One kidney????

Well, If you have ever read any of my posts you know that it's impossible for me to own a healthy cat... or dog for that matter.

Well several months ago my husband brought home a feral kitten. We managed to get her fairly well socialized. She is still leary of strangers, but not bad for a kittten who had NO human contact for the first 2 months of her life. She had 1/2 of her tail torn off when we found her and feared she may require further amputation of her tail. Fortunatly it healed well.

Well, since no one has adopted her, I went ahead and got her spayed today. I received a message saying "the surgery went well but there were some... um...unusual complications..." So I called the doctor back. (Mind you, I work for this vet) I asked what was up... "Well, she certainly belongs in your family. When we went to spay her, she only had 1/2 of her reproductive organs." I thought... well thats not too bad.. They were all coming out of her any ways... No big deal. Then he says "there's something else... She only has one kidney" .... HUH????? She was even ultrasounded to make sure... Yup, just one. Her left kidney does not exist...

What on earth are the odds????

We did do bloodwork on her before surgery and all of her lab values came back normal. So her one kidney is doing a great job of compensating.

I was just wondering if anyone out there has a cat who was born with only one kidney? The vet said as long as her kidney values stay in the normal range, he wouldn't worry about putting her on a special diet or anything like that. Just do bloodwork on her regularly.

Any ideas???

During development, we start growing from the center out. There is a correlation between kidney development and reproductive organ development.
When they discovered I have an under-developed right side of my uterus, they also discovered tha the right ovary and tube were up under my right kidney. After surgery, I had several tests to check out my kidney function and development.

I feel that the incidence in cats and dogs is much higher than recognized due to the fact that few of them have ultrasounds/CAT scans/MRIs.

I know of Cats that had onr Kidney and lived 20 years.

My mom only has one kidney and it hasn't given her any problems. On the other end of the spectrum, my old boss had 3 and they all worked together well.

Never had I cat with one kidney, but I'm guessing she'll be just fine. Good luck!

I know that humans are generally just peachy keen with only one kidney, and I'm pretty sure that's a general property of all mammals. So, like your vet said, don't worry about it, but make special sure nothing happens to the only one she's got.