My cat has end-stage kidney failure, not eating or drinking. What now?

Question

I have a cat who was recently diagnosed with CRF. She was hospitalized for around 3 weeks, on IV and had had two blood transfusions. She had also received two to three DPO injections. I was told to bring her home, that nothing more could be done for her. She is not eating or drinking. Pet's info: Cat | Oriental | Female | spayed | 5 years and 9 months old | 6 lbs

Emily, DVM · Accepted Answer

I am so sorry about your poor kitty. Renal failure can be a very hard and frustrating disease to manage. This is especially true if we can't fix an underlying cause such as an infection, a tumor, or an exposure to a toxin. Usually once cats in renal failure require blood transfusions and those injections it is the end stage of the disease. There are a couple of veterinary colleges that do kidney transplants. One being The University of California at Davis. That would likely be her only option remaining. If you do not want to pursue a referral to a facility that does transplants, which I believe is very reasonable, it is important to keep Freya comfortable. This could include keeping her on a kidney diet, medications to control her blood pressure and G.I. protectants as well as potentially repeating the injections to increase her blood count level. Ultimately kidney failure is fatal. Therefore I would discuss with your veterinarian quality-of-life factors for her as well as what her ultimate life expectancy is based on her kidney failure. Some cats can survive a few weeks others a couple of months. It is very variable.

My cat has end-stage kidney failure, not eating or drinking. What now?

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