Cue Comes Home

Hi All,
Well I had a very emotionally draining week. After a few months of trying to figure out what was ailing our sweet kitty, Cue, we now have an answer. Cue was looking noticeably thinner a few months back. I didn't think too much of it, mostly because I don't have time to think too much of it. But Jim suggested he get checked out by the vet. Back on March 31, Cue had lost 3/4 of a pound. It doesn't sound like much, but it is noticeable on a cat who typically weighs 8 - 9 pounds. The vet could tell immediately that he was dehydrated. He also had his runny nose issue, which we know is a chronic thing for him. The vet said it could be a number of things. What he hoped was that his chronic upper respiratory infection had just gotten a little more than he could take, which led to the dehydration. We remained optimistic and followed the vet's recommendation to work on rehydrating him at home with canned food, tuna juice, and lots of water, etc. And we received medication for his runny nose (which is always a temporary fix). He enjoyed the canned food and initially seemed a bit better. But, we couldn't make much progress on getting his weight in check. In fact, in a month's time, he was slipping again. So it was back to the vet. This time, we had Cue spend a night there to receive a boost of fluids intravenously to combat the continued dehydration. But, Cue really wasn't making any progress on getting back to his old self. In fact, he was acting strangely - random potty accidents around the house, hiding behind our TV enclosure for hours on end, darting skiddishly around our house, and just plain looking like he didn't feel well. Finally, last week we returned to the vet again; now Cue was down to six pounds! We elected to run a full lab screen to get some answers. I won't go through the detail of the lab results, but it was very clear that Cue was suffering from kidney failure at eight years old (something we didn't originally suspect because he is young for that). Not only that, but it is pretty late stage based on his elevated lab numbers. The vet had both a kind and pragmatic talk with me about what I should/could do. There are special diets he could be given that were not as taxing on his kidneys, and we could choose to administer fluids under the skin to him at home. He said there was no way to know how well he would react and how long we could prolong his life doing this, but typically he has observed it will buy us three - four months. In a minority of cases, some cats can live an extra few years. Doing nothing, he did not think Cue had much time left and of course, the time could come that we would want to consider putting him to rest. I asked the vet if he knew what kind of pain Cue was in with kidney disease. He said it wasn't necessarily painful in an acute sense until the very late stages; he probably just feels under the weather for the time being. I wanted to try to the diet and fluid therapy, but I also did not want to make a selfish decision to prolong his life if it was not a quality life for him. So the doctor said take a few days and think it over, and if we wanted to try the fluid therapy that Cue should spend the weekend at the hospital to get an initial IV boost for a few days before we begin. While I had this discussion with the vet, Drew and Bree were chattering in the background. So the one of other things the vet told me I could do was go play with my kids. Funny but good advice! I had to remind myself while processing what was happening with Cue that we are fortunate for the health of Drew and Bree.
We decided to give the special diet and fluid therapy a shot, but we also decided to closely monitor Cue's progress. I always want to be on the lookout for clues that things are going downhill and that life is not fun for him anymore. Because the Cue we've seen the past few months is not a happy kitty. I really fear knowing when enough is enough. So, we'll set some indicators of his happiness level and gage them from here on out. So, after a weekend in the hospital, Cue is where he should be - home with us.