Kidney Issues with my Cat - Update in Original Post

[knightrider]

My cat is only about 6 or 7 years old. I found her as a kitten but can’t remember the year…she’s not old is the point.

She was vomiting and not eating and I found that she peed on my thick yoga mat in the basement…as well as another spot so went to vet. Her creatine (sp?) levels were high and there were indications that she had kidney issues.

They gave her fluids and took blood and gave me anti nausea meds and later some anti biotics in case she has an infection. I just took some urine in today to the vet.

Any experience with life expectancy of kidney disease or what to expect? I gave her fluids last night at home and already today it looks like she’s dehydrated. I’m having a tough time getting her to eat and am going to get some different food. This morning i gave her canned tuna and she drank the water but really has not much interest in eating the tuna…

Waiting on vet to call about urine sample but I’m guessing things don’t look good…oh, having a lot of trouble getting the antibiotic in her…there is a big part of me that knows this will probably not better and I need to figure out how much to do for her. By keeping her on fluids am I just prolonging her… she is currently down in the basement… she never sleeps there :-(…does not look good.

UPDATE:

Went back to vet… cat still having issues. Urine sample showed nothing unusual. xrays showed enlarged right kidney and a mass in the abdomen area and something else that was abnormal. Vet is hoping best case scenario its an enlarged spleen since she can’t see it…worst cast obstruction (unlikely) or maybe FIP :-(. we are going back in for an ultrasound tomorrow. Libby is getting sick again and has no appetite after i gave her an appetite stimulant. Going to try my last cerenia to see if she will eat then. Really not looking good now.

[Simkie]

I’m sorry to hear about your kitty

Life expectancy is highly variable depending on just how bad the kidneys are. I had one kitty that lived 10+ years with her very mild CKD, with very little intervention needed until the last year or so, when her kidneys really got much worse. Other kitties are so bad when it’s discovered that they really have no quality of life left.

Here is a really excellent site: http://www.felinecrf.org/

And the staging guidelines for chronic kidney disease: http://www.iris-kidney.com/_downloads/IRIS%20A4%20Poster_cat.pdf

[cloudyandcallie]

Buy bottles of kitty cosequin. Dissolve one capsule in water and put in a small feeding bottle, the kind used for newborn kittens, and give to kitty 2x a day. Then when kitty is well, give it once a day. It works.

[knightrider]

thanks… why does cosequin work wiht kidney issues? I will check out the links…thanks.

I ended up taking her to the vet because she was hiding in the basement. they gave her more fluids, got a urine sample and gave her an antibiotic since i’m having such a hard giving it to her.

We are doing a culture. vet thinks it may be a nasty infection because her white cell count was high.

She was concerned that her urine was so much water though… what does that mean?

[Action42]

OP - your vet is likely concerned that the specific gravity of kitty’s urine is low. This means that the kidneys are not doing an adequate job of concentrating the urine and allowing too much “water” to leave through the urine.

A culture is a good idea, especially in such a young cat.

There is also a relatively new test for a kidney biomarker through IDEXX laboratories. This biomarker can tell us when kidney function is lost by as little as 40% unlike Creatinine and BUN which require a 2/3 loss of function before they become elevated. Maybe your vet can look in to this test for you as it seems to be a quantitative type test that can yield some good info.

Cosequin is useful for kitties with Feline Lower Urinary Tract disease (FLUTD) or feline idiopathic interstitial cystitis. It helps because the compounds in Cosequin are also ones that are helpful for bladder wall health. It isn’t so useful in chronic kidney disease though.

[knightrider]

thank you action! so if the gravity is too low then is that an indication kidneys are failing?

[Action42]

It can be an indication that the kidneys are not doing their job of adequately concentrating the urine, yes.

[shiloh]

OP, I am so sorry to hear about your kitty. As Simkie says, life expectancies can be quite variable depending on how advanced the disease was when you found it or cat’s overall health.

My own kitty lasted a couple years and might have lasted a couple more but other things kicked in and she went downhill pretty quick after that.

Feed your cat whatever she will eat no matter how terrible you think it might be. For awhile my cat parked on those Temptations treats and would eat nothing but those - and hand-fed to her no less! :lol: Then she decided she liked Friskies and Whiskas (ecchhh!!) but I didn’t care what she ate so long as she ate. Baby food is good, too - no cat can resist it. Try chicken flavor.

You may have to hydrate her every day and maybe twice a day. If you need fluids lactated ringers is hard to get these days. See if she can just have normal saline - my own cat did well on this for a long time, but towards the end we had to go to LR because the saline was throwing her sodium levels too far off. Does your vet have you on Normosol?

Tanya’s CRF website is very helpful. Some of the pricing info is outdated but everything else is very helpful. Check your local medical supply for IV line. I got extra length because it let my cat wander around thebathroom as she pleased and I was able to hang the bag on the wall instead of trying to hold it, control the cat and make sure the needle stayed in. I buy my needles from Big Dee’s - they have the best prices. I buy the box of 100 since you shouldn’t use the needles more than once as they become dull. (http://www.bigdweb.com/Needle-18-Gauge-Poly-Hub-Monoject/productinfo/127-2/) yes, it’s an 18 gauge which is like sticking a cannon into your cat but the fluids will run much faster and take less time. The cat doesn’t really care about how big the needle is - they all feel the same - a needle is a needle.

I wish you the best - I truly understand what you are going thru having lost several cats this way.

[knightrider]

i’m hoping its just a bad infection… the vet thought if that was the case it could be 8 - 12 weeks of antibiotics depending on the type… but my gut says that her kidneys are failing… it feels kind of like stage 3 or 4 because of the vomiting thing.

And i’m afraid i waited too long to take care of this because i was dealing with two major surgeries for my dog and i thought she had hairballs initially so was playing around wiht hairball medicine.

I hope i didn’t wait too long. ugh

[Louise]

Don’t second guess yourself. You’re doing what you can, and it’s very hard with cats to actually tell when they are ill. You’ll know more when the results of the tests come back. Hopefully, there will be a viable solution.

Do you have a fountain for her? A lot of cats will drink more if they have one than if they are drinking out of a bowl of water. It might be worth a try, anyways.

[shiloh]

OP, please don’t beat yourself up. You can’t be everywhere at once or do everything at once. Wait til you get test results back - did you have blood pulled? You didn’t say (or I did not see). Blood tests are definitive - that’s going to be what tells you if she has renal failure or infection. I wish that Idexx test mentioned by Action42 had been around when my cat got sick :sad:

I’m hoping for the best. Keep us updated. Jingling for your kitty.

[knightrider]

yes, blood tests were done… Creatine levels were high, but not through the roof high. I think she said 2.8? and high normal was 2.4?

[JBD]

Sometimes infections and other issues cause readings to be off. You’re on the right track working with the vet.