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Old November 28th, 2008, 01:40 AM
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growler~GateKeeper growler~GateKeeper is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sugarcatmom View Post
You know what they say: look at the cat, not the numbers. Hazelrunpack is right, Duffy is still rockin' it. You 2 are an inspiration and a testament to the human-animal bond.
Yeah I know the mantra 'treat the cat not the numbers' and that's what my vet & I are doing , but sometimes it can get so d@mn depressing watching the blood numbers rise & the urine numbers fall. Thanks SCM , yes she is doing wonderfully.

Quote:
Originally Posted by chico2 View Post
Growler,forgive my ignorance,but what do all these numbers mean to Duffy??
She looks wonderful
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris21711 View Post
I'm with Chico on this Growler, completely clueless as to what it all means. If you have the time, I'd appreciate understanding it a little better..

She does look oh so good growler, never would know she has anything wrong with her. She is beautiful
Quote:
Originally Posted by rainbow View Post
I'm not completely sure but I think if both the BUN and Creatinine numbers are elevated it indicates kidney failure. :sad:

But, as everyone has already said, Duffy still looks really great and she couldn't have a better mom to look after her.
Thank you SCM, Chico, L4H, Chris & Rainbow for the compliments & good wishes

Rainbow is correct the rise in both BUN and Creatinine means the kidneys are not functioning as they should be.

Toxins in the body (excess urea, nitrogen, phosphorus, calcium, creatinine{not all these substances are bad just in too high volume they can be}) are filtered out by the kidneys what isn't dumped in to urine is recycled back through the blood - same as people. The only difference is cats' kidneys concentrate the urine by removing as much water as they can to put back into the body, one reason they normally don't drink much. When the numbers continually rise it indicates there are more toxins than the body can expell, the urine is not concentrating as well {this is the lower USG number} so it takes drinking excess amounts of water to remove the waste from the body.

BUN = Blood Urea Nitrogen the amount of nitrogen waste products in the blood that comes from urea {urine}.
Creatinine = another waste product, a by-product of muscle. This value is not really affected by diet, stress or dehydration {BUN is abit more affected by those 3 factors} so to drop the creatinine number is not very easy.
USG = Urine Specific Gravity shows the amount of concentration of urine. Water has a specific gravity of 1. A cats' urine should have a SG of 1.040 to 1.060 anything less than 1.040 indicates a problem. In a cat receiving regular fluid therapy this test is not as reliable because you are putting even more fluids into the body than they would drink.

For Duffy this means there are more toxins in her blood, which the every other day fluid therapy is helping to remove. It is good that her vet increased the frequency of fluids now. I know these numbers are not extreme highs but I would like to try to keep them as low as possible for as long as possible, so the kidneys are functioning as good as they can for longer without working too hard. Physically she's doing great, she just drinks alot & pees alot and her energy level is better after getting fluids than before.

She's used to having them so often now that she was purring during her fluids tonite. Duffy is so good
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