civvie with kidney issues

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allie and newkitty

allie and newkitty

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Hello! I am a former owner of two diabetic cats with a question about my FIV-positive civie, Max. He is a dear, sweet Snowshoe, almost 13 years old. He has been riding in the low 2s for Creatinine for years. After two days of nausea, inappetance and one instance of what I perceived to be belly pain (whimpering when I picked him up) over the weekend, we treated him for a chronic pancreatitis flare. However, his belly looked off to me on Sunday, like rounder than normal when looking down at him from above.

Today I took him to the vet and she does not see anything off with his belly, however, his right kidney is 3 times the normal size!!! and his Creatinine was over 8 and his BUN was like 130 (don't have the bloodwork in front of me.)

They have sent the urine off for a culture and are giving IV fluids and Cefazolin IV until we get the culture back. There were white blood cells in the urine so she is hoping for an infection. His weight is stable and he was playful just last night.

She said the 2 main culprits are a bad kidney infection or renal lymphoma.

Has anyone had similar experience and what did it turn out to be? Success stories especially, this is such a shock. His coat looks good (although it was pretty matted last week--however that has happened before with no acute illness), and with a few days of syringe feeding, I got his weight back up the few ounces he had lost, so the symptoms were fairly subtle. My husband didn't even think he needed to go to the vet, but I didn't like they way his belly looked.

Thank you.
 
Hi Allie - it’s nice to see you around here again, although I’m sorry for the reason. A handful of us are still here from the “old” days.

You might have had better luck if you’d posted on the Health forum. Things are pretty quiet on Comminity these days.

I read your post a number of times and intended to respond, but none of my experience were an exact match. I had a cat who had a urinary blockage and kidney infection (pyelonephritis), with very similar symptoms except for the grossly enlarged kidney. I also had a dog with a significantly enlarged kidney but that was the result of a heart issue. I was concerned with the possibility your kitty had renal cancer, and I had a cat who might have had that, but I caught it far too late so I hesitated to say anything based on a “maybe.”

Is there a treatment option for your kitty? Surgery or chemo maybe? Please come back and post an update. It’s not that no one cares — I think the lack of replies was just a combination of Community being low-traffic and your kitty having an unusual illness. :bighug:
 
Thank you for your kind reply. I didn't think I was allowed to post on Health because I have no diabetics. I am just heartbroken. This is the kitty I believe Newkitty sent to me, just a few months after she passed. We are doing lomustine and pred. Today his kidney values have only gotten worse even though he was hospitalized with fluids, B12, etc as we waited for the culture (negative.) I asked if this were her cat, would she just let him go. I let it go on too long with Newkitty. She said no, she would take him home this weekend and love on him, get food and fluids in him, and give the lomustine and pred a few days to work. He has an ultrasound on Wednesday. I am not sure what that will do for us now but I guess we can see if it is all through him and how much time he might have. (I don't see how it can be long at all with those kidney values.) In the meantime, we are looking at in-home euthanasia places to have a plan in place. I can't stop crying. Thank you again for your kind reply, it was good to see your name too
 
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