- Joined
- Feb 19, 2021
- Messages
- 35
- Purraise
- 45
I'm starting a new thread for a couple of reasons:
1. To share what I've learned in case it's helpful for anyone else
2. To ask a couple of questions in case someone has more visibility into my cat's potential situation
Long story short, my 5 year-old cat (otherwise healthy, muscular, proper weight for how long he is) was throwing up every 4-5 days for a couple of months. This was not surprising because we suspected that he had upper tract IBD and his sister (who we also own) has lower tract IBD. We've been able to control symptoms by feeding high quality wet food, but he has been known to have flare-ups. But we decided to take him to a vet, because his latest flare-up was lasting a relatively long time.
Vet visit #1: Blood test shows high creatinine (2.3), slightly elevated SDMA (15), and totally normal BUN. Urinalysis shows slightly low urine specific gravity (1.019). I freak out because I think my 5 y.o. cat may have CKD or some acute kidney distress.
At this point I begin mixing water into his wet food, which seems to substantially calm down his vomiting.
Vet visit #2 (1 month after visit #1): Ultrasound (performed by a specialized technician) shows a totally normal set of kidneys, but inflamed upper GI tract. Helps to confirm suspicion that cat has IBD but no support for CKD. Cat is still intermittently throwing up, but not as often as before.
Vet visit #3 (1 month after visit #2): Blood test shows even higher creatinine (2.6), SDMA test fails due to lab error, but BUN remains totally normal. Urinalysis shows improved specific gravity (1.030) which to my understanding is a normal number for a cat who only is fed wet food.
I freak out even more about the rising creatinine. I try to slowly switch him to kidney-friendly foods, and this sets off his IBD. He vomits almost every day for a couple of days, I switch him back to his normal food, but the vomiting continues. Vomiting is (and always has been) clear liquid with nothing in it, and almost always happens in the late afternoons. I begin feeding him 4x's a day, with an additional time around the later afternoons when he normally vomits. Vomiting stops with the exception of a hairball.
Internal Medicine Specialist Visit (1 month after visit #3): Creatinine has decreased back to 2.3 and BUN remains totally normal. Everything else looks great, but a new biomarker the specialist tested for, fPL which is an indicator for pancreatitis, is 2x the reference range. Specialist looks back over ultrasound results and sees that the pancreas was not inflamed. Specialist thinks my otherwise healthy 5 y.o. cat has IBD, chronic pancreatitis, and CKD.
I refuse to believe my young cat has 3 chronic diseases, so I do a little researching. There is a link between IBD and pancreatitis because of the structure of these organs, so this isn't that surprising to me. I see on Tanya's sight that there's a potential link between cats with mildly elevated creatinine and pancreatitis. However, to make matters more confusing, there's also data to suggest that CKD cats can have falsely elevated fPL, the biomarker for pancreatitis. Which leads me to my questions for the community:
1. Based off of this data (and always happy to provide more data if it's helpful), does it seem more likely that I have a cat with pancreatitis, CKD, or both pancreatitis and CKD here?
2. Does anyone have any experience with cats with pancreatitis having elevated creatinine? If so, did they also have elevated BUN?
3. Does anyone have advice for treating a cat with chronic pancreatitis? This new feeding schedule is helping a lot, but would love to hear any other potential tips you all have gathered.
Hope this ends up being helpful even though I don't have a *super* conclusive diagnosis here!
1. To share what I've learned in case it's helpful for anyone else
2. To ask a couple of questions in case someone has more visibility into my cat's potential situation
Long story short, my 5 year-old cat (otherwise healthy, muscular, proper weight for how long he is) was throwing up every 4-5 days for a couple of months. This was not surprising because we suspected that he had upper tract IBD and his sister (who we also own) has lower tract IBD. We've been able to control symptoms by feeding high quality wet food, but he has been known to have flare-ups. But we decided to take him to a vet, because his latest flare-up was lasting a relatively long time.
Vet visit #1: Blood test shows high creatinine (2.3), slightly elevated SDMA (15), and totally normal BUN. Urinalysis shows slightly low urine specific gravity (1.019). I freak out because I think my 5 y.o. cat may have CKD or some acute kidney distress.
At this point I begin mixing water into his wet food, which seems to substantially calm down his vomiting.
Vet visit #2 (1 month after visit #1): Ultrasound (performed by a specialized technician) shows a totally normal set of kidneys, but inflamed upper GI tract. Helps to confirm suspicion that cat has IBD but no support for CKD. Cat is still intermittently throwing up, but not as often as before.
Vet visit #3 (1 month after visit #2): Blood test shows even higher creatinine (2.6), SDMA test fails due to lab error, but BUN remains totally normal. Urinalysis shows improved specific gravity (1.030) which to my understanding is a normal number for a cat who only is fed wet food.
I freak out even more about the rising creatinine. I try to slowly switch him to kidney-friendly foods, and this sets off his IBD. He vomits almost every day for a couple of days, I switch him back to his normal food, but the vomiting continues. Vomiting is (and always has been) clear liquid with nothing in it, and almost always happens in the late afternoons. I begin feeding him 4x's a day, with an additional time around the later afternoons when he normally vomits. Vomiting stops with the exception of a hairball.
Internal Medicine Specialist Visit (1 month after visit #3): Creatinine has decreased back to 2.3 and BUN remains totally normal. Everything else looks great, but a new biomarker the specialist tested for, fPL which is an indicator for pancreatitis, is 2x the reference range. Specialist looks back over ultrasound results and sees that the pancreas was not inflamed. Specialist thinks my otherwise healthy 5 y.o. cat has IBD, chronic pancreatitis, and CKD.
I refuse to believe my young cat has 3 chronic diseases, so I do a little researching. There is a link between IBD and pancreatitis because of the structure of these organs, so this isn't that surprising to me. I see on Tanya's sight that there's a potential link between cats with mildly elevated creatinine and pancreatitis. However, to make matters more confusing, there's also data to suggest that CKD cats can have falsely elevated fPL, the biomarker for pancreatitis. Which leads me to my questions for the community:
1. Based off of this data (and always happy to provide more data if it's helpful), does it seem more likely that I have a cat with pancreatitis, CKD, or both pancreatitis and CKD here?
2. Does anyone have any experience with cats with pancreatitis having elevated creatinine? If so, did they also have elevated BUN?
3. Does anyone have advice for treating a cat with chronic pancreatitis? This new feeding schedule is helping a lot, but would love to hear any other potential tips you all have gathered.
Hope this ends up being helpful even though I don't have a *super* conclusive diagnosis here!