Feline Kidney Disease, Early Symptoms and Prevention

创作声明: 内容包含医疗建议，个人经验仅供参考，针对具体病情，请规范寻医。

It’s every pooper scooper’s wish that their cat eats, drinks, poops and sleeps well.

But if your normal kitten is suddenlyunwilling to eat for no apparent reason, becomes thin, and has no appetite and can only rely on tube feeding, will your heart be torn up?

Even if you don’t eat, youdon’t even drink water, and you have to rely on fluids to keep your body hydrated.

The hair is dirty and he doesn’t bother to tidy it up, and his mouth is particularly smelly.

The body was so thin that it had lost even muscle, andit took every ounce of strength to stand up shakily.

The heartbreaking cats above are sick cats suffering from chronic kidney disease.

As one of the common diseases in cats, Chronic Kidney Disease is not easy to detect in the early stages, and looks completely uncharacteristic from the outside, but continues to slowly deteriorate on the inside.By the time obvious symptoms appear, the situation is not optimistic.

In order to let more pooper scoopersto recognize and understand the cat chronic kidney disease, prevention is better than cure, today Moe Paw Jun will give you a popularization of chronic kidney disease.

What is chronic kidney disease

Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD, Chronic Kidney Disease) is a persistent structural abnormality or loss of function of the kidneys. Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is defined as aloss of 30% or more of kidney functionand aduration of illness of more than 3months.

According to statistics from a chain of pet healthcare organizations in the United States, 1.5% of all cat patients are diagnosed with CKD. Of that 1.5%, 81% are over the age of 10.

The incidence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in catsincreaseswith theage ofthe cat, and theprobability of CKD in cats over 15 years of age is 30-50%.

Male and female cats are equally likely to develop CKD, butit is usually male cats that develop CKD in their youth.

Some breeds have an inborn tendency to develop CKD, such asthe Maine, Abyssinian, Siamese and Russian Blue cats.

If a cat is unfortunate enough to develop CKD, the lost kidney function will be permanently lost and cannot be reversed.

Wasting, loss of luster and partial loss of fur,

Sick cat with runny nose and drool

What are the clinical symptoms of chronic kidney disease?

✔ Weight loss ✔ Loss of appetite ✔ High blood pressure

✔ dirty coat ✔ lethargy ✔ vomiting

✔ Bad breath ✔ Weakness ✔ Anemia

✔ Polyuria (decreased ability to concentrate urine)

✔ Tiredness and thirst (excessive drinking, decreased ability to concentrate urine, compensated for by drinking more water)

✔ Progression to the end stage may even lead to anuria (complete loss of kidney function → uremia)

✔ Sometimesuremic breath odor(the cat’s exhaled gas has an unpleasant ammonia smell) or mouth ulcers can be observed.

Hematochezia in the anterior chamber of the eye due to CKD complicated by hypertension

These symptoms are often overlooked by owners in the early stages of CKD as normal signs of aging.

However, when obvious clinical symptoms appear, such aslethargy, weakness, anorexia, excessive urination, significant weight loss, vomiting and dehydration, etc., it may have developed to CKD3 or even Stage 4, and the cat’s kidney function is likely to havelost more than 75% ofits capacity, so it must be brought to the hospital for timely examination.

A cat with CKD, with limbs and fur in poor condition.

Dehydration is also present.

The International Renal Institute (IRIS) has developed a classification of kidney disease in cats(based on serum creatinine and SDMA concentrations), which can be determined by simply having your veterinarian check your cat‘s biochemistry, which is very simple and straightforward.

The survival time of cats with the disease correlates with the grading of the cat’s CKD ↓

According to this table we know thatif a cat is already at CKD level 3 or 4, there may be less than 2 years left before the Grim Reaper takes the hairball!

If your cat is unfortunately diagnosed with CKD, the pooper scooper mustfollow the doctor’s instructionsand activelycooperate with the doctor’s treatment!

Forcats with chronic kidney disease (CKD) grade 2 or above, afunctional prescription foodcan assist in the treatment of CKD, prolonging the life of the affected cat and improving the quality of life of the cat.

Moe Paw reminds everyone: never, ever think that their cats are young, do not pay attention, or regret.

What can I do to protect my cat’s kidney health?

regular check-up

Take your cat to the hospital for a regular physical examination every year.Older cats need to be examined once every six monthsforroutine blood tests, creatinine, urea nitrogen, SDMA, ultrasound, blood pressure, urine routineand other physical examinations,with a focus on monitoring the changes in liver and kidney indicators.

If thefollowing indicators are abnormalat the same time after the veterinary examination, it can be suspected that the cat is in CKD1:

01.Abnormal palpation of therenalregion or abnormal renal morphology detected by ultrasound;

02. persistentrenal proteinuria;

03.Decreased ability to concentrateurine;

04.SDMA/ The serum creatinine concentration, although within the normal range, is seen to increase consistently over time.

Drink plenty of fluids and observe urine output

※ Let the catdrink more water, feed the catcanned food, bags ofwet food, etc., not just dry food, can greatly reduce the probability of cats suffering from urinary tract diseases.

※ Shoveler daily see catsdrink water to go to the toiletshould keep an eye, familiar with the master’s urination pattern.

A cat’s daily urine output is about24~48ml/kg, and the amount of urine is closely related to the cat’s diet and activity habits.

Since each cat’s habits vary, owners should pay attention to what the cat’surine mass is under normal conditions, and can quickly notice when the cat’s urine volumedecreases significantly.

If you observe asignificant increase in the number of times your cat goes in and out of the litter box, recording thenumber of timesandfrequency oftimesit usually goes in and out of the litter box can also help determine this.

Once the first signs of CKD are detected, timely and active treatment should be carried out. Early detection and diagnosis can significantly extend the life span and improve the quality of life of cats.

The biggest fear of owning a cat is that the cat will get sick, in addition to the wallet can not afford it, the cat also live to suffer.

So you can forward this article to the pooper scooper near you, do your homework ahead of time and your cat will suffer less.

reference:

1. https://www.vettimes.co.uk/article/dietary-management-of-feline-chronic-renal-failure/
2. https://inpractice.bmj.com/content/38/Suppl\_3/2
3. https://blog.xuite.net/alsuka/blog/38185997
4. https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/4372924/file/4372937.pdf
5. https://www.vet.cornell.edu/departments-centers-and-institutes/cornell-feline-health-center/health-information/feline-health-topics/chronic-kidney-disease#:~:text=Cats%20with%20CKD%20may%20experience,%2C%20unkempt%2C%20and%20lose%20weight.
6. https://inpractice.bmj.com/content/38/Suppl\_3/10

This article on pet care knowledge was reviewed by Jiaqi Song (Master of V.M, Licensed Veterinary Technician)

Any errors are welcome to be corrected!