Normal BUN; High Creatinine

FYI, kitty's next vet appointment (different vet; cat only) is Thursday, but would appreciate any feedback.

My domestic cat is about 9 years old (got her fully grown and was told she was 1 at that time).

On May 3, on a routine visit to the vet, she had been diagnosed with stage 2 periodontal disease. SHe was 10 lbs. SHe was eating and drinking well (on EVO dry food and Wellness pouch wet food).

So on May 11, they did some pre-anesthesia bloodwork prior to the tooth cleaning. Ended up that they couldnt do it b/c her creatinine was high:
Creatinine 2.7 (high)
ALT 13
GLU 149
RBC 8.87
HCT 34.3
HGB 12.4
MCV 38.7 (low)
MCH 13.94
MCHC 36
RDW 20.8
% Retic 0.4
Retic 32.5
WBC 6.72
%NEU 37.1
%LYM 43.1
%MONO 12.8
%EOS 6.5
%BASO 0.5
NEU 2.5 (low normal)
LYM 2.89
MONO 0.86
EOS 0.44
BASO 0.04
PLT >184 (result is greater than range for this species)
MPV 7.5
PDW 20%
PCT 0.1%

At that time my vet administered fluids. When I came to get her, they did a UA and a senior profile.

Later that week, that senior profile came back and I was told that while her creatinine was high, it was more "normal high" and that her UA was normal (I didn't get a copy of those results)...Anyway, my vet just recommended putting her on Hills k/d prescription diet. Plan was to let her finish up the k/d for 3 months and retest her bloodwork.

At first she took to the k/d very well (maybe b/c she had been fasting since midnight).

But for the past 1-2 weeks I've noticed she wasn't touching her food very much (she always has dry food out all the time; and I give her wet food 2 times a day). She still pooped and pee-d well. She usually weights 10lbs (home scale) and on Monday she was 8lbs. This past Monday, I really watched her and she would lick at her wet food and that's it. I went out and got some fancy feast and even then she ate maybe a teaspoon's worth (if that) and that's it. She's drinking water though. No poop in the box today, just one softball size pee-ball.

Her behavior is definetly different. She used to rifle through her toy basket and get her toys and I'd find them everywhere. She also doesn't sleep in my bed which is her usual spot. She's in the corner of my room.

Bought a feliway diffuser and avoderm and fancy feast canned food to tempt her. No luck yet.

Any feedback would be appreciated.

My girl doesn't like the k/d wet either. She won't even go near the dish! She does like the k/d dry, though. Ask your vet for alternate renal foods for kitties and if she's free fed dry through the day, get the k/d and see if she'll eat that. Then, you can probably get away with feeding her a wet food that's not a renal food and decrease the amount you give her at each serving (that's what we do).

My cat has CRF too and we've gone through all the Rx diets. The only food Schweppie will eat on a consistent basis is the Natural Balance Limited Ingredients formulas (Duck, Salmon, Chicken or Venison - all with green pea-I rotate flavours). I found out the numbers and they seem okay for CRF cats - the phosphorus, sodium, and protein levels are okay -I may start supplementing with potassium and vitamin B as these are a little low. I compared NB's numbers to the numbers stated in the Small Animal Clnical Nutrition book. Look for a food that is 0.5% phosphorus or less (max. 1.0%), 0.32 potassium, 0.25% sodium and 0.9% or less protein. NB's values are all lower. It's worth a try.

BTW, my vet said that because my cat is at stage 3 nonproteinuric stage, his creatinine levels will pretty much be high anyway. If your cat is CRF, you should ask your vet to stage and sub-stage the CRF to get a better idea of how you should treat this. It may just be a matter of improving kidney function. Vets will tell you that the protein should be decreased and tha the protein should be a higher quality protein. I don't believe this as cats with CRF struggle with muscle wasting so lowering protein won't help them at all. It's a matter of feeding the right proteins that have the correct amount of amino acids that will minimuze kidney damage but maximize nutritional support for your cat. There is a thread about the supplement Renafood which helps support kidney function...you may want to look that one up.

Let us know how it goes. You could try the NF and the LP and then rotate if your cat gets sick of eating it. The main thing is to not starve him and if he only eats his regular food, so be it. Just make sure he's getting enough fluids so that it flushes his kidneys and reduces the stress on them.

My cat had a normal UA, normal BUN but higher than normal creatinine. I was told it was nothing to worry about and said that considering the normal BUN and normal UA, showing proper concentrating of urine it was just an off thing that he might not have drank enough prior to the bloodwork.

I will say mine is only 13 months old so we are talking about totally different ages. Senior vs Young. If I(31) get a test and it shows my kidney values as off, I'm told I'm dehydrated, if my boyfriend Paul(he's 67) gets the same test and has the same results he's told he's in kidney failure. His 'kidney failure' miraculously vanished once he was hydrated. So I understand the difference in ages.

Either way, you need to find a food she'll eat, but I will say if I were you I'd get a second opinion on if she is or isn't in kidney failure.

Taryn

I would suggest a re test and another opnion...

After a SQ fluid, she came home sleepy/tired. She got up later and ate a little bit of her wet food (Fancy Feast liver). Her new vet said to let her eat whatever she wants at this point, junkfood included pending her labwork results tomorrow. But, based on what hte urine looked like at collection the vet said the urine did not look like the urine of a cat in renal failure...it was well concentrated.

So....keeping my fingers crossed that everything will be okay.

She does have a Grade 2 heart murmur.
She however does not have periodontal disease stage 2 (which the previous vet said), although she might need one tooth taken out b/c of a lesion (I forget what the technical term she said was). Besides the senior profile and UA, her thyroid levels are getting checked out.

More news tomorrow!

Like I said Nuts had the same thing, high creatinine, normal BUN and well concentrated urine and the vet said he was definitely NOT in renal failure. She said there was nothing at all to indicate it. Like I said I'm wondering why the same results would mean CRF in one cat and not another with the exact same results, except for age. Like I said age has a lot to do with it, as I said they told my boyfriend he had kidney failure that 'magically' disappeared once he was re-hydrated. When it's me, they just tell me I'm dehydrated and re-hydrate me.

I'm glad you are getting a second opinion.

Taryn