Our Journey With Kidney Disease

Beetlejuice was diagnosed with stage 2 kidney disease in June of 2018. We want to document his life, raise awareness, journal for therapy, and help those who may be suffering from the same thing. Welcome to our journey.

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Life update: Beetlejuice has pooped! Hooray! But he has also taken to kicking all the litter out of the box. Rudy and I think he’s acting out. He’s officially done with his antibiotic but is still acting odd. He’s been getting in fights with Burton and they’ve been growling at each other. This is odd because they have always been best buddies. Hoping these are just a few hurdles to jump and that all will be back to “normal” soon.

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My derpy boy 💕🐱

[beetlejuicetheblackcat]

Care and Medication

Currently Beetlejuice is on 5 medications.  Prozac for his anxiety, which he has been on for years now, a prescription stool softener for his constipation which he will now be on for life, an antibiotic for his fever, anti-nausea so he will be able to keep food down, and an appetite stimulant so he’ll actually eat. I’ve been trying to find him a high quality wet food that he’ll enjoy eating, but so far he has been really difficult about giving up dry food.  I can’t really get him to eat wet (other than by completely taking away dry) and I don’t want to starve him so I’m kind of in a lousy situation. He has always been a high maintenance kitty but the reality of this new care is wild.  Administering 5 medications every night is tiresome, and constantly trying to get him to eat wet food is getting really exhausting too. And then there’s the reality of the situation we’re in.  My sweet boy is sick, and he’s not going to get better.  Taking care of him is now feeling like a full time job.  I will always do all I can to make his life as fantastic as possible, but believe me, there are tough days.  I’ve been feeling really emotional about the situation.  A little too tired at the moment to detail all my feelings on the matter, so now it will suffice to say I’m just kind of a wreck.

[beetlejuicetheblackcat]

The Diagnosis

It began back in March or April when I noticed that Beetlejuice was becoming greasy, with dandruff in his fur.  He had always been an impeccable groomer, so I feared that something was wrong.  I kept telling my boyfriend Rudy that I thought we should take him to the vet, but both he and my mom thought I was being a little paranoid.  I lost Kuma April 2017 to cancer and kidney failure so there was a valid reason to think I might be a little bit of a worrier when it came to Beetlejuice’s health. Eventually I decided it was seriously time to take him to the vet.  He went in, and all we found out was that he was constipated.  I figured that could definitely cause him to stop grooming.  The vet told me to purchase Miralax over the counter and give it to him every day in his wet food.  Both Beetlejuice and Burton prefer dry food, so this was a change to our routine.  It seemed to go okay at first, but then Beetlejuice had a weird, pink, chalky vomit that I’ve never seen him have before.  It reminded me of Kuma’s vomits when he was dying, so I became quite concerned.  I took him back to the vet.  They did blood work, a urinalysis, an ultrasound, and a few other tests. And then came the bad news.  Beetlejuice was still constipated, and now had a fever, but this wasn’t the worst of it.  He had stage 2 kidney disease.  This was honestly my worst fear.  I asked the vet what the prognosis was and she said she’s seen cats at his stage live 10 years and she’s seen cats at his stage live 6 months.  Half a year down the road, we need to do blood work again to see how fast it’s progressing. The vet said the best way to slow down kidney disease is to get more fluid into a kitty’s diet.  She suggested feeding him exclusively wet food with water poured over so he could lap it up.  To put it simply, this hasn’t been going well.  I’ll go into more detail on that in the next post where I list all of the care he now requires.  Also look out for a post on dealing with the reality of a terminally ill kitty.

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The Beginning

To begin the blog, I guess we should start from the day I brought Beetlejuice home and his journey to becoming the cat he is today. It was 2013, and I was living in a one bedroom apartment on my own with my black kitty, Kuma.  We honestly weren’t really looking for a new kitty.  I followed several pages on Facebook that show the pictures and profiles of animals in shelters that were about to be euthanized.  One day, a sweet little face caught my attention.  The kitty’s name was Beetlejuice.  I loved the cartoon when I was little, so it felt a little bit like fate that I would feel an attraction toward him.  I decided I’d give him a chance.  One problem, though. The shelter was in Texas, and Kuma and I lived in Nebraska.  This wasn’t the first time I adopted a kitty out of state, so I actually knew what steps I needed to take.  First, I had a rescue organization pull him the morning he was to be euthanized.  This process involves filling out applications for both the organization and the shelter to prove you’re a suitable cat owner.  So, after the applications were done, the process continued.  Once he was pulled, he needed a place to stay until I could come get him.  The rescue organization found a vet where I could board him.  I paid a lot of money for his stay, and all the vet techs fell in love with him.  Finally I convinced my mother to let me use her frequent flyer miles to go pick Beetlejuice up.  One Saturday, I spent the entire day flying to Texas and back to pick him up.  I was scared what would happen when I had to take him out of his carrier to go through security, but he was on a sedative and it went very well.  He was very purry and lovable during the journey. Eventually I got him home and that’s when a few problems began.  For one, he was aggressive toward Kuma.  He acted completely wild, like a feral cat.  My mom and I took him to one vet who claimed to be a behaviorist, and he told us to put Beetlejuice down or to take him to a farm because he would never be a “normal pet.”  We didn’t want to give up on him, though.  He stayed at my mom’s for awhile, and she did play therapy with him like Jackson Galaxy does on his show.  45 minutes every morning and night.  My mom’s dedication was amazing.  I can’t take the credit for turning his personality around because my mom was the one that invested the time.  She honestly performed a miracle, because Beetlejuice turned into a very endearing, yet still a little crazy cat.  Not perfect, but definitely worth having as a pet. Now I’ve had him for 5 years.  He was 2 when I got him.  Now he is 7 years old.  He stands on his hind legs and begs to be picked up, he follows me around the apartment where my boyfriend Rudy and I live, he gives nose bites to show affection, he meows for attention, and he is best friends with our other black kitty, Burton.  Our lives have been going very well, up until June of this year.  I’ll save that story for the next post.