Cat & Early Signs of Kidney Failure. Can they be wrong?

Question

My husband and I adopted a 9-year old cat form a shelter a little over two weeks ago. He took her to the vet on Monday and her shelter records show that in 2007, she showed early signs of Kidney Failure. She was then treated for a UTI and, from what I understood, everything was fine.

Could they have been wrong about the early signs of kidney failure and/or should the vet give her a blood test to confirm this?

Answer 1

The signs of kidney failure like elevated bun for example can be  raised for other reasons. If your cat is not losing weight and not drinking excessively then I would not worry,

  Please please feed quality canned foods no kitty crack

Thanks for saving a life!

Answer 2

The only way to know for certain about whether or not your cat has any problems with her kidneys is to take her to your vet.  They can do blood work and even a urine sample to check for this.  Cats with kidney problems will drink a lot of water and urinate a lot.  Here's an article on the signs of renal failure in cats:

http://cats.about.com/cs/healthissues/p/...

If your cat does have early kidney disease, there is treatment for it, that can extend the cat's life and the quality of her life.  

Thank you for adopting this kitty.

Answer 3

Like Ken said, kidney values can be elevated for reasons other than kidney failure. The only way you are going to know for sure is to run more bloodwork.  It has been long enough now that the values should show whether her kidneys are in decline or whether whatever might have caused the elevated levels has passed.

In my opinion, knowing is worth the extra expense of the test.  Not knowing is very hard emotionally, and if you know, you can work with the vet to get her on the best diet possible for failing kidneys.  If your vet suggests KD (which he or she almost certainly will), ask about making or purchasing a raw diet instead. In my opinion, Hill's is not all it's cracked up to be.

Since your previous post was about a possible roundworm infection, I'd be concerned about the health of this cat.  Roundworm infections at that stage are almost unheard of in healthy, adult cats.  They are normally encysted unless the cat is pregnant, unhealthy, or heavily stressed.  Elevated kidney values combined with a roundworm infection would be indicative of very poor health.  I hope this is not the case.  Good luck.