Puddles' bloodwork

[Love4himies]

Well there is good news and bad news in Puddles' annual blood work. She may be in early stages of renal failure, Vet his hoping she was only dehydrated. Her BUN and CRE levels are both up from last year.

Good news, her blood calcium levels are down so the vet is no longer worried about stones developing in her kidneys.

Vet wants her to go on Epakitin or Fortikor. What do you guys think?

[Love4himies]

Could a mod or Marko please move this to the Cat Health Forum if possible please and thank you.

[Dr Lee]

Originally Posted by Love4himies

She may be in early stages of renal failure, Vet his hoping she was only dehydrated. Her BUN and CRE levels are both up from last year.Vet wants her to go on Epakitin...

Was a urinalysis performed? That would answer the question on dehydration. It would also help provide some other important answers about the kidneys. Epakitin is a phosphorus binder. The units of the creatinine and phosphorus are not the same as the US so it is a different looking at the values, but phosphorus is mid range normal correct?

[Love4himies]

Thanks for your response, Dr. Lee

No, I alternate the urinalysis and blood work, her last one was done in Nov/07.

The kidneys were concentrating fine back then, the vet did comment he did think her urine was over concentrated at that time, but I had such a hard time getting her to pee in the little litter box with the special Nosorb litter took 12 hours.

The worry we have with Puddles is that she got into toxins when she was a year old and developed kidney damage, she will be 12 in June.

I have attached her last bloodwork analysis done in Sep 07.

[Love4himies]

Originally Posted by Dr Lee

but phosphorus is mid range normal correct?

That is correct.

[growler~GateKeeper]

To me *not a vet of course* the CRE still looks okay it has only gone up 4UMMOL and is still well within normal

Personally I would be more looking at the ALT & Total Protein level jumps those can both be a sign of dehydration

The BUN is abit worrysome since it is right on the high level but that can also be indicative of dehydration as well as kidney or liver failure

I would run a UA before deciding on the meds - of which I have used neither, sorry no help there - maybe re run the blood work in 2-3 months

[Love4himies]

Thanks Growler. Puddles had her blood taken at 4PM and had not eaten since about 7AM, which is canned with a couple of teaspoons of water added. Puddles is NOT a water drinker so her water consumption comes from her food and the syringed water I give her in the evening so dehydration is possible.

I will have a UA done soon.

[Dr Lee]

The blood work results from November to May are BUN increased from 9 to 11, creatinine increased from 158 - 162, and phosphorus increased from 1.41 - 1.65.

As growler suggested, this could also be a pre-renal cause such as dehydration the day of the last test. Urinalysis will help and I would recommend to recheck the blood values in 1-3 months to further establish a trend. I believe that a kidney friendly diet is never a bad thing, even in a healthy non-renal pet. The Hill's Science Diet (which I know is a dreaded term on this site) can increase life expectancy in a kidney failure pet by 2-3 times. What makes the diet work are Omega 3 fatty acids (fish oil) to naturally improve kidney blood flow, low protein to help reduce BUN (this does not necessarily improve life expectancy but by keeping BUN low it helps them feel better), highly digestible protein and a very restricted phosphorus content (which decreases stress on the kidneys). So by emulating this diet we can help out with even suspected kidney disease.

Also if you give treats, here is the Mayo clinic's site for human recommendations to help reduce phosphorus - take home message - avoid dairy!!!
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/foo...rition/HQ01212

Again, before we jump the gun though, lets look at that urinalysis.

[growler~GateKeeper]

Originally Posted by Love4himies

Thanks Growler. Puddles had her blood taken at 4PM and had not eaten since about 7AM, which is canned with a couple of teaspoons of water added. Puddles is NOT a water drinker so her water consumption comes from her food and the syringed water I give her in the evening so dehydration is possible.

That's one reason I always have the blood & urine done first thing in the morning, she gets fed so her levels are closer to normal, but not allowed access to the litterbox from about midnight - sample taken around 830am, that way you are guaranteed a urine sample & it is supposed to be the most concentrated first thing. I like doing the tests @ the same time of day ie 830am, to me it's easier to compare them, since all values will fluctuate throughout the day.

To give you a comparison *but remember the lab here uses slightly different normal range numbers than yours* when Duffy was diagnosed w/Renal Atozemia (since progressed to Renal Insufficiency) her phosphorus was right in the middle of normal but lower than Puddles, Duffy's BUN was several units higher than Puddles and her Creatinine was more than 30 points higher than the high normal meaning 50 points higher than Puddles. Of course there are more deciding factors than just these 3 numbers