I can't tell you all how much I appreciate you sharing your stories with me--this morning I had a major anxiety attack worrying over the situation and felt very alone--I no longer feel that way so thank you.

Really great advice here and I'm encouraged to read, SAB, that your cat lived another 2.5 years on fluids--that is my dream for our girl provided her quality of life is good.

GoT, you always manage to make me laugh. We tried the KD food, too, but she wouldn't eat it either so instead of seeing her starve to death we feed her whatever she wants to eat--she is one spoiled kitty right now.

I feel your pain but I also feel compelled to ask you to do a serious heart-wrenching assessment. Is this animal suffering in any way whatsoever? Are you prepared to let the animal go in order to prevent any suffering (I KNOW it isn't easy..I've been at this juncture MANY times).

I would NOT rely on a pet sitter to simply stop in; I would try to find someone who will STAY in.

Have you thought about what you will do if the sitter calls you on your trip and the animal is in a true life/death crisis (oh, yes it very well CAN happen) and do you have a plan for such an event?

Intrepid, Feline Renal Failure is the number two killer of cats behind Leukemia and it is a very managable disease and many cats live very good lives while dealing with FRF.

Cats do not suffer and it is a matter of managing your cats water table.

Cats are diagnosed when their active kidney function is reduced to about 25% which is still very good kidney function.

It is much more of an ordeal for the owner than for the cat.

While I know you are trying to help, you are verbalizing AnnMarie's biggest fear.

That said, most have a very solid backup plan. My sitter has full medical permision to make decisions without my input.

Hi AnnMarie_C,

I want to thank you so much for posting this message because I am now dealing with the exact same dilemma.

My 18-year-old precious cat was diagnosed in Dec 04 with renal failure, but it wasn't bad. This week, however, I'll be starting those sub-q waters (what a difference it makes, eh?), and the vet said I'll probably have about a year with her.

I had decided to cancel my June trip, but now I may not. Your post has generated some great replies, and I have some good ideas from them. I'll try to find a vet tech to work as a cat-sitter, and I'll see if I can convince someone to stay overnight at my house.

Whatever happens in my case, I do want to extend my best wishes for you and your cat. I hope you find a solution that brings peace to you and comfort to your cat. I also want to thank you for sharing and for giving others like me some good ideas.

Best of luck!

s

I empathize with your sitution. We were faced with a similar choice several years ago. In the end, we did decide to go as it was a 2 week trip with a fair amount of money invested. However, it was an agonizing decision. The deciding factor was that our pet (dog in this case) was able to stay with family who took wonderful care of him and were willing to take him to his vet appointments.

I agree with the others who suggested someone to stay with your cat. I think it will give you as much peace of mind as possible.

Regarding petsitters.com--when I try to go to the site, all I get is an article that has nothing to do with pets.

Sorry, my mistake, it should be petsit.com

Intrepid1, I understand and appreciate your message. Thanks, GoT, for replying better than I could have. Just to clarify, I am a huge animal lover but would never keep an animal alive for my sake. When the cat was diagnosed in September I did ask the vet how we would know when it's time to put her down and was told when she stops eating and stops socializing--she continues to do both. We've used the same pet sitter for years and am toying with changing to a vet tech but think the cat may be better off with what and who is familiar. When DH and I decided to leave the cat for a few days (which seemed like a good idea two months ago!) I talked with our sitter and we did come up with a "what if" plan.

I'm glad this post is helping others and I am, as always, impressed and grateful for the wealth of information and ideas.

God love you, AnnMarie...your response makes me feel a lot better about your loved one.

I left my 17 year old cat that was sick to spend a month in Rome for a college class. I left her w/ my boyfriend, the vet said it would be too stressful for her to be boarded at the vet and I know it was stressful for her to stay with my boyfriend, but I had no choice.
She died the day before I came home...talk about heartbreak and guilt.
My boyfriend had taken her to the vet a few days before when he saw she was in bad shape, he called and said the vet thought it best to put her to sleep asap. I have a cat now and I just can't leave him alone except for a few hours at a time, which makes travel difficult to say the least!

Go Travel, what a brillant idea!! I had just finished giving my 17 y.o. kitty her every-other-day sub-q fluids when I read your post about "tuna juice". I opened up the only can of tuna I had in the pantry (albacore-does it matter?) and she greedily lapped up at least 1/3 cup juice/water. I put the left-over tuna in the refrigerator in a plastic container with additional water in hopes she'll want more tomorrow. She's so thin-7lbs.-I gladly feed her anything (protein) she'll eat except turkey. For some reason, turkey makes her vomit.

We've been on this program for over a year now. Checking her BUN and Creatinine every month and purchasing 2 bags of lactated ringers which we leave hanging from the pot rack in the kitchen. We've gotten so use to it now, we forget to take it down when we have company. It's gotten a few laughs--someone once asked if we used it for hangovers!

Her quality of life still seems good though I worry about her weight and that her coat looks dull. Who knows, maybe the tuna will help

my cat loved the tuna water too, but you have to be a little careful. Its really high in sodium. I usually diluted it with water, about 1/2 and 1/2. The cat would drink all the tuna flavored water.

Anne Marie, good luck to you. We went through this when my dear kitty had liver disease. we went away for 10 days. I knew boarding him elsewhere was out of the question, it would have been MUCH worse to take him out of his home. I couldn't get someone to stay in our house either. So I had a petsitter come in once a day, and I had another firend stop by once a day or so. I have to admit, I worried my whole vacation, and it did put a little bit of a damper on it. But he did fine. they really are independent little creatures, even when they are sick.

I would cancel my trip and stay with the cat.

I cannot imagine, if you're going to go, not leaving the cat in your home...can you?

If you don't cancel your trip, a twice-a-day visit should suffice, if you're comfortable with that.

If you're not...cancel the trip.

AnnMarie--
I completely understand your pain. I hate leaving our cats when they're healthy and it's that much more difficult when they already have something going on.

I don't know if this is feasible, but could you have your normal pet sitter come in 1x/day and someone from your vet's come in another time each day?? That way you're getting a familiar face and someone more expert. Because even my sweet laid-back kitten stresses out when he's at the vet, that wouldn't be my first choice.

No matter who watches your baby, make sure they pay attention to how much she's eating. Obviously not eating is bad but even eating less can affect a cat's health because their livers are so sensitive. I know--we just went through this last summer.

Good luck with this. It's an agonizing choice with no clear-cut answers.
OWJ

Prettylake, that is too funny leaving the ringers hanging in the kitchen. We hang hers in the laundry room. We heat the water, though, before giving it to her as suggested by the vet--do you do that, too? How long have you been giving your kitty fluids?

OWJ, djk, china_cat, I agree with you that familiar faces and environment are the way to go at this point.

I can fully understand what you are going thru. Our 17+ year old cat died this past Monday. Kidney failure, over the past 6 months she had been to the vets many times. We were giving her fluids by injection twice a day for many weeks and in addition she was on special food and meds the vet was providing. From a healthy 11 lbs alley cat to nothing but skin and bones, 5 lbs. Yes she was a Alley Cat, a colony cat out of the Miami area, thats where she adopted us.

I'm so sorry for your loss RedRock!

Glad that helped for your PrettyLake!

I didn't care what Fred The Cat ate or drank as long as he was eating and drinking and he LOVED the tuna juice.

As long as it was tuna packed in water he didn't care.

He would not drink the juice if it was cold so I could not put it in the fridge.

It did help keep him healthy and alive for over 2 1/2 years so I'm glad.

The seagulls ate a lot of tuna those 2 1/2 years!

Forgot to add that yes, PrettyLake, the tuna juice will make her coat look better! Give it a couple of days.

Red Rock, so sorry to hear about the loss of your kitty earlier this week. "Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, loves leaves a memory no one can steal." I don't remember where I read that quote or who to attribute it to but I looked at it often last year when we had to put our beloved Poodle down.

Go Travel, again thank you so much for your suggestion. Already this morning Savannah, my kitty, has had more diluted tuna juice, a little tuna and then I tried some homemade chicken soup! She lapped up the broth and ate a little of the meat and what she left behind my 16 y.o. kitty polished off! I'm heading to the store for more tuna and I think I'm going to buy a bottle of clam juice and start keeping stuff like that around to encourage all three cats (also a 14 y.o) to drink more. I'll let you know the next time we go to the vet if her BUN/Creatinine has improved.

AnnMarie, I'd love to know how to warm the lactated ringers b/c she "twiches" when the fluids first go in but we only give her 150 cc at a time and I think the bag has about 1000 cc. This site is truly amazing--the things I learn here.

RedRock, I am so sorry for the recent loss of your cat.