Tasha: A Cat for the Record Books

Sick cats have an edge over sick people – they have no concept of illness. Life after a major medical diagnosis continues just as it did before. They don’t get depressed or overwhelmed by the bad news -- they just keep being a cat – eating, sleeping, playing and cuddling – at least until their illness physically overtakes them. We took Tasha into our Older Cat Program in 2001 when she was 10 years old. Her story up to that point was like many of the earlier ones we’ve presented. She was rescued from the outdoors as a kitten, and then relinquished when her guardian’s 8-month-old baby developed allergies – becoming another good but homeless cat. Tasha was thin but looked healthy and had no veterinary records to tell us otherwise – she hadn’t seen a vet in over 5 years.

During our intake process, all new cats were given thorough physical exams including the standard geriatric blood panel used to pick up signs of kidney or thyroid disease (as well as a host of other maladies) that often afflict older cats. And sure enough -- with Tasha-- the testing was useful as it showed advanced kidney disease. (By the time a cat’s blood work shows this, at least 75% of kidney function is gone and that’s about how much excess kidney value a cat has.)

Because Tasha was still “young” in terms of having kidney problems -- and because her right kidney felt very abnormal (lumpy-bumpy) -- we tested for polycystic kidney disease and the test was positive. The meant that Tasha’s kidney disease was congenital -- developing almost from birth – slowly but surely losing function as the kidneys turned to scar tissue.

Tasha had become a master of utilizing her diminished kidney capacity over a long period of time. But how much longer she could cope was the question – and we were told at most 6-12 months – with supportive SQ fluids and medications. Her blood work seemed to affirm this as each time we did follow-ups, the kidney values worsened.

We decided to remove her from the cat farm for hospice care in our home-based shelter where we could compassionately see her through these final months of life. Well … that was in August 2002 and almost 7 years later we’re still providing her supportive care – she gets SQ fluids every other day. Apparently we forgot to tell her she was dying so she continues to live a comfortable life using the fluids to compensate for her own kidneys’ shortcomings. How much longer we’ll enjoy her company is not a question we ask any longer – but we are planning to contact the Guinness Book of World Records when she passes – she may well live longer on fluid therapy than any other kidney-failure cat!