Stage 4 kidney disease

[catlover1983]

Hi, our girl cat had blood tests last week due to her losing weight, off her food and drinking more. Shes 11.

The tests have shown that she has stage 4 kidney disease and the vet would like to give her I’ve fluids and then repeat blood as well as an ultrasound as she’s concerned that one kidney might be larger than the other.

I was just wondering if anyone had similar experience and what the prognosis might be? I know kidney disease can be well managed, I’m just worried as to why it’s come on so quickly?
Thanks!

I think I'd be putting to sleep rather than treating. It's a horrible condition for them to have. When my cat was diagnosed the vet said it was treatable. But she already had severe heart disease, so I knew it wasn't. I know someone who did sub cut fluids in their cat and vowed I'd never do it to mine.

Thank you for your reply. This is what I’m wondering. The vet seemed relatively positive and said it could be managed with diet etc, depending what tests show, but a quick search on google suggested it could be a matter of months?

I think I’ll know more when they’ve done her tests again this week.

She seems happy and purry in herself, not miserable but off her food and drinking loads?

Has anyone’s cat picked up from stage 4?

We have had this exact situation OP. Outr gorgeous girl lost so much weight so so fast.

DH ‘didn’t notice’ and I took her to the vet. Turned out she had 1 kidney that was a failing rapidly. Ended up giving our beloved 9yo cat home sub cut dialysis. I deeply regret this. Only did it 3 time but bloody hell. What was i thinking.

I didn't notice either until I picked her up from the cattery and realised she looked awful. And had lost weight. And odd puddles were appearing. She was okish in her self. But I looked at her and just knew.

Yes she has been weeing around the house more, could this be a symptom as well? I’d talked to the vet about it but she’d done it for years on and off as she’s a nervous little cat so was hard to tell if related or not? Has definitely increased in the last few weeks though.

Not sure what stage, but friends cat had a crisis. Kidney problems diagnosed - with the right diet the kitty is now doing well and still alive a couple of years later.
IV fluids might just be to help her feel better and boost her condition until the right balance of food/meds can be found. Definitely get your vet to explain more. I'm certainly no expert.
Fingers crossed she can be helped. Cats with kidney failure won't live their longest possible lives but it can often be managed for a while.

Yes the vet seemed to suggest that even stage 4 could be well managed (as long as not caused by a tumour), just when I googled it the prognosis seemed less good?

We lost girl cats brother to cancer in July which took a long time to work out what was wrong with him as the tumour on his tongue seemed to trigger all sorts of immune issues to flare which complicated things. I’m wondering about some sort of genetic issue for them both to be ill in such a short space of time and I think I’m a bit in shock with it all as I found it very hard to lose her brother. I want to do right by her though.

Yes. It's exactly what my girl did. But there was no smell to it. So I wasn't sure what it was.I discovered she'd been weeing on the door mat..

Yes this is exactly what’s been going on over the last 2-3 weeks, puddles of wee but very little smell.

Did it come on suddenly with your cat? So much of her behaviour changed when her brother died in July, so it was hard to really tell, but the increased thirst, off food, weight loss, sore gums etc all seems to be a very sudden jump.

I think she'd been in mild failure for a while and I hadn't noticed, then her cardiologist doubled her diuretics for her heart and I think it tipped her over the edge. Her heart disease was very severe, though she was asymptomatic with that. So I knew we were on borrowed time.

I would find her curled up in odd places but that was all really. No other behaviour changes, though she was in the cattery for 10 days. They knew her very well though and never noticed anything either.

Our previous cat had kidney failure. She was undergoing tests at vets for weight loss but then collapsed one morning at 5.30 and rushed to vets. She was on a drip for 48 hours and pulled through but had stage 2 kidney failure.

She was 12 at the time and was successfully managed with pills (& some diet as she hated the meat sachets for ckd but was OK with the biscuits). She survived to 21 and was put to sleep earlier this year.

Stage 4 kidney failure though I'm not sure how much I'd want to put them through.

Good luck.

Thank you for your replies. The vet has said they want to look at putting her on a drip and then repeating the blood tests afterwards to see if that improves her scores. The vet said she seemed like a healthy cat otherwise (and has been fussing around us, loving her catnip etc) so I’m hopeful that with flushing and rehydrating her she might get a better result? Keeping everything crossed. Shes such a gentle soul.

I'm sorry you're going through this Catlover. It's awful, and no picnic.
My previous cat suddenly lost weight and started drinking any liquid she could. I took her to the vets immediately, had bloods and she was in stage 3.So upsetting she was 10.
She wouldn't eat the renal food at all, and it was a struggle to get her to eat half a pouch a day. The vet said it was more important to get some food, any food down her so we carried on as usual. She also said it's a bit like running round the edge of a big hole. Ok, but one day they will slip and fall in, if you see what I mean. She seemed ok but one day collapsed and we had her PTS. She lived 2.5 years from diagnosis.
I had litter trays in all rooms, because she drank a lot but also wee'd a lot. Take care💐

Also, if you google Tanya's feline kidney disease support group it might help.
I found it invaluable. She has loads of tips and stories also vet advice.
Sorry i can't send a link don't know how. X

Stage 4 is the most advance level of kidney disease have they sub staged by blood pressure and urine protein creatinine ratio?
Is it chronic renal failure (raised phodphorus) or acute phosphorous normal?

Thank you Clarich, that’s good to know your cat lived another 2.5 years.

She’s been back to the vets for a follow up and they’ve admitted her for a drip and a scan to have a good look at her kidneys (no mention of substages), but vet agreed you’d never know she was poorly if not for her attitude to drinking and eating. Quality of life doesn’t seem affected as running after me miaowing and demanding fuss, but she must be feeling rough if she has it at stage 4.

Apparently one kidney is much larger compared to the other so is over compensating but they want to know why (hence the scan). Vet couldn’t feel any masses etc on kidney, thought they were smooth but didn’t want to promise anything until she was fully checked and could get to the bottom of what’s causing the problem.