Crummy News

Yesterday I brought our little kitty Rye to work with me for a check up. He has been over grooming and had stinky breath and I figured he could use a dental cleaning. After the exam, we did some routine pre-anesthetic blood work and got some unexpected and unwelcome results. At not quite 5 years old my little kitty is in the early stages of compensated renal failure. This is very overwhelming and depressing news. There is no cure, only management. And he is very very young to have this disease. We were able to do his dental cleaning with fluid support for his kidneys, and he had to have two teeth extracted. Blargh. Right now he is not showing any clinical signs or symptoms of the disease, which is good, but he is already anemic, which is bad. He has started on a special diet to help ease the burden on his already hard working kidneys. We will give him lots of fresh water and love and just wait and watch. Renal failure is a very complex disease with many factors including anemia and high blood pressure and can have many complications like bladder and kidney infections. It is basically just really really really sucky. He will go in for regular blood checks and we will have to monitor him for changes in urination and water drinking. For right now his body is managing and he is sort of balanced on a fence, hopefully it will be months or years before his balance fails and he falls...until then we will love him and care for him as best we can.