Willy ~ Renal failure

[AvaJoy]

Schuyler was recently diagnosed and we give him sub-qs daily and half a a pill (forget the name; begins with a "b") for his heart to help his kidneys function better. He is doing really well so far. Try to get Willy off the dry food because wet is what cats need for optimum health, as stated earlier by someone. Visit www.catinfo.org to understand why cats should not eat dry food. I am surprised your vet did not do blood work for a conclusive diagnosis, and also why sub-qs were not prescribed. Along with others above, I suggest you consider getting a second opinion. Willy may not even have CRF, and without blood work your present vet could simply SUSPECT that is the condition. So, you need a definitive treatment plan, upon getting a thorough diagnostic work-up. If his blood levels indicate the disease, then you can begin management. Many cats live quite a few years, and I wish this for your Willy and my Schuyler.

[kuhio98]

I stopped by the vet this morning to pick up more k/d food. Dr. Townsend gave me a few minutes to ask some questions.

1. Willy does not have Chronic Renal Failure. He has Acute Renal Failure. I asked him what the difference was and he said that chronic comes on slowly over time. Acute can be the result of a kitty being blocked where the kidney's got damaged. (Willy has never been blocked). Or it could be that he was born with one or both kidney's damaged. That's what he suspects at this point.

2. It is okay for all our cats to eat the k/d food. He said that if we had cats 3-years old or younger, he would not recommend it but since all of ours are older, it's okay -- expensive -- but okay.

3. All kitties are liking the k/d. They don't LOVE it, but they like it. After Willy sacks out at night, I gave Willow (she's a night owl) some regular food.

4. We take Willy back to the vet for more urine and blood tests mid-April.

5. Results of Willy's tests:
BUN (normal 14-36 mg/dL).................Willy is 99 - high
Creatinine (normal 0.6-2.4 mg/dL).......Willy is 8.0 - high
Phosphorus (normal 2.4-8.2 mg/dL).....Willy is 10.0 - high
Potassium (normal 3.4-5.6 mEq/L).......Willy is 3.3 - low
Na/K Ratio (normal 32-41).................Willy is 45 - high

[Lizzie]

I'm glad you got back to us, Lisa; I've been checking the thread every few hours. I'm sorry it's a more serious kind of renal failure and hope you can give Willy plenty more quality time.

Your vet still isn't promoting sub-q fluids? Whenever Sam's counts went high (BUN and Creatinine), and other that of other cats, I always boosted the amount of fluids and found the counts lowering. Fluids will make him feel good too and could increase his appetite. You can use phosphorous binders to lower the phosphorous count, although Willy won't thank you for giving him Maalox. My vet told me that cats become nauseated and feel generally awful when their phosphorous count is high. And, your vet could give you potassium supplements for Willy since that is low.

Are you thinking of a kidney transplant for Willy?

[kuhio98]

Thanks everyone. I'm sorry that I neglected to mention in my original post that the diagnosis was made from the blood test. I didn't have the results with me at the time, but now I do and posted his #'s earlier.

We're thrilled that Willy likes the k/d food. I need to get a movie of it because I hear it's pretty unusual for cats to like it. But you know cats. Right now he likes it -- tomorrow, who knows?

Vet still doesn't think sub-q fluids are necessary right now -- he mentioned that it might be necessary "down the line". Whether that's because he isn't too bad right now or ??? I don't know. Sorry, I need to ask him more questions.

Nope, we're not even thinking kidney transplant at this point. I mentioned it to our vet and he didn't think it was worth discussing yet. He did say that they had discussed offering this procedure in Alaska at one point, but as far as he knew, no one performs it up here. But, we will explore that option soon. Working on getting a second opinion. We got back for more blood/urine tests in April. We'll see how the numbers look then.

I may not be around for a while. My step-daughter (the one whose husband just passed away) arrives tonight from Hawaii. We'll be busy with whatever support she needs. And, I've been called (Oh Joy) for jury duty. But, I will be checking in. Please keep those ideas, questions and suggestions coming. I'm making a list of them to ask the vet -- and the 2nd opinion vet. I'm thinking of Dr. Priddy. We took Halo to him when she had the tumor on her liver and he helped Glacier's Heyoka a while back.

Thanks everyone. I really, really, really appreciate it and so does Bobcat. He doesn't "do" computers, so I print everything for him to read.