2 year old cat has kidney issues already?

[chalupa]

Adopted a 2 or 3 year old cat in August 2014, been calling her Maru, I know it's not original. She says Maru when she meows and naming her just didn't work, it's too hard to not say Marooo when she says Maroooooo. Although she has a serious code/secret agent name, it's Esther Ficklesworth. When I discovered Maru the famous Scottish fold cat, I kept the name because at least it's a real name, and couldn't break Maru habit.

Adopted another cat around same time, Punky, she came with this name and though I don't like it, it's catchy. Punky is about 9. She is already diagnosed with kidney problems, took her for senior wellness exam very soon after adoption.

Most of my focus has been on these two girls getting along. I have 3 cat trees, 4 litter boxes.

Both cats also came with Upper Respiratory Infection, which lasted couple months.

For a while Maru younger cat was peeing in the bathroom on the floor, when there was a clean  litterbox there. She did it many times. I did have a feral cat in there recovering from an injury in a trap for a few days in fall  so I thought it was something to do with that. Then I noticed she peed on her cat bd, a cat scratcher, plush cat toys. 

I took her to the vet, they did bloodwork. While she was there she peed on the vet, dr. said it was very watery/dilute. The dr said her creatinine levels were elevated and she had a decreased urine specific gravity. Vet is going on vacation so we need to wait for more tests. Also said her T4 is in the grey zone for hyperthyroidism.

Could this just be an infection? If it is wonder how it is treated.

My friend who works at a pet store says there's a special kit to collect their urine so I don't have to bring them to vet on the bus.

Looking back, I think Maru's pee has been very watery and I did not realize it, just thought it must be the little extra water in the food I give them because Punky needs it,. Punky's pee is watery. Also Maru is a very tired 2 year old, she's got less energy than her senior roommate. She also seems a lot weaker like she doesn't have much muscle. Maru never seemed normal to me, her eyes are strange, her body feels weird, it's hard to explain. Punky has a big appetite and seems very strong and energetic Maru's appetite is not great but she always eats something. She prefers dry food but I didn't give it to her much because the older one shouldn't have it. Feel guilty, occasionally been shutting Maru in a room giving her dry food as a treat sometimes thinking she's 2 it can't hurt her like Punky. Wish I hadn't done that.

'

I feed them mostly Weruva, that's the staple, with a little friskies special diet and regular, canned food. Also alternate other foods like nature's variety, hound gatos, fussie cat, a little Mauri kangaroo, even sheba. I tried various raw food with them and discovered Punky is completely intolerant some reason, it took a while to figure that out. Maru just won't eat it much raw and it's too hard to keep it away from Punky. 

Punky throws up sometimes, mostly seems to happen when she goes too long not being fed and I think its acid reflux related or something.

Maru does not seem to throw up.

Did I do something to their kidneys trying to feed them raw while they were sick?

It's just weird I have 2 cats with kidney problems happening. My last cat had for 10 years and her kidneys were fine, but cancer got her.

What else can I do for these cats?

Punky is the dilute calico and Maru is the the dilute tortoiseshell, maybe their pee is dilute because they are dilute? kidding

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• chalupa
• May 24, 2015

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• chalupa
• May 24, 2015

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

Boy I tell you, NEITHER one of them look like kidney patients!

  I have a kidney cat, and she looks like a walking skeleton with fur.  Yours are nice and "healthy" looking

.

I don't think you did anything wrong by feeding them a little raw.  I used to feed raw too...had just barely converted over to raw when my old girl got kidney disease, but she had been on kibble for 12 years before that, and I think that's what probably did it.  I discussed continuing feeding raw with my Vet, and she was ok with it, as long as I substituted egg shell powder for the bone.  Problem was, my Callie decided she didn't like raw anymore, and since kidney cats have an issue (normally

) with appetite anyway, I wasn't going to force the issue.  I feed her whatever she will eat. 

Anyway, I think before you start panicking, you need the whole story, which I guess you won't get until your Vet gets back.  IF there is an infection on board, your Vet should be able to determine the proper antibiotic to give her to heal it. 

Don't beat yourself up thinking YOU did this by sneaking her a little dry food as a treat.  There is actually no scientific proof that dry food causes kidney disease, even though many people believe that a diet strictly made up of dry food can cause it.  I, myself believe it now, because I am on my third kidney cat, and I USED to free feed kibble.  That stopped about three years ago, and I just hope it is soon enough to prevent it in my two 6 year old cats

.  But you mainly feed a good quality wet food, so diet isn't to blame her.  Sometimes things just happen, just like some of us are predisposed to certain diseases

.

I would like to say, though, that I'm wondering if Maru is really as young as you think.  Many cats adopted from shelters are "presented" as younger than they really are.  Sometimes their age is really unknown, and sometimes it is misrepresented because lots of people want young cats vs older cats.  Have you asked your Vet how old he thinks she is? 

final thought right now is to leave you with this link, which is my "go to" for anything kidney related:  http://www.felinecrf.org/index.htm  If Maru DOES end up with both kidney disease and Hyperthyroidism, this link will prove helpful to you as they discuss related diseases and how to handle, etc. 

 

[chalupa]

Hi @mrsgreenjeens  thanx for writing. I clicked on the photos of your cats they are very beautiful I love how shiny the black ones are in photos, they both have such cute faces too. What are you feeding your cats these days?

My cats don't seem very sick. From what I understand neither cat is in serious trouble yet. Both vets told me all I can do is make sure they get a lot of high quality protein and water. They do pee a lot though and it is not very strong smelling. The older one seems a bit healthier  than the younger one. It's true I know nothing about this young cat Maru she could be older. 

 I'm  tired of going to the vet after everything with my last cat. I'm also financially wiped out. Just can't believe something might be wrong with this younger cat, she was supposed to be the healthy one. Took the senior cat home because she was wonderful, she got in my head, under my skin, had no choice, but I knew she might have health issues. Punky's a great cat. It seems like she runs everywhere instead of walks, she's always ready to play.

Now that I know Maru might be not feeling well she makes a little more sense. Maru totally seems like the sickly the runt of a litter and the older cat seems lie the fat one that always got the most milk, or dry food. Friend of mine told me maybe Maru has a birth defect.

Cats are funny with appetite and my last cat Chalupa was so picky her whole life and then she got cancer and it got way worse. These two new cats are so easy, Punky especially is never not hungry. She will eat anything! Maru is a little less excited by food but she will eat pretty easily and her appetite is great compared to Chalupas.

Thanx for the linx I am only familiar with Tanya's site, though its's a little overwhelming. I really don't understand kidney disease very well yet, it sounds scary.

About your dry fed cats, Chalupa ate only dry food most of her life, not because I didn't try to give her wet, she just wouldn't touch wet food. It wasn't until we moved to another country where she wouldn't touch the tap water or any of dry foods. I tried everything to get her to drink water and eat and it took over a week!  After almost ten days without food, she ate only one type of canned food it was a pate that I had to mix with the water, she drank it. I also got her to eat one type of dry too. All the others I had tried, canned, dry she still never touched, had to give away to another cat. Chalupa never had kidney problems but did have constipation issues that were never resolved. She had intestinal lymphoma.

I really hope I don't have to go through a ton of tests to find out if there is something wrong with Maru, this is so depressing. Know, it could always be worse. On the up side, both of these cats go to sleep at night when I do and stay asleep until I wake up, Chalupa hated letting me sleep.

thanx again

 

[chalupa]

@mrsgreenjeens  how is your cat that has kidney problems? how often do you take her to vet, check urine and stuff? Does she vomit? Take antacid? binders?

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

 
@mrsgreenjeens  how is your cat that has kidney problems? how often do you take her to vet, check urine and stuff? Does she vomit? Take antacid? binders?

We don't take her to the Vet very often....only if she starts acting really sick, ... a "different"  kind of sick.  But I DO call the Vet whenever I have questions, or read something, or want to try something new.  For instance, I recently read that the prescription Pepcid A/C can be injected vs pilling or liquid form.  Since Callie is impossible for us to pill, I simply called the Vet and asked about it.  She said no need to bring her in for that, she asked how Callie was doing, how often she was throwing up the frothy  stuff, etc., then simply called in the prescription to the compounding pharmacy

  (so by this, you can see that, yes, sometimes she throws up the frothy stuff, but more than that, I can just tell by the way she lays that she has the signs of excess stomach acid.   I refer you  here:  http://www.felinecrf.org/nausea_vomiting_stomach_acid.htm    Another thing I do to combat this which helps a LOT is to feed her lots of small meals all day long, and during the night too.  I keep Temptations Treats under my pillow in a ziploc baggie.  She will wake me up with kisses on my cheek and I will give her just a few, then a few hours later she will do it again.  3 or 4 times

.  What I wouldn't give for a solid 7 hours sleep, but she needs this, so I do it

So...basically we treat her symptoms vs to actual disease.  It doesn't really matter what her numbers are to us.  It's quality of life, so as long as she appears to be feeling ok, no matter what her numbers say, we good with it.  She could act great, and her numbers be horrible, or vice versa, so numbers, to us, don't matter too much, especially since she's so hard to medicate.  If she's feeling "punk", we know to increase her fluids (more often).  Again, our Vet is so great to work with, and we went thru this same thing with

Sven

just a couple of years ago.  When his time came, our Vet cried right along  with us

. 

As far as binders, we do NOT use them.  Callie is very picky about her food, and it's hard to get away with putting much in there

  Plus our Vet doesn't really like to use them because they can cause their own set of issues.  So I just try to find foods with phosphorus levels under 1 % and with with them.  

She has good days and bad days.  She weighs about 4.5 lbs, but at her prime weight, she was probably over 10 lbs!  We've been able to maintain her weight now for awhile, and I'm trying everything I know of to get her to gain.  I keep a log every day of how much she eats.  Some days it's only 1.75 oz, and other days it's over 4 oz.  Those are the days we celebrate

.  Now that her injectable Pepcid is here, I'm hoping to see a lot more of them. 

. 

She'll be 16 in August, BTW, so she's getting on up there.  But she can still jump up on the kitchen counter and she's quick as all get out when she wants to be.  And she still enjoys a good petting session with DH.  He's the apple of her eye, and vice versa.   When she comes in and jumps on his lap, everything else stops and those two act like they're in love.  It's goofy the way they stare into each others' eyes and talk to each other...she meows and meows at him and he coos to her and pets her and brushes her and can makes her day

 

Oh, as far as what I feed them, the boys eat Nutro Natural Choice mainly, and sometimes Darko will eat Fancy  Feast CLASSICS and Sheba Pate.  Tinky is extremely picky and ONLY likes one flavor Nutro and nothing else, so far

.  Callie eats whatever I can get her to eat, but i try NOT to feed her Fancy Feast CLASSICS, because they are too high in phosphorus.

 

[dsk1964]

do not feed your cat or your dog hard food it causes kidney stones I have been through this all..there is a page on Facebook all for the love of Alex

 

[chalupa]

Callie and and her anipals are very lucky to have you.

Thank you for the great snack idea. Imagine a dry snack is better than nothing for punky to prevent acid buildup. She only seem to sometimes vomit when I am away at work for very long over 12 hours. It's usually just a little fluid.

Is Sheba known to be lower in phosphorous than Fancy Feast? I just feed certain Friskies because I saw them on Dr. Pierson's list as being lower phosphorous. Don't remember Sheba being on there.  They love those new sheba small portion size entrees some reason. They both go nuts for it. My local pet store doesn't carry a lot of popular brands, they don't have nutro there or I'd try it. The owners are very picky pet parents, for instance they won't carry any brands in any way involved with the big pet food recall, think in 2007 or so. They analyze all the ingredients in every food and research the company everything they carry. They also don't carry any cheaper grocery brands, but I also pick those foods up sometimes anyway when I go to various stores.

I'm so afraid of sub q fluids, don't think I could administer at home, had a hard time with b-12 injection with last cat. Want to prevent having to do that. How often does your vet recommend you giving Callie fluids? Does the sub q fliuids prevent further loss of  kidney function?

Did Sven have kidney disease? Sorry for asking, I can tell he was very important. I know how it is,  still feel half dead after my cat Chalupa died. She was cool, I'm a dork, she made me feel cooler. These new cats are real sweet, they help, and I need them.  Chalupa had such a presence, she was different, she gave me something live for, she was a pain in the ass, but being alive without her still doesn't feel right. With these new cats feel like everything is going wrong now.

 

[chalupa]

@dsk1964  will do. I believe you. Only intend to feed few pieces of dry as a treat. Doubt mrsgreenjeans would ever feed dry only again too. What happened to Alex? I know nothing about kidney stones.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

 
Callie and and her anipals are very lucky to have you.

Thank you for the great snack idea. Imagine a dry snack is better than nothing for punky to prevent acid buildup. She only seem to sometimes vomit when I am away at work for very long over 12 hours. It's usually just a little fluid.

Yes, 12 hours is a long time to go for a kidney cat.  But unless you have a feeder on a timer, she might eat what you leave out right away, and STILL go 12 hours without any food

  BUT, if you have a feeder on a timer, you could actually but some frozen canned food in there and it might be okay.  It would take a little time for it to thaw, then should be ok for a couple of hours, I would think.  THAT might work for you. That was she's still eating only wet food since you aren't doing sub-qs YET

Is Sheba known to be lower in phosphorous than Fancy Feast? I just feed certain Friskies because I saw them on Dr. Pierson's list as being lower phosphorous. Don't remember Sheba being on there.  They love those new sheba small portion size entrees some reason. They both go nuts for it. My local pet store doesn't carry a lot of popular brands, they don't have nutro there or I'd try it. The owners are very picky pet parents, for instance they won't carry any brands in any way involved with the big pet food recall, think in 2007 or so. They analyze all the ingredients in every food and research the company everything they carry. They also don't carry any cheaper grocery brands, but I also pick those foods up sometimes anyway when I go to various stores.

Yes, Sheba PATE has about half the phosphorus than Fancy Feast CLASSICS.  But the rest of the Fancy Feasts are better with phosphorus.   You're right that Sheba isn't on Dr. Pierson's chart, but I got the info somewhere else (I think on a diabetes site)   And certain  Friskies ARE good as far as phosphorus levels go

  I don't think Nutro is all that low is phos, so maybe it's a good thing you can't find it.  Most of the Nutro isn't on Dr. Pierson's list either

  Only my boys eat that one.

I'm so afraid of sub q fluids, don't think I could administer at home, had a hard time with b-12 injection with last cat. Want to prevent having to do that. How often does your vet recommend you giving Callie fluids? Does the sub q fliuids prevent further loss of  kidney function?

You need to change your thinking to "I'm not hurting them, I'm HELPING them

".    I know it seems hard, and most everyone here who's said "I can't do it", has eventually done it and most have ended up wondering why they worried so much about it.  If you have a cat that's pretty mellow, giving fluids is really pretty easy.  We give Callie fluids only once a week right now, although we probably should do it twice a week.  As as to the B-12 injections, those are actually GOOD for kidney cats too.  I don't know, since we started giving Callie her injections, she acts like she doesn't even feel them, although her's are sub-q injections too, and the needles are the same as with insulin...teeny tiny and really short too.  We use special needles for her sub-q's too that are super sharp and more hollow inside than some, so the liquid flows really fast.  Her fluids are done in just a couple of minutes before she has a chance to get restless.  But if your Vet hasn't recommended it yet, then they  must not need them yet.  Just try to make sure they stay hydrated.  Add extra water to their food, get a fountain if you don't already have one, entice them to drink by doing some of these things:  http://www.thecatsite.com/a/tips-to-increase-your-cat-s-water-intake   I'm not sure if fluids prevent further loss of kidney functions, but they definitely make the cats; feel better, because they help flush out the toxins that build up.

Did Sven have kidney disease? Sorry for asking, I can tell he was very important. I know how it is,  still feel half dead after my cat Chalupa died. She was cool, I'm a dork, she made me feel cooler. These new cats are real sweet, they help, and I need them.  Chalupa had such a presence, she was different, she gave me something live for, she was a pain in the ass, but being alive without her still doesn't feel right. With these new cats feel like everything is going wrong now.

Yes, Sven had kidney disease too

.  And so did Middle, another of our cats

.  If only I knew then what I (think) I know now.  Sven was my Soul Cat, so it was devastating when he got this and I had to watch him waste away to almost nothing.  But I always told him I wouldn't make him stay with me if he didn't want to, that I would let him go when he was ready, and by golly, the day he told me he was ready, I kept my promise.  And as I mentioned above, even our Vet broke down and cried.  She loved him as much as we did, and I was just afraid she would have a hard time"doing the deed" through her tears

Sounds like Chalupa was YOUR Soul Cat, but be that as it may, I'm sure you love your new cats with all your heart , as I do mine, and don't know what I'd do without them.  (They got me through when my Svennie died).   Things are not necessarily going "wrong" with  your little ones, sometimes it's just NATURE.  Just remember, NOW more then ever, they NEED you

 

[chalupa]

mrsgreenjeens Thanks for all your helpful answers, thoughts, suggestions, encouragement. I'm sorry about Sven, that must have been awful to go through. Chalupa was to me like Sven was to you I think. I really appreciate my cats now, even though I'm disappointed there are already health problems coming up. With Chalupa, I tried and tried, at home at the vet, with the shots. I start shaking and I made her nervous I think. At home I couldn't keep her still. So I used to bring her on the bus every week to the vet techs to do it. Sub q looks way worse!!! Kidney disease is like my worst nightmare and I might have two kidney patients on my hands! I'm lucky you're here though, thank you, will keep trying to do the best I can for them. Down the road, maybe I will handle it better, hopefully. Thanks again for taking the time to write, wish you and your anipals the best.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

@mrsgreenjeensThanks for all your helpful answers, thoughts, suggestions, encouragement. I'm sorry about Sven, that must have been awful to go through. Chalupa was to me like Sven was to you I think. I really appreciate my cats now, even though I'm disappointed there are already health problems coming up. With Chalupa, I tried and tried, at home at the vet, with the shots. I start shaking and I made her nervous I think. At home I couldn't keep her still. So I used to bring her on the bus every week to the vet techs to do it. Sub q looks way worse!!! Kidney disease is like my worst nightmare and I might have two kidney patients on my hands! I'm lucky you're here though, thank you, will keep trying to do the best I can for them. Down the road, maybe I will handle it better, hopefully. Thanks again for taking the time to write, wish you and your anipals the best.

With the shots, etc. you can't take time to think about it, you just have to stick it in

.  If you think about it, you wlll get too nervous

.    My hubby is a nurse, and he has a hard time with the CATS.  Humans, no problems, but our furkids, OMG . 

Worst case scenario, see if you can hire a Vet Tech to come to your house to administer whatever needs to be done, if/when the time comes.  You might find one who lives near you, and I'm sure they would charge a LOT less than having to go to the Vet's office for services.  Just call around to Vet's that are in your area and ask if any of the tech's do home visits, say, when someone goes on vacation and has a sick pet.  That's how we found ours.  We went on a 2 week cruise and had a Vet Tech come in and give Sven his Sub-qs.  She just sync'd up with our neighbor who was cat sitting the rest of the crew. 

Hang in there...no need to worry prematurely about doing fluids before you are told you need to

. 

 

[chalupa]

Wow @mrsgreenjeens you are lucky! Wish I had a husband who was a nurse for times like this. It does make me feel a bit better that even he had trouble with the needles and the cats. Wish the cats could speak. When I tried to do it once at the vet, I stabbed myself! Chalupas reaction to me giving her injection was so awful, I decided the techs would do it then on. Maybe it was my cat being on prednisolone too, it might have effected her behavior. It did bring her back from the dead temporarily. That drug is amazing!
There is a tech in my neighborhood but I always wanted to be cool and do it myself. Didn't want to bother with schedules and stuff. The vet techs used to do the job free, whenever I dropped by, well I paid for the fluids, trouble was getting over there. I'll stop worrying for now, and try to enjoy these wonderful creatures while I still can. Thanx again.