FIV+ Cat with possible renal failure
Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2015 9:32 am
Hi, I'm new to this forum but I'm hoping to get some advice please....apologies this is quite a lengthy story.
We adopted Ralph in June 2013, he is FIV+. In June this year we noticed that he wasn't quite himself, so we took him to the vets where he was diagnosed as having gingivitis. He was prescribed antibiotics and seemed to improve quite quickly. Within a couple of weeks of stopping his treatment, he started to deteriorate again. The vet gave us more antibiotics and suggested that we may need to do an ongoing course of 10 days on, 10 days off....we had done this with a previous FIV+ cat and it had worked well. They also ran blood tests at this stage, his kidney function was high normal.
We continued with this treatment and things seemed steady. Then towards the end of July, he suddenly took a turn for the worse. We rushed him in and he had a temperature of 106.2, the highest our vet had seen for a long time in a cat. They put him on a different antibiotic along with an anti inflammatory. This worked amazingly well and within a week he was back to his old self. Within a week of stopping his treatment, he was right back down to where to had been, so we rushed him in again and his temperature was back up to over 105. They ran more blood tests and everything was perfect apart from his kidneys which now showed he has lost at least 50% of his kidney function. He also had a high white cell count in his urine, but no blood.
At this stage the vet diagnosed him with a chronic kidney infection and suggested that we continue with a 6-8 week course of antibiotics. We cut out the anti inflammatory at this stage because of his kidneys, but soon took the risky decision to put him back on this as we couldn't get his temperature down without it. We've been treating this way now for weeks, he gets an antibiotic injection every 10 days, last week he also go an anabolic steroid injection and is now on anti sickness medication every day to try and improve his appetite. He also get a daily drug called semintra to help his kidneys to function along with the anti inflammatory.
He has stopped being sick, there has been no sickness for a couple of weeks now and we've managed to get him to eat a bit more than he was, but he's still losing weight. He's gone from a hefty 16 lbs to a skinny 12lbs. Most of the time he is bright eyed and responsive to us. Getting him to eat is a daily challenge, we must have about 15 different types of food as he won't eat the same thing 2 meals in a row.
The vet has mentioned that his kidney feels lumpy and that maybe he has kidney cancer, but he's really not well enough to test him further at this stage.
This morning, he was waiting for us to open the bedroom door as usual, he jumped up on to the bed as normal and had a fuss. We gave him his morning medication and then tried to get him to eat without any success. He won't touch anything, but is drinking a lot more than normal. His eyes are much duller and he didn't seem very responsive to us.
It's so hard to know what a good and bad day is for him, he was never a very joyful cat. He has always enjoyed his own company and never played enthusiastically, so I can't use that to judge it. He is spending most of his day just lying in the hallway, although he still always greets us when we arrive home. I'm just not sure what the next step is now. He's not getting better and probably won't get better. We're at the vets tonight and I think he may suggest that we consider saying goodbye....I'm fully prepared for this at some stage, I just don't know when it's time to say enough is enough. I would rather do this a few days early than a few days late.
Having no experience with renal issues in cats, I was hoping to see what other people's experiences are and what signs to look out for with end stage failure. I'm struggling to tell if we are managing the issue or not.
Sorry to ramble for so long!
Thanks
Pip
We adopted Ralph in June 2013, he is FIV+. In June this year we noticed that he wasn't quite himself, so we took him to the vets where he was diagnosed as having gingivitis. He was prescribed antibiotics and seemed to improve quite quickly. Within a couple of weeks of stopping his treatment, he started to deteriorate again. The vet gave us more antibiotics and suggested that we may need to do an ongoing course of 10 days on, 10 days off....we had done this with a previous FIV+ cat and it had worked well. They also ran blood tests at this stage, his kidney function was high normal.
We continued with this treatment and things seemed steady. Then towards the end of July, he suddenly took a turn for the worse. We rushed him in and he had a temperature of 106.2, the highest our vet had seen for a long time in a cat. They put him on a different antibiotic along with an anti inflammatory. This worked amazingly well and within a week he was back to his old self. Within a week of stopping his treatment, he was right back down to where to had been, so we rushed him in again and his temperature was back up to over 105. They ran more blood tests and everything was perfect apart from his kidneys which now showed he has lost at least 50% of his kidney function. He also had a high white cell count in his urine, but no blood.
At this stage the vet diagnosed him with a chronic kidney infection and suggested that we continue with a 6-8 week course of antibiotics. We cut out the anti inflammatory at this stage because of his kidneys, but soon took the risky decision to put him back on this as we couldn't get his temperature down without it. We've been treating this way now for weeks, he gets an antibiotic injection every 10 days, last week he also go an anabolic steroid injection and is now on anti sickness medication every day to try and improve his appetite. He also get a daily drug called semintra to help his kidneys to function along with the anti inflammatory.
He has stopped being sick, there has been no sickness for a couple of weeks now and we've managed to get him to eat a bit more than he was, but he's still losing weight. He's gone from a hefty 16 lbs to a skinny 12lbs. Most of the time he is bright eyed and responsive to us. Getting him to eat is a daily challenge, we must have about 15 different types of food as he won't eat the same thing 2 meals in a row.
The vet has mentioned that his kidney feels lumpy and that maybe he has kidney cancer, but he's really not well enough to test him further at this stage.
This morning, he was waiting for us to open the bedroom door as usual, he jumped up on to the bed as normal and had a fuss. We gave him his morning medication and then tried to get him to eat without any success. He won't touch anything, but is drinking a lot more than normal. His eyes are much duller and he didn't seem very responsive to us.
It's so hard to know what a good and bad day is for him, he was never a very joyful cat. He has always enjoyed his own company and never played enthusiastically, so I can't use that to judge it. He is spending most of his day just lying in the hallway, although he still always greets us when we arrive home. I'm just not sure what the next step is now. He's not getting better and probably won't get better. We're at the vets tonight and I think he may suggest that we consider saying goodbye....I'm fully prepared for this at some stage, I just don't know when it's time to say enough is enough. I would rather do this a few days early than a few days late.
Having no experience with renal issues in cats, I was hoping to see what other people's experiences are and what signs to look out for with end stage failure. I'm struggling to tell if we are managing the issue or not.
Sorry to ramble for so long!
Thanks
Pip