((((Hugs to you both))). Check this list. Look at the phosphorus %. You want a low as possible. This is the dry food list and the Hills 11+ has a fairly low phosphorus. There is also a wet food list on this site also. Wet is better, but they have to eat. Do you have one of those water fountains?

https://www.felinecrf.org/dry_food_usa.htm

I have this fountain and he loves it. It is one of the first that came out. He drinks where it comes out at the top of the waterfall.

https://www.amazon.com/PetSafe-Drinkwell-Platinum-Fountain-Drinking/dp/B000L3XYZ4/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?crid=7NUAZLMP6M6C&keywords=cat+water+fountain&qid=1550867100&s=gateway&sprefix=cat+water+%2Caps%2C172&sr=8-2-spons&psc=1

Maybe she is snuggling because she's cold due to loss of body fat. Put a heating pad on the warm setting for her. One of our cats sits on the heat vent a lot.

Oh ya, I've been through that list. Problem is she is very finicky and won't eat what's good for her. I think I've tried 20-30 different kinds of canned food both prescription and non-prescription that are low is phosphorus as well as several kidney friendly dry foods. I did get her to eat some fancy feast but she always barfed it up so that ended that. I posted in another thread that I could no longer bring myself to try to force her to eat the stuff she refused because she'd just sit there and sadly look up at me plus she wasn't eating at all then.

Maybe I need to find the Fussie Cat brand.....

Yes, maybe that's it - warmth because she's so thin. My other two cats snuggle with each other but she keeps to herself. When I had my other kidney cat I bought him a nice little heated bed (kind of like a heating pad). He went right into it and promptly used it as a litter box. I don't think she'd do that but she likes to be on the bed anyway so maybe I will look into a heating pad. We can use it for our aging, aching human bodies when she's done with it....

Bless your senior baby. And you too, because I know how hard it is watching them as they become frail. I have two 15-year olds, and they've really slowed down just over the past year. They both LOVE their heated beds. I've never tried a regular heating pad with kitties (I think I must have the "stun-heat" variety, because they get really hot), but if you have one that you can set to a low, gentle warmth, it might be worth a try.

3katz4me, I don't know why they keep saying Fancy Feast is good for kidney cats, Mine barfs it up right away and always has, even before we knew he was sick. The dry, over the counter Hills Mature 11+ was staying down well. He is now on Purina Pro Plan DM Selects can for diabetes.

We have an elderly cat who is quite thin now. He's in good health otherwise, but animals do tend to lose body fat when they get older. He likes to lie on the heating vents. He used to live exclusively outdoors and we had a heating pad on his bed for him in the garage. Since he's gotten so thin, and he can't stand up to the other neighborhood cats, we've kept him inside and as I mentioned, he likes to lie on the heating vents (he won't use a bed indoors).

Every morning he insists on going out to the garage-he'll do his 'patrol' then come back in to lie down on a vent. He sleeps a lot these days, but he's still got his spryness, despite being so thin. We feed him some high calorie paste in addition to his wet food (he can no longer eat dry food as he's missing too many teeth). He's an ornery old guy, reminds me of an old man who shouts at kids to get off his lawn.

Hugs to you and your kitty. 19 is a very impressive age for a cat.

Yes. When I had company my cat would hide, eating and using the litter box in stealth mode. If company stayed overnight it would be a couple of days before kitty was spotted. In her last year she surprised us by joining us in the family room one evening and laying down on my DIL while she was stretched out on the sofa under a blanket. This change continued as she declined in health.

Hanna lived with kidney disease for about 5 years. The last few years of her life she went from pretty much ignoring dh to wanting to sit on his lap whenever he came into his office/her room. We were fortunate she ate her renal diet (with occasional treats) and didn't require subq fluids. At almost 19 she had a stroke and we had to let her go.

If I were you I'd let your cat eat whatever she pleases.

Our 18 year old cat with kidney failure also turned into an extreme lap cat at the end. This lasted maybe a month or so. Our vet said she would probably withdraw at some point, and then we would know it was really the end. The vet was right. After weeks of lap-cat neediness she withdrew and spent days in her carrier. She wouldn't eat. We opted not to do the fluids and to put her down peacefully. I like to think of the lap cat phase as her wanting to max out her remaining time with us, but who knows?

Very interesting that others had the lap cat phase. With my anthropomorphic mind I was thinking she knows her time is limited and she wants to spend it close to her people. I think at her age and with her demeanor I also won't put her through the subQ ordeal. Our other subQ cat was 17 when we started that and he had an acute episode when he was otherwise healthy. This cat has had more of a gradual decline. I always hope they will just suddenly die peacefully on their own at this stage of life but it never turns out that way.

DH is not entirely in favor of euthanasia for the pets. Two have died on their own and two have had dr kevorkian. I'm not sure more than one would have had kevorkian had DH not been on an extended out of town assignment at the time of the second. I would like the vet to just give me some pain meds I could give them to keep them at peace until they die at home on their own.

That's kind of what I did last time when DH didn't want to euthanize the cat. I had leftover liquid pain meds from a different cat surgery and I squirted it under the tongue regularly. He was pretty much comatose any way but DH kept him on a pillow next to him on the sofa each night. At night we put him in a basket by a heat duct in a bathroom so he had his own peaceful space away from the other cats. His last good months were spent primarily laying in sun or on the heat register so we thought this was a good way to go. One morning when we came to check on him he had passed on in his basket.

It is so very hard to know with absolute certainty how and when to let them go. Sometimes the path is quite clear and seems the only kindness; other times it's not as evident. Whatever you choose for your baby as she walks closer to the end, I wish you great peace.

If available in your area I highly recommend home euthanasia. We've done that for all of our cats except one. Artie got ill so quickly that I had to take him to the vet's where the decision to let him go was made the next day. As painful as letting go is, it was pure torture doing it away from the comfort of home.

Animals are smarter than people think. I've had several renal kitties. One lived to 21. To me there are 3 possible reasons for the lap phase: warmth, closer to her people, or coming to the brains-in-the-bunch for help.

As I've said elsewhere, I don't think the renal diets make for a life worth living. Wet food will help - whatever kitty will eat. A potassium supplement will help. There are powders that are palatable. Miralax is great for the constipation. Renal cats have tremendously acid tummies, which can cause nausea and vomiting. Regular (NOT the extra strength) Pepcid AC (famodidine) will help. Your vet can work with Falcon Pharmacy or MediPets to compound into flavored gel treats so that you don't have to shove pills into kitty. The nausea can make kitty feel terrible and if left untreated, kitty can get ulcers in the throat and mouth. For one cat, I kept a syringe of an anti-nausea drug for emergencies. (My DH is like yours in being difficult about euthanasia, so I've been through some end stage scenarios that wouldn't have happened if the cat had been mine.)

At some point SubQ fluids do help kitty feel better. DH's cat from hell wanted everyone dead but him. Fortunately, she wasn't aggressive because she was dangerous. When she felt horrible, she came to me. Even let me give her SubQ fluids without a fuss. Go figure. DH said she knew who was the brains-in-the-bunch. I have a phobia about needles, but I was apparently put on this earth to serve the felines...

If you want to try my homemade food, PM me.

My guess is security. She knows she's a bit frail & maybe in some pain, and I bet she's scared. My only expertise is my late cat Ayla who hated being cuddled or held, although she did like to sleep next to us.

After surgery for a dislocated leg she demanded I pick her up. I remember rocking her for a long time one day and I knew it made her feel safe since she wasn't feeling all that great.

We are, after all, their moms. Bless you two.

Old kitties are so sweet and it's hard to watch them decline. Mine have all lasted to about that age. The last one was a tiny little Manx with thyroid and kidney disease. I let her eat whatever I could get into her...she did love canned pumpkin (not the pie mix, lol) and would lick it off my fingers even at the end.

She, too, seemed to be freezing, so I set up a bed on the couch for her and placed a pharmacy style floor lamp with a halogen bulb that put out a fair amount of heat aimed down on her. It was enough to keep her cozy and I just had to keep it high enough that she couldn't touch it if she stood up and stretched, as it would get HOT to touch.

I was told to avoid human heating pads, because of the danger of overheating, fire and potential damage from claws or wetting. I'd get a pet bed heater to be safe.

I was reading up on some heating pads that started fires so a heated pet bed is probably a better idea. Somehow I think she wouldn’t use it. She snuggles up in a fleece blanket on the bed if no lap is available. I don’t think she’d opt for a pet bed vs a lap. Speaking on behalf of the cat on my lap....

Hugs to you and your cat. My oldest is 17 and still seems healthy. In your case, I think she's looking for additional warmth. Thermoregulation may be a bit off in their elderly years. And they may well appreciate their humans now, more than before....

If she can sleep with you at night, that may be good for her. Being older, she may well be less restless than when she was younger.

They have heating pads for pets. Maybe those are safer than the human ones? Or perhaps a larger dog sized bed that wouldn't make her feel restricted?

Oh yes she and the other two sleep on the bed with us at night. She sleeps between our pillows and if she finds any body part up there like a hand she will lay on the hand or if there's an opportunity to get into an armpit area she will often work her way in there. The space between the pillows is least likely to result in disruption during the night though.

The other two sleep together at the bottom of the bed, more so in the winter when thermostat drops to 60 at night. In the summer they often sleep somewhere else especially on hotter days.