Living With a Sick Cat – Sub Q Fluids at Home. Really?

I am a crazy cat lady. Before that, I was a crazy cat girl. Before that, I was a crazy cat kid, and you can go back until baby... When people ask me why I love cats so much, I never really know what to answer. In fact, I don’t really know myself. I just do love them.

Last year, on July 16, our beautiful girl Rikku was diagnosed with level 4 kidney failure and we decided to put her down the same day, because she was suffering so much. She was only 10 years-old. A magnificent ruddy Abyssinian girl. Her brother had died at the age of 3, in 2006, of Feline Leukemia, right after his vaccine for this very same illness. We stopped going to the vet at that moment. We then adopted a Bengal from a very bad breeder. He was almost 9 years-old when she died. Never went to the vet with him after his first vaccines.

Last November, we adopted two Oriental Shorthair (OSH). Our Bengal was shocked, at first, but they became friends relatively fast. All three were happy healthy cats, all playing together, until the kittens were neutered, at the end of December. One week after, the kittens stopped eating, they stopped playing, slept all the time. We were very worried. Until I realized that poor Bengal had not eaten for several days either. I was so busy looking out for the babies, I did not notice. I felt terrible for days. When we got him to the vet, he was bad. I thought he would never come back home. He stayed there five days. The news was bad until day 4. Then, he kept some food and ate on his own.

The diagnosis was a bit of a shock for me. We never really knew what he caught. We think the kittens brought a virus and they all got infected, but the Bengal, who never had a big appetite, could not get over it by himself. Anyway, we learned that our boy had a level two kidney failure, a heart murmur, and hypertension. I had seen NOTHING. Cats are so mysterious... But we had to come one month after to confirm the diagnosis and make a decision about the treatment.

One month after, we went to the vet again, with all three cats for vaccines and follow up. Bengal appetite was back and I thought he had put on some weight. He had not. But he looked happy and curious, so the vet (an amazing guy) was positive about it. Unfortunately, the kidney failure was still there, and not a wee better. He still had hypertension and a heart murmur, and we had noticed that he looked in pain, and some chronic back pain was added to the bill...

The treatment that was proposed was daily subcutaneous fluid injection (sub Q). To keep him hydrated, because his kidneys could not do the complete job anymore, we had to give him 40 mL every day. My husband wanted to try. I said “Fine, you do it”. He did it the first three days. Then he could not anymore, he was so nervous and hesitant that he hurt him. So it is on me now. I decided that 20 mL was enough, one syringe full, no mid refill. And he does not like it. He tolerates it, most of the time. Yesterday, he growled at me.

I truly love this cat. He is a real sweetheart. My 6 year-old son’s best friend. He loves that kid. So much! But I see how fast he went from acting like a kitten at 9 years-old to being an old, sick impatient cat at 9 years-old and 2 months. He does not play anymore. If he does, it lasts seconds. The kittens, he tolerates them, most of the time. But after 9:00 pm, after his evening nap, when his back hurts, he just wants to bite them, even if they are 10 feet from him, looking elsewhere.

I have already been further than I always said I would go for a cat. He takes his daily pill like a champ. He runs when he sees the bottle, but he swallows it like a pro. (The aby girl wanted to rip our eyes out every time. This is the main reason why we did not treat her. She would have gone through hell. It would have been selfish.) Also, he accepts his special food, even if it is the most horrible smell that my brain has ever processed.

Fortunately, he is still a lover. He comes on our lap to cuddle, and his fur is smooth again. He also touches us with his paw when he is on the island and we are close, just to say “Hi, I’m here. Pet me. Please”. The problem is that every day, I notice that he is not the cat he used to be, and it hurts. He spends his awaken time parked between the two sinks, waiting for a drop to fall. He eats, but does not put on the weight he lost when he had the virus. And I see that he is in pain when he grooms himself. I had not noticed his kidney problem, but now that we have a litter box in our bedroom (yeah... I went that far), I see how often he pees, and I wonder if his failure is worse, since I only give him half the fluids he needs, and I give myself him a break every Tuesday night, when my husband plays music... Am I killing him faster, of just giving him a little less shit?

On the opposite of my husband, I don’t mind the feeling of piercing his skin. I know he barely feels it. But every day, I get use to all this, and maybe one day, it will be too much for him, and I won’t see it, because it has become part of the routine. I am scared that I won’t realize when the time has come to think about letting him go. Maybe that he’ll stop welcoming me after work, or he’ll stop cuddling, or he won’t stare at the faucet...

Anyway, this post was supposed to explain how easy it was to sub Q a cat at home, but it turned differently... Sub Q is so easy in fact that it is not even disturbing. I would like to post a video sometime, but I haven’t made the decision yet.

To all those who read the full thing, thank you! You are welcomed to leave a comment.