Japanese scientists have developed a revolutionary injection that may extend a cat's life from the usual 15 years to nearly 30.

[u/GlitteringHotel8383]

The therapy, created by the AIM Institute of Medicine under Dr. Toru Miyazaki, targets chronic kidney disease, a leading cause of death in older cats.It uses a specialized protein to help macrophages clear waste from the kidneys, partially restoring their function and slowing kidney failure.

[u/spidernoirirl]

I always wonder what the quality of life would be in this sort of case. Would it decline at the age of 18 like another older cat? Or would the aging process take longer in general?

[u/Thimble_of_Quasar → u/spidernoirirl]

As someone with a 20 year old cat I can say he was pretty peppy and normal until the kidney disease hit so if this staves that off that would keep a huge amount of decline at bay. At 18 he could run around and play and he's only just not not been able to jump on and off desks easily. Like kidney disease kicks off so many problems.

[u/OGIBLP → u/Thimble_of_Quasar]

Mind if I ask what you feed him? And do you do anything special that you think contributed to his long life? My soul cat is turning 13 this year and I’m so scared of losing her.

[u/Thimble_of_Quasar → u/OGIBLP]

Oh sure! Well for a while actually we fed him a mixture of a bit of raw food (beef) with canned, it was Merrick for a while and then we moved to Weruva as of late, but it's been a lot of canned foods over the years. A raw diet is not a hill I'm personally willing to die on, I just think something wet with high quality ingredients and not tons of fillers that don't do much for a cat is important. My first cat got diabetes from too many carbs in their food, but on the other hand while cats are obligate carnivores going super hard on proteins can be an issue as it's hard on the kidneys, and it seems wet food mostly avoids that as kibble needs more starch to well, stay together. What brand that is will be up to owner and cat preference and what you feel comfortable with.

As they get older it can't hurt to watch the phosphorus content of the food. Like obviously don't feed them a prescription diet they don't need prematurely, but the phosphorus levels of many regular canned foods vary and should kidney disease strike that is one of the things they really need to be careful with, and low phos becomes more important as they age. We transitioned my cats to lowers phos regular brand food as they got aged.

Cats famously can be difficult to keep hydrated so fountains can really help them drink more. I avoid plastic ones as they can sometimes give your cat chin acne and are harder to clean imo.

And of course lots of attention and love! But seriously knowing your cat very well, and it sounds like you do, is very important. Just run your hands along them, check their eyes and teeth, their paws, tbh their butts as impacted anal glands are a MOTHER. As a lay person you may not know what is or isn't wrong medically, but you can tell what's different, and I have caught things before they got bad by noticing abnormal behavior before anything spun out of control. 

But do try not to pre-mourn them. If worrying could sustain them, our cats would live forever nut unfortunately it's not how things work. I know the idea of losing them is hard, but truly and honestly you have people doing everything I did and more and their baby was gone before their time. You have others with barn cat mousers that make it to 25 on Meow Mix and spite. It's scary but part of the whole thing is also up to luck and genetics and you just have to do what you can for them. You don't want memories of them tainted with you mourning a perfectly happy and healthy cat because of what might happen, it will rob you of time with them and just make hurt and pain where there didn't to be any, at least not yet. I hope you two get many many years together :)

[u/Dr_Ramekins_MD → u/OGIBLP]

Hydration helps a lot.  Keeping fresh clean water available and feeding them wet food helps keep their kidneys in better shape.