Rassy cat & Howard, Sick with kidney failure Options

[jackjackbojack]

**Joanne (jackjackbojack is a new member here. Two of her precious furkids (Rassy cat & Howard ) are very ill with kidney failure. With Joanne's permission, I'll do my best to get her posts together (along with their replies), so that she can have her own thread. **

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My two babies are dying of Kidney failure. There is just so little time left. My Rassy cat is 18.5 years old. My Howard is 16. I have been through this once before with my kittywillow. People here are so compassionate and kind. I can't stand it when people say to me its just a cat. Its not. These are my babies. I know how much joy those special little ones bring into our lives.

We enclosed our patios and made them into cat rooms. (We have one upstairs and one downstairs. We refer to our cats as the ups and downs. My up cats will soon cross over the Rainbow. All I will have are some pictures and lots of wonderful memories.

I don't want them to suffer. Rassy cat is still holding on. I know he doesn't want to leave me. Howard still has some time left before the curtain falls. I told Rassy Cat whenever he feels its time, to just let go. I would much prefer to see him die peacefully in his sleep rather than having to put either down. Howard is so attached to Ras, and sick that we might put him down just so he doesn't have to suffer the heartbreak of loosing his best friend esp in his condition.

I just continue to check on my babies. Rassy cat sleeps so soundly. I just keep checking to see if he will wake up. I try not to cry in front of him. He knows how much I adore him. And the last thing I would ever want to do is keep him alive if he is in pain.

Today, I told him, whenever you are ready to let go, its ok. Always know, I love you as much as life itself.

[Furkidlets' Mom]

Joanne,

Rassy Cat's and Howard's story just breaks my heart. I, too, lost my girl Nissa to kidney failure (at least that's what it appears to have been from, ultimately, but for all we know, there could have been something else as WELL....she had many ailments...) Since I still just don't have the strength to write as I used to, perhaps you might look at some of my older posts (click on the member's underlined name to get to their Profile, then click on "Find all posts by this member" to get a list to choose from, then click on the underlined Post Preview # to see the entire post and its thread) to see some of the many things I did for our girl to keep her going....if that's what you'd like to do for your babies.

Before I forget, to type Pus*sywillow's name in, add an asterisk somewhere in the first part of the name so it shows up properly. The anti-spamware is simply trying to get rid of po*rn-type language, which it sees pus*sy as being.

It IS hard providing the care-giving to ailing kidlets while still trying to provide for any others, and we don't often get enough credit, or help, when we're faced with this monumental task. I hear you there.

But you are right about trying to stay in the PRESENT with Rassy Cat and focus as much as you can on JUST the love and loving, while you still can. BUT, if you HAVE to cry at the same time, so be it. That's okay, too. Rassy Cat will understand. He knows your very soul, not just your outward persona, and feels your suffering heart just as much as you feel for him.....because you're bonded to each other. Some people have ended up feeling like they didn't do their furries any favour, trying to hide their real feelings from them, as if that said they didn't care as much as they really did. So just trust that your babies DO know and DO understand, and they love you no matter which way you handle things. They'd do the same for us, were the shoe on the other paw, so it's no different.

Have you asked your vet if an animal tech might be available to come to your house to give fluids when needed? Some provide such a service, or you might find one from another vet who does. Or, as we did, one of you might learn to do this yourself at home. Some people just can't, but it might be worth looking into and trying under the supervision of your vet or vet's tech while in the clinic - they SHOULD teach you how to do it first there.

It could even be that Howard and Rassy Cat are going through this together, by choice, on a spiritual level, so that neither one of them will feel alone during this illness. While it's very natural to worry about such things, perhaps you don't really need to when it comes to Howard, as he may just decide to naturally leave himself, soon after Rassy Cat does.....maybe as part of a soul agreement they've worked out. But if not, he WILL have you and your husband, still, and you might be surprised at what may come out of your bond with him, should he be the one remaining.

And just a note: kidney cats like and need extra warmth when their kidneys aren't functioning up to par anymore, so providing them with a steady but mild heat source that won't burn their tender skin is always a good idea. We used covered gel-pack pillows from the drugstore, which we further covered with a zip-lock freezer bag (after many heatings, the gel can start to leak suddenly...time to replace then), over which the flannel cover went. We heated them in the microwave, but ONLY to a certain point that Nissa found comfortable. This alone was work, doing this several times/day or evening, depending on if she was on them or not, but she loved her pillows so it was always worth the effort. We also hand-fed her many times....and she liked that, too. She lived to 19 yrs, 7 months, btw, with tons of care along the way. I'll never regret all that I/we did for her, or the fact that I helped her stay with me as long as she could. She didn't want to leave me, either, so I couldn't have done otherwise for her. We BOTH hung on to each other, and there's no shame in that! It was what it was......nothing short of great, great love between two forever-bonded souls.

Mew Mew will also help all of you through all of this, too. Why else would she be there??? We join up with who we need to join up with, for reasons we don't usually comprehend until later. Your family is what it is for many reasons and you will support each other through it all, as will those here who know your pain.