Apologies for length...
Background
Catherine is approximately 19 years old, found as a stray almost 10 years ago. I don't know how long she lived on the street but it took a *long* time for her to trust me. She has mellowed some with age, but she really doesn't like anyone but me.
She has had a couple recurring issues during her time with me, all of which I assume is why she was unceremoniously dumped by her previous humans. She has periodic back toe nail infections. They were very nasty at first but after many vet visits and patience, it is mostly under control with regular cleaning. In about 2008 she went to have her teeth cleaned and the vet identified significant tooth resorption that she estimated had been going on for many years to be that bad. She also had an incredibly bad time coming out of anesthesia. Her body temp crashed and no matter how many heating pads they had it wouldn't go up. It happened to be the hottest day that summer - 102 before heat index. They took her outside and sat with her in the shade and her temp started to recover. At the time they recommended against future use of anesthesia if at all possible. All of this caused them to adjust her age from approximately 6 to 11 - but they said it could be even higher or lower.
There are two other cats in the house, both male, a 7 year old anxious Ragdoll with urinary issues (successfully on Zoloft and Pepcid!) and a 1 year old energetic DSH kitten. The boys wrestle among themselves, Catherine has laid clear boundaries and does not participate. She will use the Ragdoll as her personal hot water bottle / living bed and sleep on him if it suits her. She wants nothing to do with the kitten yet, but it took her a couple years to warm up to the Ragdoll too.
Trouble
Cate started hiding about a week and a half ago, wouldn't come upstairs to my bedroom and didn't seem to be eating as much. She'll have a day once in a while where the other cats annoy her and she'll hide away so this wasn't initially worrying, except it lasted for longer than usual. We went to the vet Thursday. They gave her an antibiotic shot, in case she had an infection, and also gave her some sub q fluids. By the time we got home, she was a different cat . She's eaten like mad the past two days, no more hiding, back monitoring the squirrels in the bird feeders and even came upstairs a few times to see what I was up to.
Her blood labs came back Friday morning and the doctor said she has CKD. Her numbers are not outside of the normal ranges, but have gone up since her last labs 4 months ago. I'm supposed to get a urine sample tomorrow. The bloodwork from her last checkup in March and then Thursday is here:
I posted this on another forum for CKD support and everyone said these aren't CKD numbers, but Pancreatitis numbers instead. My regular vet is preparing for maternity leave and her replacement is new to the practice. I'm not sure if he just made a mistake or the internet could be wrong...
The Treatment
The vet told me I need to change her food and to separate Cate so she only eats the new Renal food. This is easier said than done. Cate has always been and is still a very delicate eater. She takes a couple bites, backs up, watches the food, waits minutes and then has another couple bites, repeats. Or she may walk away, watch the bird feeder for 15-20 minutes and then go back and eat again. Even when it is her most favorite food (kitten food) and there was a realistic possibility another cat could steal it from her, she's just measured.
The anxious Ragdoll is on Urinary SO. His issues seem largely under control for about a year now, between the food and the wonderful miracle that is Zoloft. I don't want to mess that up - it took a long time to get here. They have all-day access to his dry Urinary SO food and get a large can of Urinary SO moist food in the evening as well. But they all are grazers - it can take a couple hours for even the wet food to be done (I suspect Cate eats 2/3 of the wet food to be honest, the kitten prefers crunchy).
Eventually the vet conceded that Urinary SO is lower protein than regular cat food, so if I cannot get her exclusively on Renal, that may be OK. But now the guilt sets in. I could get her some Renal wet food in the morning and at night when the other wet food goes down, but I don't think I can prevent her from having a mid-day bite of the Urinary SO without locking her off from most of the house, but then she'd be miserable. I'm going to ask if that is worth it or not, I just don't want to lock her away all day or trigger the Ragdoll's anxiety changing his feeding around if the compromise will still do the trick.
And if it isn't CKD as he said, but Pancreatitis, then is the Urinary SO making it worse? I hope not.
I'm planning to talk to the vet or techs when I go back with the urine sample on Monday, to hopefully iron out the CKD vs. Pancreatitis.
Thank you in advance for any help or insight...
Background
Catherine is approximately 19 years old, found as a stray almost 10 years ago. I don't know how long she lived on the street but it took a *long* time for her to trust me. She has mellowed some with age, but she really doesn't like anyone but me.
She has had a couple recurring issues during her time with me, all of which I assume is why she was unceremoniously dumped by her previous humans. She has periodic back toe nail infections. They were very nasty at first but after many vet visits and patience, it is mostly under control with regular cleaning. In about 2008 she went to have her teeth cleaned and the vet identified significant tooth resorption that she estimated had been going on for many years to be that bad. She also had an incredibly bad time coming out of anesthesia. Her body temp crashed and no matter how many heating pads they had it wouldn't go up. It happened to be the hottest day that summer - 102 before heat index. They took her outside and sat with her in the shade and her temp started to recover. At the time they recommended against future use of anesthesia if at all possible. All of this caused them to adjust her age from approximately 6 to 11 - but they said it could be even higher or lower.
There are two other cats in the house, both male, a 7 year old anxious Ragdoll with urinary issues (successfully on Zoloft and Pepcid!) and a 1 year old energetic DSH kitten. The boys wrestle among themselves, Catherine has laid clear boundaries and does not participate. She will use the Ragdoll as her personal hot water bottle / living bed and sleep on him if it suits her. She wants nothing to do with the kitten yet, but it took her a couple years to warm up to the Ragdoll too.
Trouble
Cate started hiding about a week and a half ago, wouldn't come upstairs to my bedroom and didn't seem to be eating as much. She'll have a day once in a while where the other cats annoy her and she'll hide away so this wasn't initially worrying, except it lasted for longer than usual. We went to the vet Thursday. They gave her an antibiotic shot, in case she had an infection, and also gave her some sub q fluids. By the time we got home, she was a different cat . She's eaten like mad the past two days, no more hiding, back monitoring the squirrels in the bird feeders and even came upstairs a few times to see what I was up to.
Her blood labs came back Friday morning and the doctor said she has CKD. Her numbers are not outside of the normal ranges, but have gone up since her last labs 4 months ago. I'm supposed to get a urine sample tomorrow. The bloodwork from her last checkup in March and then Thursday is here:
I posted this on another forum for CKD support and everyone said these aren't CKD numbers, but Pancreatitis numbers instead. My regular vet is preparing for maternity leave and her replacement is new to the practice. I'm not sure if he just made a mistake or the internet could be wrong...
The Treatment
The vet told me I need to change her food and to separate Cate so she only eats the new Renal food. This is easier said than done. Cate has always been and is still a very delicate eater. She takes a couple bites, backs up, watches the food, waits minutes and then has another couple bites, repeats. Or she may walk away, watch the bird feeder for 15-20 minutes and then go back and eat again. Even when it is her most favorite food (kitten food) and there was a realistic possibility another cat could steal it from her, she's just measured.
The anxious Ragdoll is on Urinary SO. His issues seem largely under control for about a year now, between the food and the wonderful miracle that is Zoloft. I don't want to mess that up - it took a long time to get here. They have all-day access to his dry Urinary SO food and get a large can of Urinary SO moist food in the evening as well. But they all are grazers - it can take a couple hours for even the wet food to be done (I suspect Cate eats 2/3 of the wet food to be honest, the kitten prefers crunchy).
Eventually the vet conceded that Urinary SO is lower protein than regular cat food, so if I cannot get her exclusively on Renal, that may be OK. But now the guilt sets in. I could get her some Renal wet food in the morning and at night when the other wet food goes down, but I don't think I can prevent her from having a mid-day bite of the Urinary SO without locking her off from most of the house, but then she'd be miserable. I'm going to ask if that is worth it or not, I just don't want to lock her away all day or trigger the Ragdoll's anxiety changing his feeding around if the compromise will still do the trick.
And if it isn't CKD as he said, but Pancreatitis, then is the Urinary SO making it worse? I hope not.
I'm planning to talk to the vet or techs when I go back with the urine sample on Monday, to hopefully iron out the CKD vs. Pancreatitis.
Thank you in advance for any help or insight...