Kidney Disease - But Somethings odd

Hello All,

We recently had our cat diagnosed with kidney disease at age 7 (she was a stray, so we believe she is 7, possibly 8).  Still, this is pretty young for Kidney disease to set in.  She went down to about 20% of her normal food consumption last Wednesday.  We brought her to the vet on Friday, at which point we thought it was just a sickness... so we gave her an anti-nausea and sent her home.  She still didn't eat by Monday, so we brought her in again.  After a blood test and X-ray, we found that her kidney's were failing.

She spent two days in the hospital doing a cleans with injectable fluids.  She felt pretty good by the time she got home.   Scarfed up two meals that day.  However, since two days ago, she back to 20% of her normal food consumption.

So the abnormalities:

- She has a really good coat of fur... , aren't kidney disease cats supposed to have pretty terrible coats or poorly taken care of coats?

- She's very young for kidney disease

- She's a turtle shell, we've fed her high quality food all her life.  She has been a bit overweight most of her life (13 - 14 lbs).

We have her currently on Hill's k/d Kidney diet hard food.  We tried soft first, but she didn't like it.  She's been sleeping all day again today.  We can't decide if she's sick due to blood contamination again or if she just doesn't want to eat her food.  But, we already spent $1500 on her last week, and can't really afford to detox her again.  Would appreciate some thoughts on the abnormalities and potential solutions.

My cat also has kidney disease but he's very old. 

Unfortunately as a stray, she could have picked up anything before you got her. 

I'm surprised your vet didn't recommend giving your cat subcutaneous fluids. 

Since she was a stray, you don't know her history. It could be that something in her past has contributed to the kidney problems today.  Kidneys filter out toxins and if she ever had any kind of crisis in the past, this might have compromised her kidneys.  Very young adult kitties have been diagnosed with kidney issues, though it's uncommon.  It could also be genetics. 

You don't say how long she has been with you but I think it's along time did she have any signs of herpesvirus goopy eyes respiratory distress when she first came? I had a cat have kidney failure at two ( an earlier cat at 11 we had our third baby the week his illness became pronounced and missed the signs &Vet decided it was too late that he wouldn't make it thur the night but now I wonder?) But the two year old behved oddly not coming in or cleaning ticks off himself but only for a short while so I kept him in and combed him over the weekend. He was drink a ton , I though we would have to put him down right away at Monday appointment but this vet said we could iv fluids so he spent three days on them to see if his kidney would function but they did not. I didn't think my kids and I could hack taking him home to die slowly we fed him a last meal an I had to put him down well he purred with happiness to see me and was awful sorry to go on but they felt there was not enough function left to support regular subcutaneous fluids use.
Did your vet say what out come they expect? Did they retest function after the the fuids??

I've had three kidney cats, and the last one, who died in February, had a wonderful coat until the day she died.  There are no absolutes with kidney disease. 

Do you have any of the blood test results that your Vet obtained?  Do you know what stage your little girl is in?  There are definite stages with kidney disease....stage one, two, etc.  My girl stayed in stage 2 for a couple of years, then quickly went to stage 4.  But, most cats aren't even diagnosed until they are FAR into kidney disease, so it might not be unusual for them to actually start developing it fairly young....who really knows.  And it could have been something completely different that caused your girl to go off her food.  Cats are finicky that way.  BUT, the good thing is that you know about it now. 

Our Vet always told us the most important thing is to get them to eat.  If they don't like the kidney food, then let them eat something else.  Food is critical for any cat, but especially for kidney cats, because they do tend to lose weight.  Of course, you want to try to feed food that is low in phosphorus, and, really wet food is best, because the more hydrated you can keep them, the better, but still, just getting them to eat is the most important thing.  I fed my girl wet food, and added about one tablespoon of filtered water to every meal, of which she ate between 7 - 9 per day (they were small meals ). 

Here, maybe this website will help you begin this journey.  It is my "go to" for pretty much everything kidney related, including a listing of both wet and dry foods and how much phosphorus this contain:  http://www.felinecrf.org/index.htm

Why don't you get started reading it, then come back here with any specific questions you might have.  Unfortunately, there are many people here who have or have had kidney cats, so we have lots of experience in this area

My angel kitty Floey who is now up in heaven had stage 2 for 3 years. We just kept trying to get her to eat wet food and fancy feast pate style turkey and giblets were her favorite. I added water to the can hot water that is and mixed it into the dish then mashed with a fork. she loved her slurry.