3 year old male cat, Acute Kidney Failure

My cat was found yesterday lethargic, wanting to hide and breathing odd. We took him to the vet where tests were run and he was put on IV fluids and administered calcium straight away as his potassium levels were high but kidney levels (?) only slightly elevated. Later in the day it was observed his potassium was coming down but his kidney levels were creeping up. He was kept in overnight and despite the IV has not urinated and his bladder does not seem to be filling. The vet has mentioned to us putting him to sleep today if his kidney levels go up further. Does anyone have any advice/experience of things turning around?  He is more responsive than he was and when we first took him in he jumped on her table which she said was a good sign.

Hello.  It sounds as though there may be a diagnostic stage which is not included in your message.   What has caused the high Potassium?  Is your vet confident in their diagnosis of kidney failure?  What is the specific gravity and what are the other kidney perimeters, which are usually recorded as part of the diagnosis?   Usually I would be looking at the causes of acutely high Potassium levels eg Addison's, blocked bladder etc  and making sure that all but kidney disease have been ruled out, before I came to any conclusion.  Your vet may well have done this, but you have not given me sufficient medical information here to make an assessment of that. For this and other reasons, I'm afraid that it is inappropriate for me to give a second opinions on a site such as this at this time (we don't give them at all, as per site rules).  If a second opinion seems warranted, you should usually ask the vet to refer the case to someone more experienced than themselves in the area concerned eg emergency critical care or medicine.  Contrary to popular belief, vets like to be asked for second opinions; if we are right, it is good for the owner to restore confidence in their vet; if we are wrong, we will learn something (at the end of the day, we just want to help the patient best we can, and if we can do that better, we'd like to know about it).  I'm sorry that you have high Potassium to contend with - this is generally an emergency, so if you do need a second opinion then it should be done as soon as possible.  Thinking of you and your cat.