Kitten with congenital abnormal kidney?

Hi all

I am fostering a 5 month old kitten who has had chronic blood in her urine for a while. She spent two months hospitalized before coming to me, and all normal causes of bloody urine have been ruled out. She had an ultrasound and it showed a congenital abnormality of her kidney (one is enlarged) and a narrowing of her ureter, which is causing the problem. The vets are thinking of removing the problem kidney when she is spayed but they are concerned her prognosis may not be good. Do any of you know of young cats who lived long lives with one kidney? Is the recovery from surgery harder than a straightforward spay? And would she be at an even higher risk of kidney disease later in life? Anyone have thoughts? She's going to the vet but I am just wondering if anyone has personal experience with this.

Poor little thing. I know nothing about this but I hope someone will come along to help you.

I am a human doctor, not a veterinarian, but I have considerable experience with humans with only one kidney and, subject to veterinarian agreement, I understand that human experience would apply to felines with one kidney.

People, and cats, will live normal lives with only one healthy kidney, but  they are at greater risk if they develop kidney disease of any sort. Having only one kidney does not increase the risk of developing any kidney disease, it is just that their mortality is higher if any kidney disease is contracted.  Furthermore there is no reason why they should not recover from surgery exactly the same as those with two kidneys.

With best wishes,

Geoffrey.

Thank you, @Primula

@Geoffrey   - that is what the vets are thinking I believe. That is my hope! She is a very sweet girl and I hope she has 20 healthy years ahead of her. She just had a little rough start to life I don't think she will be very special needs with one kidney, do you? At least compared to lots of other things she could have.

@sidneykitty

I trust that your cat will have many years ahead of her, has the bloody urine subsided?  Your cat should notice no difference if she has the abnormal kidney removed when she is spayed; I presume that the narrow ureter is the cause of the bleeding.  Why are the vets thinking that her prognosis is not good? 

I don't think that she would have any special needs with only one kidney.

With best wishes,

Geoffrey

That's what I am thinking. She had blood in her urine for at least a month but I don't see any blood in it now though it could be present microscopically I guess. Yes, we think the narrow ureter is the cause which cause backflow of urine into her kidney and caused damage to her one kidney.

She's been on the Hill's c/d urinary care food for a while now to try to help but I am not sure it will be effective or not. I think the vets don't want to make any promises about her health they can't keep they are just being cautious, but I think she'll be totally fine. She doesn't show any signs of being ill - she plays, eats lots of food and is a totally normal kitten otherwise. She's a little skinny, but we're working on that.

On the other hand, my other cat does not like having the kitten around and I've yet to successfully introduce them together without my cat getting angry. So they are still in separate rooms, but I wish they could get along...however that's a topic for another thread.