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. **

*****************************************

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,

Something important to keep in mind as even many vets don't seem to know this (or remember it when they need to?) - if a cat is dehydrated at the time of a blood test, they may show FALSE indications of kidney problems....so if Mew Mew is too dry, make sure she's properly hydrated first, and then don't get another blood test until at about 48 hrs. after hydration. I've heard of this happening far too many times already and it's just wrong! Of course, you still have to figure out WHY a cat gets that dehydrated, but that might be far better a picture than kidney disease. Let us know what they come up with.

Okay, so HEAT isn't going to be a problem, I see!

As for Tootsie, if anything ever warrants a trip to the vet, you might just want to check her thyroid....just in case it's not just a simple matter of overeating, which it very well could still be, though. I'm a proponent of a raw food diet for maintaining the highest level of health for our furries, but in a nutshell, each to his own. Our kidlets ate both a homemade raw food diet and high-quality canned, with very little dry in later years....would have done NONE whatsoever if they'd agreed to it. Dry food is terrible, btw, for worsening the kidneys and most mainstream, traditional vets don't know this, either.

I'm glad that Rassy Cat is getting less stressed at the clinic. That goes a long way towards health, too.

Unfortunately for all of us, most animals today suffer from too many diseases that were brought on by poor quality food, too many harmful drugs and of course things like abandonment or abuse before they were lucky enough to be rescued/adopted. We are the ones who are left to deal with all this outfall, as are they. It's no different than with human families, though. We're almost ALL quite ill, whether we know it yet or not. So no, it's not fair, but it's of human making overall. And it won't be solved overnight. So we just have to deal with these horrid things as best we can, even though they tear us to pieces inside.

This is the kind of time one has to start counting small blessings like the fact that at least we'd rescued them so they're with US and not somewhere much worse (or already long gone), at least they're not going to be left w/o us to care for them if things were opposite and we were the ones dieing.....anything you can come up with. Sometimes it's those stray thoughts that give us the strength to carry on while being care-givers to our babies. You're being as vigilant as you know how to and that's all you can really do. Taking as many pics as possible is also a very good idea. Make sure many of them are of the regular, normal, everyday things, and try to include yourself in as many as you can, too, as a memory of your special relationship with each one. You're being proactive there and that's a good thing, too. That will help you later on, even if it doesn't right now.

And your former boss.......was a total idiot! So many people are, especially when it comes to animals. At least you're not one of them.

I'd LOVE to tell you all about how to get through this, but no one really knows. We all just learn and read about grief and experience it as we go, and it's never the same, even with different fur-kids. Each bereavement has its own challenges. And, if I knew myself how to get through Nissa's parting, I could gladly tell you, but I haven't, not by a long shot (it's been almost 14 months now), so you never have to feel like you're lagging behind - I'm a living testament to 'lagging'! I, too, spent years crying about Sabin's death (Nissa's brother), and Nissa's is so far even worse in many ways, as she was my last furchild. It's tough, so tough, and not any one person has all the answers. Many of us will be here to share in your pain and that's one help out of many you may find. But I would encourage you to do as much reading as you can about what's normal for grief (even if it's a book on human loss), whether now or later, as I know you don't want to take away any time you might spend with your babies. For now, the best piece of advice I could give you is to just BE there for them as much as possible.