Hi there
I need some help navigating what would be the best next steps for our current situation. I adopted a stray cat about six months ago, who is now 2.5-3 years old. she is indoor only, and eats only wet food. I arranged a dental cleaning appt for her, which vet required bloodwork to make sure her kidney and liver values were healthy as the dental procedure requires anesthesia.
when she got her bloodwork done, her levels for her glucose was 69 (reference value suggested: 72-175), and her creatinine is 2.5 (reference values suggested: .9-2.3). the vet was a bit surprised to see these values for a 2-3 year old cat, so he was a bit perplexed. so we ran a urinalysis. the urinalysis results were a bit harder to understand (for me, per the lab work sheet), but ultimately in conversation with him about it (a week ago), he told me her urine was very diluted which is abnormal given that the urine sample was from a 9AM pee, so it wasn't like she spent the night chugging water (she did not, she spent the evening sleeping with us in bed). the vet stated that none of this was 100% sure tell sign that something is wrong w/ her kidney or another internal organ so he wanted to run both the blood work and urinalysis again before providing a recommended next steps since its so "odd a cat this young would have these issues", so he wanted to be certain before proceeding with further invasive testing (mri, scans, etc) or requiring a lifestyle/dietary change.
the first run for both test cost me $160, and this second set will cost me $170. I haven't committed to the 2nd set of bloodwork & urinalysis. Korra is currently not showing any outward sign of a pain so its made me not act with urgency. she's eating, sleeping, playing per normal, and pooping per her normal constipated schedule (which I'm still wondering if she's constipated or just has a weird bowel schedule; nonetheless entirely separate issue).
my question is- what should I do? run the same tests again for an additional $170- that maybe ultimately give us the same results we already saw on the first test (marginally abnormal numbers) thus feeling like a waste; or go ahead and run a more invasive test that could be more telling but would cost more (maybe double?) so then I'm only $160+$300 down and not $160+$170+$300. per conversation with vet, it sounded like he could recommend more invasive/costly test after these 2nd set if the results were similar (which they most likely will be); so maybe skip this redundancy and go straight to the next level? I'm also wondering that maybe I should put off the second round of tests until June (that would be 4 weeks after the first set of test) to give her body recovery time if the first test was really a fluke. maybe thats a bad idea bc maybe kidney disease (or whatever this other organ issue is) is something that strikes quickly, and dragging it out wouldn't be wise? no one has actually said that, but my brain is analyzing diff scenarios, and it did point out this one; def do not want her to suddenly drop dead (as I've read this has happened before to other people).
I'm not familiar with kidney disease (if this is what it is, or some other organ issue causing additional strain on the kidneys), so not 100% sure what I should do so that its most productive. I'm really busy this week, so I won't have time to read up on kidney disease until this weekend.
thanks for your help.
I need some help navigating what would be the best next steps for our current situation. I adopted a stray cat about six months ago, who is now 2.5-3 years old. she is indoor only, and eats only wet food. I arranged a dental cleaning appt for her, which vet required bloodwork to make sure her kidney and liver values were healthy as the dental procedure requires anesthesia.
when she got her bloodwork done, her levels for her glucose was 69 (reference value suggested: 72-175), and her creatinine is 2.5 (reference values suggested: .9-2.3). the vet was a bit surprised to see these values for a 2-3 year old cat, so he was a bit perplexed. so we ran a urinalysis. the urinalysis results were a bit harder to understand (for me, per the lab work sheet), but ultimately in conversation with him about it (a week ago), he told me her urine was very diluted which is abnormal given that the urine sample was from a 9AM pee, so it wasn't like she spent the night chugging water (she did not, she spent the evening sleeping with us in bed). the vet stated that none of this was 100% sure tell sign that something is wrong w/ her kidney or another internal organ so he wanted to run both the blood work and urinalysis again before providing a recommended next steps since its so "odd a cat this young would have these issues", so he wanted to be certain before proceeding with further invasive testing (mri, scans, etc) or requiring a lifestyle/dietary change.
the first run for both test cost me $160, and this second set will cost me $170. I haven't committed to the 2nd set of bloodwork & urinalysis. Korra is currently not showing any outward sign of a pain so its made me not act with urgency. she's eating, sleeping, playing per normal, and pooping per her normal constipated schedule (which I'm still wondering if she's constipated or just has a weird bowel schedule; nonetheless entirely separate issue).
my question is- what should I do? run the same tests again for an additional $170- that maybe ultimately give us the same results we already saw on the first test (marginally abnormal numbers) thus feeling like a waste; or go ahead and run a more invasive test that could be more telling but would cost more (maybe double?) so then I'm only $160+$300 down and not $160+$170+$300. per conversation with vet, it sounded like he could recommend more invasive/costly test after these 2nd set if the results were similar (which they most likely will be); so maybe skip this redundancy and go straight to the next level? I'm also wondering that maybe I should put off the second round of tests until June (that would be 4 weeks after the first set of test) to give her body recovery time if the first test was really a fluke. maybe thats a bad idea bc maybe kidney disease (or whatever this other organ issue is) is something that strikes quickly, and dragging it out wouldn't be wise? no one has actually said that, but my brain is analyzing diff scenarios, and it did point out this one; def do not want her to suddenly drop dead (as I've read this has happened before to other people).
I'm not familiar with kidney disease (if this is what it is, or some other organ issue causing additional strain on the kidneys), so not 100% sure what I should do so that its most productive. I'm really busy this week, so I won't have time to read up on kidney disease until this weekend.
thanks for your help.