u/Hitomi_Hi

A few days ago, I made a post about having to leave my cat in the hospital for 5 days.

Background: She is 17 years old and has had Stage 2 CKD for 11 years. Then, after hyperthyroidism was diagnosed and overcorrected, she progressed to Stage 3 CKD in May 2026. After stopping methimazole, she seemed to recover for about three weeks, and then suddenly crashed within one day. Since then, she had been low-energy but not severely ill. During the last week before hospitalization, it became increasingly difficult to feed her, and her legs became weaker. The night before hospitalization, she stopped trying to walk and seemed to be in pain.

Her creatinine progression since May 2026 has been: 2.9 (before methimazole) → 4.8 (after methimazole) → 4.2 → 4.1 → 4.4 (on the day of hospitalization) → 4.5 (yesterday) → 4.9 (today).

Her potassium is normal, and her T4 is also currently normal. Phosphorus increased from 5.5 to 6.6. I’m still waiting for the other current lab values.

At the hospital, she is receiving IV fluids every night, pain medication, an appetite stimulant, and medication for nausea. Her appetite came back on the first day in the hospital, she became active again, and started walking. At the same time, I noticed small twitching movements in her whiskers, legs, and head. She hasn’t had a bowel movement during her entire hospital stay, even though she has been eating consistently. Her weight has remained stable, and she urinates a lot.
The IV fluids have not improved her kidney values. Ultrasound showed no infection, cancer, or stones — nothing obvious. X-rays also showed nothing significant. No bacteria or infection were found. Her heart is normal in size; one kidney is slightly smaller and the other slightly larger.

The doctor’s first theory was AKI, and the second is progression of CKD. The other obvious causes have not been found. However, they still can’t determine what caused the possible AKI, so they decided to keep her for one more night, repeat the ultrasound, and try one last round of IV fluids. If they still don’t find anything, they want to try antibiotics. We are also still waiting for the pancreatitis test results.

What could this be? What else should we check? What should I be hoping for? How can I help her? Should I take her home and focus on the fact that she is feeling good and eating, or is there something else we should be looking for? I’m desperate…

Over the past couple of days, my cat with Stage 3 (17 y.o) started developing weakness in her hind legs. Three days ago, she wasn’t very energetic, but she was still eating, drinking, and jumping. Last night, though, I became really worried because of how poorly she was walking. And this morning, she wouldn’t walk or even lift her head. She refused even raw salmon with her medication, as well as water, broth, and basically anything we could offer her.
We’ve been doing bloodwork almost every two weeks for the past two months, and the results have been consistently “normal.” A non-detailed ultrasound at the first ER showed that her kidneys looked pretty good. All the doctors around us keep saying that she looks good and that she’s stable. But every time we get home, there’s some new deterioration.
I’m so exhausted, and it breaks my heart to see her like this. We agreed to a five-day hospitalization with repeat bloodwork, a detailed ultrasound, and X-rays. I really, really hope for a miracle…
Please share your experience after hospitalization

Hi everyone. First, I want to apologize in advance if my text sounds weird. English is my second language, so I used ChatGPT to help correct some translation mistakes.
I’m very tired, confused, and scared of making the wrong decisions. Please share your experiences, advice, or just an outside perspective. I may get some dates or names slightly wrong.
My cat is 17 years old. Until May of this year, she had been in CKD stage 2 since she was about 6 (so around 11 years). We never specifically treated it. She simply ate Royal Canin Renal and was a healthy, active cat.
In 2025, during her annual bloodwork, our vet noticed early hyperthyroidism and told us to come back when we started noticing symptoms. We didn’t notice anything until spring 2026, when she suddenly started meowing a LOT, day and night. Bloodwork confirmed hyperthyroidism.
My cat has never been overweight. She was extremely active — running up walls, playing with our other cat, attacking the dogs, hunting, etc. She had no arthritis, nothing like that.
We started treating the hyperthyroidism, but the dose turned out to be too high. Within three weeks, her T4 became too low, and she became extremely lethargic and basically stopped reacting to the world around her. This also, predictably, pushed her CKD into stage 3.
Our vet completely stopped the medication for a month. She came back to herself within three days and was completely normal again.
But after about three weeks of normal life, literally in ONE DAY, she suddenly refused food and water and slept all day.
Since then, she has stopped going to the sound of her automatic feeder and never uses her water fountains anymore. She doesn’t run anymore. She doesn’t play with our other cat. She is a little hunched when she walks and generally seems weaker, but she still jumps onto every high place she wants to.
She eats a little dry renal food on her own at night.
Our vet prescribed Cerenia, Mirataz, and 100 mL subcutaneous fluids. Giving Cerenia and fluids has become a separate daily war. Cerenia created negative associations with many treats, and I can only give the fluids using a special cat restraint/wrap (thank God I found one two days ago).
Our regular vet has done everything she could, but it hasn’t changed anything.
She eats, drinks, and uses the litter box. Her stool is perfect. She eats and drinks more often if I literally bring everything to her face. But last week she suddenly got tired of Royal Canin Renal, so we switched to Hill’s. Two days later, she was tired of that too.
She refuses all supplements and additives — she will only eat things completely plain.
Yesterday we tried Weruva and OH MY GOD, she ate almost two cans. That felt like a huge victory.
Our vet referred us to UC Davis Internal Medicine.
And honestly, after our regular clinic, I cannot describe how scammy and indifferent the experience at UC Davis felt.
We came through emergency and were told there was a chance we could see an internal medicine specialist. But they refused to see her and instead offered to keep our stable cat in the hospital for the weekend, literally saying:
“We won’t really do anything with her over the weekend. We’ll just wait for her to become active and start eating, and if the doctor has time, they may come see her, but there’s no guarantee.”
The estimate was around $5,000.
They wanted to do a lot of things all at once — ultrasound, X-rays, bloodwork, etc. Nobody explained what they were looking for, what their suspicions were, or what the ultrasound/X-rays were supposed to show.
They literally said, “Maybe we don’t even need the ultrasound, maybe it won’t show anything, we don’t know.”
I asked if we could first find out everything possible from bloodwork before moving on to serious sedation. If something can be identified through bloodwork, why do everything at once, take additional risks, spend more money, and waste time?
They agreed and offered blood and urine testing for $600.
We agreed.
Later, they returned my cat and told us they had done everything except the urine test — but the bill was still $600.
When I questioned it, they said they had independently changed some of the service packages and would issue a refund.
Honestly, dealing with billing is the LAST thing you want to do when your cat is sick.
But feeling like you’re being deceived and squeezed for money at every step feels even worse.
And in the end, they didn’t even test her T4.
We got the kidney results, and they were actually BETTER than they had been before.
Then we managed to speak with another doctor there who had personal experience with this kind of situation, and I am incredibly grateful to her. She told us she also would not have agreed to what they had proposed that day because it didn’t make sense to her either.
Eventually, we got an appointment with an internal medicine specialist a few days later.
She ordered T4, vitamins, and urine testing.
Everything came back good.
T4 is normal. No infections.
The doctor suspects that my cat had some kind of crisis, which caused her to deteriorate, and that her values have now recovered.
But please tell me — WHY did she become sick in ONE DAY, and why has she not improved for several weeks?
She is eating more. Drinking more. Getting medications and fluids.
She is still completely uninterested in initiating anything and is lethargic, but her bloodwork is “normal.”
Blood pressure is good.
Breathing is good.
Temperature is normal.
I don’t think it’s her kidneys.
I don’t think it’s her heart.
It doesn’t seem to be gastrointestinal.
There are no infections.
So what IS it?
Could this suddenly be arthritis or joint pain? But can something like that really appear this dramatically in one day?
I scheduled an ultrasound and X-rays, but what could they actually show in this situation?
And how is she supposed to tolerate sedation if 0.5 mL of gabapentin knocks her out for THREE DAYS and she can barely walk during that time?
I can’t eat. I can’t work. I can’t think about anything except her.
This cat is my entire life. She has been mine since I was 10 years old. I moved with her from Ukraine to the US, and she is my biggest reason to keep going and working.
I’m exhausted from the food refusals, from her hating treatments, vets, pills, injections — everything.
She still plays with me if I initiate it.
I put water bowls all over the house.
Her dry food gets FortiFlora.
For wet food, we’re trying low-phosphorus Weruva and Choolip for kidneys, baby chicken puree mixed with water, tilapia broth mixed with water.
I hide her pills in 1/6 of a boiled egg yolk.
She’s not vomiting, has no diarrhea, isn’t coughing or sneezing. I think the medication isn’t doing a very good job controlling her nausea and that she’s still experiencing it.

Sorry for the negativity. I’m angry at some people in medicine, and endlessly grateful to our regular vet and to all the random doctors and people who have helped us along the way.
I am absolutely willing to spend money on my animal.
But I need the treatment to have a reason behind it and actually make sense. I need the argument to be stronger than “let’s just do it, maybe we don’t even need it.”

Hi everyone.
My cat is 17 years old. She was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease about 11 years ago, and until May this year she had been stable at Stage 2.
During her annual checkup she was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism and started on methimazole. After starting treatment, Her creatinine went from 2.9 to 4.8 mg/dL, SDMA from 18 to 22 µg/dL, and BUN from 46 to 64 mg/dL. At the same time, her thyroid was overcorrected (Total T4 dropped to 0.7 µg/dL, Free T4 was <0.3), and she was diagnosed with Stage 3 CKD.

For most of her life she has eaten Royal Canin Renal dry food, drank lots of water, and has always been an active, independent, grumpy little cat. She used to sprint around the house after using the litter box, chase my dogs, and literally run along the walls. That was her normal life until we started treating the hyperthyroidism.
About three weeks into treatment she became like a completely different cat. We stopped the methimazole, and after that she gradually returned to normal. About a month later we repeated her bloodwork: her kidney values improved (creatinine 4.2, SDMA 19, BUN 62), her Total T4 returned to 2.4, she was eating and drinking normally again, doing her usual “post-litter-box parkour,” and acting like herself.
Then, about five days ago, everything changed again. She suddenly became quiet, sleepy, withdrawn, and stopped eating and drinking.
We took her back to the vet. She received an anti-nausea injection and subcutaneous fluids. We were sent home with Lactated Ringer’s solution for daily subcutaneous fluids and Mirataz appetite stimulant.
The fluids seem to have helped. She has more energy now, she’s eating and drinking again, and she’ll even play if I initiate it. But she no longer starts any of those activities herself. She mostly just rests unless I encourage her.
Today was only the first day that I gave her fluids at home. My first two attempts failed before I finally managed to do it. The thought of doing this every day is overwhelming…

On one hand, her bloodwork isn’t the worst, she’s responding to treatment, she still looks good overall, and her veterinarian was fairly optimistic at her last visit.
On the other hand, I’m terrified of what comes next.
I’m scared of if Stage 3 CKD progressing, the hyperthyroidism coming back, or eventually reaching Stage 4, of giving daily injections for the rest of her life, of more medications, of losing her, of making a mistake, or of missing signs that she’s suffering.
It’s becoming difficult to work. I can’t relax and I hate being away from home
She’s my family and a huge part of my life. I grew up with her. She moved with me to another country. I honestly don’t know what life looks like without her.
I’d really appreciate any advice on improving quality of life for cats with early Stage 3 CKD, things I should watch for, ways to keep her stable for as long as possible, or simply hearing stories from people who have gone through something similar.
Thank you so much for reading. I truly appreciate any advice or support.

Quick pre-sunset stop on a 3-hour drive to a small town. iPhone + ND filter + the best car in the world

Any Model X camping tips? Anything you’ve learned the hard way or figured out after a lot of trips? Also, I’d love to hear about your favorite routes and camping spots around the Bay Area and Northern California. Thanks!