High creatinine, low white blood cell count - Need advice, please repy.

altzarina

TCS Member
Thread starter
Adult Cat
Joined
Sep 20, 2005
Messages
168
Purraise
1
Location
India
Hello everyone. I used to post here four years back when I first got my kitty. Her name is Pablo (well I suppose cats aren't that gender finicky about their names, so please don't comment on that :p .) I am posting here again after four years as my cat is in a very critical condition right now. She is four years old and a week back she was perfectly healthy, happy and active. However, since last Monday she started exhibiting strange symptoms which alarmed me. Complete lack of appetite, lethargy, very little urination and no pooping at all. I immediately contacted the doctor and the blood test result showed a high creatinine level and a very low white blood cells count. She was immediately put on fluids. Tomorrow a second blood test is due. She has showed no signs of recovery. She rejects food and water and keeps sleeping the whole day. The doctor is suspecting feline distemper. I come from a small town in India and cats aren't still popular pets here. Distempter vaccines weren't introduced until late. Neither was I aware about it nor was my vet until late. I am getting very paranoid. She doesn't have any other typical symptoms of distempter like vomiting, diarrhea or a high fever. On the other hand, it seems her kidney is at risk due to the high creatinine level.

I feel very helpless and paranoid. Pablo is an indoor cat and she is like my child, the thought of losing her is making me paranoid. Please, any advice will be appreciated.
 

mrblanche

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Jan 28, 2008
Messages
12,578
Purraise
119
Location
Texas
Is it possible she ate something that might be poisonous? Maybe a houseplant, or a bug?
 

darlili

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Oct 16, 2007
Messages
3,310
Purraise
14
Location
Illinois
I wish I had advice, but just prayers for you and Pablo - and I hope your vet can diagnose something and treat it.
 

catattack1985

TCS Member
Young Cat
Joined
Jul 28, 2009
Messages
59
Purraise
0
Distemper????

I think it sounds more like renal failure. Very common in cats who are fed improper diets, i.e., dry food, etc, although it typically occurs at an older age. What do you feed him/her? Cats should be fed wet food and given plenty of water. It's also possible your cat ate something bad, but vomiting and diarrhea would likely be present if that were the case.

Best of luck.
 

darlili

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Oct 16, 2007
Messages
3,310
Purraise
14
Location
Illinois
well, the poster is in a small town in India, so I'm not sure how wide a variety of food is available, since cats aren't typically as popular there as in, well, the suburban United States - and plenty of cats, young and old, manage fine on dry food. In any event, I'm sure the poster has fed her cat the best she can find in her area. She's obviously a loving pet parent, and has been for four years.

Again, prayers that the vet can figure out what's wrong, and plenty of prayers for Pablo.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #6

altzarina

TCS Member
Thread starter
Adult Cat
Joined
Sep 20, 2005
Messages
168
Purraise
1
Location
India
Thanks for the wishes, I am just about to take her to the vet for the second blood report.

With regards to improper diet I order royal canine indoor cats dry food. I was told it was the best, I had no clue that dry food is dangerous?
 

iheartstrays

TCS Member
Adult Cat
Joined
Jul 27, 2009
Messages
128
Purraise
2
Location
Del City, OK
It's not "dangerous", it's just that cats get most of their water intake from their food.

I'm be sending for Pablo!!! Any word yet?
 

darlili

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Oct 16, 2007
Messages
3,310
Purraise
14
Location
Illinois
more prayers for you - and I don't know if this site might be useful to you or your vet, but Cornell University vet school in the US has a web site (www.vet.cornell.edu/fhc) which has a consultation service (http://www.vet.cornell.edu/fhc/camuti.htm, via phone). Unfortunately, it doesn't have 24x7 availability, from what I can see, and I bet your vet has similar resources available in India, but I was thinking about you.

You're not feeding an 'improper' diet - so many cats eat dry foods and live for very long lives, and I know you've made sure Pablo has had the very best available to you, along with lots of water, and love. Please God that Pablo gets well very soon - and then you can talk with the vet about foods available and what might work well for Pablo.
 

catattack1985

TCS Member
Young Cat
Joined
Jul 28, 2009
Messages
59
Purraise
0
Originally Posted by altzarina

Thanks for the wishes, I am just about to take her to the vet for the second blood report.

With regards to improper diet I order royal canine indoor cats dry food. I was told it was the best, I had no clue that dry food is dangerous?
It is an improper diet for a cat. In nature, cats eat wet raw meat and bones that contain plenty of moisture. This is what they are designed to eat and what they have eaten for centuries. Cats are not designed to eat dried pellets of food (often containing grain, which cats don't need) -- humans feed them this out of convenience for humans, but it's not at all convenient for the cat.

In fact, I would argue that cats are not the "easy household pet" that so many think they are (in the US, the cat is the #1 pet) if properly fed... Cats are perhaps the most akin to a true wild animal that I can think of owning, nevermind keeping in the house. Cats are really not that well domesticated at all. That doesn't mean they can't be sweet and loving - but they must always be respected as the natural hunter and carnivore that they are.

Although many say they've had cats that lived healthy happy lives only eating dry -- there are many cases of cats becoming obese, developing feline diabetes, having frequent UTIs and bladder crystal problems, and renal failure from eating dry food. As stated, cats are designed to get water *with* their food, as they would in nature, and dry food contains little to no moisture - often resulting in a constantly dehydrated cat. A cat must drink plenty of water if fed a 100% dry diet - and many do not.
 

mrblanche

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Jan 28, 2008
Messages
12,578
Purraise
119
Location
Texas
Dry food may not be the best food on a long-term basis, but the brand you are using is better than most dry foods. Wet food is closer to what cats would eat in the wild, but then, in the wild, they only live about 4 years.

My brother has had cats live into their late teens eating nothing better than Purina Cat Chow, so I would say on average the difference between a premium dry and a premium wet would be fairly small, as far as longevity is concerned.

It is easy for those of us with 10 major stores, including two major pet stores, within 15 minutes of driving to criticize those who are fighting cultural and economic problems to do the best for their cats.
 

catattack1985

TCS Member
Young Cat
Joined
Jul 28, 2009
Messages
59
Purraise
0
Originally Posted by mrblanche

It is easy for those of us with 10 major stores, including two major pet stores, within 15 minutes of driving to criticize those who are fighting cultural and economic problems to do the best for their cats.
This is not criticism, so much as it is teaching the natural diet of a cat.

Live and learn.
 

mrblanche

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Jan 28, 2008
Messages
12,578
Purraise
119
Location
Texas
The "natural diet of cats" is small animals and bugs. I don't find that in any pet store aisle. So everything (even raw diets) are going to be a compromise. And, as I said, the compromise works pretty darn well. As the old expression goes, "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good."
 

catattack1985

TCS Member
Young Cat
Joined
Jul 28, 2009
Messages
59
Purraise
0
Originally Posted by mrblanche

The "natural diet of cats" is small animals and bugs. I don't find that in any pet store aisle. So everything (even raw diets) are going to be a compromise. And, as I said, the compromise works pretty darn well. As the old expression goes, "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good."
FYI, I *do* find live mice, rats, chicks (in the spring), and crickets in my local pet store aisle. And many feed their cats "whole prey" not just "whole prey model"....

Raw chicken is still a hell of a lot closer to what's natural than dehydrated meat-cereal pellets!
 

darlili

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Oct 16, 2007
Messages
3,310
Purraise
14
Location
Illinois
Please let's get back on topic - with lots of good wishes for Pablo and her meowmy - and I hope some good news came from the vet today.

And while I don't always agree with Mr. Blanche on political topics, the idea of not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good rings very true.
 

mrblanche

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Jan 28, 2008
Messages
12,578
Purraise
119
Location
Texas
Well, as someone else pointed out, this is a pet owner dealing with trying to find pet food in a rural area of India. With dry food, they don't have to pay for shipping water. And I would guess that the worst store brand of dry food is better than just letting the cats fend for themselves on the street in India.

And you might be surprised how much you would agree with me politically. I'm an independent, perfectly willing to point out the ridiculous ideas by either party.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #17

altzarina

TCS Member
Thread starter
Adult Cat
Joined
Sep 20, 2005
Messages
168
Purraise
1
Location
India
hello everyone,

apologies for not keeping you updated. Thanks a lot for the support and wishes! Pablo is now doing perfectly fine. She recovered from her illness miraculously fast. Even the doctor was rather confused and none of us still have any clue as to what exactly happened to her. Either way the doctor is suspecting that it was some kind of a viral infection. All we did was to keep Pablo on intravenous fluids for 5-6 days and in a week's time she was back to her usual crazy routine of exploring and jumping around. Her blood reports are also now perfectly fine. She has started eating and drinking water too regularly.

However, big skin patches have now started appearing on her body. There are two on both her arms and one on her hind leg thigh. She dreads the visit to the doctor but I have to take her back to the clinic again as those patches are pretty big. Do you think this could be the result of stress? Just wondering as the last one week of recovery was very depressing and psychologically traumatizing for her due to the hospitalization and daily visits to the vet.

With regards to the debate on the dry food v wet food, thank you very much for the insight. I will try getting my hands on some wet food brands, I can order Iams maybe. Its just that I have tried it before and my cat refuses to even sniff the wet food. All she eats is the royal canin kibbles. Nothing else interests her. I have tried cooking fresh chicken for her too but she would rather starve herself than eat anything else which is not packaged dry cat food.

With regards to a comment someone made, I dont exactly stay in rural India, but I don't know how exactly to explain it, but cats are not at all popular pets in India. Yes, people would feed milk and bread once in a while if a stray cat wanders into their compound but people never keep them as pets. Now the trend is catching up maybe due to the western influence and the rich and elite would often have a persian and siamese cat with them but at a vets clinic you would only find dogs, rarely you would see a cat. Even at a pets store you have to make special orders for cat accessories and food, because all you find on the store shelves is dog food (at least in small towns.)

Anyway, this post is getting really long now! Tomorrow, once again a visit to the vet is due, hope the skin patches are nothing serious.
 

jcat

Mo(w)gli's can opener
Veteran
Joined
Feb 13, 2003
Messages
73,213
Purraise
9,851
Location
Mo(w)gli Monster's Lair
It's good to hear that she's doing so much better! Lots of that her skin condition is something that can easily be cleared up.

I've got a dry food junkie, too, so I understand exactly what you're saying about how she'd starve rather than eat something other than kibble.
 

darlili

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Oct 16, 2007
Messages
3,310
Purraise
14
Location
Illinois
so glad to hear she's feeling better, and hoping the skin condition is treatable - could be stress - mine start shedding like crazy the moment we cross the vet's door.

Please keep us posted, and best wishes for long, happy and healthy lives for you both.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #20

altzarina

TCS Member
Thread starter
Adult Cat
Joined
Sep 20, 2005
Messages
168
Purraise
1
Location
India
I went to the doctor today for her skin patches and I am supposed to apply this particular anti fungal and anti bacterial lotion on her skin. The problem is that the moment I apply it, the kitty licks it off. The lotion is not poisonous so health wise it is not hazardous according to the vet but whats the whole point if she is going to lick it off immediately after applying it! Does this happen with your cats?

Oh and I just thought I would share a picture of my cat, so that you can put a face to the name next time when you reply
 
Top