SMUDGE'S PAGE April 1990 - October 3, 2000

Smudge was very dear to my wife and I. A college friend brought him to us one night as a kitten in a fishbowl. He was from a litter of obviously purebred kittens that a pet store had been giving away. His watery eyes and sneezing soon enabled us to figure out why that store had given away the litter. He had a serious cold. Smudge made certain from an early age that I was used to the idea of giving my paycheck directly to a veterinarian.

We found out that Smudge had kidney cysts after an ultrasound about three years ago. The cysts weren't growing, however, and he stayed in great shape until this summer. He was over nine years old at that point, and just seemed to slow down a bit over the course of a couple of months. Also, we could feel that his kidneys were becoming swollen. At the beginning of July, we took him in to our veterinarian, the Santa Cruz Veterinary Hospital, for his usual round of shots and blood and urine samples. Unfortunately, his urine was very dilute and contained some protein. Until this exam, he had always been well within the normal range of any tests.

We started to treat him by switching him to a low protein diet and giving him subcutaneous fluid three times each week. I found the PKD mailing list and the members helped greatly by suggesting treatments and showing that they cared about the outcome of Smudge's fight with the disease. Smudge seemed to do quite well for a couple of weeks. The subcutaneous fluid helped a lot. Immediately, his energy returned. Pepcid A/C helped him to keep his food down.

However, his condition seemed to deteriorate suddenly one night. Over the course of an hour, he seemed to become painful. He wanted to do nothing but hide and not move. We created a warm retreat for him in a basket in the hope that he would get better. By 4:00AM the next morning, however, he still had not improved. We took him to his veterinarian and after a round of x-rays, ultrasound and other tests, he seems to have one or more burst cysts, the fluid pressure from which caused pain and other problems. His favorite game was to play fetch with my wife's make-up sponges. The cyst(s) my have ruptured from his playtime activity, or perhaps it was the result of handling during his veterinary exam the day before. Luckily, the cystitial fluid was absorbed quickly by Smudges tissues and we were able to bring him home after a couple of days.

In the couple of weeks that followed, the burst cyst actually seemed to improve his condition. His kidneys were no longer so visibly swollen and he wasn't tender when we held him. However, through July, his blood tests showed that he was becoming anemic and that he was having trouble with increased phosphorus in his bloodstream. We continued to watch his condition, feed the low protein diet and give fluids. We had trouble reliably giving him his fluids, though. I simply couldn't use the needle. We started visiting the veterinarian weekly so that a nurse could give him his needle. With great psychological effort, my wife managed it the other two times each week.

We checked with the University of California at Davis about the idea of a kidney transplant. Smudge's current anemia and a congenital heart murmur made it impossible.

After another veterinary exam, Smudge had another ruptured cyst. We, and the veterinarians, learned to handle Smudge with as much gentleness as humanly possible. Luckly, this time, Smudge recovered more quickly than the last.

At the beginning of August, Smudge's blood chemistry still had not improved. Our veterinarian found a pharmacy in Pacific Grove who would mix a chicken flavored solution to help absorb phosphorus from his diet. We also started giving him Epogen with his fluid to try to combat the anemia. By the middle of August, my wife an I became very good at giving Smudge shots, fluids and pills. Smudge, for his part, was wonderful at taking all that medicine.

Towards the end of September, it became obvious just how much he depended on his subcutaneous fluids. We were giving him 200ml three times per week. When we skipped two days in between, his energy really dropped. After talking with our veterinarian, we decided to give him 100ml on both Saturdays and Sundays and 200ml on Tuesday and Thursday to make sure he never went too long without fluid.

On October third, Smudge was pretty quiet. He spent the day in the sun, at the top of his cat tower. It was strange that he didn't get down and greet us at the door when we came home. We gave Smudge a bath early in the afternoon. My wife and I were amazed at just how thin he had become. We dried him off as normal and took several pictures of my wife holding him in the towel. We gave him his fluids and my wife held him and took him into the living room. My wife held him for some time as they sat together on couch in the sun.

Smudge eventually decided to get off her lap. He walked across the couch and right off the end as if the dropoff weren't even there. He walked back towards the bedroom, but stopped and the wall, unable to figure out how to turn into the next room. I picked him up to set him down on a warm blanket, but he really didn't seem to be able to see me and was having trouble breathing. We called our veterinarian and rushed him in.

When we arrived, our veterinarian determined that the 100ml of fluid we had giving him had just overwhelmed his system and gone straight into his lungs. She gave Smudge a strong diuretic and we all sat down to wait. The diuretic didn't help. We had to put him to sleep painlessly before the pulmonary edema killed him. Luckily, we were both able to stay with Smudge as he passed away. Our veterinarian had to give him several shots. Smudge didn't want to go, but his PKD didn't give him a choice.

My wife and I both miss Smudge terribly, but are both deeply grateful for the last few months that we could spend with him.

Erich Champion