Does my cat need fluids? BUN 90, creatnin 3.9
 

Her levels tripled in 6 months. I was feeding low phosphorus foods and she was drinking, drinking, never dehydrated. Thought things were going well.

I can't remember if the vet said she needs fluids now or may after a month. She wants me to feed an rx diet and re-check in a month.

I can't talk to her until tomorrow and she will say 'it's up to you' instead of YES she needs it or no she doesn't.

Fluid therapy started too early, given too much or too often can also damage the kidneys in giving them too much work to do.

Generally speaking many vets will start fluids when the Creatinine has reached between 3.5-4, though a lot of that is based on how the cat is physically:

- is she dehydrated? **This can sometimes be difficult to tell as a cat can be drinking well and still be chronically dehydrated without you seeing any concrete signs**
some signs include:

-Sunken eyes
-Dry mouth
-Poor skin elasticity
-Lethargy
-Increased heart rate
-Poor capillary refill time
-Constipation. Water is re-absorbed from the colon & if the cat is dehydrated, the body will try to conserve water by removing additional water from the stool.

- is she vomiting or nauseous?

- is she eating normally?

- energy level normal or is she napping more?

- is her attitude normal or is she grumpy/not herself?

- are her poops hard & dry or normal?

- has her drinking increased?

When the vet makes a recommendation & you can't remember what they said, you can always call the clinic & ask the front office staff to see what the notes are in the file from that appointment.

If you want to know what your vet recommends ask them what they would do if it was their cat. ;)

Since your vet has recommended the rx food, she likely wanted to start fluids in a month instead of at the same time, this way they can see what difference the food change makes, if any, on it's own plus any food change can cause stomach upset in some cats & it's best to be dealing with 1 new issue at a time. Your vet will determine the amount and frequency of fluids & set you up with a kit and show you how it's done.

From personal experience when I started fluids with my CRF cat her numbers were a bit below yours is & she had a noticible increase in water consumption.

Let us know what the vet says :goodvibes:

none of those signs that you mentioned are happening.

But a woman who takes her cat to a kidney specialist said the vet and I are out of our minds not to start fluids with a BUN that high.

I explained what you mentioned above, that the vet wants to see what the food is doing, and the woman was emphatic that I don't have a month to dither with food, that she needs fluids NOW, so of course once again I am confused though I had promised myself to do what the vet says for once instead of doing my own research and making all the decisions myself.