Wednesday, April 21, 2010

All is not well for FatBoy

FatBoy looked anxious at the doctor's office although his temper was even. He gave the assistants some trouble when they had to take his blood.
His Fortekor, which is long term and his Vibravet which is for a whole week...


The results for his blood test were very poor and the vet Dr EL said that he had kidney failure and because of that, she would not put him under any anesthesia for his dental problems. His teeth and gums, although terrible, were not the worst that she had seen in a stray. I could see the bloody roots of his teeth and understood then what kind of pain he was in when he eats or had to chomp on anything.

She also said that he needed long term care and for a stray that would be very difficult. So she also suggested putting him to sleep as he was indeed suffering from kidney failure and she said that would be the primary reason why he was losing all his weight. The catch was as he had kidney failure, she could not even help him to remove the pain he was in with his teeth. So he was in pain all round. She said it might be the better solution as we would not want him to live in a lot of pain as he was in now.

The only thing we could do was to make sure he had twice weekly SubQ, coupled with his long-term meds Fortekor. I do not know if I would be able to do the SubQ for him but will try this Friday as he has to have the SubQ every two days at 250 ml. It is more the fluids that would be able to help him I think.

I was grateful that one of the residents, a taxi drver, who lived in the same block as FatBoy saw me carrying FatBoy in a carrier and so we were able to get a cab very quickly. He waited for us until 8.30 pm ( nearli 1.5 hrs) and so we did not have to wait for another cab. This place was not the easiest place to get cabs at all.

He said that FatBoy would be 8 years old and everyone loves him. Ultimately we would have to think of FatBoy's best interest and not ours when making any decision. I would also have to ask the auntie who has been with him for 8 years, his whole life almost.

I really do not know what to do about it and we would have to make some kind of decision for him by next week. It should be more than anything about the quality of life that has or will have.

His indicators are:

Cre 8.4 mg/dL (normal 0.8-2.4)
Alt 53 U/L (12-130)
Alkp 52 U/L (14-111)
GLU 120 mg/dL (71-159)
USG: 1.1012 (urine)

The vet said his Cre coupled with his urine indicators showed that his kidneys had been failing him for a long time although the rest of his indicators were ok. I noticed that his bones near his hind legs were showing quite prominently too. However when we went to the vet at a***, he weighed in at 5.35 kg.


6 comments:

  1. We are so sorry to hear that things don not look good for FatBoy.#1's first cat was on Fortekor for the last year of his life, as his kidneys failed.The only thing we can do when things are this way is to love them and make sure they are not in terrible pain.

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  2. Anonymous5:02 PM

    So sorry to hear of FatBoy's kidney problems. FatBoy needs Sub-Q. Some vet clinics charge $10-15 for Sub-Q service if you bring fluid & dripline. How about Royal Canin Renal wet sachet cat food ?

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  3. Anonymous5:50 PM

    Try Sub-Q for a week at clinic to see if creat goes down. Good thing is ALT, ALP are within normal range, liver is ok. I think there is anaesthetic spray to relieve pain when Sub-Q needle is inserted. It is difficult to manage a kidney feral cat. Take my hat off for your devotion to cats.

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  4. Anonymous7:46 PM

    Oh dear..the poor fellow. I know all of us love our cats and the community cats but unless we have a kind and caring soul willing to give a suffering kitty 100% attention, sometimes we just have to let go. Sorry for saying this. You have a very difficult decision to make San =(

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  5. Fortekor needs to be given daily. It won't be easy as you will need to be able to find him everyday.

    Heart failure usually comes with kidney failure. And that means more daily medication.

    Cats with kidney issues will not be anesthised for dental treatment as they may die during the process.

    San, you have a hard decision to make.

    His appetite will go downhill due to kidney failure and exerbated by dental issues. He will lose a lot of weight very quickly. He will lose water quickly. The only way out is homestay so that someone can get him to eat every 3 hours or so.

    The only silver lining is that I was told kidney failure is a dull ache/discomfort. It is a jabbing pain like a fracture.

    At least FatBoy seems like his usual self, greeting the people around. But when his condition deteriorates (and it can be fast), you may wish to aid him and give him a speedy journey in the safe comfortable confines of a home/vet rather than the drain,to somewhere where he can join the rest of his kakis.

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  6. Anonymous2:39 PM

    Dr L did perineal urethrostomy (major) surgery for my kidney cat so cat cld pee as crystals jammed the catheter. H'ever creatinine was within normal range with Sub-Q.

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