If you read the post about my babies, you know that Lilly has feline kidney disease. This is a horrible disease. Unfortunately, it is very common in cats. There are a lot of posts and articles on the web about cats and kidney disease, so I won’t repeat the symptoms, diagnosis and treatment here.

Lilly’s journey with kidney disease started at a young age. I got her when she was three and not long after that, she was diagnosed with kidney disease. My ex and I tried to give her subq fluids, but she fought us and he was squeamish about the needles and holding her down. Eventually, she stabilized.

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13 years later, the disease has reared it’s ugly head. I’d forgotten about the early diagnosis and was not watching for the signs. Early August, I took her to my vet because she had been throwing up. Her blood work came back as kidney disease. She spent a day on IV fluids and seemed to bounce back. I was trying to get her to eat. I hadn’t been watching her weight. She’s always been a tiny little girl. But she had lost 5% of her body weight.

I ordered a scale so I could track her weight better than just eyeballing it and started researching the best food for cats with kidney disease on the internet. She seemed to be doing ok until about 2 weeks ago. One morning she was very lethargic, vomiting, and diarrhea. I made an emergency call to the vet. Her numbers were way up. She spent the weekend on IV fluids. Her numbers were getting better by Sunday morning and we were hopeful. Then Sunday evening the numbers went up again.

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I brought her home Monday, August 31st. I had medications to help her feel more comfortable, subq fluids, and an appointment with my vet for the next Thursday to take her numbers again. The prognosis for my baby was not good.

Before Covid lockdown and working from home, every morning I would say a little prayer for my babies as I left for work. “God, please watch over my babies. Help me make the right decisions for them so they can live healthy, happy lives. Reach down your healing hand and bless them Lord. Thank you for letting me care for them.”

Now, I found myself praying now for a miracle; then, praying strength to make the right decision. But most of all, I prayed for Lilly to not suffer and to let me know when the time was right for the decision. I cry every day over the set backs and take joy in the improvements.

This morning, Lilly was in the bedroom ready for her breakfast! A miracle! She has not thrown up since I brought her home. I’ve been measuring how much she eats and this morning she ate almost 1 full ounce in a sitting! A few hours later, she ate 1/2 teaspoon of Tomlyn. She was active, out and about, and almost like her old self, walking with her tail and head up!

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For the past week, she’s been feeling better, enough to give me a hard time with the Subq fluids. So, I’ve been taking her to the vet for fluids. It’s been two weeks and the emergency vet had given me B12 shots for her to take every 2 weeks. So I took the shots to the tech today and asked her to administer.

Good days, bad days. At 5 PM, she vomited for the first time in two weeks. I’m heart broken that maybe her improvement was not as pronounced as it appeared this morning. Another voice says it was the B12 shot. Honestly, I don’t know. She seems fine now. As long as she acts as if she wants to continue on, I’m going to do whatever I can. However, I know it is not in my hands. Today, my prayer is that God helps me make the right decisions for her so she can live a happy life, as healthy as a kitty can be with kidney disease. In my heart of hearts, I’m still praying for a miracle.

If you read this, please say a prayer for Lilly.