The Amazing Recovering Geriatric Feline


I guess this provides the answer to that woman who wondered why I didn't just put Samantha to sleep!

Last month I wrote about my encounter with a woman who wondered why I bothered to give my 17-year-old cat Samantha medications and sub-cutaneous fluid treatments at home.

Samantha has Chronic Renal Failure (CRF) an ailment that most cats get if they live long enough (sort of like men and prostate cancer.) She was first diagnosed almost 2 years ago (right after her sister had died from Feline Lymphoma.) Needless to say I was pretty crushed that I had just lost one cat, and ti seemed like the second had some dread, irreversible disease that would kill her too.

I completely credit my vet, Dr. Eversman at the Sara Creek Vet Clinic in San Jose, for calming me down and explaining that there were definite steps we could take, and making them all sound perfectly reasonable.

So, what are those steps? Well, 2 of them are literally nothing more than putting 2 medicines in her food...one for her arthritis and one a nutritional supplement that is supposed to stave off anemia among other things.

The big step, though, and the one this unnamed, unsympathetic woman couldn't fathom is that I give Samantha sub-cutaneous fluids at home. Yes, I stick her with a needle (doesn't have to be in a vein, thank goodness, just under her skin) and let anywhere between 100 and 150 ccs of fluids drip in. It takes between 3-5 minutes.

Why is this important? Well, because her kidneys are no longer as efficient in filtering and eliminating toxins she can no longer drink enough water to
keep up. Giving her these fluids (and watering down her food) helps her ingest more fluids. Yes, she pees quite a bit. Why bother? Because beyond helping her kidneys out...which is good from a life-extending point of view, it also helps her feel better. My doctor explained it as helping to prevent her from being dehydrated, and therefore always feeling slightly hungover.

I'm perfectly willing to grant you that being stuck with the needle probably hurts in that moment...although cats do have much tougher skin than you or I. But I can also attest that once she's sitting there with the fluids dripping in, and we're hanging out waiting, most of the time she ends up purring. Once we got past the first few days where it was traumatic for us both, we've now got it down to a routine that's both quick and calm.

Over the last two years I've taken her in every three months or so to get blood drawn and tested (that's more traumatic than the fluids...I feel worse about those regular vet trips.) And as her numbers fluctuated we would play round with how much fluids to give, and whether to do it every day or every other day.

We've settled on 100ccs every day, and the results from this last trip to the vet were stellar. All but one of her values is within the normal range. Her CREAT number (the major number to watch for) is down to its lowest level since before we started giving her fluids at all! The best results in about 2 years.

Obviously I'm going back in 3 months...and I certainly hope it's no fluke. But the fact is that Samantha look healthy, and is old, but happy. And she still sleeps on my pillow every night...no matter how many times I stick her with that needle.

So there! And here she is! (Yes, those are the S.O.'s manly arms at the keyboard...he prefers anonymity.


Posted: Sun - April 24, 2005 at 09:36 AM       EmailFeedback

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