[red_kittycat]

I brought my 4-year-old Abyssinian in to the vet last week with diarrhea and a URI. She had always had a weak immune system, so she was on antibiotics permanently, 3 weeks on, 1 week off. She got sick after her "one week off", and the vet thought starting her back on her regular antibiotic would work fine. Three days later, she was no better, and showed signs of a urinary tract infection, too, a problem she was prone to. She was also dehydrated, and I asked to be sent home with sub-q fluids. Her antibiotic was changed, and blood was drawn for a CBC and full blood pannel. That night, she had trouble breathing, and we got her in on emergency. X-rays showed normal lungs, heart, and all other organs, so she was just given a dexamethasone drop to clear her nasal passages. The next day, Saturday, the blood test results came back and were normal except for very mild anemia and very slightly elevated kidney enzymes, but nothing to worry about, they said. But she still was not getting better and became incontinent, with both urinating and defecating. So they admitted her to the hospital yesterday. Today, her temperature was only 94 degrees, and she was not responding to the IV fluids, vitamins, and antibiotics. They called me to come in. They said they think chronic renal failure was to blame, and she was not to survive. We had to put her to sleep, as she was in pain. An autopsy will be performed.

My questions - does renal failure kill that quickly? Normal blood test on Friday, dead on Wednesday? Wouldn't kidney problems have shown on the xray, or upon palpation? Are there further measures the vets could have taken to diagnose this or prevent it? I know the dehydration from the diarrhea, along with the bacteria from the UTI, must have been very taxing on her kidneys. But could this have been the sole cause of their failure?

I'm absolutely devastated about the loss. She had been through many surgeries and illnesses in her short life, and I thought she'd get through this one, too. It was too sudden.

 

[Jeanie]

Perhaps Dr. Jean will answer this one. I think only a vet would know the answer to your questions. I lost a cat to renal failure. His first symptom was convulsions. He had to return several times in the following months, but lived for a year. Every cat is an individual, and I'm sure every case is different.

The vet thought the initial convulsions were caused by a neighbor using weed and feed, which Blacky walked through and licked off his paws. However, his kidneys were going bad evidently. I was glad to have him as long as I did.

I'm so sorry you have lost your little friend. Perhaps you want to post a tribute in the Rainbow Bridge forum.
(Since nothing can be done to help, I will move this post to Health and Nutrition.)

 

[drjean]

renal failure

I'm so sorry about your loss. It's hard enough to lose any beloved cat, but when she's so young and the death so unexpected, that is truly devastating. I lost one of mine at 4-1/2, also within a few days (after weathering many prior crises), and I still grieve over his loss.

Honestly, this does not sound like *only* CRF to me, but of course I don't have all the info nor did I see the cat, so I'm really just guessing. But for a cat that ill with CRF, usually one would expect the kidney values to be very high. You did not say what the specific gravity of the urine was, but that has to be known before renal failure can be diagnosed with certainty. Dehydration alone can cause mild elevations such as you describe, although the anemia is unexplained by that scenario. However, there could have been an acute renal failure, or maybe what is called "acute-on-chronic," that was just starting to show up on Friday. However, why she would become shocky and go downhill so quickly, I don't know.

Kidney problems do not typically show up on x-rays or to palpation unless they are extreme, like a teeny shriveled up CRF kidney or a huge fluid-filled infected kidney. Bloodwork with a urinalysis (both done at the same time) are necessary to evaluate renal function, and ultrasound gives the best visual picture of their condition.

Hopefully the autopsy will give you some clearer answers. Please let us know what the results are!

Sincerely,
Dr. Jean

 

[stormy]

i am so very sorry to hear of your loss
my cat blackie died from renal failure as well,
his first symptom was lathargy. took him in and the blood test had elvated levels of..can't rmember the name...but it meant renal failure. he had iv fluids everyday for a few weeks but the blood test did not improve,they actually went up a bit. so i figured why put him through that when it wasn't helping...they terrified him. i figured it was better that he be comfortable in what time he had left then to put him through that suffering.
he lived for 4 months after being diagnosed.
that was 3 years ago and i still miss him.

but your cat does sound different than that.

 

[ForJazz]

My kitty recently died of the same thing -- she never showed any signs of illness until a day and a half before she had to be put to sleep. I am so sorry for your kitty and I know how devastated you are. I wrote about my kitty in my online journal that I linked to in my signature -- it made me feel just a little better. I don't know what to say to you, because I'm still not sure what I want people to say to me. The pain is still fresh. I will say a little prayer for you and your kitty, though.

 

[shlanon]

I'm so sorry about your kitty. I know it must be really hard for you right now.
My understanding of the kidneys is that they are very good about "picking up the slack", in humans I believe you can lose a very large percentage of function of your kidneys before it actually starts affecting you. This is why you can be totally healthy with just one kidney. I assume it is the same in cats. That said, I still would think that if your cat had chronic renal failure that was very progressed, that it should have showed up better in the bloodwork. BUT it sounds like other things were going on with your cat as well. So I really don't know, this is all speculation on my part.
I hope you take consolation in the fact that you obviously took very good care of your kitty while she was here and gave her a good life.