News Archive for December 2008

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Akasha Has Kidney Disease

Written by Kodi Wolf at 3:37 PM

A few years ago, one of my cats, Akasha, had a major bout of constipation. We took her to the vet and they X-rayed her to see if she had any possible blockages. She didn't, but they did find that one of her kidneys was deformed and probably not working, but her lab results had come back looking great (the vet had said she wished her results looked that good), so everything seemed to be fine. They did warn us that deformed kidney would probably be a problem someday, but it wasn't yet.

Well, over Thanksgiving weekend, Kash (it's pronounced "kahsh", like the Vorlon from Babylon 5, not "cash", for anyone who was wondering; since she's lost so much weight in the past few months, we've been calling her "Kashi-go-lean" from the cereal commercials) became severely constipated again. We took her back to the vet to get her checked out again and they prescribed lactulose twice a day. It didn't seem to be helping enough, though, so we took her back and they added cisapride. The vet also suggested we have more lab work done to try to figure out if there was anything else going on to cause the recurring constipation.

And that's when they told us she has kidney disease.

We're giving her subcutaneous fluids (the "camel hump") at home (today was the first day; boy, was that fun; I came close to passing out and Corene said she felt like throwing up, but we managed). Then on Friday, we're going to take her back in for more lab work to see if the fluids have kickstarted her system into working again. If they haven't, we might be looking at barely a month or so with her. If they have, then we might get another year or two. It could also be anything in between.

All I know is, I'm getting really tired of torturing my cat. When she doesn't have an appetite, we end up having to hold her down (or "scruff" her, as one of the vet techs put it, which I thought was pretty funny) in order to give her the drugs, since hiding it in food doesn't work if she won't eat. And stabbing her with this huge needle to give her the fluids is rather scary; I keep worrying about puncturing a lung or hitting some other important organ (or poking myself after the needle has passed through her skin, since her skin is so thin now).

But we'll do what we have to. Corene has even gotten her hours changed so she can go in to work an hour later in the mornings to accomodate the time we have to spend giving Kash her meds when she isn't being cooperative (we keep telling her if she'd just eat the stuff, it wouldn't be so traumatic, but she doesn't seem to want to listen).

Well, I hope everyone has a happy Solstice, merry Christmas, joyous Kwanzaa, or happy Hanukkah for those who celebrate, and for those who don't, just have a good month.

Friday, December 19, 2008

Akasha Kidney Disease Update

Written by Kodi Wolf at 5:26 PM

The new test results came back and Kash's bloodwork hasn't really changed (the area they were measuring went from 78 to 80, which is better, but not really a significant change). But as the vet said, she treats the cat, not the paper, so as long as Kash is feeling better with the fluids and the meds (which she is), then that's what we'll keep doing and just play it by ear.

We're also going to switch her food from Science Diet formula C/D, which we were giving to both Akasha and Felix to try to keep the crystals in their urine under control so they wouldn't keep getting cystitis (urinary tract infections), to the K/D formula, which is for kidney problems. She'll probably still get a little of the C/D (she'll still need it) when we give Felix canned food, but they'll both be on the K/D dry food from here on out.

I don't know how long Akasha has, but as long as she's feeling good, we'll do what we can for her.

Some pictures...

This was Akasha at around 3 or 4 months old. She eventually grew into her ears. :)

Here she is at around 8 months old.

And here she is at about 10 months old nursing her 3 babies (Felix is the calico in the middle).
(Full-size image)

And here's the family back when they still loved each other.
(Full-size image)

When I moved out of my sister's place, I took Felix with me, but left Kash behind. Then a few months later, I reintroduced Akasha to Felix and they decided they hated each other and the battle has been raging ever since. By the way, the orange and white cat is Guim ("gwim"), Akasha's brother and Felix's father. We had planned to get one of them fixed before Kash could get pregnant, but then Kash went into heat without us realizing it. But it turned out to be a happy mistake, since I got Felix out of it. I did, however, learn my lesson and made sure Felix was spayed as soon as medically possible.