EITM: Kitty Transplant 6/17/24

Kitty, Josh. Not kidney. Well...actually, yes. Kitten kidneys.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
You have cats? Yes, yes, three yes. Do any of them
have kidney problems? There's there's asuspicion that one may be brewing, but
it hasn't been formally diagnosed. Aren'tAnd this will take me back to when
I did have cats, and thatvery long time ago with Jackie. Aren't

(00:24):
kidney problems big in the cat world? I mean I feel like they can
get them as they get older,you know what I mean? Yeah?
No, no, but I meanmore so than like in the dog world
or in other animal world. Aren'tAren't kidney problems a big deal with cats?
Or don't they? Don't they appeara lot in cats? Like renal

(00:46):
is renal kidney? Yeah? Yeah, isn't. Wait, let me make
sure I'm talking about the right thing. Ummm yes, kidney kidney got it?
Isn't that a big deal oiling cats? I feel like you hear it
come up more with cats, butI don't know the data on it.
Kristen, Will you do me afavor? Will you find me somebody who

(01:07):
has a cat please? Or somebodywho owns cats, maybe they've had cats
growing up or whatever is cat ownershipup? Like I can find someone who
owns a cat ask the cat ladies, you saying right there? I know,
but she doesn't have any kidney issuesand she doesn't see ownership. Yeah,
oh his cat ownership up? Idon't know. I mean I know

(01:29):
a lot of people I didn't ask. No. I adopted cats and dogs
during COVID, A lot more dogs. Kristen, Will you do me a
favor, see if you can findme a cat owner please? Eight six
six to Elliott eight six six twothree five five four six eight. Who
used to work here that had aton of cats? Why is it escaping
me? Oh, Zach the productionguy. Yeah, they have more than

(01:55):
two. I thought he had threeor four. Cat ownership is increasing.
Dog ownership is declining. No way, are you serious? It's still more
than cats, way more and happierowners. Wait, cat ownership is on
the rise. Yes, Oh,then I can find somebody, Kristen eight
six six to Elliott eight six sixtwo three five five four six eight.

(02:17):
I need somebody who has cats.I do believe kidney issues inside the feeline
world much bigger than kidney issues insidethe canine world. Here's why I ask.
And I know that Oregon donation hascome up recently on the show.

(02:38):
But I believe my computer is alsolistening to the show in the other room
and is now feeding me things.Diane. If any of your cats Larry
Larry's dead, well, I wasgonna say, let's start with those that
we think and then move to theones that are alive. If they had

(03:00):
a kidney problem, Uh huh?Would you seek out a kidney transplant for
the animal? I mean, Iwould be totally open to medicine. I
don't know if I'd go as faras a transplant. Why not? Was
this ever an option presented to youfor a past cat? No? Did
you ever have a pass cat dieof a kidney issue? No? No,

(03:23):
so you could not have searched tohave a kidney donation. Yeah,
I don't think I would go thatroute. Why listen, we spent a
lot of money on animals, right. That seems to me to be crossing
a line. So it's it's totallythe money involved. Yeah, So I

(03:45):
can only imagine what a kidney transplantfor a cat would cost. It's got
to be like thousands and thousands ofdollars. Yes, but you've spent Like,
let me ask you this, wouldyou get your roof replaced? Yes?
That's a little bit different. Doyou love your roof? Not as
much as I love my cats?Thank you? It would be, it
would be, it would be atough decision, But I don't think so.

(04:05):
If they said, hey, listen, we could save Larry. He
needs a kidney transplant, you wouldgo, oh, well, it's expensive,
tough titty. I would say,well, we'll we'll medicate him.
I'm not going to pay, it'snot that's not an option. Well,
then we're just going to give himtreats as many as he wants and make

(04:26):
his You're going to feed the chocolatesall the way across the rainbow. No,
no, like like cat treats.But yeah, no, I wouldn't
pay that. M That shocks me. Where am I going? You're going
to pay for an organ transplant foryour dog? I can't why it's not
an option. No, it's not. It's like, why would they do
it for a cat and not adog? Because you can't do it for

(04:49):
a dog. The success rate isvery low, and there's there is another
reason that you can't do it fordogs. For cats. I mean,
keep in mind, we based ona pig that you can live with one
kidney, right, yeah, samething is true in the cat world.

(05:09):
Oh, same thing may be truein the dog world. But the success
rate for dogs is very, verylow. And listen, I realized,
because I'm hearing the same things,it sounds like Elliott is just making it
up as he goes along. No, not at all, but it does
say right here, kidney transplants indogs are much more complicated and survival times
are substantially lower than a cat.By the way, with cats, let

(05:31):
me tell you this, since youalready turned and walked out of the clinic
and said do what you will withhim, They said, kidneys and cats
can give you three, five,ten, thirteen years in the cat This
has most vet hospitals won't do dogsbecause the success rates low, very low.

(05:56):
What's the price? Now again,what's the price? Oh so now
are you back in? Well,it depends. I mean it could be
it could I know what. Itcould runs as high as I know what,
It could run as high as okay, twenty five grand. Yeah,
that's a note for me. Thesepeople said it was well worth it.
They said, listen, I justspent seventeen thousand dollars on my roof,
and I love my cat a lotmore than I love my roof. It's

(06:18):
fair point, thank you. Ican tell you one other, one other
thing. When you get the catwho's getting the kidney, A lot of
times you have to donate, youhave to adopt the donor cat. Oh
well, why are you oofing that? I mean, then we'd have four

(06:41):
Okay, Diane, it's to saveyour cat's lives. I know, but
I'm just saying that would also bea hard cell with my husband. Why
and why is it? Why isit easier to find cat donors than human
donors? Why only two blood typesfor cats? Oh ah, that's pretty
good. I didn't know that.I didn't know that. Don't like but
that's two things. That's pretty fascinating. But then right before that, and

(07:04):
we sort of glossed over it thatyou have to adopt that the donor cat
that donates the kidney. Most placeswill require you to adopt because a lot
of getting Okay, that I canunderstand. I just wonder if, oh,
well, you're answering a Craigslist adto do. I don't know the

(07:24):
Kristin. He doesn't have a cat. Actually, Diane's the only one that
does. But let's say Kristen hada cat. Let's say Zach the engineer
or not the engineer, the productionguy if he calls you. Was like,
Diane, I know that you havea cat, that you have cats.
My cat needs a kidney transplant?Can we have a kidney from from
Bobby? So you would let thatcat die? I mean, I sound

(07:46):
like we're tight. So you soyou wouldn't allow your cat to even be
a donor? I would, Iwould. Well, that's really easy for
you to say without the option.They also said with dogs that number one
the success rate is really really bad. Also that you can't and I don't

(08:09):
know why, but you can't doit from like a living dog. It
has to be a cadaver dog.And I don't know why that is.
I do actually because dogs are awesome, but I don't know why. I
don't know what the difference is.Do dogs really struggle with one kidney?
They must, Yeah, they mustbe. They must. But the adoption
thing, when you really start tothink about it, it would essentially for

(08:31):
being a kidney hero like Josh,that cat that has to donate the kidney
would basically be signing its life awaybecause who very few people adopt animals that
call for special accommodations. But you'realready helping one with one kidney, help

(08:52):
two with one kidney. If Ineeded a kidney transplant and Josh gave me
his kidney, I would want toadopt Josh saying, I get why they
make you do it, because youwould be essentially saying, this cat's now
gonna struggle that much more to beadopted. But some of oh, the
one from the shelter is not gettingadopted, right, So are you walking

(09:13):
into a shelter and going, oh, give me the one kidney cat?
Some people some people do if theydon't know, or they go in and
they say, who's been here thelongest? Which cat is the oldest?
Oh, then who's been here thesecond? But it doesn't help its chances,
No, definitely hurts. So Iget it. It's just a wrinkle
I would have ever thought about.Yeah, so you have to take the
donor with you. You have totake it with you. I think about

(09:35):
all the costs associated with and anotherpen in the house. Oh man,
I mean for cat, it's justa little more little more cat box stuff
and some food. That's what youtold me. Now before my cat needed
a kidney transport and now I'm twentythousand dollars in on this one. Twenty
five Now, jeez, I justthink there are people that love their animals

(10:00):
enough that they would do it.Listen, I wish I wish you could.
I wish I could have saved allmy dogs. Yeah, I mean
we we've unknowingly, you know,when we got her, have ended up
having to spend a lot of moneyon Louie. I mean, you know,
well you had all her teeth removed. She's she's at the vet,
every waitress. She's got seizures,right, and she's she has a myriad

(10:22):
of health problems. But at don'tBut the end of the day, though,
you can go like, look,she's had a great life compared to
what she was living before. Absolutelyso I could also take solace in knowing
that, right. Yeah, butthat's why I'm shocked that you would just
let her go. So we spenttwenty five dollars. Sorry, Hi Elliott
the morning, Sorry, Sorry MaryLee can't go to school. I have

(10:43):
I have to get a kidney formy cat. Hi Elliot at the morning,
Good morning, Elliot, Hy everybody, Hey, who's this? So?
This's Jennifer. Yes, Hey,do you have cats. Well,
of course you do. I currentlyhave two cats, My last have died
from kidney issues. There you go. See, I told you I thought

(11:03):
I thought kidney issues were big inthe cat world. The one was twenty
two years old, so that one, hey, that's a given. She
did a great, great run.Yeah she My husband says I tricked him
with that one. But the lasttwo were one was four years old and
one was six years old, andthey were sisters. What if I told

(11:26):
you instead of six, what ifI told you instead of dying at six,
it could live till sixteen. Sothe problem I have with that is,
Yes, the money's a lot,but a cat can't tell you when
it's in pain. And that's whereI have the issue with any kind of
surgeries that we don't know about.The one cat got way better, and

(11:46):
then by the end she was likeKujo and it happened in an instant,
so we don't know if we waitedtoo long in trying to keep her healthy.
You get sending the money, Letme tell you two things. Number
one, your your pet can tellyou when they're in pain. Yeah,
so you know that's number one.Number Yeah, she said, it turned
into Kujo okay, but it's tellingyou it's in pain. So knew that.

(12:09):
Yeah, and it just happened likein an hour. Literally she was
fine. But we we've been dealingwith the kidney issues for about six months
at that point. But why notget a transplant just because I don't know
about the pain that would be involvedfor my cat? She can't tell me.
I mean, yeah, she couldbe in pain, but there's a
big difference between I'm uncomfortable pain andlook, you know what, I didn't

(12:33):
want to do this. This isawful. You know. Well, they
also they also don't know that wasa kid I will tell you that.
You know. They put the catto sleep, not to sleep like like
it goes away, but they putit under anesthesia. They're not operating on
the cat when it's away. Yeah, but there's there's like post surgery pain
too, Okay, and that's whatThat's where I'm at, post living for

(12:54):
ten years and if and if Iwas guaranteed that ten years with no issues
afterwards, Okay, you know whatI'm down. Oh, so now you're
ready. You asked no, no, but nobody can guarantee that. I
mean, the cat you get loosefrom the house and get hit by a
car. From the circumstances you arecurrently talking about, it's ten years.

(13:18):
If it gave them ten years andI knew they wouldn't be in pain and
I could pay for it, Iwould do it in a second. There
you go, thank you, thankyou. Oop. Sorry, here are
some numbers. Yes, forty percentof cats that make it to ten years
old have kidneys that fail. Wow, so kidney is a big problem.
If the cat makes it to fifteen, that number goes to eighty percent.

(13:39):
Wow. But Patty brings up agreat point. By the way, I
could give you another eight to tenyears with just get the kidney transplant.
The kidney issues are so prevalent inthe cat world. Aren't you limiting the
healthy life when you take a kidneyfrom that donor cat because they can live

(14:00):
on one kidney. But because it'sso common that cats eventually develop kidney problems,
you're setting so that second cat mayneed a kidney. Also, you're
setting it up to be less healthywhen getting to those senior ages. Okay,
then then you'll do another one fiftythousand dollars and I have to bring
in another cat to have a kidneyproblem that I also have vicious cycle.

(14:22):
Oh so you know what, that'sa reason to punt. Patty says,
no way would I ever remove akidney from a from another cat? Why?
Because she knows about these problems beingso common. I don't know.
It's maybe maybe I'm maybe I'm differentbecause of the love I have for my
animals. What's a like take amedical condition that maybe is? Uh?

(14:43):
I don't want say universal, butpopping up a lot in your family's history
is my family? Yeah? Isthere anything? I have no idea.
I don't know what my family heartsis. Okay, let's go with heart.
Yeah. So you wouldn't want totake your kids or your kids kids
and do anything unnecessary to their heartfor fear that they would need the healthiest
of hearts come later in life.But if it gave them a great life

(15:07):
up until then, I would No. No, No, I'm saying they're
healthy. Remember these donor cats arehealthy, right, That's what Patty's saying,
Right, that you are like disablingthem eventually. No, because they
may not need that heart until they'relike fifteen, and then at that point
I may just say it's too old. One in five cats will be fine
at fifteen. Yeah, but Iam handicapping if by taking a kidney,

(15:33):
I'm not doing it at eighteen.It's that's not going to get me that
longs to become. Now an ethicsquestion, would you do so much?
And would you spend my five thousanddollars? That's a money question. This
is now ethical. Would you doit to a human? What? I
allow someone to donate? Yeah?But then aren't you a like? Doesn't
a human like? Aren't you moresusceptible to kidney problems if you donate a

(15:54):
kidney? But kidney failure yes,while present in human beings clearly is not.
The number isn't as big as itis. All Right, that's fair,
that's fair, that's fair. Wow, it's we need a fun This
is the trolley problem. But forcats. What's a good cat word that
runs a trolley? Diane? Well, I'm sure Diane's had a cat named

(16:15):
Molly. Molly, you haven't.I'll figure it out. Golly, what
you jolly? You need to beour go to source for all things cats?
She is don't care well she doesit because she already said she'd punt
on saving an animal. Listen,we've spent a lot of money on animals

(16:36):
over the year. That's twenty twentyfive thousand. You're always the ones like,
oh, we'll go much up spinon my dog. It's spent a
lot of money, but it's there'sthere has to be a line. What's
that line? I'm sorry, twentythousand dollars? So twenty thousand dollars is
your cut off? Isn't? LetNo, it's if the vet said I'll

(16:57):
do it for nineteen thousand, ninehund dollars. Okay, so it's not
twenty No, it's not what isyour cutoff? A thousand? No,
because we've some more than that.Eleven hundred No, Like, at what
point do you go punt on theanimal and just walk away and leave it
there? To just kind of no, you're not leaving it there. You're

(17:18):
doing what you can to make it, make it comfortable and give it a
quality of life. And can youpick a different term because we've sadly seen
too many cats in videos actually getkicked, like just say walk away,
yeah, but you're not just walkingaway, you're taking it and punting it.
Where am I going? Line eight? Hi, Ellie in the morning?

(17:42):
Hi? Is this? Yeah?Hi? Who's this? Oh?
This is Patty from Oadington. Yes, we moved into his home and there
was a cat on the nighbor lady, and she was gorgeous. Well,
a long store short is she gotpregnant because they were oating and the county
you allowed cats are allowed to runfree, and she was part of this

(18:04):
group. Well when she got pregnant, after she had we didn't see her
for a while and we didn't knowshe was pregnant. And then one day
across the back of our deck walkall her little babies. Well, we
managed to go ahead and try tobring them in. I mean, we
were doing everything to try to bringthem in so we could get them to
the vet and get them adopted.But because ladies ferrel, no way in

(18:26):
the world she's gonna let us cuther babies. Those babies now she went
off. Those babies hung around,We took care of them outside, they
got pregnant, we brought them in. So what I'm trying to say is,
oh, and we diet were ableto give all the babies adopted except
for one we kept, and thenwe had three that we had rescued already.
So we have six cats, andI know that's crazy. Never planned

(18:49):
on it. It's real crazy tome, but it's great. I love
it. But anyway, the thingI'm trying to say is I can't put
money on it, only because asmuch as I love cats, they're not
human, and I worry that theydon't understand what's going on. And I
just I've seen cats assumption cats,yeah, and I just don't think it's

(19:12):
right for them. So there hasto be a limit in my mind.
And I think a kidney transplant mightbe it. I think I would make
that cat, like Diane was saying, as comfortable as I can and love
it and then just let it dieand just let her. Yeah, let
her go to Jesus. Yeah,there you go. And by the way,
I can confirm for you, thecat does not know what's going on,

(19:33):
Like the cat doesn't know you're feelwell, okay, but there they
also don't know that you're on thephone trying to line up a donor,
like they just they don't have thatcapacity. But yeah, if you was
walking away, is walking away?Diane? Also, I need to make
a reservation. Do you want todo it at the University of Pennsylvania,

(19:53):
the University of Wisconsin, or theUniversity of Georgia. Those are the three
Marquee sites. No, no,no, those are the only places there's
travel, only three facilities. Well, okay, you could drive to pen
it's not that bad. But we'retraveling and staying in a hotel, cat
friendly. You stay at Sam's house. Christen's not going doctor Paul rights here.

(20:18):
If this is supposed to be okay, how long until we just start
rounding up homeless people to provide organsfor the more worthy? No, oh,
stop it. This article has takenon a life of its own.
Wait for cats, you can't dothat. No, not for the cats,
Oh for people. Yes, oh, I would gladly take a homeless

(20:41):
person if I needed a No,but it sounds like it's not of their
choice, from the streets and havingtheir organs harvested. No, I don't.
I wouldn't. I don't want that. I wouldn't want that done.
But if I could give you akidney, I would take it. This
article, it's just the headline withlee believe it's only about cats, and
it's so much more right. Youreally stumbled into a whole ethical issue.

(21:03):
Well I blame Patty. Let mego to line five. Hi Ellie of
the morning, and Jesse, thisis sinister. Wait? Why is it
sinister? Though I want to doit, cat's kidney. That cat's not
gonna that cat's just you're getting adopted. You were sitting in the foster home.

(21:29):
The only way to get adopted,this is, Jesse. The only
way to get adopted is to giveup an organ. It's like hunger games.
I'm sorry, Hi, who isthis? Hey? Yeah? Hi,
who are you? Ah right?This is Ellie from Kat. I've
called before. I thought the artificialsweetener and the drink. Yes, yeah,

(21:56):
so I have I have three cats. One of them has a rare
blood disease, so not quite kidneyissue, but it's like a one in
a billion mere blood disease. Andwhen they first diagnosed him with it,
that initial appointment and everything that hehad to go through four grand. They
told me that like what would absolutelysave him, would get him over this

(22:18):
blood disease for like the next Idon't know, six years, would be
a blood transfusion. And I oneof my other cats has the same blood
type, so they would have beena match, right, But that procedure
alone was another like four or fivegrand. And there's a chance that just
like a human transplant, like hewould reject the blood and that it could

(22:40):
negatively impact my other cat. Soit's so it's not just you know,
oh, because I was willing topay the cost, but the risk of
it not working and then also claimingmy other cat was just too great.
Right, So two things, twothings for you. It wasn't the cost.
Diane heard the cost of the firstprocedure. She said four. That's

(23:00):
a lot different than twenty five,right, But it was also going to
be eight once you did the procedure. That's a lot of money. Yes,
it is. That is a lotof money. Listen. I have
a buddy who his VET bill wasthirty five hundred. He just walked away
from the animal anyway, So eightgrand you were going to do it.
But is that why they'll tell catowners instead of having to go get a

(23:22):
dome like a donor cat, youalready have one at home. Is that
why all cat owners have multiples?No? Seriously, like di Yankee's thinking
she's got to adopt one, butyou can just use Juni for Larry or
whatever the cat's names are, Bobbyfor Larry. No, that way,
you already have. It's such apain in my side right now. But
you have aase I know, Josh, the no no, but then you

(23:44):
would have you could use one ofyour existing cats to donate to your sickens
existing cat. It cut down onsome expense, sir. Yeah, I
guess you could, But I thinktoo, I have like my third cat
who was not going to be thedonor or the stick once. He had
to have an emergency surgery a fewyears ago because he swallowed something and that

(24:06):
surgery also was about four grand,and the healing after also just took a
huge toll on him and me thathe needed twenty four to seven supervision for
like literally the first week. Sobetween me and my sister, we were
up all the time watching him changinghis his IV, giving him medication and
everything like that, the like ifyou So, we had a ceramic jar

(24:30):
full of treat and it broke andI thought I cleaned up all the pieces,
but he swallowed a piece of thebroken jar because it looked and smelled
like a cat tree and thankfully itdidn't like it didn't cut anything along the
way. It just got stuck inhis tummy and he had to get scotchcock
to get it out. I gotchaI gotcha. And by the way,

(24:52):
did we know this? Thank you, ma'am, thank you, sorry about
that. The is it is?It is the is the not the animal.
The plant lilies. Yeah, thoseare one of the flowers that can
be super toxic to cats. Oh, I was gonna say, isn't that
a death sentence for when you talkedabout eating the ceramic, which was not
the cat's fault. But I wantto say, I read some is it

(25:17):
lilies that kill cats? Like almostimmediately. According to this person on Instagram,
the death sentence is not allowing acat to consent to give up a
kidney. Okay, people are firedup.