My giant baby cat, Avery, (he's 4 years old, I just call him a giant baby because he looks cute but is 10 lbs.) has a history of bladder stones so I've kept him on wet food with added water for a bit over a year since I adopted him. I gave him strictly wet food, Medi-cal Preventive, and I'd add 50-100% water (by volume) on top of the canned food to encourage water consumption. The animal shelter told me it was cheap dry food that caused his struvite stones in the first place.
I took him to the vet for a checkup recently, and blood work and urine analyses were conducted.
Today, the vet called and said his blood work came back fine, but that the specific gravity in his urine analysis was outside of normal ranges. He said a cat should have '10-40' and not below, but Avery has '10-12'.
He indicated that it could be a sign of early kidney failure, or that I'm force-feeding him too much water by mixing into the canned food. The vet suggested that I refrain from feeding him much canned food, and stick to dry only (with water available) to test his 'concentrating ability'. I will then take him back to the vet for another test in a month's time.
Can anybody comment on these specific gravity figures? Is there a 'layman's guide to vet-speak' that I can read up on? Thanks everyone for your help!!!
I took him to the vet for a checkup recently, and blood work and urine analyses were conducted.
Today, the vet called and said his blood work came back fine, but that the specific gravity in his urine analysis was outside of normal ranges. He said a cat should have '10-40' and not below, but Avery has '10-12'.
He indicated that it could be a sign of early kidney failure, or that I'm force-feeding him too much water by mixing into the canned food. The vet suggested that I refrain from feeding him much canned food, and stick to dry only (with water available) to test his 'concentrating ability'. I will then take him back to the vet for another test in a month's time.
Can anybody comment on these specific gravity figures? Is there a 'layman's guide to vet-speak' that I can read up on? Thanks everyone for your help!!!