Did this video teach you anything new about CKD in cats? Let us know in the comments!

I have 2 CKD stage 2 cats, 13 and 14 years old. I adopted the 13 year old as a hospice cat due to her kidney disease in April. She is so lovely and I feel honored to care for her. I hope she lives a few years at least! I have also lost a cat to CKD. If i were rich i would set up a foundation to care for CKD kitties. Bless all the CKD kitties!

I just lost my 8 year old cat to this. It all happened so fast I'm still dealing with it. He was my baby boy.

I had a ckd kitty but she was 19yo when I found out & the vet didn't change anything for her. Frankly, I learned more from you today than I ever did from my vet while managing Maggie. She passed at 20.5yo (her little body just gave up one morning). Thanks again for this video! I feel so much more empowered!

The cat we lost last October was my wife's originally and she adopted him as a stray. A couple of years later he displayed kidney problems over the Easter weekend, at that time he was 6-9 years old. Though he was hospitalised for a few days for treatment and became uninsurable he lasted for another 16 years. He was on some special food but that was served with his wet food 🍲

I have been treating my 13-14 year old female cat for CKD for over a year now. I was never told what stage she was in, but my guess is she had it for about 6 months before I realized what was going on and took her to the vet. Honestly, she is doing well with fluids (every other day at home) and B12 shots. They gave me meds to balance her phosphorus levels, but she always threw up on them and I stopped. Over time they balanced out. Due to some anemia from time to time, I use Epogen as well and it works to calm her anemia down when it flares up. She eats a normal protein diet ( Weruva wet "cats in the kitchen" Lamb Burgini) and has a huge appetite. She does drink a good amount of water and pees a lot, but she's active, she goes up and down stairs without issues, she has a set a lungs you'd think came from a lion at times, and she is generally healthy. I've noticed when I give her Salmon, Tuna or Sardines and a good healthy butter, she really does well b/c of the Omegas. They seem to help her a lot. She has really fluffy, soft fur too. The vet is always amazed how I've been able to keep the CKD at bay. She wrote her off early on and said I'd probably have to put her down soon. I'm blessed to have the funds and time to take care of her.

I lost my cat 2 days ago, I was helpless and it hurts specially when he hears my voice and wants to stand up for me.

My former street cat came with CKD (and a host of problems) when I took him in over 5 years ago. He was so skinny and scrawny. He was estimated about 5 years old, and I knew him for several months as a local street cat. Initially I panicked when I heard, esp after googling. He’s had most of his teeth removed and he’s had bladder stone surgery, but over the years, living inside and getting medical attention, he’s fat, he plays, and he has a good quality of life. I look forward to many more years with Valjean.

One of my cats is currently dying from kidney failure. He's inbred (an aunt/nephew mating) and he's always been sickly in multiple ways, but this terminal diagnosis hit so suddenly, I'm still reeling. Despite his previous health issues, he was at least consistently stable for seven years, but it makes sense that kidney disease is so insidious. However, Christ, the whole situation has made me lose all faith in veterinary medicine. They wouldn't even give the poor, suffering thing fluids until we signed paperwork agreeing to hand over money, with the charges being ridiculously inflated at a vet "hospital".

This was soooo helpful. Thanks. My 5.6 years Persian was recently diagnosed with CKD and has irregular shrunken kidneys on ultrasound. He has always been weak with poor appetite snd almost weekly has a single episode of vomiting. Feeding him and trying to maintain his weight has always been an uphill struggle. Managing him with the help of his vet. Hopefully he'll stay with me for a long time. I love him so much.

This information about CKD symptoms described exactly what happened to my boy cat aged 16. He was diagnosed stage 3 and was so poorly. The vet put him to sleep last week. I miss him so much but I know he's not now in pain.

This video was extremely helpful and informative! I recently lost my 8 year old kitty end Jan 2023 due to cancer, kidney failure. It broke my heart terribly. She went from being over 10 pounds to around 6 pounds within weeks. She was no longer responding to the meds from her vet. She stopped eating, drinking water completely. She would pace all night long. I tried to feed her using a syringe. She was getting pissed off, growled at me. She never ever had a temper problem until she became deadly sick. She passed away. I lost her. 💔💔

Thank you! So helpful. Our beloved 13-year-old ragdoll was found collapsed near his water bowl (Feb 2023). We thought it was the end. He cashed in one of his 9 lives and fully recovered! However, now we know he has serious CKD. This really helps understand the seriousness of his condition. We are making changes with Vet guidance. He had his checkup yesterday. Hopefully we can help him live longer the best we can. I can't say how much this video helped. Cheers!

Im so sad. My cat just got diagnosed. He’s my best friend. This is heartbreaking but thank you for this video.

My 13 year old Siamese cat Bleu just passed away on 1/25 and now I believe this was the reason.. all these symptoms he had and he went soo fast without me realizing why he was acting the way he was… his twin sister Azul is now lonely without him…. I miss him sooo much

My cat was 18. Had early kidney disease indication. Prescription foods. Thyroid medication. Mini lab work every 6 month. Full lab work once a year. Then out of nowhere it escalated and she was gone within less than 2 weeks! Had to put her to sleep last Tuesday :( .... it all happened so dang fast!

This video is very helpful. I am sure the people who clicked this video are the owners of CKD cats. I also have one CKD cat aged 12. She dragonized 2nd stage CKD last October. I really hope she lives with me as long as possible. I tried to search CKD related information from that date. However, most of the videos or articles provided general ideas not the details. My cat hates all renal wet food. Fortunately, she eats one of the renal dry foods. I also learned that changing her eating is strange. Suddenly, she stopped eating one brand and switched to another brand of dry food. So, I have several different dry foods for her. My vet told me this is typical for CKD cats. I know wet renal cans are the best for CKD cats. I bought all of the renal canned food but she didn't eat any. Only one she ate was an old version of royal canin T renal can food but this product's contents are changed. My cat is not eating the new version. I searched the whole city but couldn't find it as the company collected one version. Since I live in a small city, my vet still kept the old version. Anyway, I found that there are several low phosphorus commercial canned foods you can try if your cat is like mine. I decided to leave comments here as I was so desperately looking for detailed information on CKD food, etc. Then I found the website felinecrf.org/tanyas_support_group.htm . The website owner owned several CKD cats and decided to share her experience. Now it is a huge CKD forum. You will find all of the information here. We can upload our cat's blood works and ask for help. It really helps. They have CKD food information also with detailed analysis data. I will add two more cans I recently found on this food list. As a CKD cat owner, I hope this helps. My cat is really picky. I always wonder if there is any artificial thing I can add to my cat's food. Like humans, cats like more cheap Walmart brand food than expensive one (of course not always). If I can figure out what that is, I would like to buy that and sprinkle on the renal can food so that my cat can eat it. I even considered analyzing a can my cat loves. My cat loves fancy feast melodys with gravy cans which are not great. As she will end up not eating food, that time it is important to feed any food my cat will eat. I am thinking of sifting this can with additional water and sending the liquid and solid part separately for the analysis. This can is not good for the CKD cat as it contains high phosphorus. However, if the liquid part shows very low phosphorus, I will add this to her renal can or feed this at the final stage which is so sad.

Thanks so much! I've had three kidney cats. One I am treating currently. She isn't on a strict kidney diet yet. I'm just glad she's eating without meds. She takes high blood pressure medicine, miralax for the constipation/hard stools, and Gabapentin for her dimentia. Leeloo is 16 now, and was diagnosed over 5 years ago. The fluids really help, and so does senior or grass car litter. Also, pee pads are super helpful since she urinates so much.

My cat is 2 years old and got diagnosed with stage 2 CKD today. Wonder how many years she will stay with me. My cat means the world to me.

My 14 year old cat just got diagnosed today. Very early stage 1 kidney disease. She had been feeling off, constipated, reduced appetite and a UTI over the last 3 weeks. I also noticed increased thirst and urinating. I’ve been working close with my vet, administered SQ fluids multiple times a day. She got a few enemas to help with her constipation. I am sad that she is diagnosed with this however I am happy we are catching it early. We are going to slowly change her diet. I am happy that I have a great relationship with a vet I can trust through this process!

One problem is often when you buy kidney food you have to get a case of it. When kitty refuses then you're stuck with tons of food she won't eat.

Thank you for walking through all of this in layman's terms. I subscribed. My cat was just diagnosed with stage 2. No symptoms yet. I have been doing senior blood work each year and so glad we caught it. Blood pressure normal, phosphorous normal, but SDMA test and creatine/BUN indicate kidney disease. Her first major illness at 13.5 years of age. I am in the info gathering/processing stage before I decide a game plan (in conjunction with my vets help) on how best to help her through diet and supplements and how to support her hydration. I am also reading medical journals. I am also reading that there is some discrepancy about standard of care being a low protein diet for CKD so appreciate you mentioning that the understanding is evolving.

💕❤️💕❤️ I can't watch this without crying. We told our vet many times that our cat "drinks & pees a lot" thinking that this was healthy. 4 years later, due to moving, we saw a new vet (cat only) & immediately he was diagnosed with stage 2 kidney disease. I'M SO UPSET THE OTHER VET DIDN'T KNOW THIS!!! They had multiple senior bloodwork done. WTF?!?! 😭😡

So very helpful! ❤Thank you. Hope you are still putting out content.

My cat was diagnosed with CKD this week stage 4. The only symptom was weight loss and lower appetite. Very shocking and confusing how he can seem so normal otherwise and be so far gone. Doing everything i can to keep him as healthy as possible for as long as possible now. Its really a heartbreaking disease for cat owners.

Thank you, this makes me feel like there might be some hope after all. My 11 year old cat started to show signs of something definitely up just the past 2 months and now after bloodwork we have to talk to vet about subcutaneous fluids. I'll be asking too about any other tests, treatments, and causes. I'm in CT and have only ever seen this same vet, hopefully things go well. Much love to everyone else who's trying to do what's best for their cats :)

Dr. Wooten, you are truly awesome for always giving us excellent information

Thank you, that was helpful. Nice delivery as well!

Excellently done! Thank you! 🧡

This video was so incredibly helpful! Our cat was just diagnosed with Stage1-2 CKD and our vet did not give us very much information. We feel more equipped now that we've watched the video

thank you so much-very positive and upbuilding and informative!

WOOOW....I ❤ this kind of education for all cat owners...this kind of content could make a difference for millions of cats around the world 👏🏻 Thank you both 😻

Thank you so much for this video! It was very helpful understanding what my cat and I are looking at.

Thank you for educating us about our precious felines. Thought I knew a lot about cats but find there is so much more to learn. Working with several rescue groups has resulted in being an adoptive parent of five happy, healthy kitties. 😻

Thank you for this informative and helpful video. You are helping a difficult situation be more manageable.

Thank you so very much for this video! I will try it on my kitty who is in late stages of kidney failure. I very much appreciate you doing this video

This is great!! Thanks for this!

Excellent video one of the better one on this on KZfaq. Thank you doctor

I love your videos. They helped me understand not only my cats newly diagnosed kidney disease but also his heart failure he was diagnosed with over a year ago. Good news, he currently has no fluid in his lungs. Also thank you for the tip about the samples. I called my vet and they had some donated food that they use for samples that they are now saving for me to pick up in the next couple days. It's also great to know I have other options to ask about such as the liquid therapy.

This is great. Thank you so much!

Thanks Dr. Wooten, great information!

Wow,great video! Thank you so much!

This was very helpful, I'd be interested in seeing a similar video on the causes and treatment for IBD in cats.

Well done. Very helpful information.

Very helpful video. When you’re in the vets office and your pet is in distress it’s hard to absorb all the technical information your getting. My cat started showing signs of distress and he is receiving IV fluids today and tomorrow. Hopefully we can manage the symptoms so he can enjoy the rest of his time here with me.

I had a senior cat with kidney disease for three and a half years before he died. How do I know that it is the right time to end his suffering of throwing up many times while the vet smiled and said "as long as he has quality of live"?

Great information. Thanks a lot!😊

Thank you, that was SO HELPFUL !

Very informative video, thank you!

That was very helpful thank you so much!😊😊

Thank you for this!

This was extremely helpful…🙏✨💝✨

Thank you for this video, it was very informative for me, 2 weeks ago my 17 year old ol' lady was diagnosed with stage 2. That was after just a year had gone by from her last blood work that showed everything to be normal. I took her in for a UTI and we did blood work as well and that's when she was diagnosed. I am slowly switching her to Hill's k/d wet food. She's lost her hearing and has arthritis, I hope she's one of the cats that lives with this for many years.

Thank you for giving me hope :)

I have a cat who was diagnosed with CKD at one year of age. His internal medicine veterinarian said he was likely born with a kidney too small per his ultrasound. He also had another congenital defect with his urethra opening too small. He had a minor surgery to open it more to allow him to urinate properly at three weeks of age (he was my foster fail!). Grateful for this video hearing all the treatment tools! I feel like I better understand what CKD does to the body and how hydration is so helpful. I also learned why his vet checks his blood pressure. Did not know really high blood pressure could cause blindness!

Thank you so much for this video! ❤

This episode was as helpful as all the others but this may just save the cat's life. Thank you for such detailed explanation in lay terms.

Dr, You are awesome the way you covered and explained CKD. Thank you !

Your information was very helpful. I am taking my precious baby to the vet, don’t know if I will be bringing him back, but will do whatever she says and what is best for Boris. Thank you

SO helpful!!!!🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

Fantastic video thank you so much 🙏

Thanks for the encouragement. 👏🏽🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾

Great video thank you!

thank you. this really helped me feel more hopeful about my cat's CKD...

Thanks for the info doc :)

Thank for the information it helped me to better understand what happen to my baby boy. It all happen so fast. I miss him so much.

Thank you so much. my vet told me that my cat might be having a kidney disease. I have been depressed, stressed, and worried about him. After this video I am feeling quite optimistic that even if he does so I would get much more time with him still. We are doing some bloodwork and tests at the moment hopefully he is fine. 😢

Thanks for doing this video

Thank you!!!

Thanks, Sarah....

Just had to put my boy down. It was definitely a quick change. From him being normal on weds morning to him just suffering till yesterday afternoon. Like for the last 3 months i notice he was drinking alot but never put 2 and 2 together. It was hard to watch these last 2 days when he went south.

Well done, thx!

Very helpful, thank you! Our cat is at the vet now getting his first treatment. Really nervous for him, hopefully he can come home tomorrow. Thanks again for making this video, helps us to hear this again and learn more about what to ask and look for.

Thank youu so much 🙏 💓

Thank you for making this video one of my cats are currently at the vet and they suspect kidney issues, they are doing tests now but I hope he will be ok

Very informative but I really think that we need to address what causes this terrible disease so it can be prevented or diminished in severity before it starts or gets out of control. I would put a bet on it that dry food diets are the number one problem that triggers it, allows it to fester and ultimately destroys that kidney health as the dry food expands in their digestive system like puff wheat cereal does and absorbs all the water like a swollen wet sponge. Have you ever noticed wet cat food left outside in the rain? It expands. Water is soaked up and robbing the internal organs of water.

My cat was diagnosed with CKD but he's pretty good in the moment. I was looking for information about it and even though I'm from Brazil, you have by far the best video. Thanks for the way you talk and inform us about it by making it a little less painful (I mean, the whole situation with our cats). Thank you!

Very good video!

Thank you! Very helpful info. Hoping our 🐈‍⬛ will pull thru. He has objected to all the vet prescribed foods so far.

My cat diagnosed with stage 4 CKD 6 months ago. It was a roller coaster ride on the beginning. Now he's at stage 3, stagnant for 3 months now. I'm now an expert on administering SC fluids and giving pills to my cat daily, not even proud about that.

Thank you 🙏

You are a great teacher…we are awaiting some blood work for a diagnosis..after watching this I feel hopeful 😊

My cat Murphy passed away from this 😭. Plus we think cancer in the kidney there was a lump. I miss him so much. I put our other cat we had two on high quality high moisture food took her off the SO Royal Canin prescription diet. She started vomiting everytime after eating the Royal Canin. She actually improved on the new food. Blood work came back and she is doing great.

I would love to hear about cats that are FIV+.

My cat was just diagnosed with kidney disease. I had no idea that he was sick until he suddenly stopped eating, lost so much weight in the time period of 2 weeks, started drinking a lot of water, and started peeing so much. I took him to the vet and he was hospitalized receiving fluids for 3 days. He’s back home now but his vet says I still have to take him back to the hospital everyday to receive fluids so his body doesn’t become dehydrated. I’m doing everything I can to help extend his lifeline. Changing his whole entire diet to kidney care food, making sure he drinks enough water, I’ve already spent so much money just for his treatment fees. I don’t exactly know what stage he’s in right now but I hope he’ll feel better and get his appetite back soon. And I hope that I can help him live a normal life for as long as possible. This video was very helpful, thank you. I’m going to fight and so will my cat, we’re not losing hope just yet!

Thank you so much for this topic. My 17yr.old cat has been diagnosed with 1st degree kidney failure. 😢😊😢😢😊

I lost my beautiful boy to this he was very ill and was told he couldn’t be saved one of his kidneys was bigger then the other and he was acting really odd he wasn’t being vocal like he normally was he wasn’t eating or drinking and he went and hid in the bath so when I noticed he was ill I took him to vets and he was put down worst day of my life I miss him every day

My cat died from kidney disease and probably liver damage as a result. I'm so angry at the vet who diagnosed her. She spent little time talking to me and seemed more interested in making outrageous amounts of money through testing. 550 dollars out of pocket for the initial tests (not including an initial visit of maybe 30 minutes). which did not diagnose anything that wasn't obvious from the huge water intake that was occurring daily. The vet then wanted to do further testing that would take little time but the cost was a minimum of 700 out of pocket due to not having insurance. When the vet initially saw her she recommended a diet specifically designed for kidney disease but briefly mentioned it as if we had all the time in the world to decide. She also pressed on her throat to apparently determine any thyroid condition and obviously pressed too hard as the poor baby was choking from the pressure. I was livid but didn't show my anger. It seems to me that an experienced vet would know before that she was asserting too much pressure. This was the sweetest Persian cat I named precious. I am so angry for not getting insurance before this happened. I don't know how much early diagnosis could have helped but I do know I could have made things more manageable and prevented other problems that often occur such as liver damage. I want to strangle the vet for the little concern she gave in not insisting on a change of diet immediately and her apparent interest in making alot of money with tests that I simply could not afford out of pocket. The bottom line is that I'm devastated for not becoming more informed years earlier and obtaining the insurance although that in itself is not cheap.. I then could have got regular checkups for her that could have caught the kidney disease when it was much more manageable.. It's been 3 months since her passing and I find myself still crying though not as often. I cried for 16 days straight initially and now I'm just depressed more often than not knowing I can never bring her back or do things I should have done years earlier. I would never have another cat again unless I did everything to give it the best life possible.

Two of my cats Baffy and Cookie had CKD which was diagnosed around 13 and 14 years old. Sometimes it is genetic too. Baffy was a Persian kitty and I think it is fairly common in this specific breed. Cookie was a Siamese kitty. They both got along very well. Baffy was so laid back, passive, and docile. Cookie was fairly chill (10 years younger) when we adopted her. She had been through so much trauma as an abandoned kitty living outside for a year and a half before I was able to rescue her. I miss both of them so much! Baffy lived to 15 and a half. Cookie lived to nearly 16 years old. With Cookie, I had a water fountain. She also had the sub-q fluids but it was too expensive to continue. No pet insurance and awful financial situation. The characteristics you described above were in both of my cats. They were both on prescription KD diets and Cookie was on medication for high blood pressure as well. Vita on the other hand, had struvite crystals. She is 14 and a half. She seems to be better now. No more urine accidents. I had kept her on a wet food only diet, but she stopped eating much and so I tried the kibble again. Open Farm Pet wild caught salmon kibble is already good for the kidneys but the ingredients are not strong enough to dissolve the struvite crystals so I add about 1/4 to 1/2 a spoon of Cranimals, DAILY! It is a very small portion of kibble I give her. I also give her up to 3 cans per day of wet food (she only eats small portions of each can) along with Churu tubes. She is a very efficient water drinker! No accidents! Peeing normally. She is squatting when she pees and there are chunks of urine in the clumping clay litter.

My baby Peanut have this and praying he will survive this 🥺🥺🥺 He is only 8 years old.

Thank you for this. I wish I had found this months ago. Our problem is we have twelve cats from 5 to 16 years old. We have pancreatic and CKD kids along with young healthy cats. It is so hard to balance the diets for all of them.

We have our cat on Royal Canin renal E. The ingredients are horrible. Cat likes it but I feel so bad to give her this. This vet recommended Hills. We currently had all three Cats on ZIWI which they love. I’m so confused by everything I read online.

Great video BUT why the heck don’t vets just do a full blood test and SDMA as routine? Why do we have to beg for full test. My cat had high numbers of BUN and CREA and was drinking like crazy and vet told me she was ok. It took another year before she stopped eating and drinking and I got her full blood test. SDMA came after she was on an IV.

Great video! My 13 year old cat recently had a blood test that showed she has some kidney failure and will have ckd in the next 2 years. I would love if you could do videos on IBD and feline asthma.

I’ve had my two cats since 2009, so they’re both 14. They’re sisters and one is basically a kitten- she tots around all ditsy and is very very healthy, however my other cat is very fragile and she’s lost a lot of weight whilst being on thyronorm. We’ve been told she has kidney failure 😭. I lost my dog last week too who would’ve been 14 two days ago.

Very informative. Thank you. We are giving subcutaneous fluids at home.

My cat just got diagnosed with ckd and there's not much the vets can do here in our area in the Philippines. She's been fighting since last year when she was diagnosed with pancreatitis and now this too. She deserved more years I just hope we got through this.

I'm about to watch this, but my thoughts are we should start feeding our cats early to protect them from CKD, as so many of our loved kitties die from this disease.

I am going through this with my kitty right now. He is a black 3 year old shorthair. The only symptom he had was blindnesses. That had gone on for some time but because he had no other symptoms I thought he was born blind. Until a week and a half ago. He fell trying to jump on the bed. I thought he sprained his leg so I brought him to the vet and the bloodwork showed his toxins were through the roof. The vet did fluid therapy for the past week. I was able to take my cat home but he’s still not himself. I’m really worried. My cat seems to recover and then lose energy again. This has been going on for about a week. My vet suspects my cat has been nibbling on toxic house plants but when I look back to when he was a tiny kitten up until now- he has always had diarrhea. So I’m wondering if he was born with a kidney issue or ate poison as a kitten. Last I would like to add that my vet has prescribed my cat metronidazole. When I googled this I learned it is an antibiotic. How does this help an anemic cat with kidney and liver failure? Any one with comments or can help please leave a reply. Thanks for your video! It was really encouraging for me

Dr. Sarah, my 16 yr old kitty with CKD is doing really well with a variety of kidney diet foods, inc.. Hill’s paté, stew, Royal Canin kibbles in moderation, Forza-10 renal wet food and we just started using Purina’s prescription kidney diet and so far, so good.I alternate them daily so he doesn’t get tired of them and it seems to keep him interested. He eats well but I’d like to see him eat a bit more. I have read and heard that omega fish oils are good for CKD cats so tonight I squeezed some from one of my own fish oil capsules onto his remaining dinner and mixed it in a little. He lapped up the rest of the food in his dish which he had previously walked away from. Is this a good idea for getting the omegas into him and also as a flavor enhancer/topping for his food?