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My old cat has kidney failure and won't eat or drink. What can I do?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Cat | Persian | Female | spayed | 14 years and 5 months old

Hi, my cat is 14 years old, she refused to eat or drink, the local vet says her kidney & liver are weak and almost dysfunctional, she recieves saline and glucose solutions via a cannula every 12 hours, these are her blood results but the vet is not providing any information regarding her condition, please help.

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1 Answer

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Answered By Christie Long, DVM

Veterinarian, Certified Veterinary Acupuncturist

Published on June 15th, 2018

These lab results do not provide any "normal" values, which can differ based on the type of equipment used to run the sample, however I would agree that based on what I am used to as normal values Sabrina is in either renal failure or has very severe dehydration. Renal failure seems more likely given that she is also quite anemic (has low red blood cells), although her liver values do not look high to me. Typically renal failure is treated with aggressive intravenous fluid therapy, and with kidney values this high it seems unlikely that only getting fluids every 12 hours will make much of a difference. Also, with anemia such as she has, great care has to be taken not to give fluids too rapidly as to worsen the anemia. Persian cats are predisposed to a type of kidney disease known as polycystic kidney disease. This is easily diagnosed with ultrasound examination of the kidneys. Unfortunately, the prognosis is grim.

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