u/sofrickingstrange

I hate to ask for such terrible information, but I really need to know what people experienced when their cat was at very end stage CKD and hard choices had to be made. My cat is stage 4 but by several behavioral measures seems to be doing well, but there are some concerning things I’m seeing that make me realize I may not fully know what to expect or keep my eye out for. Right now, my cat eats, cleans, plays, no vomiting, normal litter habits, but she also sits “hunched” with her head down sometimes, seems to have a stiff rear end/back legs, and will hide under my bed for a few hours a day. So I’m confused and conflicted. How do you know?

My cat was diagnosed stage 3 in early February of this year with these numbers: creatinine 3.4, BUN 79, SDMA 21, hct 46, phos 3.2, weight: 8.5 lbs. All through late February and March, after starting many treatments/medications, her numbers were: creatinine 2.8, BUN 62, SDMA 19, hct 35, phos 3.4. No weight loss, if anything she gained .2-.4 lbs. Her numbers reflected more closely to late stage 2/early stage 3.

All of a sudden, as of April 28th, her numbers are: creatinine 5.5 BUN 74, phos 6.6 , hct 35. Still, no weight loss. No vomiting. She did have an anal gland infection, which was treated, and her first reading with these numbers was before clavamox was started. Her second reading with these numbers was 1 week into the 2 weeks of clavamox.

Her specialist is saying my cat is now firmly stage 4, that her CKD has progressed rapidly, and that she has 3-5 months left at best. I’m genuinely stunned. How can her numbers literally double in 7 weeks? She isn’t losing weight, and she’s not anemic. She doesn’t vomit at all. She has no mouth ulcers. Her blood pressure is great. If anything, she seems less sick than she did at diagnosis. She eats great. Everything is normal, she seems the way she did when her numbers were half what they are now. She plays with her sibling, jumps up on counters and her cat trees, cleans herself, etc. She has 0 symptoms of being in stage 4.

I don’t know if I’m just in denial, but I’m simply not understanding how these can be her real numbers. Initially, when she had the anal gland infection, her specialist said it was the inflammation and infection causing this and that it was temporary. We tested again 1 week into clavamox, but we haven’t tested since she wrapped up the full 14 day course. After testing 1 week into clavamox, now her specialist says this is basically it.

We do subq fluids every night, 100ml. Phos-bind, renal rx diet, cerenia, ondansetron, and aminavast. I’m at a loss.

Is it possible that these aren’t her true baseline numbers and that she needed to finish the antibiotic for the infection to recover and accurately allow for her true baseline to return to normal?

Any input or advice would be so helpful.

My 7 year old cat got diagnosed stage 3 CKD in February of this year. Here are her numbers:

February 7, Diagnosis:

creatinine 3.4, BUN 79, SDMA 21, hct 46, phos 6.0

weight: 8.5 lbs

February 24th, hospitalization with AKI:

creatinine 4.5, BUN 78, hct 29

weight: 8.4 lbs

February 28th, hospital discharge:

creatinine 3.6, BUN 48, hct 27

weight: 8.4 lbs

March 5th, check up post-hospitalization:

creatinine 2.95, BUN 55, hct 23, phos 4.6

March 19th, bloodwork recheck:

creatinine 2.8, BUN 62, SDMA 19, hct 30

weight: 8.8 lbs

April 28th, bloodwork & anemia eval recheck

creatinine 5.3, BUN 80, SDMA, phos 6.4, hct 35 non anemic

May 6th, bloodwork and enemia eval

creatinine 5.5, BUN, phos 6.6 , hct

weight: 8.6k s

In March, I was so relieved that she was improving and her numbers were staying low. I have no idea how she can go from 2.8 to 5.5 in 7 weeks and the vet says she usually gives cats in stage 4 about 6 months. I’m beyond devastated and possibly in denial. She is behaving mostly normally, no vomiting, still eating normally, no mouth ulcers, normal bathroom habits, cleaning, playing, etc. We do subq fluids at home every evening and she gets ondansetron twice a day. Her vet just recommended we start a phos binder, but that nothing else can be done at this point.

PLEASE anybody with experience with this type of numbers movement and progression, what was your experience? How did your cat do? What ended up happening?

I (26f) have been close friends with A (24f) for 3 years, but we’ve known each other since pre-k. A is severely severely psychologically disorganized and volatile, and has been for years. She got by in college by being book-smart, but now that the real world has hit she cannot maintain a job, loses relationships and friendships left and right, and is about to be cut off from support of her family because of this. All of this is because she has massively negative and volatile/extreme reactions to criticism, external opinion, and things not going her way, and if she hears things she doesn’t like she burns bridges in a hair-trigger and nasty way. She has been fired from jobs for screaming at her bosses and coworkers when they tell her to fix something or do something differently or when she’s not gotten a raise she wanted, she’s lost friendships because she has no boundaries and reacts poorly to opinions she disagrees with, she’s lost boyfriends for accusing them blindly of things and not allowing them to have a life outside of her, and at this point I’m her only person left in her life outside of her family. She’s asked me many many many times “What’s wrong with me? Why is my life like this?” and, knowing how she is, I never give her the truth and I always tell her that sometimes life is just hard.

She is currently being fired from her job the week after being dumped by her recent boyfriend because of her type of behavior and the way she treats people. She screamed at her boss and stole company IP after a poor performance review, and her boyfriend dumped her when she showed up to his house in the middle of the night to see whether or not he was really sleeping or if he was ignoring her like she thought. Again, she’s been spiraling and asking me to tell her what’s wrong with her. So I did. I told her that she will not make it in life if she can’t cope with things that are hard to hear, can’t handle instruction or criticism, can’t tolerate opinions that differ from her own, and can’t understand and respect boundaries in any way. I suggested she discuss all of this with a therapist. Lo and behold, she said I’ve just ruined our friendship because I’m a terrible person, that I’m being so mean to her, and she’s blocked me. She also sent me a video of herself crying because of “how mean my words were”, and blamed me for the fact that “now she has nobody left”.

On one hand, I feel guilty for being so bluntly honest because she is clearly hurt. Which I expected to some degree. On the other hand, I feel guilty that I didn’t say this sooner because she truly needs help, and I do care about her and want her to not crash and burn in life like she has so far. And I care about her enough to want to figure out how to repair this.

TL;DR: I was brutally honest with one of my close friends about why her life keeps crashing and burning after she’s asked me many times, now she’s blaming me for not having friends anymore and claiming that I’m a horrible person for what I said when I was honestly trying to help.

I picked the “advice” flair but I really need advice, tips and tricks, support, and I’m asking a question.

My 7, nearly 8 year old cat got diagnosed stage 3 CKD in February. I am pasting her numbers below:

February 7, Diagnosis:

creatinine 3.4, BUN 79, SDMA 21, hct 46

weight: 8.5 lbs

February 24th, hospitalization with AKI:

creatinine 4.5, BUN 78, hct 29

February 28th, hospital discharge:

creatinine 3.6, BUN 48, hct 27

weight: 8.4 lbs

March 5th, check up post-hospitalization:

creatinine 2.9, BUN 55, hct 23 flagged anemic

weight: 8.6 lbs

March 19th, bloodwork recheck:

creatinine 2.8, BUN 62, SDMA 19, hct 30

weight: 9.0 lbs

April 28th, bloodwork & anemia eval recheck

creatinine 5.3, BUN 80, SDMA, hct 35

weight: 8.8 lbs

Since her hospitalization recheck, she maintained 2.8-2.9 for almost 2 months. Suddenly, at her most recent check this past Tuesday, her creatinine is 5.3 and everything else is high too EXCEPT HCT, and anemia isn’t a concern right now. We do SubQ fluids every other day, 100ml. The vet is saying to do it every day now for the next week, and we will recheck next Wednesday again. At her same exam this past Tuesday, they found an anal gland infection for which she has been on clavamox twice daily for the next two weeks. Her specialist believes that, if she had this infection for a few weeks, it could be leading to this spike, and hopefully a full week on the antibiotics and increased fluids will show improvement with her numbers. Her infection already seems better after anal gland expression and 48 hours on antibiotics.

I’m so shaken because my kitty has been doing so well, seemingly. Eating, playing, grooming, no vomiting whatsoever, has energy, no weight loss at all, etc. She seems better than she did at diagnosis, when her creatinine was 3.4 and she was almost half a pound lighter. She takes ondansetron twice daily, and porus one once a day.

1. Has anybody ever experienced this type of rapid increase and an infection with their CKD cat?
2. Has anybody seen numbers like my cats recent ones come down from increased treatment approaches?
3. If anybody has seen this with their cat before, what was the outcome? What more can I be doing?