Quote Originally Posted by riffraffmom View Post
the vet told us that kidney failure is irreversable and we would have to see how much damage was done if he made it to the next appointment. he told me the treatments jasper will need in the future could be very costly are the catfood companies going to help us with vet bills for our pets i hope so if anyone else has had this problem please email me. i would really like someone to talk to that is going through this with me.
Riffraff,
Our other cat Pearl almost died from kidney failure 3 yers ago. Our vet told us she had never seen a cat survive who had such terrible lab test results. Pearl was drooling bloody mucous, looked like a skeleton, and smelled like a corpse, that's how bad she was. We were just on the verge of putting her to sleep.
After several days of intravenous water drip at the vet's to flush the kidneys, and an anitbiotic series to fight her raw ulcers infections, we took her home and gave her subcutaneous water injections 3x week, then 2x, then 1x, then were able to stop after a year as she improved. You may have to learn to give these shots at home too- they are just under the skin, not in a vein. It's a two person job, but it is do-able.
The longterm trick is to get them to drink more water. Try buying "chunk" tuna packed in spring water, and dump it all into a bowl water and all. Then add another whole cup of water to the whole and mix it- see if your kitty will lap that water, it worked for us. Keep making tuna "broth", keep it in the fridge, and giving her as much as she willl drink several times a day. If she eats some tuna then fine, but it's the water she needs to get better. Open a new can every couple of days and make more water broth. Leave the tuna in the broth container to "brew" until you are ready to make a new batch of tuna water. As to their "regular" bowls of drinkning water, be sure to clean and change them every day, as cats really love FRESH water and don't like day-old water at all for some reason.

I want you to know that Pearl (now 6) actually made a COMPLETE recovery and her kidneys labs tests are pretty normal these days. She came back from the brink of death and is now happy, bouncy and the picture of good health. I am convinced she ate something bad like bad cat food that casued her kidney failure years ago. She had been perfectly fine and suddenly became so ill. I had no idea why at the time, but now I can guess.