Our black male cat Niko

[rhialto]

Our black male cat Niko suffered from bad kidneys. He was already some unknown age, estimated at least 10 years.

Some weeks ago, he had less appetite during the day and during "treat play" (where we throw little treats to the kitties and they run and jump after them). In the weekend, he started to throw up almost everything he ate. During the week this didn't improve, despite the stomach calming stuff we were giving him. Niko kept trying to eat and drink though, but he got weaker and weaker. And despite everything he kept being well-behaved and kept using the litterbox.

All the while it was not an option to bring him to the vet. He never liked being approached with hands (and that is mildly put) and he still walked away from that. We remember the sheer fright and stress his one and only vet visit caused him. We didn't want to do that to him again, for questionable gains. Maybe he might live another 6 months after a drastic treatment, but the kidney problems would inevitably return.

And so we also couldn't even comfort him by stroking him. That was so sad...

So, after the next weekend he fell down while walking (probably had his heart attack) and was unconscious. We put him as comfortable as possible on a blanket and (how cynical) finally could comfortingly stroke him (at least we hoped that it comforted him, that it was only his fear of hands that played a role, not an active dislike of touch).

He died during the night while he was next to my bed.

Lotta, in the mean time, hasn't shown any sign of missing him. We already thought they weren't really a pair and this strengthens our doubts.

Niko and Lotta's dating page at the animal shelter

Comments

[moem]

Poor Niko! You have my heartfely sympathy.

[rhialto]

Thank you. It is so sad, after Niko had so much improved from his scared self to being much more relaxed in many situations where Lotta is still running away. It was clear he was the smarter cat of the two...

[moem]

On the other hand, at least he had a chance to enjoy life a bit, by being more relaxed.

I just now noticed my typo... heartfely. Of course I meant heartfeline.

[ludy]

I'm so sorry

sympathies

[spz]

Been there, hurts like hell the second and third time too.

One gains info, though:
There's not a terrific lot a vet can do{*} besides give fluids subcutaneously and/or intravenously, depending on how bad it is. That helps to flush the kidneys and may stabilize the cat for a while, but it repairs nothing, the issue will reoccur rather sooner than later. Some people who have very trusting cats learn to give them fluids subcutaneously and buy them another year or two; that's not an option with a cat you can't even pet.

Nothing as yet heals a damaged kidney; renal diet can delay the illness getting worse for years, that's the best one can do. My current cats have been on a renal diet for 3 years now.

{*} there's the theoretical possibility of a kidney transplant from a healthy cat; afaik vets consider that unethical

Re: sympathies

[rhialto]

Yes, that is why we considered the stress of going to the vet too much for the to be expected results.
Niko had been on renal food the whole time with us. He ate (most of) it happily (and Lotta too, she eats pretty much anything). The "Niko wird in unserer Tierheim-Praxis lebenslang kostenlos auf XYZ behandelt" on the shelter page is basically code for "this cat has problems with XYZ". Too bad that they are so far outside the city that going there isn't terribly practical.

Lotta meanwhile shows renewed progress in running away from "scary situations" less. It seems to be remarkably connected to Niko no longer being there.