For the last few months we've been dealing with knowing that the cats are peeing on things in the house. Especially Rick's hockey gear. For those of you who know Rick, know that he loves hockey more than he loves my cats. Almost more than me! We couldn't figure out which cat was peeing and were so frustrated. I was at my wit's end. I was trying to get rid of them, which was something I never thought I'd do. I figured they were acting out from lack of attention. I didn't know. I thought if they were in a loving home that they would stop peeing.
After getting back from our honeymoon, I picked Fry up and stopped dead in my tracks. He was skinny. This cat is not a skinny cat. He's not a light cat. I realized that he was sick. I knew he had been fed the whole time we were gone. I was a bit worried, but he seemed to be acting okay.
The next day after coming home from work I went to feed the cats. Fry was alive but not moving. He couldn't have cared less if I fed him or not. He just layed there looking at me. I moved the food closer to him and he moved away. Only he wasn't walking very well. I went to pet him and he meowed. He's not a cat that makes meow's when you pet him. I panicked. Starting bawling. Went through the phone book to find an emergency vet that would take him after hours. Finally found one, got a babysitter (Cruz was already in bed) and Rick took me and Fry to the vet. There was no way I could drive. The vets were fantastic. They put Fry on an IV right aways, listened to everything I said and didn't make me feel better about being a bad kitty mommy... they said I wasn't a bad kitty mommy, but I sure felt like it.
Fry stayed overnight and the next day I consulted with the vet and she was pretty sure Fry had chronic renal failure, CRF...which is kidney failure. I allowed her to do all the tests she needed to do to figure out why he had this at such a young age. Normally cats who get this are old. Turns out Fry has malformed kidney's which would be from birth. This isn't something cats recover from, all you can do is make their life more comfortable.
After A LOT of crying, thinking and talking to Rick about it, we decided that if Fry was able to have a quality of life then we would do what we had to do for him. It wasn't the right time to put him down if he could still have a good life. I expected to have Fry around for at least another 10 years, not months to a year.
The treatment for Fry isn't easy. He has 2 pills a day he has to take as well as a powder added once a day to a special kidney disease diet which he doesn't like to eat. On top of cleaning up his vomit and pee every day (which isn't as much as I'm making it out to be) I have to give him an IV of 200ml of fluid once a day. This is my least favorite thing to do by far. Never thought I'd be able to give a needle, but here I am. Doing it every day. It's definitely not Fry's favorite thing either. I think it's helping though. Speaking of which... it's time to get working on that right now...
This is not Fry in all his glory. At the vet he had a catheter in his right paw, so they shaved a ring there. They also did an ultra sound so they shaved his tummy. Also for their IV's they shaved 2 spots on his neck. One big one and one small one. Poor, poor kitty.
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