Am I overreacting?

Twylasmom

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For the past few days Twyla (age 14ish) has been picky about her food, only eating a little bit or just walking away altogether. When she eats dry (only given in small amounts) she has regurgitated it a couple of times. Upon weighing she has lost about 4-6 ounces since her routine check up a month ago. She has also urinated twice outside the litter box in the past 10 days (which she has never done). I went ahead and scheduled a vet visit for Thursday to get a full blood panel done as she also had a high SDMA at her last visit.

Of course tonight she polished off her dinner and is currently chasing her brother around the house! She doesn’t seem to be in any discomfort and was stretched out napping belly up on my lap earlier.

Would you still keep the appointment? My inclination is yes (even though she is very uncooperative when it comes to blood draws).
 

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Yep, vet visit. But also ask about a urinalysis. Might as well get it done while you have Twyla there. Most vets collect blood via cystocentesis (sterile needle and syringe used to collect urine directly from the bladder). It will be about the same as the blood draw, so I would guess the same 'uncooperativeness' might be involved but won't lengthen the entire process by more than another 30 seconds or so.
 
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Twylasmom

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Twyla is back from the vet and I have nothing definitive, but there is definitely something happening. Bloodwork shows some early kidney function issues and her ALT is slightly increased. Thyroid value is creeping up but still within normal range (though she will doubtless be hyperthyroid sometime in the future). Urine was taken and is being cultured so should get those results in a couple of days. However, her right kidney was painful on palpitation and the X-ray shows that it is enlarged. The plan is to get her scheduled for an ultrasound of her kidney (which my vet doesn’t do) next week or the week after. Current plan is to give her gabapentin for pain and wait for results of the culture before doing anything else. I should have access to all the bloodwork in a couple of days when it gets uploaded to Twyla’s patient portal.

So definitely a good thing to take her in and get checked out. I am very concerned that this is going to be something serious but she is doing fine right now and hopefully the gaba will give her some pain relief.
 

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Maybe the urinalysis/culture will shed some light. Did you already receive the urinalysis results while you wait on the culture? If they are doing a culture, it would seem they saw something in the urinalysis that suggests bacteria and/or infection?

Good about getting the ultrasound done! Is it really only of the kidney(s) or an abdominal ultrasound, which would give you a status of her the other organs in her entire abdominal area? I only ask because I cannot imagine that an ultrasound of just the kidney(s) would be any cheaper than an entire abdominal ultrasound.

I hope the gabapentin helps!
 
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Twylasmom

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Maybe the urinalysis/culture will shed some light. Did you already receive the urinalysis results while you wait on the culture? If they are doing a culture, it would seem they saw something in the urinalysis that suggests bacteria and/or infection?

Good about getting the ultrasound done! Is it really only of the kidney(s) or an abdominal ultrasound, which would give you a status of her the other organs in her entire abdominal area? I only ask because I cannot imagine that an ultrasound of just the kidney(s) would be any cheaper than an entire abdominal ultrasound.

I hope the gabapentin helps!
It’s an abdominal ultrasound, poor girl will have to get her fluffy belly shaved. The urinalysis didn’t show infection or bacteria and the decision to do a culture was made after the kidney was observed on X-ray. Her hydration was normal, blood pressure normal and nothing on the urinalysis raised any real concerns. Of course the biggest concern here is cancer, but could also be infection, inflammation, or kidney stones. But for the moment she is eating well, alert and social and having normal litter box habits.
 
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Twylasmom

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It’s going to be a long two weeks until the ultrasound. Twyla is doing fine, but I am driving myself crazy looking up the possible diagnoses on the internet. Most likely thing seems to be something called ”big kidney-little kidney” in which one kidney is compensating for the other due to kidney disease or obstruction. Her right kidney is 30% larger than her left.

Twyla is extra special to me.I adopted her four years ago from a co-worker who no longer wanted her. In the eight months prior to adopting her I lost my mom to cancer, partner to a heart attack and my two senior kitties passed two days apart. She got me through a really tough time and is just the sweetest girl.
 
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Twylasmom

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A picture of my sweet girl taken today. She continues to eat fairly well and isn’t showing any outward signs of discomfort. Currently taking 1/2 of a 25 mg gabapentin twice a day. Might get the result of the urine culture tomorrow.
C5BB0CE1-333C-462E-AF23-635D0962DCBA.jpeg
 
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Twylasmom

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Twyla had her ultrasound today. She was a good girl. As suspected, one kidney is not functioning well and is slightly smaller than it should be and the other is working harder and is slightly larger than it should be. She is diagnosed as Stage 1 CKD based on this and her bloodwork. Vet does not want to go to a prescription diet yet since we are trying to maintain her GI function with Fiber Response dry food as 1/4 of her diet and pumpkin added to her wet food. Since she was on a weight loss diet I was feeding high protein/low carb and now need to transition to lower phosphorus/moderate protein options. I have posted under Cat Nutrition to get some quick suggestions of some foods to try while I figure out what will work best for her, but if you have thoughts let me know!

Keeping her on low dose gabapentin and will repeat bloodwork in 3 months.
 

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Have you already consulted the charts on Tanya's CKD website.
http://felinecrf.org/canned_food_usa.htm

Most of us, here, have used this website, as the 'go to for all things ckd related', for our ckd cats.
It has a list of foods, that you can go through, and use, to find what is best to try with your Twyla.

(I found it most useful, when my previous rainbow cat Spotty, was diagnosed with CKD and HCM, at age 14, after dental work...in 2014.
My rainbow Spotty did go on prescription Hills c/d food, for 1.5 years after his diagnosis. We also tried other prescription foods, but he was slowly losing weight. I also tried various brands of wet food, but at that time Wellness brands were what he seemed to like to eat most, concerning texture (pate only) and flavours. Some of the brands listed on Tanya's site, I could not get over here in canada, at the time.
My mistake was to not ask for a 'phosphorus binder' sooner, but also I was not paying attention to when some unexpected kittens came into my life, and Spotty was sneaking away, and eating their kitten food. I should have been more attentive.)

You doing repeat Bloodwork, in 3 months...is a really good thing. :bluepaw:

I'm sorry that you have to go through this ckd journey with your beautiful Twyla, now.
I do know, that in your hands she will have the best care, since I remember your 'cat intro thread', a while back, between Twyla and Hooper, (who I kind of erroneously remembered as cooper...so please don't tell your gorgeous black house panther, that.:paperbag:)

(I just should have remembered "the movie jaws"...and how you came to name him, but my perimenopausal brain is not much help in remembering things. Even if your Twyla and Hooper are two of my favorite TCS cats. :cloud9: That intro thread of yours was great, and so informative, with so much Patience. :)) :thumbsup: :jive:

All the Luck and Best Health Wishes to your Twyla cat...and that she actually eats the foods,...that you will buy and try. :crossfingers::bluepaw::greenpaw:

I remember it was a lot of 'nope, don't like it', or 'what's this', from Spotty, so hopefully Twyla will be a bit more willing.
At the end of the week, you'll feel like you're a 'survey taker for the different brands of cat foods', with Twyla, but we do it all out of Love for our cats, so we try, and try, and try. Plus, our cats show us tremendous Love, back. And keep our Lives so much more interesting. Good Luck, Twylasmom Twylasmom . :goodluck:
 
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Twylasmom

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Have you already consulted the charts on Tanya's CKD website.
http://felinecrf.org/canned_food_usa.htm

Most of us, here, have used this website, as the 'go to for all things ckd related', for our ckd cats.
It has a list of foods, that you can go through, and use, to find what is best to try with your Twyla.

(I found it most useful, when my previous rainbow cat Spotty, was diagnosed with CKD and HCM, at age 14, after dental work...in 2014.
My rainbow Spotty did go on prescription Hills c/d food, for 1.5 years after his diagnosis. We also tried other prescription foods, but he was slowly losing weight. I also tried various brands of wet food, but at that time Wellness brands were what he seemed to like to eat most, concerning texture (pate only) and flavours. Some of the brands listed on Tanya's site, I could not get over here in canada, at the time.
My mistake was to not ask for a 'phosphorus binder' sooner, but also I was not paying attention to when some unexpected kittens came into my life, and Spotty was sneaking away, and eating their kitten food. I should have been more attentive.)

You doing repeat Bloodwork, in 3 months...is a really good thing. :bluepaw:

I'm sorry that you have to go through this ckd journey with your beautiful Twyla, now.
I do know, that in your hands she will have the best care, since I remember your 'cat intro thread', a while back, between Twyla and Hooper, (who I kind of erroneously remembered as cooper...so please don't tell your gorgeous black house panther, that.:paperbag:)

(I just should have remembered "the movie jaws"...and how you came to name him, but my perimenopausal brain is not much help in remembering things. Even if your Twyla and Hooper are two of my favorite TCS cats. :cloud9: That intro thread of yours was great, and so informative, with so much Patience. :)) :thumbsup: :jive:

All the Luck and Best Health Wishes to your Twyla cat...and that she actually eats the foods,...that you will buy and try. :crossfingers::bluepaw::greenpaw:

I remember it was a lot of 'nope, don't like it', or 'what's this', from Spotty, so hopefully Twyla will be a bit more willing.
At the end of the week, you'll feel like you're a 'survey taker for the different brands of cat foods', with Twyla, but we do it all out of Love for our cats, so we try, and try, and try. Plus, our cats show us tremendous Love, back. And keep our Lives so much more interesting. Good Luck, Twylasmom Twylasmom . :goodluck:
Thank you for all of your kind words. Hooper and Twyla are still best buddies who love to snuggle and wrestle! I am familiar with Tanya's site and it is very helpful, though the food chart is a bit overwhelming! I wish it was downloadable and sortable. I have written down a few options to try (including some Wellness). Fortunately Twyla likes a wide variety of flavors but I'm not sure how she will do with different textures. She has been on low carb/high protein diet (as approved by vet) for weight loss since November and I hope that didn't kickstart her CKD. The good news is at this point she has a healthy appetite, no nausea and rarely vomits and behaves normally.
 

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I was able to download it and sort through it. Let me go back and see if I did anything special to get it to download.
I used MS Excel - Step 1.) I highlighted the top row of the chart (column titles) and pasted that into a blank Excel sheet. Step 2.) I highlighted all of the rows/columns and hit 'copy', then 'pasted' into the Excel sheet starting on the second row. All of the lines were copied in Step 2.

Then you can save the file, and adjust the columns as you need, up to and including sorting.

I would attach the file here, but Excel files aren't a recognized format on this site.
 
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Twylasmom

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I used MS Excel - Step 1.) I highlighted the top row of the chart (column titles) and pasted that into a blank Excel sheet. Step 2.) I highlighted all of the rows/columns and hit 'copy', then 'pasted' into the Excel sheet starting on the second row. All of the lines were copied in Step 2.

Then you can save the file, and adjust the columns as you need, up to and including sorting.

I would attach the file here, but Excel files aren't a recognized format on this site.
Duh, of course! Much more useful!
 
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Twylasmom

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Food trials have been hit or miss and there hasn’t been anything she likes consistently. Her appetite overall seems decreased and she didn’t eat much at all today, which is really unusual for her. No nausea, vomiting or signs of discomfort, but walked away from all wet food meals after eating really well yesterday. Did enthusiastically eat some dry and her bite of flaked tuna after her inhaler.

She is on a very low dose of gabapentin - could that affect her appetite? Should I ask my vet for an appetite stimulant or try sprinkling Fortiflora on her food first (I’ve never tried that)?
 

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Food trials have been hit or miss and there hasn’t been anything she likes consistently. Her appetite overall seems decreased and she didn’t eat much at all today, which is really unusual for her. No nausea, vomiting or signs of discomfort, but walked away from all wet food meals after eating really well yesterday. Did enthusiastically eat some dry and her bite of flaked tuna after her inhaler.

She is on a very low dose of gabapentin - could that affect her appetite?
Should I ask my vet for an appetite stimulant or try sprinkling Fortiflora on her food first (I’ve never tried that)?
I'm not sure about the gabapentin,...and how it affects appetite.
It does cause drowsiness, so perhaps if could affect a cat's wanting to eat, if too sleepy.🤔

Is Twyla taking the gabapentin for pain in her kidney, still ?
I wonder if because her one kidney has to work harder, to filter more regular toxins, then she feels slightly more ill, on certain days? :greenpaw:

When you use the inhaler, is it a steroid that increases her appetite?

How were Twyla's other blood work results?
Does she have good Teeth?

I would try the Fortiflora first.
(It's just more for the 'animal digest', than the probiotic effects.)

***Have you tried any of the ideas in this thread:
Any Good Tips To Get Your Cats To Eat? Share Them Here!

Another thing to pay attention to..if it is 'shedding season'... and if Twyla ingests a lot of fur.
A number of recent threads, have cats who will not eat as much, when they have ingested too much fur.
Then they vomit a hairball, and resume eating like normal, the second day.

If your Twyla is losing weight, and it's not a seasonal thing, (like from winter to spring, weather-related),...or if you find it very unusual, and if she is losing a lot of weight,...then I would talk to the Vet, about other things you can try to stimulate her appetite.

There is a newish drug called Elura for cats, and of course the mirtazapine...(some side-effects on the mirtazapine were pretty strong for my 7 year old cat, so I would try everything else first, and then try out the drugs).

But only you can see how much Twyla is eating,...and if your gut feeling is that 'something is off'...then go with your instincts, and talk to your Vet. :bluepaw:

When our cats become seniors, then things seem to move so quickly with their health,..so being attentive,...like you are doing is really good. :)
 
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