Late-stage feline CKD management focuses on maintaining comfort and quality of life through symptom management when curative intervention is no longer possible.
Late-stage CKD management shifts from slowing progression to maintaining comfort when the disease has reached a point where further deterioration is inevitable. The welfare priority is identifying and treating symptoms that impair quality of life: nausea, anorexia, discomfort from oral ulceration, and lethargy. Each symptom that can be managed through appropriate medication restores a dimension of normal function and wellbeing. Owners must be supported in making honest quality of life assessments and in accepting that euthanasia may become the most compassionate option before the cat enters the final stages of uraemic deterioration.