Guys I need help badly...

We just took my 9 year old sugar cat to the vet cuz he's been limping on his back leg and also refusing the eat, well most things came back normal but he has a cruciate ligament tear and also apparently what they are telling me is stage 3 kidney disease all of a sudden when he was fine in October.... When we originally diagnosed him with diabetes.

She didn't explain much and I don't know what to do and I'm panicking and I don't wanna lose my baby

Hi Jamie - so sorry to hear about what's been going on. It's interesting that things were OK in October, and then the sudden spike. From what I've read when things jump like that rather than a slow decline, that can point to something acute. For the causes, something going on like dehydration, infection, etc. or NSAIDS for the leg issue...

How's he been eating since he's been home? Any vomiting? Did the vet mention anything about fluids? His USG is a bit low. Hydration is definitely important right now, along with eating.

I'm looking at the Cystatin B too and I just don't have a ton of personal experience, but reading online it seems like that can be used to measure active kidney injury, and that's low so that seems positive. But could also be the marker itself, I know some of these markers like SDMA can be hit or miss.

Did the vet mention anything about next steps? I see in the last document there they recommend a recheck of kidney markers in 24-48 hours to see where things are trending.

@Marje and Gracie @Suzanne & Darcy @Kat & Trixie @SqueeM3 do any of you ladies have any thoughts for Jamie? Thank you

He hasn't been eating. They didn't prescribe anything other than gabapentin twice a day for his pain for his leg. Which is a little confusing cuz everywhere in the kidney disease Facebook group they're saying they should have tried to prescribe some nausea medication or maybe an appetite stimulant to help him eat. He doesn't really want to eat anything. I've resulted to syringe feeding him the last 2 days cuz he won't eat his food on his own. He's not puking. He's using the bathroom normally. He's also drinking a lot of water. He just pooped for the first time yesterday in a week.

We've decided that we're going to take him to the emergency vet and let him sit on Iv fluids for 24 hours and then hopefully find out what's going on.

Speaking to my vet is extremely confusing and she's not very forthcoming with information nor does she explain things very well. Everything with her is very much. I don't know type basis. Even explaining the x-rays. They didn't see a ligament tear but they saw inflammation and fluid so they're assuming it's a ligament tear as well as they don't know for sure if it's kidney disease but they think it is.

That's where I was headed with the eating. Definitely could be nauseous, for that Ondansetron is popular or Cerenia. Mirataz for appetite stimulant but address nausea first. Anyways, I'm glad he's going to be getting some good care at the emergency vet. Keep us posted!

Jamie+Stryder said:

We just took my 9 year old sugar cat to the vet cuz he's been limping on his back leg and also refusing the eat, well most things came back normal but he has a cruciate ligament tear and also apparently what they are telling me is stage 3 kidney disease all of a sudden when he was fine in October.... When we originally diagnosed him with diabetes.

She didn't explain much and I don't know what to do and I'm panicking and I don't wanna lose my baby

Click to expand...

With a creatinine that high, he definitely needs to be in the hospital receiving IV fluids. It shows the phosphorus as high but I don’t see a number. I suspect it is also really high.

I agree with Tim that this seems acute more than chronic. I would pursue that with the ER vets. A virus can cause acute renal disease. They might need to ultrasound his kidneys.

I hope they will admit him and give you some information.

Marje and Gracie said:

With a creatinine that high, he definitely needs to be in the hospital receiving IV fluids. It shows the phosphorus as high but I don’t see a number. I suspect it is also really high.

I agree with Tim that this seems acute more than chronic. I would pursue that with the ER vets. A virus can cause acute renal disease. They might need to ultrasound his kidneys.

I hope they will admit him and give you some information.

Click to expand...

@Tim & Pookey So we took him in. He's currently staying until Thursday morning on IV fluids. Uhm the vet was confused about the test results, cuz most of his bloodwork is normal but his kidney numbers are insane but it's such a drastic jump from being totally fine in October. He's wondering if maybe it's an AKI. He says it still very well could be CKD. They are doing bloodwork before doing the IV to check if his numbers have changed from Friday. Then they will do more bloodwork after the IV to see if it helped. He said if it did help them maybe it's a AKI if it doesn't help then most likely could be CKD. We don't rly know yet but he was a suspicious of the lab results from the other vet.

Also said that the ligament tear was a little weird cuz might not actually be that could be something to do with his patella. But we are going to ignore the injury for now and focus on kidneys. He said HELL NO to putting him down and said if he does have CKD then this prolonging it as long as he will let us.

So I guess we will figure out where to go from here Thursday.

Jamie+Stryder said:

@Tim & Pookey So we took him in. He's currently staying until Thursday morning on IV fluids. Uhm the vet was confused about the test results, cuz most of his bloodwork is normal but his kidney numbers are insane but it's such a drastic jump from being totally fine in October. He's wondering if maybe it's an AKI. He says it still very well could be CKD. They are doing bloodwork before doing the IV to check if his numbers have changed from Friday. Then they will do more bloodwork after the IV to see if it helped. He said if it did help them maybe it's a AKI if it doesn't help then most likely could be CKD. We don't rly know yet but he was a suspicious of the lab results from the other vet.

Also said that the ligament tear was a little weird cuz might not actually be that could be something to do with his patella. But we are going to ignore the injury for now and focus on kidneys. He said HELL NO to putting him down and said if he does have CKD then this prolonging it as long as he will let us.

So I guess we will figure out where to go from here Thursday.

Click to expand...

That sounds like a good plan.

I’ve had five cats who have had kidney disease and the only one whose creatinine went that high that fast had genetic polycystic kidney disease. They could likely tell that with an X-ray as the cysts should be visible. You might ask about that.

But none of the others had a creatinine go up that fast or that high.

Please keep us posted. I hope he will get better or they will figure out the first labs were off.

Marje and Gracie said:

That sounds like a good plan.

I’ve had five cats who have had kidney disease and the only one whose creatinine went that high that fast had genetic polycystic kidney disease. They could likely tell that with an X-ray as the cysts should be visible. You might ask about that.

But none of the others had a creatinine go up that fast or that high.

Please keep us posted. I hope he will get better or they will figure out the first labs were off.

Click to expand...

So they let us take him home. He's doing alot better, they did an ultrasound it showed that his right kidney is extremely enlarged (about 6 cm) with changes to the kidney tissue, it is really thick and the inside is dialated, while his left kidney is much smaller, suggesting there may have been kidney damage going on for a while. They couldn’t find a clear cause.
The amazing news is that he responded really well to treatment. His creatinine dropped from 1,412 to around 300 as well as his other values also lowering significantly, he was eating at the vet and drinking, and using his litter box in the hospital, so they felt he was stable enough to come home.
He’s now home with kidney supplements and we’re monitoring him closely. He’s still drinking water excessively and is a little quiet after everything he’s been through, but we’re so grateful to have him home.

The only plus is that aside from the ligament everything else is okay. His diabetes is still under control as well.

So glad he's home! I'm sure that's to be expected and normal with all that change in his routine. Did they mention anything about a recheck in a few months? And just curious for my own learning, what kidney supplements did they send you home with?

Tim & Pookey said:

So glad he's home! I'm sure that's to be expected and normal with all that change in his routine. Did they mention anything about a recheck in a few months? And just curious for my own learning, what kidney supplements did they send you home with?

Click to expand...

Uhm they are really surprised by how drastic a change his numbers are so they booked us in again for Tuesday to recheck and then talk about how often we need to do rechecks after that.
They sent us home with Adventi Kidney it's a powder they want me to add to his food twice a day.
They said if it gets to a point where he needs nausea meds and an appetite stimulant we will do that too but he doesn't need it right now. Same with Sub Q fluids.