Sasha and CRF

Well I went to see her yesterday and she is depressed. Her BUN was
only down to 115 from 123. Dr. said she seem much more down and not
as alert as day before. I know she is homesick. She is not good with
environment change. She was a stray that found me 5 years ago. I
brought her into my bedroom to seclude her from the other cats until
she got checked out. After she got a clean bill of health, I
encouraged her to roam the house freely but in 5 years she rarely came
out of my bedroom on her own. Occasionly she would come into my other
room if i was on the computer but she was happy just staying in her
little space. She had her own bed, water, food and a liter box in my
bedroom. I think I may bring her bed to the vets to remind her of
home. I am just praying she doesn't lose her will to live being stuck
in a cage with noisy animals and strangers around her.

Kreisleriana...

Purrs for her. CRF is the pits.

Theresa

Make Levees, Not War

Marina...

Poor Sasha. purrs for you both.

Dan M...

Any chance the vet would let you bring her home and administer fluids
there? It's not difficult once you've done it a couple times.

Adrian...

Poor Sasha, continuing purrs.

wafflycat...

I don't know if this is of any use for your cat... but in case it is.

Francis is a cat with chronic kidney problems. Over a year aho now, a vet
wanted to euthanise Francis on the grounds Francis's kidney were on the
point of giving up. Blood tests showed, well, the senior vet (the one I
trust, not the fool who wanted to euthanise my cat - the fool vet is another
story) said he didn't understand why Francis was still here... I can't
remember what the blood test levels were but the vet went pale. The vet said
he didn't know how much longer I'd have Francis but we'd see what we could
do with having a go at long-term treatment. I was warned not to get my hopes
up. I think it was right I was told this.

Francis was put onto Fortekor tablets. One a day. These are beta-blockers.
Francis was also put on a special food for cats with kidney problems.
Francis would not willingly eat the stuff, so for a month I blended the food
down, added water to it and syringed food into him on a two-hourly basis
through the day and last thing at night he got a 'good supper' of the stuff
to keep him going. Over this period he put on most of the weight he had
lost. He perked up brilliantly. After a month, I put him on to a normal
'senior cat' food. All my cats have this as they are now all senior cats.
They have free access to dry senior food (currently Iams active maturity), a
small amount of wet food twice a day and free access to water.

It's now over a year since Francis was diagnosed with acute kidney failure.
Francis no longer needs Fortekor every day. Francis is, to all intents &
purposes, fit, well, bright-eyed, alert and *himself* Francis runs, jumps,
climbs trees and chases the wildlife in the garden. He is a happy cat.

I know that I could be exceptionally lucky with Francis. It may be that the
treatment Francis has had would not be suitable for your cat, but is it
worth asking your vet about this approach?

While Sasha is at the vet's, this might make her feel less depressed...
Sleep in a t-shirt. Next morning, take the t-shirt to the vet and have it
placed in Sasha's pen. The t-shirt will have your scent all over it and can
bring comfort which can help de-stress her. Change t-shirt regualrly for
others with your scent on. This worked wonders for one of my cats which had
to stay at a vet's surgery for a week. Each day I'd take a 'new' t-shirt
down that I'd slept in the night before (It was Waffles). Waffles would lie
in her pen on my t-shirt. The vet nurses told me it did calm Waffles as
before I started that, Waffles made sure the vet nurses knew she was not..
err, pleased with them. She calmed a lot with the scent of her own human
with her in a stressful situation.

I hope that things improve for Sasha *soon* I'm thinking of you both.

Best wishes, helen s

Adrian...

I was once told by a vet, cats are the only animal known to recover from
kidney problems, so there is always hope. Will keep purring for Sasha.

wafflycat...

How my vet worded it was that it seems as if cats have loads of 'spare
capacity' built in to their kidneys, so that even if the kideny seems all
but gone, somehow, sometimes, they can carry on for a while.

Cheers, helen s