Said It Here

Should I do subcutaneous fluids for my sick cat?

Subcutaneous fluids can significantly extend life and improve comfort in cats with advanced kidney disease, but the home administration process can also cause stress or fail to help. Deciding whether to try it requires weighing potential life-extending benefits against the practical difficulties and uncertain outcomes of the treatment.

Overview
People affected4 accounts across 1 forum
Workarounds found2 items attempted
Community agreement9 total upvotes

What people tried

Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.

Found another way around this?

Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.

  1. 1
    Trying different and appealing foods to encourage eating
    Did this help you?
  2. 2
    Spoiling the cat with treats they are not normally allowed to have
    Did this help you?

In their words

Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.

r/cats4 people · September 2026

“Does anyone have any experience/insight to share regarding this option?”source ↗

Additional_Door7049 · r/cats · 3 upvotes

“We tried that with our kitty recently. It didn't work, but you never know.”source ↗

Prestigious-Walrus99 · r/cats · 3 upvotes

“They did subcutaneous fluids for her a couple times and I think it helped her comfortability in the end until it was time to put her to sleep.”source ↗

oddchihuahua · r/cats · 2 upvotes

“Obviously he still has the disease but our vet is pretty sure we would’ve lost him by now if we hadn’t started the subcutaneous fluids.”source ↗

Swimming_Newt_7230 · r/cats · 1 upvotes

Where this came up

People with this problem also raised