“Early” Kidney disease | Feline Diabetes Message Board - FDMB

“Early” Kidney disease

Lisa and little

Lisa and little

Member since 2018
Hello All,

My girl was just diagnosed with what the vet said is early kidney disease. Her value is at 1.9 and even though the marker on the test says 2.3 the vet feels for cats It really should be at 1.6.
She also has an asymptomatic UTI, which obviously I will treat with antibiotics. The vet does not think the UTI is a direct result of kidney function.

I know that unfortunately many of you have experience with CKD and I was wondering if you could tell me what I can do to be proactive. Of course the vet is saying a change in food, or maybe prescription food but as we all know, that could throw off the blood sugar levels. I am open to any advice anyone has regarding helping my little girl so her values don’t go down further.
I feel like this was inevitable as it seems go along with long term diabetes but stilll I am sad.
Thank you in advance for all your help
 
Can you update your Labs tabs with the recent values? Was the 1.9 Creatinine? Was a urinalysis done? You want to know how well she's concentrating her urine. You want an early morning pee sample as it'll be more concentrated then.

Lisa and little said:
She also has an asymptomatic UTI, which obviously I will treat with antibiotics.
Click to expand...
Was a urine culture done? I'm on another forum where the IM vet that posts suggests not to do ABs if no symptoms.

To be proactive, make sure she's eating low phosphorus foods. That means reducing the amount of FF she's getting. Foods that are good for diabetics and CKD on this list: CKD food Chart

Another website you might want to start reading is this one: Tanya's Comprehensive Guide to Feline Chronic Kidney Disease – Everything You Need to Know to Help Your Cat
 
Hi Wendy,
As far as the labs go, I don’t have a copy yet. I will pick them up in the morning. The vet went over things with me on the phone quickly so I am not entirely sure what the 1.9 value is assigned to.

A urine culture was NOT done. What would that show that a regular urinalysis would not? I never expected her to come back positive for a UTI based on the fact that she is not showing any symptoms. I have had cats with UTIs before and it’s usually pretty easy to tell when that is something they have going on.

Either way, what would be the reason for not giving antibiotics if the urinalysis shows a UTI?
She also said she didn’t think that the UTI was a direct result of lesser kidney function but that doesn’t really make sense to me either.

I was able to take a quick look at that food chart and I could tell you right now. My head is spinning. Of course I am going away next week I am taking my 83-year-old mom to a wedding in Tucson so I am not ready to make a switch until I come back, but that chart looks pretty daunting nonetheless, I am confused as to why it seems protein content is sacrificed in the lower phos foods. Why would we want to decrease the protein for a diabetic cat?

I am concerned about giving her the antibiotic or not. I absolutely refuse to let her prescribe Convenia so I am going to pick up an oral in the morning. I. will grab the lab results as well. Unfortunately, they no longer have a website where I can get my results and compare them to the last
I just looked at the copy of her last bloodwork from Jan 2024 and her Crea was 1.4 so that 1.9 is Creatine.

Thank you for always being here and sharing all your knowledge. Now that I see what low phos actually is and how much phos is in FF. I feel like I did the wrong thing and let her down. She used to eat Tiki cat and one day she just wouldn’t so we switched FF. 😩
 
A urinalysis says "there is bacteria", a culture tells you what kind so you can treat with the appropriate antibiotic. I just posted this on another thread today:
Wendy&Neko said:
I just went through the UTI issue with a kitty with kidney disease. Vet suspect UTI and sent the urine sample out for culture but started her on Clavamox as it treats the most common type of bacteria. Culture said it was a less common type of bacteria, but one that usually can be treated by Clavamox. Symptoms improved. Two weeks later, culture said she still had the bacteria present, in spite of symptoms reducing. Seems the type of bacteria she had sometimes was resistant to Clavamox, so we switched to a different antibiotic which is known to treat the type of bacteria she had. Two weeks later, culture said clean urine. Moral of the story, get a culture done and treat the bacteria that is present. Clavamox is not always the solution.
Click to expand...
My kitty did have symptoms. This webpage mentions that healthy cats without symptoms can often fight the bug on their own. Not sure if diabetics are considered healthy cats. Neko never had a UTI. There is probably a concern about giving too many antibiotics when not needed.

I get my vets to email me the results, so I don't have to go in and pick them up. Then I enter them in the labs tab. My non diabetics have SS with labs page, I love being able to see the trends.

The urinalysis will give you the urine specific gravity, which is a good indicator for kidney disease.

Once you get the lab results, you can see if the phosphorus is a concern yet. I made sure Neko was on a low P diet to be proactive. Fortunately, she would eat anything.
 
Thank you! I’ll get a physical copy of the results tomorrow. I can’t believe they can’t e mail them is what it is.
Any thoughts on a UTI with no symptoms? I know when I have one there are certainly symptoms!
 
Lisa and little said:
A urine culture was NOT done. What would that show that a regular urinalysis would not? I never expected her to come back positive for a UTI based on the fact that she is not showing any symptoms. I have had cats with UTIs before and it’s usually pretty easy to tell when that is something they have going on.
Click to expand...
I have had this happen before with one of my girl kitties. She had no symptoms of a UTI and we did a urinalysis and there were marked cocci (spherical bacteria) under the microscope. I was totally surprised and yes, we did give antibiotics.
 
The food list Wendy sent you is the one I use as well. I feed the Weruva BFF pates to my cats because of the more favorable phosphorus profile (and low carbs.)
 
Lisa and little said:
She also said she didn’t think that the UTI was a direct result of lesser kidney function but that doesn’t really make sense to me either.
Click to expand...
Perhaps because of the fact that she’s diabetic and that can set up an environment where undesirable bacteria can thrive. UTIs can be a problem for diabetic cats.

I am sorry you are going through this. Switching to lower phosphorus foods will reduce the workload on her kidneys and hopefully she will be stable for a long time. I would not go with a low protein diet as that will lead to muscle wasting.
 
When she is next at the vet, get them to check her blood pressure if they didn’t already. It will be good to have a baseline for her as cats with CKD can have high blood pressure, which is damaging to the kidneys as well. Many vets overlook this.

Wendy’s suggestion to read the felinecrf site is a good one! It’s easy to get overwhelmed on that site, but it’s a great resource to return to over and over again.
 
Hi all,
For some reason, I am unable to type on the labs tab and I am not sure why but here what I’m guessing are the key findings and anything that came up markedly different from her blood tests in January 2024

phosphorus is a 5 - almost 2 years ago Jan 2024 It was 4.6.

CREA- 1.9 from 1.4

BUN/Urea - 41 out from 26 😩

CK - 460 up from 131

SDMA - 16 up from 10

T4 - 2.5 down from 3.2

CYSB Cystatin < 50 - same

ABS Neuts - 1862 down from 2651

Note says SDMA is increased and creatinine is within the reference interval. Likely impaired GFR and kidney function.

Urinalysis :

Bacteria - says marked Cocci > 40

Vet put her on Simplcef generic Cefpodoximine which I am unfamiliar with. I am also quite annoyed that they gave me two pills and told me to cut them in quarters. The pill is only scored down the middle and as we all know, there will not be the same amount of medication in each quarter. Vet was not in today and is not until Monday so I guess I have no choice but that really made me angry.

Blood +1
Protein -trace
RBC -10-15 HPF
SP Gravity 1017
Everything else was negative or normal

Little is not very happy today and did not eat her regular food so something is definitely going on. She did eat some of the kitty crack with the meds hidden in it and some of the medium carb food that I have on hand for blood sugar dumps or when she just doesn’t want to eat. I grabbed a couple of cans of the Marva BFF as recommended will give those a try later.

Of course I am going away next week. Why must she always pull this nonsense to give me a heart attack when I’m not gonna be around?🤦‍♀️
 
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