This is Frankie (17). My college kitty I found as a kitten inside/on top of a truck engine at the tire shop next to the sports bar I worked at. Fast forward almost two decades later, he has seen and experienced so many seasons with us. I’ll be forever grateful he was able to grow up with our 7yo son.

I noticed last week he wasn’t finishing his wet food (he is typically a garbage disposal), peed outside of his litter box twice, tried hiding in very weird, secretive places— so my husband (his favorite person) and I took him to our vet this past Friday. Obviously I received the phone called I had prayed not to yesterday. He is in end-stage kidney failure, suspected lymphoma in his kidneys as well.

He has also lost weight, at times disoriented to the point he would randomly attack our other kitty (they are friends) almost like he had forgotten who he was. I have been a wreck since the call yesterday, but it’s almost like he knows today is his time to go. He had filet last night, I slow cooked chicken in the crockpot last night (one of his very favorites) he didn’t finish any of it- but he’s very happy. We have spent all morning (illegally for him, ha) outside. Lost our Siamese at only 10yo to gastric lymphoma. It never gets easier.❤️‍🩹

Sending hugs & prayers to everyone’s babies that are still fighting this terrible disease.

She's only 4yo. Renal dysplasia, stage 2 CKD with severe anemia. She also has hypercalcemia, an antibiotic resistant bladder infection, megacolon, asthma, Laryngeal Paralysis, and a rib malformation.

This cat... This cat is so special. We have had her since she was 4 weeks old and helped take care of her even before that. We love her so much and knowing she won't have a long life is destroying us. We have envisioned what she would be like all old and crusty and that's just not going to happen, now. It's soul crushing.

Barney is in late stage CKD and we didn’t know he had it until a few weeks ago. He’s been getting sub q fluids, anti nausea medication, appetite stimulant, iron supplement. He’s still drinking water, still jumping on the couch for cuddles but he barely ate anything yesterday and won’t eat today. I’m a wreck. He’s the sweetest cat I’ve never even seen him hiss. I’m not ready to say goodbye. I’m not sure how old he is I found him as a stray in December 24 and all of his lab work was fine then. The vet guesses that he’s around 12 years old

This is my cat Miro she is 3-year-old female which was recently diagnosed with severe kidney failure. She had lost a significant amount of weight and became very thin and weak in no time, which is what eventually made me take her to the vet.

I feel terrible because I didn’t realize how serious it was sooner. Looking back, I keep wondering if there were signs that I missed, and I can’t stop blaming myself for not noticing earlier. I have other cats as well, which made it harder for me to notice exactly how much she was eating or drinking.

Her blood test showed:

• Creatinine: 14.2 mg/dL (1255 µmol/L)
• BUN: >100 mg/dL (>35.7 mmol/L)
• Phosphorus: 10.8 mg/dL (3.48 mmol/L)
• Potassium: 3.1 mmol/L
• tCO2: 11.8 mmol/L
• HCT: 40.55% (normal, no anemia)

She is currently receiving IV fluids. She still drinks water on her own, although she has vomited after drinking.

Because she is only 3 years old, I’m struggling to understand how this happened. We still don’t know whether this is acute kidney injury, chronic kidney disease, or something acute on top of an existing kidney problem.

What has made this even harder is that every vet I’ve spoken to has told me that, with how severe her kidney values are, she may not survive more than few weeks only. I’m devastated and terrified of losing her, but I’m still holding onto hope that she might respond to treatment.

Has anyone here had a cat with kidney values this high, especially a young cat? Were you given a similarly poor prognosis? Did the numbers come down after IV fluids or treatment? How much did they improve, and how long did your cat live afterward? Were you ever able to find out what caused the kidney failure?

She was soft… full of energy, she was the sweetest

I know every cat is different, and I’m following my vet’s treatment plan. I’m mainly looking to hear from people who have been through something similar. I’m also struggling a lot with the guilt of not catching it sooner, so I would really appreciate hearing your experiences and how things turned out.

My 15-year-old cat was diagnosed with thyroid disease and either irritable bowel or intestinal cancer earlier this year. We didn’t do further diagnostic testing on the bowel because we didn’t want to put her under anesthesia for the testing. We treat the thyroid with meds and the IBD with a shot when she starts throwing up. It’s been a couple months since her last shot. 2 weeks ago, I took her in for a potential UTI. She had a mild one, but they also diagnosed kidney disease, likely uncovered by treating the thyroid. Well, she mostly stopped eating over the weekend (will eat a couple treats or something with coaxing) and I called the vet today. We’re going to take her in tomorrow but over the phone, he was saying she might need sub q fluids and it could be a one time thing or permanent. Then he mentioned that some pet parents don’t want to poke their cat and don’t want to watch them deteriorate and think ending their suffering is best. We’re going to talk to him more about quality of life with the various options, but she’s fading fast. She was small to begin with but had lost half a pound as of 2 weeks ago and was at 4.9 pounds and I think she’s lost another half, but obviously weighing her at home isn’t as accurate. I’m heartbroken and struggling to figure out what’s best for her. We’re leaning toward trying the sub

Interesting turn of events. When I joined this group, it was because I had just got my cat back after being apart for a long time. He was thin and a vet confirmed CKD Stage 2. He would eat but not much, so I made it my mission to get some weight on him.

I succeeded in spades! 😻 The vet prescribed Elura and I cancelled it. I turned things around by frequent feeding of wet food. 2-3 small cans per day, split into 4-6 mini meals. When I fed kibble (rarely) I soaked it in water. Also treated his constipation which I think may have been the underlying reason he didn't feel like eating. Not sure how much he's gained, but he looks great! Especially for 18 years!

The plot twist is that now he is meowing at me constantly. I was so focused on feeding whenever he was interested, that I didn't notice I was feeding on demand when he meowed. Now the meowing is becoming problematic because he is disrupting video meetings with clients, starting to get on my nerves, and I worry that neighbors can hear -- it took a long time to get an apartment that allows cats. Also, I probably need to get a job outside the home and won't be able to feed wet during the day. Even now, it's hard for me to go anywhere for any length of time.

How often are you feeding and what combination of wet/dry?

I'm thinking this might be good:

• Same morning routine (2/3 can when I wake up, the other 1/3 as a snack before I leave)
• Kibble out for free feeding during the day
• Same evening routine (2/3 can around 6pm, the other 1/3 before bed)

I want him to keep his weight up, stop the meowing, and be able to leave the house without worrying about him.

Thanks!

My sweet girl got diagnosed with kidney disease at early stage 2 about 4 years ago. Overall she has been pretty stable but would periodically trend downward. Nothing major just that her levels kept getting a bit worse. She refused to eat Hills food and my vet didn’t offer royal canin until very recently (which she loves) so she’s been eating mostly the weruva phos focused food the last few years, but switched almost completely to royal canin back in April.

A couple of weeks ago I noticed she was slowing down a lot and not eating much if at all. I made an appointment with her vet and a few days before she became extremely lethargic and stopped eating.

I had kind of accepted that it’s time, but her vet wanted to try giving her SubQ fluids to see if it would help (we hadn’t done this yet). After a few hours she had perked up a lot and is acting much more like herself, but results from her panel show she’s now in stage 4. I have been told that stage 4 is the end and there’s nothing I can do but make her comfortable, but seeing her response I’m wondering if there’s any hope of helping her stabilize with treatment ?

She’s my best friend and I feel extremely guilty that I didn’t keep up on her condition better. I’ve been overwhelmed and the vet we had for a while wasn’t really helpful with increasing her longevity. The responsibility to research fell to me and honestly I fell short. She’s completely healthy aside from the kidney failure, you wouldn’t be able to tell she’s almost 20. I guess I’m looking for any hope that with treatment at this point I can keep her going, or maybe any support that I can give her now without being too invasive.

I'm losing my one eared boy. I absolutely hate CKD. Evander is a wonderful boy. He adopted me 6 years ago. He appeared in the backyard and hung around. He had bad ear issues. After a TECA-BO, I moved him in the house. Last year he was diagnosed with CKD. He takes amlodipine, ondansetron, and semintra. I sprinkle aluminum hydroxide on his food. He eats KD wet and dry. He gets subcutaneous fluids every other day. Last weekend, he took a turn for the worse. He isn't wanting to eat even with Mirataz. I'll be making his final vet appointment soon. This really sucks. I hate CKD.

Looking for help interpreting bloodwork and next steps from folks who have been through it. Hank is 9 years old and currently on subq fluids (100 ml a day) it’s been about 6 days now, just started mirataz and cerenia he’s eating but very little and he’s so skinny I’m very worried. He also started medics for high blood pressure about 2 months ago. Here is a screenshot of his lab work from about 10 days ago.

My baby boy Rocky (5 years old) has had bad issues regarding his kidney twice. It almost took his life once. The problem is that he doesn’t drink enough on his own.

So following the vet’s advice throughout the years, I have tried everything to help him stay hydrated. Wet food? he won’t touch them. even the most expensive/palatable brands. water fountain? not interested.

The vet then put me on Urinary S/O kibbles (like royal canin, etc.) since he would only accept kibbles. The problem? he won’t touch those either!!!! and these kibbles aren’t cheap to begin with.

I took him to the vet recently to do his complete count blood test and while everything is within normal range, the vet said the condition of his teeth (that require scaling) may be indicative of insufficient hydration.

Please help a desperate paw parent out! I’ve consulted different vets and nutritionist but none of their advice has worked out for Rocky 😭😭😭

My just turned 7 yr old long haired calico was diagnosed late July with stg 3. She's about 11.69lbs and actually gained .5lbs. Well we did her blood work and the vet said stg 3. She has no other symptoms except I've noticed lately she has been more irritable which I'm taking her back to the vet because I'm worried she's in pain

Before the vet visit where she was diagnosed, she also had completely stopped eating any wet food which is sooo unlike her. I started to get her back on some different brands when the vet called

She's been on Hills Scientific Diet 1-6 Adults for both dry and wet pate for the 5 years I've had her and maintains weight well. She also drinks water well and gets wet treats (fussie cat) from time to time at half a tube at a time

The vet recommended let's start with just hills scientific 7+ since it's lower protein and phosphorus, just not as drastic as actual prescription. And then come back in 3 months to retake blood results

She's taken well to it but after seeing @sweet_serendipity1 post on here, it makes me think I should be doing more. I just really need advice on what everyone else has done to get her levels down. I would absolutely lose it without this cat so all the thoughts are needed!

Hello everyone

Last post: https://www.reddit.com/r/RenalCats/s/NTwnMeTE6Y

We consulted with a specialist on soft tissues. He was very kind and lifted our mood. He is very experienced with these kind of surgeries.

She had another ultrasound. The left kidney looks done, it even looks like a bladder. The stone is in left ureter. We don't know if the stone blocked the way or the kidney lost its function long before.

Tomorrow she will undergo a contrast enhanced CT scan under anesthesia. We have three scenarios. If the kidney still functions even a little bit, stent If the kidney functions but the ureter is too narrow for stent, removal If the kidney doesn't function, removal In any way she will have the surgery right after scan.

She unfortunately has another stone in her right kidney. The vet found the kidney smaller than usual. We don't have any plan for this stone right now. He said it could move anytime to the ureter, we can't know. It scares me a lot. But she will be on urinary and renal cat food.

He was very surprised that she is still very active. He said she must be in great pain, unable to jump but when we returned from the vet she jumped to catch a fly. She is still fine but eats less in the last days.

I don't know which one could be better, her body produces stones a lot or her kidneys don't work. I'm very scared. Surgery in 15 hours. Please send her best wishes.

My baby was diagnosed with CKD last Wednesday. Friday I noticed she wasn’t eating and acting sluggish so I took her in on Saturday. There the vet diagnosed her with hella constipation, she got two enemas and we went home with instructions to get another one on Sunday if she didn’t poop. She seemed more lively eating and purring while I held her all Saturday night. I could see her try to poop with nothing come out so I took her in to another vet on Sunday (since mine was closed) he didn’t really seem to agree with the enemas and wanted to do hospitalization, but couldn’t do it Sunday as it was later in the afternoon. He was able to get some very hard poop out and he was hopeful that it was what made her not go. When we got home she stated poop immediately, small amounts. But then she quickly started to collapse in the middle of trying. Tried to get her to stand and she just fell ti the ground and looked miserable. I started calling ERs to see where I could bring her in. When we got there she was hyperventilating and drooling on herself. The vet thinks the stress was just too much and she wasn’t taking it well. Then I made the decision to let her go.

I’ve had her since she was born. I found her in a junk yard when I was 9 years old, still with her umbilical cord attached. I bottle fed her, and had 19 whole years with her. She’s quite literally been with me in every stage of life, she almost made it to my 29th birthday. It’s now the morning after and the first time I’ve slept alone in 19 years.

Second to last photo is her at 9 years old, this was the start of my second year of college

My kitty has suffered from multiple stone obstructions & a few months ago she had emergency surgery and had a sub implant put in. Since then, she’s had a UTI & confirmed bacteria in her urine despite 3 rounds of antibiotics.

When I first brought her in to her local vet for the UTI, her kidney levels had gone from 2.6 to 3.1. I alerted the ER vet of this & she didn’t seem to find it abnormal. She said it could be caused by dehydration. She was on antibiotics for 3 weeks. We brought her in for another urinalysis and found that the bacteria was still present & that her levels were now elevated a little bit more (I think around 5?). We did antibiotics again, subcutaneous fluids & started antinausea & appetite stimulant. The antibiotics that the bacteria is showing it is most susceptible to is Clavamox so that’s what we were giving her. However, Clavamox notoriously upsets her stomach so after starting it we noticed a dip in an already somewhat slower appetite.

So the plan was to bring her in to the hospital to actually put antibiotic through her sub. However, the ER vet advised we check her kidney levels one more time. On Friday her creatinine had gone up to 11 so we hospitalized her.

Since she’s been on fluids, given injected medications and started the sub flush protocol, her creatinine had gone down to 8.5, then 6.5 (roughly- can’t remember the exact values). However, today her values are back up in the 8 range. Last night I visited her and she was extremely thirsty throughout my whole visit which I alerted the tech about but the vet told me this morning she wasn’t feigning for her water in her crate overnight like she was during our visit. I don’t understand why she would be incredibly thirsty with us, but then not want to drink much of what’s available to her in her crate. When we left the visit we had to stop giving her water so it’s not like I felt like we left with her thirst satisfied.

Here are my questions -

1. Anyone have any experience with a similar situation? What could cause her kidney levels to fluctuate like that?

2. She was diagnosed with CKD after her second obstruction, any idea what could be going on here? Is it possible it might not be the infection at all?

TIA! Just looking to see if anyone experienced a similar situation

Hello everyone

My cat is 6 years old, female, spayed, fully vaccinated. She has always been good with food, water, litter and everything. She never showed us any pain.

3 days ago she vomited and refused to eat so we took her to the vet. We had an x-ray and vet said the kidney doesn't look right and there might be two stones. We had an x-ray again today and the stones were still in the same place. She has ultrasound and blood work.

According to our vet one of her kidneys is completely done. It has to be removed quickly. The other one has two stones.

He advised a specialist so we're gonna see him in 10 hours.

I'm devastated. I don't know what to do. I've never saw it coming, she still looks perfectly fine. Please help me.

My 16,5 year old cat, was diagnosed with CKD last year on a random blood check up test. She had no symptoms prior to that. After reading some post here I am not really sure if she has CKD, her kidneys are definitely getting older and slower due to her age. But no proper tests were done to confirm CKD, vet assumed because of her age and a bit higher creatinine levels, no SDMA test was done. We did ultrasound but he did a quick one as he didn’t want to upset her too much. On ultrasound he said that she had a case of senior kidneys and he pit her on renal diet and said that he will monitor her blood results over the time. Her blood results were becoming better and on the latest test she had no anemia, creatinine and was 178, BUN was 11,8 phosphorus was normal. We kept her results stable and even better over the year, but she seems to be doing better year ago then today. She has less appetite, not in a way that she would not eat, but she eats a bit less portion of the food, and she seems not to be able to physically eat more amount of food. I added Recoactiv renal for more calories intake and she loves it. I am giving her B12 vitamin, pours one and pronefra. She is not on sub q fluids because vet never recommended them. She is taking hydracare and Oralada for extra hydration. She is going next week for her regular blood check up. Any advice what to ask vet to determine CKD more precisely. Should I check T4? Also I scanned my results in the app someone recommended here. App was more occupied by her ALT results. Her ALT was 400 last year and on last check up was 290. We didn’t do anything about that either. On first ultrasound it showed enlarged liver and pancreas, but later on they came back to normal size with a bit of scar tissue. Other liver parameters were fine other than globulin which was 54( normal is up to 51). Alp and ggt were fine as well as billirubin. I know this is not ckd related but I just want to be sure what could this be, and what more test to do. I will not do any stressful test such as biopsy. Also very important pice of information, she was outdoor cat for 12 years, never tested for any disease, she lived in our backyard, and sometimes she would come inside. When she was younger she was very wild and hard to deal with, so she got vaccinated only as kitten and was rarely treated for parasites. She was in a lot of fights with other cats, and we never tested her for any disease. Base on all of this which test should we focus on the next vet visit. Again no invasive tests due to her age and nature( she is very dramatic).

TLDR: 14-year-old CKD cat, recently progressed from stable stage 2 to late stage 3/early 4 with worsening anemia (PCV 25%), phosphorus, some weight/muscle loss. Over the past week he suddenly developed mild hind-leg weakness/stiffness and a weird “hover-sit” where he pauses with his bum just above the floor before lowering himself extremely slowly. Around the same time he became constipated for ~4 days despite Restoralax/fluids, needed a mini-enema, and later passed soft stool with what looked like dark blood/clots on the outside. Eating a bit less but otherwise drinking, urinating, interacting, walking and jumping. Also having occasional small myoclonic jerks/startle twitches. Wondering if anyone has seen this combination from CKD/uremia, anemia, constipation/GI pain, arthritis, or something neurological.

Hi everyone! I’m wondering if anyone with a CKD cat has experienced anything similar with sudden changes in their cat’s hind legs/posture, especially around the same time as constipation and worsening anemia. We’ve been to the vet and I’ve done countless hours of research, but I’m still at a bit of a loss about what’s going on with my boy.

Charlie is 14 and has had CKD for a few years. He was previously fairly stable around stage 2, but his kidney values have worsened quite a bit recently and he’s now somewhere around late stage 3/early stage 4. Despite that, he was still eating well, going to the bathroom normally, jumping up on things, etc. He was relatively asymptomatic for a CKD cat, and you really wouldn’t know he was sick by looking at him.

Over the past week or so, though, he’s developed a weird combination of symptoms that are really affecting him.

Recent bloodwork (Aug 13):

* Creatinine increased from ~368 to 471 µmol/L over the last ~8 months

* BUN and SDMA have also increased

* Phosphorus 2.1 mmol/L

* Urine negative for protein

* PCV/hematocrit down to 25% (previously ~31%, and 35% before that

Also lost a bit of weight and I have noticed more muscle wasting in his hip/lower back area. We’ll be starting a phosphorus binder and darbepoetin for the anemia.

Around Aug 24–25:

I noticed Charlie was sitting/squatting strangely. He would lower his back end about 80% of the way normally, hover his bum above the floor for a few seconds, then lower himself the rest of the way extremely slowly.

There MAY have been a slight increase in lethargy/weakness for a couple days beforehand, but I’m not positive.

His hind legs also started looking a little stiff/weak while walking, although he was still fully weight-bearing, walking around and jumping onto things. It all came on pretty suddenly.

He does have mild arthritis and had been taking joint supplements, but I stopped them a couple weeks earlier because he started refusing food when they were mixed in. Same with his FortiFlora — getting him to eat seemed more important.

Constipation around the same time:

He then went about 4 days without a bowel movement despite normally pooping once a day. He gets Restoralax daily in his wet food but probably missed ~1.5 doses because he was only eating around half his usual amount.

I increased his subcutaneous fluids for a few days and increased the Restoralax, but he still wasn’t going.

Wed Aug 26:

At this point I thought the weird sitting might be abdominal discomfort from constipation, so we went to the vet.

I gave him 100 mg gabapentin beforehand because I was worried he might need manual deobstipation, which he has been traumatized by before. He gets extremely sedated from that dose but I figured that would be a good thing in these circumstances.

The vet examined him and said he actually didn’t feel that constipated, although there was hard stool mostly in the colon. They gave him what they described as a “mini enema,” and he passed a medium-ish amount of stool on the way home.

He also received Solensia for arthritis and one dose of buprenorphine for pain. The abnormal sitting/hind-leg issue had already started before the Solensia, so I don’t think the Solensia caused the original problem.

The combination of gabapentin + buprenorphine absolutely took him out. He was just about catatonic when we got home, lying in a daze, barely moving, with intermittent limb twitching/myoclonic jerks (he gets these to a lesser extent with gabapentin alone). If I wasn’t in the medical field, I would have thought he was seizing. I made him a little safety fort and he layed there unmoving for like 6 hours. He was extremely spaced out and could barely walk for close to 2 days.

Even once that wore off, though, he was still doing the hover-sit.

Early Aug 29:

He finally had another medium-sized bowel movement around 3 AM. At that point he’d only passed two average-sized stools over quite a long period compared with his normal once-daily pattern.

Aug 30:

He passed a large amount of soft stool with what looked like dark blood/blood clots on the outside of the stool rather than mixed throughout it. I’m not sure if that was related to the constipation/inflammation/enema, CKD, an ulcer, or something completely separate.

His appetite has been somewhat reduced throughout all of this, although he is still eating (just a bit less than usual, and only wanting wet food vs. dry, when it’s usually the other way around). Still drinking, urinating and interacting normally. He’s also back to jumping up on things.

But he is still doing the hover-sit, which is the part that has me completely confused. Is it GI-related? Musculoskeletal? Neurological?

I also noticed today while we were outside that he’s having some small myoclonic jerks in response to sudden sounds again, despite no longer being under the effects of the gabapentin/buprenorphine.

I’m wondering:

* Has anyone seen constipation/GI discomfort cause this kind of slow crouching or hind-end movement?

* Has anyone noticed similar hind-leg weakness when their CKD cat became more anemic (PCV ~25%)?

* Could worsening CKD/uremia cause something like this even when the cat otherwise seems fairly normal?

* Has anyone had something similar ultimately turn out to be arthritis/pain?

* Or has anyone seen the combination of the hover-butt + mild hind-leg weakness + myoclonic jerks with something else?

It’s such a random presentation so I thought maybe someone here has experienced something similar and could give me some ideas/let me know if they figured out the cause.

We have another vet appointment Wednesday for his darbepoetin injection and will be following his PCV, and I’ll be bringing all of this up.

Thank you so much if you made it through all of this! Photos/videos attached.

Hi! I wanted to share something that happened with GiGi because I think it demonstrates why a urine culture can be an important part of monitoring a CKD cat, even when the urinalysis looks completely clean and the cat has zero symptoms. This also shows why I emphasize in this on almost all of my replies.

GiGi recently had her routine CKD labs done. As part of her regular testing, I requested bloodwork, a urinalysis and a urine culture. I did not request the culture because I suspected an infection or because I had already seen abnormal kidney values. They were all collected at the same visit as part of her routine monitoring.

GiGi was acting completely normal. No fever, no straining, no urinary discomfort, no obvious change in urination, no lethargy and nothing that made me suspect a UTI.

Her urinalysis came back basically clean too.

There were no bacteria seen, WBCs were 0–2, RBCs were 0–2, no casts, no crystals, no blood and no meaningful protein. Her USG was 1.012. There was essentially nothing on the urinalysis that screamed infection.

Her bloodwork was interesting, though.

Her creatinine had increased from 4.9 to 6.3 and her BUN had increased from 50 to 79. Normally that would immediately make me worry about CKD progression.

But her SDMA, another marker we use to assess renal filtration, had actually remained essentially unchanged. It was 22 previously and was now 21. Her USG was also unchanged at 1.012.

Her CBC wasn’t showing an obvious systemic inflammatory response either.

So we had creatinine and BUN moving significantly upward, while SDMA and USG were essentially stable, with a clean urinalysis and absolutely no clinical signs of infection.
Then the urine culture came back.

It grew E. coli.

The urine had been collected by cystocentesis, meaning a sterile needle was used to obtain urine directly from the bladder. That makes bacterial growth much more meaningful than it would be from a free catch urine sample where contamination is much easier.

The bacterial count was relatively low, and combined with her lack of symptoms and completely quiet urine sediment, it is possible that we intercepted this relatively early. I can’t prove that, and a positive culture does not automatically mean pyelonephritis or that the infection caused the changes in her kidney values. But we now know there was bacteria present that the urinalysis completely missed.

There was another important benefit to doing the culture: antibiotic susceptibility testing.

GiGi’s E. coli turned out to be resistant to several antibiotics commonly used for urinary infections, including amoxicillin, Clavamox, Convenia, cephalexin, cefpodoxime and others.
So simply treating empirically with a commonly prescribed UTI antibiotic could potentially have accomplished nothing.

Her E. coli was susceptible to marbofloxacin, so she is now receiving a culture directed antibiotic.

Now comes the interesting part.

I’m hoping that once the infection is cleared, her creatinine and BUN will come back down at least somewhat.

I don’t know yet whether they will. The infection may have nothing to do with the increase. There could be CKD progression, hydration differences, changes in muscle mass (she gained roughly 2lbs since last labs) or several factors occurring simultaneously.

But an infection can potentially create an acute component on top of CKD. If GiGi’s creatinine and BUN decrease after treatment while her SDMA remains around its previous level, that would make an acute/reversible component much more plausible.

I’ll know more when we repeat her labs.

Why I’m sharing this

I think sometimes we see a clean urinalysis and assume that means there is no UTI.

Urinalysis and urine culture aren’t interchangeable tests.
A urinalysis can tell us a tremendous amount: urine concentration, protein, blood, glucose, crystals, casts, inflammatory cells and whether bacteria are visible microscopically.

A culture asks a different question: can bacteria actually be grown from the urine?

And if something grows, culture and sensitivity testing can identify the organism and tell us which antibiotics it is susceptible or resistant to.

GiGi had no symptoms.
Her urinalysis showed no bacteria.
She had essentially no urinary inflammation.
Her CBC didn’t point toward an obvious infection.
Yet her cystocentesis culture grew E. coli.

Had I only done the urinalysis as part of her routine monitoring, there would have been very little reason to suspect an infection was present.

That doesn’t mean every CKD cat needs a culture at every single blood draw, and a positive culture doesn’t automatically mean every asymptomatic cat should receive antibiotics. That’s something that needs to be interpreted with your vet in the context of the entire clinical picture.

But especially in CKD cats, I think urine culture is an important test to know about and discuss with your vet. CKD cats have limited renal reserve, so identifying potentially treatable problems before they become bigger problems can matter.

One thing that has also helped me tremendously is looking at trends instead of individual numbers. I use the Hugging Cat app to interpret GiGi’s labs and track her values over time.

https://www.huggingcat.app

Seeing creatinine, BUN, SDMA, phosphorus, USG, UPC and the rest of her labs together made the discordance in this particular panel much easier for me to recognize. It also has comprehensive CKD information that helps me understand what I’m looking at and what questions to ask her vet.

I’m attaching GiGi’s urinalysis and culture results as well as screenshots from Hugging Cat so u can actually see the contrast between them.

Hopefully her follow up labs will show that catching and treating this made a difference. Either way, I thought her results were worth sharing because they’re a pretty striking example of why a clean urinalysis doesn’t necessarily close the door on a urinary infection.

Hi all. My boy Toby was diagnosed with stage 3 on 6th August. He took to the renal food pretty easily, though I had to mash it for him to eat it, all good. He was down to 4.2kg & increased to 4.3kg in a week(?). Not much, but he's always been a small boy. He was happily eating plain chicken everyday in addition to his wet food, drinking plenty of water & I introduced hydra care which he seemed to love.

But this weekend, he lost all interest in food, even the hydra care. Well not lost interest, he was interested, but he wouldn't eat more than a couple of licks. I don't think he's nauseous.

He started getting really wobbly today & I thought today was the day...

He's started on Mirtazapine tonight & he's wolfed down half a can of fancy feast kitten food. At this point my vet is saying just give him what he wants & I agree because what's the point if he's not eating? Might as well water down this other food to get him to gain weight.

Sorry, long story, I guess I don't know where else to write this. Is it possible for him to put on some weight & live a little longer, but comfortable? Either he doesn't eat & he shuts down, or he eats what he wants & is happy for a little bit longer... Right? Any other advice on what to try to get him to eat?

Any advice welcome!

hey, i've got a senior cat just diagnosed with early stage kidney disease. she's showing no symptoms, still happy to eat and drinking normally. we've got her started on fluids once weekly but the vet of course recommends getting her on a kidney diet. i want to do everything possible to help her, she's my heart and soul, but i very much dislike the big brands of prescription pet food (royal canin, hills, science diet, etc) for the garbage fillers they put in their pet foods. i've got my cats on high quality, minimal ingredient, high protein foods, but the vet said the important thing with kidney disease is making sure she stays eating, and preferably low protein food. my question is, does anyone know of a high quality, minimal ingredient low protein wet food? i feel like im looking for an impossible needle in a haystack but figured it couldn't hurt to try to ask. money is not a big problem, of course not being insanely expensive is a plus, but ill buy whatever she needs. thanks in advance

14 yr old brother and sister cats. Vet has us giving Porus one but the grittiness is putting them off.

I have read about putting it in gel caps and administering that way. While I hate giving them pills, it seems to be the only way to make sure they are getting it.

Does this work for folks or are there other tricks. And please don't suggest churu's, my cats hate it. Thanks.

hello! my 17 (almost 18) year old kitty has been having trouble eating lately due to his teeth, he has a bunch that are rotting and basically needs them removed. he still shows clear signs of appetite (meowing at us for food, eating foods that aren't super solid) and overall he is still his happy self. he still bathes, drinks, uses the litter box, and cuddles with us. his brother died a few years ago due to kidney failure and with him it was clear, he stopped eating and wouldn't hang around people anymore.

toby is not like that, he is still his normal self and i believe that if he could eat without feeling pain due to his teeth he would thrive. he has lost 2 pounds in 6 months because he can't eat and needs dental surgery but the vet will not do it due to his kidney labs:

BUN: 58

creatinine: 2.7

I am not really sure what those numbers should be, but I guess I am just asking for advice on what to do for him. I don't want him to starve to death and have a horrible miserable time, but I am also extremely concerned about putting him under anesthesia for obvious reasons. but what is a different option? if anyone has experienced this please let me know how your cat fared and what you did

Anyone ever had to do this. Looking for tips. I bought a machine but all my readings seem way high.