Chronic Kidney Disease and Your Senior Cat
Kidney disease, which can lead to chronic kidney failure, is one of the most common ailments affecting senior cats. If caught early, the condition can be treated and managed fairly well. Fortunately, in many cases it comes on slowly, thus providing time for you and your veterinary team to develop a care plan.
Basics of Chronic Kidney Failure
There are two main types of kidney issues in cats—acute kidney diseases that come on quickly and chronic kidney diseases which develop more slowly over time. Acute kidney disease can affect a cat of any age, as it is typically caused by ingesting a toxin or suffering an injury. Chronic kidney disease, on the other hand, is most common in senior cats.
As the cat ages, kidney function begins to slow down naturally. This means any additional stresses upon the kidneys can wear down function further. Of course, young cats are not immune to chronic kidney disease. There are also congenital varieties of chronic kidney disease.
Causes of Kidney Failure
Natural aging only plays a small part in chronic kidney disorders. While some function loss is expected, it’s not a major concern unless the loss of function begins to drop too much or too quickly. Some common causes of chronic kidney function loss, particularly in senior cats, include:
- Kidney or urinary tract infections or blockages
- Gum diseases and tooth infections
- Comorbidity conditions, such as heart disease or a thyroid disorder
These conditions can be so minor as to go unrecognized, but the weeks or months of fighting off the infection or coping with the disorder can put unnecessary stress on the kidneys.
Chronic dehydration can also play a key role in developing a kidney disorder. Cats that don’t have plenty of access to clean water may not be drinking enough for healthy kidney function. Providing plenty of water and adding wet food to the diet may be necessary to ensure proper hydration.
Symptoms of Kidney Failure
An annual vet exam is the best way to monitor for a chronic kidney disorder. Your vet will take a blood and a urine sample to test for kidney issues. If the test results show high blood urea nitrogen and creatinine, or if there are signs of anaemia, then kidney disease is likely.
There are also behavioural symptoms that you may notice at home. These include:
- Urinating more frequently than usual
- Drinking water in greater volumes
- Blood in the urine
- Unexplained weight loss
- Constipation due to dehydration
- Loss of appetite
- More fatigue than usual
Not all of these symptoms are unique to chronic kidney disease, but they are all symptoms that warrant a vet visit.
Treatment for Kidney Failure
Treatment is more likely to be successful the earlier that the kidney disease is recognised. There are factors, like dehydration or a recent illness, that can skew kidney test readings. Your vet may recommend delaying treatment for a couple of weeks, at which time they will perform the tests a second time. Treatment will begin if this set of tests indicates that kidney disease is still present.
Chronic kidney disease can’t be cured, but it can be managed. Diet and hydration are key components of management. Your vet will prescribe a specialised diet for your cat. You may also need to provide additional hydration via more water stations, wet food, and under-skin hydration injections.
Medications will also be prescribed, especially if your cat’s condition is advanced. These medications may include those to treat comorbidities, such as thyroid conditions or high blood pressure, along with medications made to treat the kidney function-specific problems.
Contact Pet Universe to set up an appointment if you have noticed any troubling symptoms in your cat.
You’re doing all the right things, giving your cat as much love as you possibly can and then all of a sudden it turns around and bites you! You can’t work out for the life of you why this dreadful thing has occurred.
Your cat may be suffering from a skin condition or anxiety and this may be the cause of their reaction to you.
For more information about aggression issues in cats, click here.
Did you know we are the First Cat Friendly Practice in Adelaide? Click here to learn more about what it means to be an Accredited Pet Practice.
Obesity is one of the diseases that you as an owner have some control over and can be prevented. But if unfortunately your cat does fall ill to obesity, the disease can be cured and normal body condition can be established.
Obesity can shorten your cat’s life, this is why it is so important to take control of it once they become overweight.
For a list of steps to prevent and treat your cat’s obesity, click here.
For answers to some FAQ about overweight cats, click here.
Naturally cats are highly fastidious. If you already own a cat, you will already be aware that cats are neat freaks! They spend majority of their day either grooming themselves or sleeping. But they could always use a helping hand from you.
Grooming should be a relaxing and enjoyable time for you and your cat, so it s best to schedule a time when you are both
relaxed and in a good mood, perhaps after eating or having a play with them.
If you have never groomed your cat before, it’s best to keep the sessions short and then gradually increase over time. For more information on how to groom your feline friend, click here.
Numerous reasons have been proposed as to why dogs eat grass. One of the more basic conjectures is that dogs eat grass to help them vomit. Different ideas discuss eliminating intestinal parasites, resulting from a dietary problem, another reasons is simply just because they like the taste!
For more reasons as to why dogs eat grass and how to stop them from eating it,click here!
As dreadful as the lead up and trip to the vet may be, it is crucial for your feline to come to the vet. For your cat, it is not necessarily the actual time at the vet that they fear, it is might be the trip in the car that they feel uncomfortable with.
It is important that your cat is in a carrier in the car and the best way to make them feel comfortable in the carrier is to get them used to it in a different environment. For example you could have it placed around the house so they relax in it and have a nap. If they are not encouraged to go in it, you could place treats in the carrier.
Did you know Pet Universe is a Cat Friendly Accredited Pet Practice?
We strive on making your cat’s trip to the vet as stress free as possible. We have safeguards in place to make them feel more comfortable. For more information on what we do to make your cat’s visit as anxiety free as possible, click here.
For more information on how to reduce your cats stress levels for veterinary visits, click here.
Howling is one of the various types of vocal communication that dogs use. Regardless of the bred or age of your dog, you would have most likely experienced them howling at some point in their life! There are a range of reasons as to why they do howl – to draw attention or to proclaim their presence.
To read more about why dogs howl, click here!
One of the most prominent reasons for cats scratching is to mark their territory – via visibility and the smell of their foot pads.
Although it is important to note that scratching is completely natural and normal for cats, this is why a scratch pole is important for your cat. A scratching pole is a great way to prevent your cat from destroying your furniture.
For more information on how to control your cat’s scratching, click here!
Sense of smell is SO important to dogs, they rely on it immensely.
Unlike humans who rely mostly on visual data to interpret surroundings, whereas dogs center their attention more on what they smell rather than what they see! The next thing you should know is that wet noses work better!! To understand more why dogs have wet noses and what does it mean when they have a dry nose, click here!
Pet Universe Broadview is the First Cat Friendly Accredited Pet Practice in Adelaide. Cat friendly Clinic is a worldwide program from the International Society of Feline Medicine, the veterinary division of International Cat Care.
We have a gold level accreditation from the International Society for Feline Medicine in the UK and directly respond to the fact that cats are emotionally unique and require special handling and have different needs to dogs. Pet Universe understands that because of cat’s unique nature and needs, a trip to the vet can be very stressful, both for the cat and the owner.
Being a Cat Friendly Clinic we ensure that your cat’s trip to the vet is as stress free as possible, keeping your cat away from dogs when they visit. We have a separate cat and dog areas in our waiting room. Additionally Pet Universe provides privacy curtains over the cages to ensure cats do not see any dogs as well as cat-carrier covers to obscure their view of other pets when you arrive at the practice. All of these things contribute to Pet Universe being a fear free clinic.
We use a Feliway Diffuser in our clinics, this spray aids in improving signs associated with fear and stress in kittens and cats. This is another way we make your Cat’s trip to the vet more comfortable and anxiety free. Additionally cats prefer to be above ground, so we supply at Cat Cart to elevate them in their carriers on arrival at Pet Universe.Another way we make their stay more comfortable at Pet Universe is we provide different levels for cats to be situated on in both our feline hospital and boarding accommodation. 
Pet Universe ensures that we are handling your cats with the utmost respect and gentle handling, this means we avoid heavy manual restraint and ‘scruffing’ of cats. All these things are working towards minimizing stress during handling, examination and procedures.
For more information about being the first Cat Friendly Vet Practice, click here.
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