- Joined
- Feb 19, 2021
- Messages
- 35
- Purraise
- 45
Hi all - I'm a bit stumped and would like help understanding my cat's blood and urinalysis results. So my cat is a 5 y.o. domestic short hair who has had upper tract IBD all his life. We took a lot of time to find a food that works for him and his sister (who has lower tract IBD), and finally settled on Blue Buffalo Wilderness Mature Chicken Recipe Canned food with a daily snack of half a can Wellness Core Signature Selects Skipjack Tuna & Shrimp. He has been on this wet food-only diet for a couple of years now.
A couple of months ago, he started throwing up intermittently, maybe once every 3-4 days, so we took him to the vet and they ran a routine blood test and urinalysis. Much to our surprise, while his BUN was normal, his SDMA was 15 and his creatinine was 2.3. He also had +1 protein in urine and seemed to be dehydrated. Our vet was surprised and scheduled him for an ultrasound, and his kidneys looked totally normal - the only abnormality was that his upper GI tract was inflamed (not surprising considering IBD). He was scheduled for a second test about 2 months later, and this time his BUN was still normal, his SDMA was unable to be detected, but his creatinine was 2.6. This was dismaying to me, as I had been mixing water into his wet food, hoping that he was just dehydrated during his first test. I've attached his latest blood and urinalysis results for reference.
I have a couple of questions, it would be helpful if someone could answer even one of them:
1. Are these unusual lab test results for a young cat who's a healthy weight and is a bit on the muscular side? His vet is also confused so this is making me anxious
2. Can high-protein foods cause results like this? Is the Blue Buffalo food perhaps too hard on his kidneys?
3. He has had gabapentin before each visit. Can gabapentin sometimes cause these wacky lab results?
4. Could this be anything else besides reduced renal function? Wouldn't his kidneys look weird on the ultrasound if his kidneys were having problems?
Thanks so much for any amount of insight you can provide me with!
A couple of months ago, he started throwing up intermittently, maybe once every 3-4 days, so we took him to the vet and they ran a routine blood test and urinalysis. Much to our surprise, while his BUN was normal, his SDMA was 15 and his creatinine was 2.3. He also had +1 protein in urine and seemed to be dehydrated. Our vet was surprised and scheduled him for an ultrasound, and his kidneys looked totally normal - the only abnormality was that his upper GI tract was inflamed (not surprising considering IBD). He was scheduled for a second test about 2 months later, and this time his BUN was still normal, his SDMA was unable to be detected, but his creatinine was 2.6. This was dismaying to me, as I had been mixing water into his wet food, hoping that he was just dehydrated during his first test. I've attached his latest blood and urinalysis results for reference.
I have a couple of questions, it would be helpful if someone could answer even one of them:
1. Are these unusual lab test results for a young cat who's a healthy weight and is a bit on the muscular side? His vet is also confused so this is making me anxious
2. Can high-protein foods cause results like this? Is the Blue Buffalo food perhaps too hard on his kidneys?
3. He has had gabapentin before each visit. Can gabapentin sometimes cause these wacky lab results?
4. Could this be anything else besides reduced renal function? Wouldn't his kidneys look weird on the ultrasound if his kidneys were having problems?
Thanks so much for any amount of insight you can provide me with!