Cat euthanasia. Kidneys shut down

Question

My beautiful cat Kisses was with me for 10 years. She was probably 12ish. I found her outside when she was a young adult.

On Monday she was diagnosed with renal disease. She had thrown up 20 times the night before I took her to the vet. They ran lab tests and gave IV fluid for 3 days. Her creatinine levels and BUN both went down and she started to eat very small amounts but it was at least something. I gave subcutaneous fluids at home for 2 days along with a plethora of medications.

Yesterday, not even a week after diagnosis, she didn't eat or drink at all. She hid under the bed and didn't move much. I was going to take her to the vet once they opened. I kept checking on her and she seemed okay, still hiding under the bed, but not in distress. Then 30 minutes before I went to take her to the vet I went to check on her again. She had moved to a dark corner in the closet. She was breathing fast. 70-120x a minute. She barely had any strength but would stand if I made her and take a few steps and lay down.

I rushed her to the vet before they even opened. Her body temp was 97.1. The vet (of 36 years) recommended euthanasia. She thinks maybe her heart was failing. I told her I'd do anything to save her. She said I could take her to a 24 hr emergency vet and have mute testing but she thought anything I would do was futile. I made the roughest decision in my life to let her go peacefully.

Has anyone ever had this experience with a cat going so fast? I mean she was healthy and then diagnosed with Chronic Kidney Disease and then less than a week she was in real bad shape. Did I make the right decision? I feel terrible guilt. She is my soulmate.

Answer 1

From what I hear, it's typical for a cat with kidney disease to have their health go critical very suddenly, and when that happens, then it is definitely time. With a human, you could put them on dialysis, or give them a kidney transplant, but these are not available for cats, nor do I think they would be very good treatment options for them if we could do that, because cats are not sentient enough to cooperate with such treatments.

For what it is worth, I also had a cat that had the beginnings of kidney disease, but it was stable, for years and years. But then all of sudden, the kidney disease went critical, and in a couple days she went from normal to being unable to move. We, of course, had to euthanize her too.

I think you made the right decision, and you should not feel guilty about it. There is only so much you can do, because kidney disease is always eventually terminal. It sounds like it was, unfortunately, just her time.

I am very sorry for your loss.