syringe feeding her canned food (would much rather get her on raw, but at this point it's critical to get ANY nutrition into her), I have a mixture I'm giving her every few hours by mouth as well as some Powerade to keep her electrolytes up. She ate MAYBE 1 tablespoon of kibble today which isn't much at all. She did snarf some yucky Whisker's Lickin Chicken & Cheese treats, and ate some shredded cheese that my hubby gave her from our dinner. So hopefully we can get her eating better. I am thinking if we can get her to gain even a little bit she should be okay to have bloodwork ran next week....yeah I can afford the $200 it's gonna cost me for what tests she needs to have done....NOT! Thank heavens they let us carry a balance for 90 days.

Here shows a better picture of how truly skinny she is:


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## Donna Little

I hope she starts gaining weight and gets well soon. Poor girl! She must feel like a feather when you pick her up. My cats are both in the 15 lb range so outweigh all my dogs. I can't imagine how skeletal she must be. Sending healing thoughts her way!


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## cprcheetah

She is so skinny it makes me cry when I pick her up. On a positive note she weighed 5.2# tonight which is up from 4.6# yesterday.


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## Imgliniel

Oh my! poor thing  that is so sad.

Just a tip, try plain meat baby food, like chicken or turkey, nothing but meat in it. That got my kidney failure kitty to eat. She just needs to get food in her. Then you can tackle raw and specialty diets and all that jazz.


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## cprcheetah

She still is not eating much of anything on her own, and today didn't hardly drink any water. I am syringe feeding her every 2 hours and going to get SubQ fluids to give to her tomorrow. I am so worried about her. She lost .2# today so is just at 5.0# :-( I need to get some weight on her so she can have bloodwork ran.


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## KittyKat

I had to give my cat sub q's when he had kidney failure, it helped tons.

I'd try and give her canned food instead of kibble. Kibble will just make her kidney's worse. Maybe try some sardines too, once she gets some appetite back.


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## cprcheetah

KittyKat said:


> I had to give my cat sub q's when he had kidney failure, it helped tons.
> 
> I'd try and give her canned food instead of kibble. Kibble will just make her kidney's worse. Maybe try some sardines too, once she gets some appetite back.


She HATES canned food. Right now she has dry out all the time and I am syringe feeding her canned food, may have to just continue doing that cause I know that kibble is crap for her kidneys, but she needs to eat, and she's NEVER liked canned food.


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## Unosmom

have you tried canned tuna or salmon? my parents 15 year old cat is very picky, but she loves canned fish. Trader joes also has this cat tuna which is like kitty crack. 
This is also very helpful if you plan on transitioning:
http://catinfo.org/docs/Tips%20for%20Transitioning%20PDF%201-14-11.pdf


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## MollyWoppy

Hang in there Tabitha. You aren't alone in the canned food dept Heather, Windy won't eat anything canned (other than tuna now and then) and I've tried every canned food known to man.
Do you think that she's got that liver disease where they don't eat anything and then their liver or whatever it is shuts down, or do you think its a result of her other problems?
One thing I found out accidently very recently with Windy, is that if I put some water on some tiny pieces of chicken, or canned fish, she will drink the flavoured water, (but not eat the food of course). So I'm using this to try to get more moisture in her system. I'm just trying to give my very limited knowledge incase anything helps.
Good luck, thanks for being so caring about her, you really are going above and beyond. 
How is her weight going?


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## cprcheetah

Unosmom said:


> have you tried canned tuna or salmon? my parents 15 year old cat is very picky, but she loves canned fish. Trader joes also has this cat tuna which is like kitty crack.
> This is also very helpful if you plan on transitioning:
> http://catinfo.org/docs/Tips%20for%20Transitioning%20PDF%201-14-11.pdf


She doesn't like tuna fish, she will eat a little bit of cheese, or cheap cat treats lol. She will eat chicken but not in large amounts. Just little tidbits here and there. We've tried the transitioning tricks with her in the past when she was diagnosed with Kidney Failure 2 years ago...and it was a no go.



MollyWoppy said:


> Hang in there Tabitha. You aren't alone in the canned food dept Heather, Windy won't eat anything canned (other than tuna now and then) and I've tried every canned food known to man.
> Do you think that she's got that liver disease where they don't eat anything and then their liver or whatever it is shuts down, or do you think its a result of her other problems?
> One thing I found out accidently very recently with Windy, is that if I put some water on some tiny pieces of chicken, or canned fish, she will drink the flavoured water, (but not eat the food of course). So I'm using this to try to get more moisture in her system. I'm just trying to give my very limited knowledge incase anything helps.
> Good luck, thanks for being so caring about her, you really are going above and beyond.
> How is her weight going?


she is not jaundice (yellow) which is what almost always happens with the Fatty Liver Disease. So I don't (am hoping and praying) that's not it. She is eating about a tablespoon of the Purina NF (kidney diet) dry which is crappy ingredients but better than nothing and hey the bag was free....I am going to go get her a higher quality, higher protein dry food tomorrow so at least she'll get better nutrition that way. I am still syringe feeding her and her weight is stable at this point, I really wish she would gain some weight a little quicker, but I'm happy she's not losing weight. Taking her for bloodwork tomorrow.


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## Unosmom

thats a bummer.., what about soaking high calorie kibble?


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## cprcheetah

Tabitha had her blood tests done today. We have determined that she was slightly dehydrated (skin test & changes in bloodwork) and potassium deficient. So she got some LRS with potassium & glucose added as her glucose is too low for my vets comfort. She seems to be more perky tonight and is showing more interest in food although not eating a ton. We decided to wait on the bloodwork for the T4 levels until she has consistently gotten the Methimazole twice a day for about 3 weeks, as right now we know that level will still be high. The Vet wants to put her on this gel: Renal K (Potassium Gluconate) Gel, 5 oz - Pet Meds for her potassium longterm, is that an okay thing? Is there a 'better' potassium supplement? Ease of administration is key with Tabitha . We will do a more comprehensive lab test in about 3-4 weeks as she had a comprehensive done about a month ago. She is up to 5.4# from 4.6# less than a week ago (last wednesday.)

Not near as bad as I had expected:
ALP 55 10-90 U/L
ALT 138* 20-100 U/L High
BUN 39 10-30 MG/DL High
Crea 2.5* 0.2-2.1 MG/DL High
Glu 83 7 70-150 MG/DL
TP 6.5 5.4-8.2 G/DL

QC OK
Hem 0 
Lip 1+
ICT 0

WBC 9.6 5.5-19.5
Lym # 1.7 L 1.8-7 Low
MON # 0.7 0.201
GRA # 7.2 2.8-13
LYM% 18.4
MON % 6.2
GRA % 75.4

HCT 31.8 25-45%
MCV 38.1 39-50 LOW
RDW 22.1 14-20% HIGH
RBC 8.34 5-11
HGB 11.2 8.15
MCHC 35.4 30-36
MCH 13.5 12.5-17.5
PLT 335 200-500 FD (WHAT DOES THE FD MEAN?)
MPV 9.3 12-18
RBC CNT TIME 13.7 10.5-17.5
WVC CNT TIME 14.1 10.5-17.5


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