u/sofrickingstrange

The practice I work at thankfully has me as W2 with benefits but that also means they dictate my schedule. We work with high acuity individuals with high needs. No individual therapist can be away from the office for more than 3 consecutive days, including holidays. But we also aren’t open on Fridays, so we are all away for 3 consecutive days already. I’ve asked about taking a Tuesday-Thursday block off and been denied due to this rule.

My family is spread out throughout the world and I always use 2 weeks at Christmas to see everybody with every other job I’ve had. This has been denied already at my current job.

I am about to lose a pet to cancer and would like to take time in order to put her down and have a day or so to grieve, but I can’t extend my 3 day weekend. I’ve asked my boss before what would happen if I were to be incredibly ill, and I was told that’s what telehealth is for. A coworker of mine lost her mom and had to be back at work after the weekend.

I personally cannot function like that. I cannot see clients for 10 hours right before euthanizing my pet and then have just the weekend to grieve that. 3 days also doesn’t give me the necessary travel time to see family so I’ve literally not seen my family all year. I have arguably the highest paying job a therapist can get for where I’m at in my career and in my city, but I’m wondering if it’s simply not worth it. I would love to even be able to take just 1 day. Have 4 days off… ever.

I’m a therapist at a small private practice for a niche population. Quite niche, as we primarily treat 1-2 diagnoses.

We currently have an intern who sees a few clients and attends the group I run strictly as an observer. This intern has, in the past, become dysregulated during group and began to participate with and among the clients, despite having received strict instructions from practice director and myself to solely observe, as in sit there and watch. She sometimes uses the office next to mine and I can hear her extremely loudly cackling, scream-talking, etc with clients. All of this, so far, has been addressed and corrected, but this evening she approached a group client while we were gathering to start, and openly identified that she could hear this person crying and laughing during their individual appointment prior to group, that she knew it was them, and asked about the session content while 2+ other group members were within 3 feet away (we were all in a circle). I could see he immediately shrank into himself and definitely felt scrutinized/criticized, and I tried to intervene and get her to drop it, but she was talking so loudly to this person she didn’t even hear me. This person isn’t my individual client and I’m wondering if 1) I should speak about this with my colleague who they do see for individual work 2) I should address this interns group behavior with the director once again.

My 8 year old cat keeps wavering between late stage 3 and early stage 4 CKD. She is next due for a kidney panel in 2 weeks.

The past few weeks, she has been obsessively laying on my boyfriend and myself. All night, all morning, all evening. If she has access to lay on us, she will. The thing is, she’s never been a snuggly/cuddly/clingy cat. This is super new and honestly it’s worrying me but I’ve been afraid of the answers I would get if I went looking so I figured I would ask here first - has anybody else with a CKD cat experienced this and if so, was it a sign of anything? Did your vet weigh in on the topic and if so what did they say?

I’m a recent graduate (May of this year) and accepted a great job, it’s W2 with benefits and I get 40% of billable hours, extensive supervision included for free. Because it’s a specialist practice for a specific population, and we are relatively small and we charge specialist/niche population fees, this actually shakes out to being ~67k in my first year and 72k in my second year, because of the fact that my first few months are caseload building (is what my boss told me when I was hired). These numbers are based on full time caseload of 22-26 clients (also what my boss told me). I was told it takes about 2 months to hit full time caseload.
What I didn’t know when I accepted the job is that I don’t get my split until I reach a certain amount of clients. I’m currently getting $20 per appointment and $50/group, and it’s been a month of this so far. When I get my split, this will be about ~$70 per appointment. As it stands though, after taxes and benefit deductions, I’ve made about $900. And my boss forgot to activate my benefit deductions during my first paycheck, so my benefit deductions are 1.5x/paycheck until paid off. I’m dying. Thankfully my partner keeps me fed and I have exactly enough in savings for rent this coming month, but I’m about to be in real trouble soon if I don’t hit my split in the next 2-3 weeks. And I’m particularly concerned about this happening because I was also told that a full caseload is typically 22-26 clients a week, but I can see the other therapists’ calendars and nobody sees more than 16-18 clients a week. I currently have 9, and I need 12 to meet my split. But after a month in, I’m concerned that getting to 12 to get my split let alone 22-26 clients to make a livable amount isn’t going to happen anytime soon. It’s a full time 40 hour a week job in the sense that I currently have 9 clients spread out at different times across 5 days, so a second job isn’t an option, and I’m required to be in office all day on days I have clients reading my training materials between sessions. On top of this…. I cannot quit and find another job, because the practice paid 3k for intensive training a week before I started, and if I quit within 12 months, I owe them that full cost within 30 days of quitting. I have literally 1,200 saved for August rent and that’s it (yes if you can’t tell I’m young and went straight from undergrad to grad school). I signed a contract agreeing to such in my offer letter but did not foresee these circumstances.
I’m incredibly sad and stressed about this because if I was seeing more clients and making actual money, I’d be in love with this job, truly head over heels, it’s my ideal dream job. But as it is, I’m drowning and so stressed and miserable. I have student loans, I have medical debt, I have credit card debt all from graduate school. I live with my partner and he currently is the sole reason I can eat 2-3 meals a day. It was this way in my internship because they ran me ragged and had me seeing 18-22 clients and I obviously was not paid. I am so exhausted from giving this field all my passion and dedication and going home and being broke with no hope.

I would love to know if anybody else has been in this position and what, if any, possible avenues come to mind for people. What is the smartest thing for me to do? Stick it out and cross my fingers that my caseload fills up and risk more months of being truly broke, or leave and find another job but still struggle from having to pay the practice back more than what I’ve been paid so far?

What is the balance of gratitude in relationships where you live with one another? What is the exchange where one is therefore indebted to another?

Several days ago, my boyfriend invited me to a USA game watch party with some of his coworkers tonight. I said of course, let’s go! This morning, as I was waking up, he walked in and said “Hey I don’t think you should go”. I asked why, he said it wouldn’t be that much fun and he’d rather I not be there and bored. I thought it sounded fun and said I’d still like to go, and he just said “I don’t want you to”.

Some background is that, in the beginning of our relationship, we’d already had the exclusivity talk and had been together for several months when I learned he’d been carrying on a FWB/travel/concert thing with one of his coworkers for months leading up to our relationship but also didn’t stop it when we started our relationship. About 5 months of overlap. I was livid, he cut if off, they don’t even work in the same office anymore, mostly we moved on. But when he put a hard stop to me coming to the watch party tonight, I couldn’t help but feel like it had something to do with him learning she’d be there. So I asked.

This is where it blew up. I asked him if he uninvited me because this coworker was going to be there, and he started shouting at me that I refuse to forget about that, make him feel like he’s walking on eggshells, and that I don’t trust him. I said I do trust him 99% of the time, but that trust isn’t blind and that he didn’t give me a reason for suddenly not wanting me there so naturally my mind wandered. He said he should have earned some credit by now since we live together. This is where it got, to me, absolutely inappropriate and out of bounds. He said: “I fucking moved out of my apartment to live with you, be more fucking grateful.” I said “I am grateful for you all the time, I do so much for you too and I thought you knew I appreciate you” and he said “Fucking act like it then”. I asked what he meant, and he said I shouldn’t question him the way I was. Then he stormed out. He is still gone.

The thing is, we agreed to move in together months before we ever did, and he seemed to be very enthusiastic about it. We split rent 60/40 because he makes 2x what I do, and in turn I do all the laundry, cooking, cleaning, buy the groceries, do all the pet care, and pay utilities. I show him that I am grateful for him all the time. I make his lunches for the week, I tell him with my words that I am grateful, and (maybe tmi) he gets head at least twice a week. I don’t feel indebted to him, and I didn’t think I was. I also didn’t think I was conducting myself in an “ungrateful” way.

So I am now wondering, at what point in relationships where you live together does somebody become indebted? How is gratitude even properly displayed?

My cat, 8 years old, is stage 3 and has been diagnosed stage 3 for 6 months.
She is now refusing wet food, BUT, the caveat here is that when she refuses one food, she will pick up another and be more or less addicted to it for 2-3 weeks, and then refuse that too. She always eats her Hill’s KD diet kibbles (which she likes), she’s never been a cat that will only eat wet food and get enough calories from that alone, so alas I have to keep her kibble in her options.

My issue: She has gone from hill’s kd diet wet food, to royal canin rx wet food, to weruva low phos wet food, back to hill’s and then off again, to tiki cat silver comfort, to royal canin rx again, to tiki cat whole prey wet mousse, which she has now quit that as well. I always add a good serving of phosphorus binder and Aminavast to any non-rx wet food she eats.

Right now, she won’t eat any of the wet food I have in my cabinet for her (like 5 different options). I don’t want to give her any wet foods that are “crappy”, like bad protein sources and additives with high phosphorus even by healthy cat standards, so I would LOOOOVE recommendations for high quality wet foods that your cat seems to eat right up and love, that I can add phos bind to.

PSA: My vet suggested that lots of research indicates that phosphorus is the primary driver of progression of this disease and that the role of protein in progression is still heavily debated; she said that if a wet food has high quality protein sources, just focus on the phosphorus/adding a binder.

I just got out of a group practice after over a year of interning and I have to know how terrible this truly is, because it always felt awful but I want to know a general concensus.

My former practice required 26+ clients to be “full time” but being “full time” only got you a 37% split, if you dropped below “full time” your split dropped to 30%, everybody was 1099, no benefits whatsoever, 90837s were $100 and we ONLY accepted medicaid or private pay and medicaid would reimburse about $80. Yet the owner called it a “private practice”, nobody had their own office and she dictated the days and times we were allowed to work. For example, you would be told you can work Saturdays, Mondays-Wednesdays, and would have access to office A from 9am-11am on specific days, office B from 2pm-4pm on specific days, and office C 6pm-9pm on specific days. Mandatory weekends, either Saturday or Sunday with 5 clients minimum on 1 weekend day. The owner also deducted $100 weekly from paychecks to account for supervision. We also did all of our billing ourselves, we had 0 admin support of any kind at all. I rejected the contract to stay at this place because I would have made ~36k, no benefits at all. Nothing aside from 37% of my rate, which was also dictated by the owner.

I’m now at a new group practice making 2.5x that, I have my own office, health insurance, quality supervision that I do not pay for, full admin support with scheduling, marketing, outreach, and billing. And I see 22 clients to be “full time”, there are no consequences to not meeting 22 weekly on a regular weekly basis though. It’s just what’s standard.

I have to know: how abhorrent is the setup at the practice I just left? Like truly how insane or common/uncommon is it?

I’m 27 and I’ve had 2 serious boyfriends in the past 7 years, both of whom have cheated on me and taken advantage of me in deeply hurtful ways. As a child, my own father abused me and then abandoned me, and then my mom did the same. Both my parents currently reach out when they want information about me they can post on facebook, but neither have been present in my life or cared for me. I am currently with a man who I found out was maintaining an emotional affair with a woman across the country for the first 8 months of us being together, and when I asked why he would even be with me in the first place, he said “well she doesn’t live here.” It feels like I have never been anybody’s first choice and that I’m simply incapable of being fully loved and chosen, but that I’m good for keeping around because I know I am kind and have a big heart.

I work very hard and at this point, I’m discouraged from chasing connection and love ever again. I feel too busy and too broken to risk myself like that.

I’m wondering about other women’s perspectives on this who may have experienced this too but managed to find better for themselves or who have found resolve in being unloved and found peace in their lives without it.

My mom is in her mid 50s and got divorced 8 years ago from my father because of his incessant cheating. He immediately moved his affair partner/mistress into a home he purchased across the lake from the house my mom won in the divorce (my childhood home). They had been together since she was in her early 20s, he is slightly older. I fully understand that my father was an abusive asshole, he was this way to every person in the family. I was 18 when they got divorced and have had to do an insane amount of work, therapy, intentional behavior, and make hard choices so that I can actually be okay in life despite my childhood. I have had to teach myself mostly everything and everything I have accomplished and achieved and everything I have is because of my hard work. What upsets me, and what has been making my own growth and achieving my own peace more difficult, is that my mom has basically been in a hole, blowing money, ruining her life for the past 8 years. My dad pays her 150k/year in alimony, and she does not work. She refuses to budget or save, so I have been giving her $500-2k a month for various reasons since I was 18. This isn't scheduled or specific payments, but she'll call me and say she is behind on car payments, her utilities are shut off, she can't buy groceries, her HOA bill is behind, etc and she always promises to may be back. To be fair, she mostly does at some point. But it's infuriating because she borrows money from me, her financially limited grad-student daughter in her mid-20s, instead of pulling from her larger accounts. She says "I don't want to touch that money until I'm 60". I've told her it's hard for me to give up what is proportionally much larger amounts from my savings and loans than it is more her to take from her large accounts, and she then shuns me for a bit until she isn't as angry. In the past 8 years, she has sold and then bought and then sold three homes she lived in for 2-3 years at a time, in which she would lock herself away in the dark and say that the home was too ugly and too small and it makes her depressed. I have not seen her for holidays most of the past 8 years because she will say that I can come home, but then last-minute says "Christmas is cancelled, I have no money and my home is horrible". I have even been in my hometown the day before Christmas and she tells me I cannot come home once I arrive in town, so I get a hotel for a night and then leave. My father and I do not have a relationship because of his abuse throughout my childhood. So there's this cycle of me counting on seeing my mom for holidays only to be bailed on last minute, and if I tell her that it hurts my feelings she cries and says I don't understand how hard her life is and that she wouldn't want me to "waste a Christmas in her ugly house".

A year ago, she decided that the house she was living in was "infested by a dark presence" that kept her from being happy, and she wanted to put the money from the sale into retirement and mostly rent. Well, she put that money away, and now that she rents she is always behind on something. To make matters worse, she sold the home without knowing where she wanted to live and without having contacted any rental properties, and she had terrible credit from racking up credit card bills and missing car payments. So I ended up loaning her 10k from my own student loans while I was in graduate school so that she could live in AirBnBs while restoring her credit. I ended up having personal emergencies and my own rent that I needed her to pay me back more quickly for, to which she exploded and said that, if anything, I owe her well over 10k from everything she has done for me, and that she is keeping it. So I took out more student loans. Fine. I accepted that.

I got into a relationship last year and, through the process of getting to meet his family, who are all beyond wonderful and so kind and loving, I wanted my boyfriend to meet some of my family. My mom actually said that we could both come stay with her for Christmas. I made her swear and promise that it was genuine, that she was sure she wanted this, and she said yes. My boyfriend booked flights to come to my hometown the day after Christmas. I got into my hometown on the 22nd, and lo and behold, my mom said she is too embarrassed of her home to have me or my boyfriend there. She suggested a hotel, but I am wrapping up graduate school and do not have the money for this, so then she contacted my father and made arrangements for me to stay in one of his properties in town, which he said he would not be at due to being at his mistress's family's holidays in another state. He contacted me and said that he was coming back to be at his house and to meet my boyfriend and spend the duration of his stay with us. Fine, ok. He's a horrible asshole but at least we'd have a very nice place to stay; my dad was indeed quite horrible to both myself and my boyfriend but it was bearable and my boyfriend actually works in the same industry as my dad so he said he was used to these types of personalities. Before my boyfriend got in town, my mom said she would love to have Christmas eve with me, since my father was still out of town, I just couldn't stay with her. She said we could do Christmas cookies and open stockings. I got everything to do the cookies, showed up on Christmas eve, and she won't come to the door because her "skin looks too terrible and she's gained weight since I last saw her", and she didn't want to see me, so I spent Christmas eve alone. It felt bizarre, I was in my dad's 4mil mansion ALONE, raided the wine cellar and got hammered and sat in his hot tub and roamed around his property and facetimed my boyfriend when he finished Christmas things with his family. Anyhow, my mom made dinner plans with myself and boyfriend and she told me that she was okay with meeting him as long as we didn't come to her house. But she bailed on these plans too. At this point, it's just embarrassing for me and makes me feel guilty when my boyfriends parents have been nothing but wonderful to me. But aside from my parents, I have no other family in the US; they are all dead. No grandparents, etc. My living distant family is in Italy.

My dad makes minimum 3mil a year and has never once helped me in any way financially, my mom gets 150k cash a year from him plus stock returns, and yet I am the one who ends up paying in some way for both of their dysfunctions. Here's the shocker: not one single home my mom has been in over the past 8 years is less than 4k square feet, with pools and hot tubs, and are objectively very nice homes. She insists that she is recovering from the divorce and that this is what it looks like to be recovering from a divorce, however she also refuses to seek therapy, refuses to seek financial advisement, refuses to do anything differently at all. She moves around into new homes, refurbishes and refits them entirely, and then refuses to leave the homes and sits in the dark. My dad has "adopted" a 40 year old man, the nephew of his mistress, as his "son" and has given this grown man everything I ever wanted from him; he has paid for everything for him to go back to school, takes him to see extended family in Italy which he has never done for me (who this 40 year old isn't even related to), buys him expensive cars, takes him climbing and skiing, shopping in NYC, winters in Whistler, and lets him live rent-free in one of his properties. The grown man does nothing, he's a retail employee 3 days a week. I just graduated with my 3rd degree and I couldn't get a text response from my dad, let alone a $50 gift card.

I am at the end of my rope because today my mom facetimed me and begged for $400 to get her phone turned back on, she is crying and saying that she cannot live her life her phone . I am waiting for my first post-grad job to start in 2 weeks, and I have a terminally ill pet who I have been moving around money for in order to pay specialist vet bills. My mom knows this. She knows I have 1k to last until the end of June when I get my first substantial paycheck. And my cat needs her prescriptions next week, which cost several hundred. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND how somebody who gets 150k a year can justify borrowing so much from somebody living off student loans and prior savings from a restaurant job I had before graduate school. She says I don't need as much as her, I have more accessible cash than her, etc. Meanwhile my dad is in the Cayman Islands with his new boat, cannot be reached and cannot be bothered to acknowledge my recent accomplishments and getting a crazy good job.

My cat has cytocentesis and full blood panel tests tomorrow morning at 8am. Her vet is telling me to fast her for 12 hours for most accurate results, but this feels dangerous for my cat, she is sensitive and already eats in small batches, like 8 times a day, so if I take her food for 12 hours she will be starving which increases nausea and it was such a nightmare to get her eating on her own after she crashed in February. I expressed to my vet that this feels excessive and dangerous and she disagreed and said it’s necessary.

Does anybody else have experience with this? Has a vet told others that their CKD cat needs to be fasted to get accurate phos and BUN levels?

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?