Hi folks – We have three felines entrusted to our care. Leo and Merlin are 16 yr old littermates and Luna (my avatar) is 9. Leo had pancreatitis about 18 months ago (literally a week after a certain flea/tick collar was put on) and shortly afterward was dx with the start of kidney failure. Of course he will not touch a single RX wet food, he lost 2 lbs when we tried to convince him. I am giving him blue buffalo k/d dry but because they (the boys) have always been kind of contrary and freakish when it comes to change I had to mix it with the sensitive stomach food as well, also Luna eats out of the same bowl. (They will not “come” to eat dry food) Anyway, we’ve done all we can to try different feeding styles and this is the best we can make happen, we even tried putting a cat door on the office to keep Luna from the k/d food but the boys won’t use it, so it’s fruitless and the vet says the mix is ok for Luna. So now Leo is at 4.8 creatinine and nearly stage 4 and he’s down from 11 lbs to 7.8 in 18 months. It’s good I am home all day because he gets meds 4 x a day and now the vet has us trying fluids subQ. But he HATES it. I mean, this little guy who took literally 11 years to trust us to even come sit with us (they were feral) now doesn’t trust us anymore because we are catching him to stick him with a needle. My heart is breaking and I’m really struggling with what “quality of life” has to mean to us (we already decided no IV treatment, no extremes, just going to the vet for testing means he hides for a week). When we leave him be to eat he does eat his meds but I don’t think we can do anything more. Isn’t it better to have him feel loved and like he can trust us to come lay with us and be snuggled than to give him fluids and have him avoid us? He’s really a pretty happy little guy, even the vet was surprised by his values because he looks fine but I could tell because he was acting quiet… sigh… this stuff is so hard… thanks for listening. Beep/boop
Hi folks – We have three felines entrusted to our care. Leo and Merlin are 16 yr old littermates and Luna (my avatar) is 9. Leo had pancreatitis about 18 months ago (literally a week after a certain flea/tick collar was put on) and shortly afterward was dx with the start of kidney failure. Of course he will not touch a single RX wet food, he lost 2 lbs when we tried to convince him. I am giving him blue buffalo k/d dry but because they (the boys) have always been kind of contrary and freakish when it comes to change I had to mix it with the sensitive stomach food as well, also Luna eats out of the same bowl. (They will not “come” to eat dry food) Anyway, we’ve done all we can to try different feeding styles and this is the best we can make happen, we even tried putting a cat door on the office to keep Luna from the k/d food but the boys won’t use it, so it’s fruitless and the vet says the mix is ok for Luna. So now Leo is at 4.8 creatinine and nearly stage 4 and he’s down from 11 lbs to 7.8 in 18 months. It’s good I am home all day because he gets meds 4 x a day and now the vet has us trying fluids subQ. But he HATES it. I mean, this little guy who took literally 11 years to trust us to even come sit with us (they were feral) now doesn’t trust us anymore because we are catching him to stick him with a needle. My heart is breaking and I’m really struggling with what “quality of life” has to mean to us (we already decided no IV treatment, no extremes, just going to the vet for testing means he hides for a week). When we leave him be to eat he does eat his meds but I don’t think we can do anything more. Isn’t it better to have him feel loved and like he can trust us to come lay with us and be snuggled than to give him fluids and have him avoid us? He’s really a pretty happy little guy, even the vet was surprised by his values because he looks fine but I could tell because he was acting quiet… sigh… this stuff is so hard… thanks for listening. Beep/boop