Constipation And High-ish Creatinine: Early Kidney Disease?

[Yanaka]

Hey all,

I'm back on the forum to talk about baby Salmon. Not so baby anymore (he's 10 months now!) and he's still having a few issues.

He seems to be constipated (large stools whatever the food, soft sphincter that sometimes stays a little open, he's had accidents outside the litter box and some discomfort) and I see him drink often (which I'm not sure is bad, he could have a good thirst drive, too?). He vomited one day which I attributed to me leaving raw food out too long, but since I was worried about the poop stuff I made an appointment with another vet that I've been wanting to try.

She did blood work on him and everything seems to be normal except for a slightly abnormal creatinine. He had a fever the day of the consult (~103) but it could have been stress since I took his temperature this morning on the vet's instructions and it was normal (100.9).

Her suggestions are to either do x-rays now to look for a kidney stone or wait a few months and do more blood work to check his creatinine. She also wants to change his diet to a prescription diet but I'm worried about Royal Canin and Hill's... Obviously I want to make sure he'll eat wet food, but I've always hated those brands so I'm not sure what to do now.

She's pretty ok with me not wanting cat food with grain, and also the cat is allergic to chicken. He eats wet food right now (Nutro and I'm trying to introduce American Journey--I get them off Rad Cat because it's too expensive, unpractical, and the sister didn't want it anymore) with dry sometimes if I leave long or they're being picky (but it's sporadic). He's an incredibly active kitty who's happy and alert, he's the best.

Does anyone have experience with this? What did you try, what were your cat's issues with abnormal creatinine levels? Unfortunately I haven't received the exact results yet (she called yesterday), but she says it's "borderline," i.e. not alarming but abnormal.

Thanks peeps!

 

[duckpond]

I dont really have any experience to give you. One thing i will say, we hear a lot of bad things about the prescription diets, not good quality ingredients and such. However i will also say that most people who need to feed them to their cats for specific reasons usually have good results with them. so i think they do work for many cats.

My vet has always said, that " i know how these prescription foods react with most cats, for most conditions." so it may be something that you want to feed, even if only for a short time until you get his medical conditions under control, then at some point in the future, with your vets ok, you can try to switch back to other foods.? The prescription diet may benefit, and it may not need to be long term? Sending you guys my best thoughts and wishes, that he is better soon!

 

[Yanaka]

Thanks! I'm curious to know if it's curable, though.

 

[Saf]

It's difficult to see a ten month old kitten having CKD. Acute kidney problems but not chronic. Numbers become elevated when around 70% of kidney function has been lost and it's difficult to see that happening without some underlying cause, such as ingesting a toxin or a kidney infection.

I'd get the vet to take a urlne sample, check his urine specific gravity and send it off to be cultured.

Personally I would not give him a prescription diet. Hills and Royal Canin make terrible food that is likely to cause health problems from diabetes to kidney disease.

It's the classic "Sell you the problem, then sell you the solution". Here's an excellent article from a UK newspaper that should give all pet owners food for thought when being advised to give a prescription food:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ure-feeding-pet-killing--making-vet-rich.html

I think vets can over diagnose conditions like CKD and the cynic would say it's so they can sell you the food. CKD is diagnosed with multiple clinical signs, not just a one off borderline creatinine result.

Personally I would stick with the raw and cut out all the dry.

If he was a little dehyrated when the bloods were taking then this might have pushed his numbers up. If get done again when he's eating and drinking well and hopefully they'd be back to normal again.

 

[Yanaka]

Thank you.

I stopped the raw food a few weeks ago. He started having very thick stools at the same time I started raw food a few months back--I'm talking an inch wide. Lately, I saw him having issues pooping (he'd be pooping and then would sit down or would leave the litter box with poop still sticking out) and his sphincter stays open sometimes. This is the second vet I see for the issue in bold and I've also mentioned it on the forum before. Nobody has an answer about this and neither of the two vets have mentioned it even though I bring it up. But to me this is very concerning as he could get an infection or issues with his organs descending if his muscles are too soft and his anus gapes (again, sometimes--but wait too often to be ignored).

I am supposed to bring in a urine sample this week to help us pinpoint what the issue is.

Oh! I forgot to say that his anal glands were full apparently and they expressed them. But I don't know how significant that is

 

[Yanaka]

He's switched to diarrhea in the past couple of days. We had another vet appointment today anyway, so they checked him again and did x rays to make sure there aren't any stones. Obviously I hope he doesn't have anything, but I'm not sure where we'd go from here since something isn't right anyway... I still need to get a urine sample, which sounds a little hard to get. I'd be happy to get any tips, they gave me a container and plastic litter that won't absorb anything but will trick him into peeing on it so I can collect.

 

[Saf]

Ideally it's best for the vet to take a urine sample directly from his bladder, it has to have some in there though when he's at the vet . The advantage of that way is that it's sterile and can be sent to be cultured to determine if he has a UTI. If you can only one from home that's still useful for determining if his urine is dilute and other things. I always found you need about half a dozen of the little bags of plastic balls to make the litter tray look full, but if you've only got one it will have to do and hopefully he'll go in it.

It's hard to say what the connection, if any, there is between if poop problems and any kidney issues so I'm not sure about that.

 

[Yanaka]

She says dehydration can cause both constipation and diarrhea but the cat didn’t seem dehydrated to her. So I don’t know. He’s on antibiotics for a couple of weeks and I’m feeding another food now because I think I stopped Nutro in the first place because their stool was a little loose on it. We’ll see—I’m pretty concerned, though.

I need to clean a litter box and isolate him to collect the urine, maybe I’ll be able to just stick the container under him when he goes...

 

[Azazel]

This website might be helpful to learn about constipation.
Feline Constipation Home Page

I don't agree with your vet that dehydration can cause diarrhea. It's the other way around.

 

[Yanaka]

Hi, here!
I thought it was fair to give an update. These issues weren’t resolved until my other cat was also constipated. One time I was (having friends over) Moon couldn’t pass her stools and I saw a bunch of fur sticking out. I didn’t follow recommendations here and i pulled on it to help her. After that, one of them threw up fur. So I figured that maybe it was as simple as that: they were investing too much fur. I bought a Furminator deshedder and although they hate it, it helps tremendously! If I don’t do it enough they have too much fur in their system again, but when I do it regularly they’re normal.

I spoke with a friend of mine who went through the same months of doubt and vet visits and her cat even had SURGERY. When they opened him up he had FURBALLS. The vets frigging opened up the cat over a furball. Now she also brushes him every week and he’s fine. How do outdoors cats manage? Probably from running around and having shorter fur? Who knows.

 

[Azazel]

Hi, here!
I thought it was fair to give an update. These issues weren’t resolved until my other cat was also constipated. One time I was (having friends over) Moon couldn’t pass her stools and I saw a bunch of fur sticking out. I didn’t follow recommendations here and i pulled on it to help her. After that, one of them threw up fur. So I figured that maybe it was as simple as that: they were investing too much fur. I bought a Furminator deshedder and although they hate it, it helps tremendously! If I don’t do it enough they have too much fur in their system again, but when I do it regularly they’re normal.

I spoke with a friend of mine who went through the same months of doubt and vet visits and her cat even had SURGERY. When they opened him up he had FURBALLS. The vets frigging opened up the cat over a furball. Now she also brushes him every week and he’s fine. How do outdoors cats manage? Probably from running around and having shorter fur? Who knows.

Curious - are you feeding bone? While bone itself can be a source of constipation, I read that the purpose of fur is to help cushion the passing of bone. I always wondered whether indoor cats get hair balls because they don’t eat enough bone and instead ingest too much fur.

I’m assuming that your cats are on all wet food already? If not, they probably should be.

 

[Yanaka]

Yes they are (as stated more than once in this thread I think ). Always have been! Sometimes they get dry when they are on a hunger strike but it gives them very pungent loose stools. They used to be on raw food but it wasn’t that manageable and their poop was huge.