Hi Jen, thanks for your post in my thread. My turn to return the favor!
My cat Jade lived to age 20 and is now at the RB. But, she was diagnosed with kidney failure 4 years earlier. My vet at that time didn't think she'd have that long after he diagnosed her. He prescribed so many things that I can't remember the name of but had to do with blood pressure and organs. She hated them and they were expensive. She didn't want to eat any of the low protein foods that my vet prescribed and ultimately started losing weight. He finally told me that feeding her whatever she wanted to eat would be better than not eating at all and at that time, he thought she didn't have long anyway. So, I went out and bought all her previous favourites, friskies wet food and fancy feast and she ate it up. She put the weight back on and looked good.
I also gave her fluids at home for the last 2 years of her life and it made such an incredible difference. I gave her 100cc's of lactated ringers once a week, sometimes twice and after the big hump on her back soaked into her within the hour, she was rejuvinated. She played and raced up and down the stairs, where the day before, she wasn't much ready for anything. I always put the needle between her shoulder blades and a few inches higher up towards her neck. Each week, I'd choose a place that was an inch or so away from the week before. I found that using a smaller 22 gauged needle (the plastic base was pink in colour) helped. The vet and tech told me to use a larger one because then it wouldn't take so long but she found it so uncomfortable. The smaller one took maybe 5 minutes longer but I set up a routine that she seemed to enjoy. Each time, I'd get everything set up in advance so she wouldn't see what I was up to. I'd hang the bag from a hook in the ceiling above my bed and get the new needle put on and then I'd get her and put her on the bed and start massaging her. I'd have the tv on for distraction (animal planet of course!) and then I'd get the needle in and keep massaging in different areas to create more distraction.
In her last year, I went up to 150 cc's or 200 if I could get her to sit still long enough for that much fluid. In the end, she ended up catching a respiratory illness from one of my other cats who had the herpes virus and because were were in the middle of moving into a new house, it was a very stressful enviroment and the virus which is normally dormant, flared up. By the time we got settled in our new home it was evident that Jade had come down with it as well and by then her immune system just wasn't up to fighting it. I was so sad to lose her but finally had to make the decision to have her put down.
But, that was 4 years after my vet told me she didn't have long so in my opinion, fluids are key and so is feeding whatever you can get into them, especially if they are not eager to eat specialized foods. Hope some of this helps. Please give beautiful Braveheart a hug for me. He really is so brave.
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