Questions about renal / liver issues

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monty_dweezil (GA)

monty_dweezil (GA)

Member Since 2014
I see some of the furbabies here have had renal issues or failure or liver problems in conjunction with their Diabetes. Does having prolonged not very well controlled Diabetes lead to this?

I am particularly worried when I read others' experiences about being diagnosed only a few months ago, not being controlled just yet, and then suddenly there's renal and liver failure going on!

Dweezil has not thrown up for months and months, but over the years, he has sometimes "thrown up" just slightly yellow watery stuff. Is this an early sign of renal issues? Bile? No food or anything like furballs was in there...it has always worried me a bit. Monty throws up much more (at least once a week) but this is because he stuffs his food down so quickly and then vomits, poor boy.
 
When Dweezil vomited up the fluid, had he by any chance been without food for longer than normal? Excess stomach acid can cause that and if his tum was empty too long maybe that might have been a factor. (Just brainstorming here.)
 
Routine blood work should identify most concurrent conditions.

The digestive system is rather inter-related:
- mess up the pancreas, you mess up digestion and hydration (which affects the kidneys).
- mess up the liver, you mess up digestion and diarrhea may mess up the kidneys.
- mess up the intestines, you mess up digestion, which will affect glucose, digestive enzymes, etc.
- mess up the kidneys and the lack of toxin removal will affect everything else.
 
My experience with Saoirse's insulin treatment has made me much more appreciative of the wonder of homeostasis in my own body. I've actually thanked my own pancreas for doing such a wonderful but thankless job of looking after me all my life. :)
 
Yes! When I tested my own finger using the blood glucose monitor, and got normal results three times, I was slightly surprised. A part of me wondered if I'd be pre-diabetic as I am a sugar addict. Right now I am not in full "pig mode" (which I am a few times a year when I eat horribly bad things, such as heaps of chocolates, donuts, cakes, biscuits, cookies, coke, and McDonalds meals) but I still have sugar on my cereal, sweet yogurts and fruit bars and such.
 
HEHEHEH! I KNOW! And it's just SO addictive!!!!!

From the age of 12 until about 26 when I had to change my eating habits due to putting on a bit of weight finally, I ate total JUNK ALL the time!!

I honestly don't know HOW I am not diabetic! And why my poor fluff baby is!! lol
 
As obligate carnivores, the digestive systems of our little ones are completely different to our omnivorous ones, but try telling that to the shareholders of the big pet food companies ... :(

As someone with formal scientific training it p*sses me off no end to see people hijacking the word 'science' to bolster false claims about their often harmful products. That goes for human foods as well as foods for companion animals.

I often wonder how much better the world might be if critical thinking were a compulsory subject in schools - from a very early age. (Marketing departments wouldn't like that much ...)
 
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BJM said:
Routine blood work should identify most concurrent conditions.

The digestive system is rather inter-related:
- mess up the pancreas, you mess up digestion and hydration (which affects the kidneys).
- mess up the liver, you mess up digestion and diarrhea may mess up the kidneys.
- mess up the intestines, you mess up digestion, which will affect glucose, digestive enzymes, etc.
- mess up the kidneys and the lack of toxin removal will affect everything else.
Click to expand...

BJM - so assuming you've got a kitty with everything out of whack, where would you start to help stabilize all of it?
 
With a vet in a hospital. You have to assess what is wrong, so lab work on blood and urine, physical exam looking for signs of conditions, then take all of the findings and determine which is/are the most important to manage first.
 
What if you have a very difficult cat who cannot tolerate being kept at a vet / hospital for a prolonged period unless sedated? We couldn't do Dweezy's curve because he wouldn't let anyone near him and freaked out so extremely.
 
Got any mobile vets?
Systematic desensitization and counter-conditioing (Google these; I'm crashing for the night!)
Become a vet or vet tech so you can do some of the work yourself.
Get a job at a clinic or rescue so you can learn how to do stuff.
Practice, practice, practice.
 
I don't think so. I know someone nearish to me (about an hour away) who has had to beg and plead her vet to come out and do house calls to take her cat's blood, and it's still intensely stressful for the cat.

I think my options are number 2 and number 5. Which I must force myself to do. It's actually not my own fears. I don't fear my own baby. I don't care if he scratches me or yells at me. I fear HIM getting so stressed that he then hides for the rest of the night or he gets weird with Monty and they have "issues" again.
 
I found with Rosa that if I can find a vet who will let me hold her while they take blood/urine samples etc that she stays relatively calm. That might just work if he's very attached to you. I find if I'm there holding her, I don't have to restrain her anywhere near as much as they will and it's the restraint that stresses her not the procedure itself. Not all vets will let you do that though so if you want to try it you might have to call around a few to find one who will work with you on it - my current one always wants to take her out to the back for anything like that and won't let me go back with them to help even when I can hear her screaming up a storm from the reception area. :(
 
Ooh no, I hate the idea of vets taking my boys out the back! Our vet is actually very good, and we've never had any "out the back" stuff done. Except when they have had to literally stay there all day. That's when Dweezy freaked out completely. Whenever we've just gone in for appointments, consultations and even two weeks ago when Dweez got his blood taken twice in the day, he was fine and an absolute angel. We all went into the consultation room, even Monty (after he'd had his teeth cleaned, heheh)! We're allowed to hold him (in fact, we're encouraged to, so the vet doesn't have to use much restraint) and stroke him as long as we don't literally get in the way.

Your poor Rosa!!!!!! Screaming! That's what Dweez was doing during his curve. :(
 
It does sound as though he has the same sort of issues with being left with people (especially vets) as Rosa does. I'm so glad you have a vet who will let you stay with him, though it doesn't sound as though getting a curve done at the vet is going to be an option for him. It isn't for Rosa either - the vet doesn't like it, but I refused to leave her there for a day to let them do it. I'd agree the vomiting yellow liquid could be excess acid - our CKD kitty does that on occasion when she's managed to spit out the 1/4 pepcid she's meant to have every morning.

Maybe if you got a full blood work done on him and could rule out anything too nasty given that your vet will let you hold him while they do that, that might give you a starting point to work from further on whether he actually needs hospital treatment or whether it's something that an antacid or similar might fix fairly easily.
 
And again I suggest doing some reading on Systematic Desensitization and Counter Conditioning. Its a process, not an event, and you will work towards getting Dweezil and you, to be calmer about going anywhere, much less the vet.
 
Very true. I keep finding myself viewing it as an event, and it really is not. Thank you for that.

Luckily re the vomiting the yellowish liquid, Dwee hasn't done this for a long time. He DOES love to gnaw on his old scratching post, so perhaps he did have a bit of a hairball but it just didn't come up. (he has been checked for whatever that mass is...bezels? The hairballs that get stuck. He is clear.)
 
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