Early Renal Damage

Meowllo evewypawdy, we hope you had a wunnewful Easter weekend. Mommy took most of da day off yesfurday to spend wiff Lexi and me. Weez even got a little supwise fur ya’ later on. Now ifin yous member weez joined up wiff da Bloggin’ A to Z challenge fur this mumff and we left off wiff da letter D fur me. So dat means today is E’s day. And we told ya’ we wuld be writin’ ‘bout da test dat da doctow used to diagnose sis Lexi’s kidney disease. Ifin yous missed ow udder posties on Kidney disease yous can wead them here at The 3 A’s and B is fur…. So wiffout further adieu let’s get this show, or post on da road as they say. 

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Heska E.R.D. – Health Screen Feline Urine Test is a tool that can be used to help diagnose Kidney disease in not only cats, but there are also tests for canines and humans. It is a rapid immunoassay that detects low levels of albumin in the urine. It is specific and easy to use, and only takes about 5 – 10 minutes and requires only a small amount of urine. It is intended to be done in house for quick results. It is said to be able to detect the lowest levels of microalbuminuria in the urine, thus resulting in diagnosing at approximately 25 % of kidney function loss. Early detection, means longer life possibility and more management opportunities.

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Kidney Disease is the number 2 cause of death in pet cats. And in the past it’s detection went undiagnosed until symptoms started appearing. A few of those symptoms are prolific drinking, and therefore an increase in urination, weight loss, reduction of appetite and bad breath. By the time symptoms appear typically kidney function has been decreased by 65 % in canines and 75 % in felines. At which point the assumption is the condition can’t be reversed, only managed as it progresses. So early detection could mean reversal and prolonged life for your cat or dog. 

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While the Heska E.R.D. is a wonderful tool used in the early detection of albumin in the urine, it is important to remember that there are other causes for those results and further testing should be done to confirm the proper diagnosis. Again you can read our previous posts by clicking the links above for more information on the importance of other testing and types. It is important to know that the method of urine collection can have an effect on the outcome of results. Urine can become contaminated very easily therefore the preferred method of collection is through Cystocentesis. This is where a doctor inserts a small needle through the skin and into the bladder to withdraw the sample. As horrible as it sounds there is little to no pain associated with this method and can be done quickly without anesthesia.

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So Lexi has now had a general urinalysis that led to the E.R.D. where she was diagnosed with Kidney disease. We believe the fact that she was 15 led our VET make that diagnosis without further testing. And altho’ he was correct, we do think it was a bit unprofessional because the presence of albumin in the urine can also be caused by inflammatory, infectious or metabolic diseases. Further testing is and was required to properly diagnose and formulate a plan of treatment.  So early detection of albumin in the urine is a great step in feline medicine and a great tool for early detection of a deadly disease. Just remember further testing is always a good idea. If there are underlying problems such as diabetes, IBD, dental disease, etc., the E.R.D. should be repeated 4 weeks after treatment to determine if albumin is still present.  

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Well we hope we shed a little mowe light on da scawy subject of Kidney disease. And now fur da supwise we purromissed. And we hope you enjoyed da fotos featurin’ sissy today. Ain’t she just bootyful? While playin’ yesfurday mommy wuz able to get a little video of sis Lexi havin’ a good time. She’s fixin’ to be 16 years old da 29ff of this mumff, and meez gotta tell ya’, meez sissy…she’s still got it. Fanks fur all yous luv and supppowt and purrayers. Kidney disease or no, meez sissy is da bestest!!!

Ifin you can’t see da video, purrlease click here.

Till da next time……………………………………..Be Blest!!!

 

Luv and Hugs and Kitty Kisses 

 

Dezi and Lexi

 

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http://www.drugs.com/vet/heska-e-r-d-healthscreen-feline-urine-test.html

http://www.heska.com/Documents/RenalHealthScreen/erd_datacat.aspx

http://www.manhattancats.com/Articles/erd_heska.html

Cute And Cuddly C’s

Meowllo evewypawdy how ya’ duin’? We wuz finkin’ our last kupple posties have been purretty deep. So weez fawt we wuld take a little bweak today and tell ya’ ‘bout a new purroduct weez twied. As da west of meez posties this mumff it’s pawt of da Bloggin’ A to Z Chanllenge. And today da letter is C. Well obviously C stands fur Cat, wight?. And what C words kuld be used to descwibe a Cat? How ‘bout Cute and Cuddly. Yep those awe 2 words dat descwibe a kitty purrfectly. And ya’ know what? it’s also da name of da company dat makes da purroduct weez wanna talk ‘bout. Y’all member back this summer when me wuz piddlin’ on da floor stead of da pawdee box wight? Well ifin yous member mommy asked wound ‘bout what to use to get wid of da smell and make me go back to usin’ da pawdee box. She finally twied one of da better known purroducts on da mawket. But soon ow pawtment wuz wedun and da smell wuz gone. Fank catness cuz da stuff mommy had used didn’t work. And me had been weally good ‘bout usin’ da pawdee box since then. 

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So when we wuz asked to weview a purroduct fur cleanin’ up accidents or accidently on purrpusses, we almost sed no. But mommy fawt better and besides she had dat amonia smell in da caw fwum meez last Vet visit and sed okay. So Cute and Cuddly Pet Products sent us a bottle of their Bio-Enzymatic Odor and Stain Remover. And da day afur it awwived me had a accidentally on purrpuss piddle in da floor. Me kep meowin’ and tellin’ mommy da pawdee box had sumfin’ in it but she wuz eaitin’ sum taters and didn’t wanna get up and clean it. So me had to go in da floor. Okay so maybe me didn’t have too, but me didn’t wanna get in da dirty box. Never mind dat it was only at one end and in da corner. You hoomans wuldn’t wanna sit on da hooman pawdee box ifin sumfin’ wuz in there wight? And you don’t even hav to touch what’s in there. So why is it dat you fink we wanna step over and on da fings found in ow pawdee boxes? So me went in da floor.  

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Mommy wuz upset, but as always she didn’t get on to me. She might have sed a foo fings like, “it’s not like I eat that often Dezi, you kulda waited a few more minutes.” And, “Honey, the box is huge, and the other box was completely clean.” To which meez wesponse wuz, “ Mommy, me didn’t wanna use da udder box, me wanted to use this one.” And, Me knows yous not eat offen mommy dat’s why me dusn’t know why it wuz so purrtant yous finished afur cleanin’’ da pawdee box fur me.” Anyways, mommy cleaned da wet piddle off da floor and looked wound. Then she membered we had just got a purroduct fwum Cute and Cuddly Pet Supplies dat wuz posed to take cawe of just these kinds of fings. So she gwabbed da bottle, put on hers glasses and wead da instwuctions. Purretty stwaight furward, clean up da wet spot, pour sum water on it to dilute any wemainin’ tinkle and wipe dat up. Spway or pour a genewous amount of da biological solution on da awea and let sit fur 15 minutes. Now weez’ll tell ya there is a distinct smell to this solution but it dissipates quickly. It also appears a little oily, but there dusn’t appear to be any slippewy left behind. After 15 minutes, soak up as much solution as possible wiff a towel or wet vac. Then put a towel over da awea and apply weight (step on it). Leave da towel fur 3-4 hours or overnight. After wemoving the towel wepeat ifin necessary.  

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Now da ingwedient list is: Water, Bacteria/Enzymes, Nonionic Surfactant, Fragrance, Odor Neutralizer and Opacifier. There is da nowmal Cautions but it sez it’s safe to use wound kids and pets and be earth furiendly. The bottle we got is a genewous 32 ounce size wiff a spway nozzle included fur easy application. So what do we fink? Mommy sez it works! Da purroduct she twied this past summer dusn’t hold a candle to it. And we can welkum Summer’s hot temps beamin’ down on da caw, cuz da smell is gone. Mommy has a nose as good as ours and she sez da smell is gone. And she knows it cuz me and sissy don’t linger sniffin’ da awea of da offense. She takes dat to mean we don’t smell it eevew. Cuz afur we wuld boff keep on sniffin’ and sumtimes even flemmin’. Ya’ know da open mouff sniff. Mommy’s purretty happy dat we ‘cided to twy da Cute and Cuddly Bio-Enzymatic Odor and Stain Eliminator. She even used it on a foo aweas where we had chucked up hairballs. You know dat duz leave a smell. And those wuz old stains. It worked gweat on those as well. We and da company wecommend testin’ a small awea of yous cawpet furst to make sure yous not pullin’ out da color, but we used it on boff cawpet and da new hawd fake wood floors successfully. You wanna know where to buy this stuff don’t ya’? Well you can head on ovew to amazon.com and get you a bottle. #Cuteandcuddlypetsupplies made mommy’s day wiff their enzymatic cleaning solution.    

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Afur we go, we wanna wemind ya’ weez joinin’ up wiff Rascal and Rocco’s pet Pawade Blog Hop as usual and da Create wiff Joy Furiendship Furiday Blog Hop.

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Till da next time……………………………Be Blest!!!

 

Luv and Hugs and Kitty Kisses  

Dezi and Lexi

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Disclaimer: We received a 32 ounce bottle of Cute and Cuddly Pet Supplies Bio-Enzymatic Odor and Stain Rmover for free. However we didn’t receive any green papers for our honest review. We only review products that we use and/or think you our friends and readers would be interested in.

B Is For…

Meowllo Evewypawdy hope yous havin’ a good week so faw. As you know meez joined up wiff da Bloggin’ A to Z challenge fur Apwil. Mommy and Lexi and me ‘cided we wuz gunna cover da purrocess of how sis Lexi wuz diagnosed wiff Kidney disease and what shuld have happened and what weez duin’ now. Cuz what did happen and what shulda happened awe 2 vewy diffewent fings. Now yous not wequired to follow a theme, and we hadn’t weally planned on duin’ dat, cuz weez not fink it’ll take all mumff and all da letters of da alfabet to tell ow stowry, but based on da comments and emails fwum yesfurday, we ‘cided today dat we wuld post as long as it took. And cuz so many peeps be pawsibly visitin’, after ow intwo da wemainder of da posty wuld be in hooman speak. We wuld also like to add dat in ow wesearch we found dat there awe certain bweeds of cats dat be purredisposed to kidney disease. As there is no cure fur this de=isease ifin yous have one of these bweeds it might pay to keep an eye on yous kitty fwuout their lives. They awe: Maine Coon, Abyssinian, Persian, Siamese, Burmese and Russian Blue. So today is da letter B’s day.

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Our furst B is fur Blood tests, as they awe a definite must when it comes to diagnosing Kidney disease. So yesterday we told you that a common urinalysis can be a great tool in diagnosing illnesses in your cat. And that if Albumin is present in the urine more tests are needed to determine the actual reason/illness. That’s where the ERD comes in and we will be telling you more about that test in a few days. For now we will say that not all vets use this test and so after a urinalysis typically blood work is the next logical test. And we don’t mean a prick. We mean a full CBC, Super Chemistry and T4. Now if your anything like us or you’ve not had a sick pet then you just read that last line and said…what the cat?!! And by the way me would like to say that in our research we found a lot of the same conditions, symptoms, and testing apply for cats, dogs, and humans when it comes to diagnosing kidney disease. Anyways, if Albumin is present in the urine please get a full blood panel and that T4 that’ll diagnose Thyroid disease.  

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Although we stated that the presence of Albumin in the urine can certainly mean kidney disease, it could also mean a lot of other things. Even after performing the ERD if your doctor runs that, you still need a blood test to confirm the diagnoses and determine a proper course of treatment. The numbers most looked at are the BUN and Creatinine. Next is the Phosphorous, Potassium and Sodium. BUN or blood urea nitrogen rises when the kidneys aren’t functioning well enough to remove all the waste product from the blood. By determining the level of Creatinine in the blood your doctor can tell how well the kidneys are working and the stage of kidney disease. High Creatinine numbers mean kidney disease.

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Most kidney diets awe low in Phosphorous and Protein. High Phosphorous levels can make Kidney disease progress much faster. So knowing these numbers can be very helpful in determining treatment. The first thing mommy did was try to switch Lexi to a low Phosphorous food. Once we got the blood tests we learned sis Lexi’s Phoso. numbers were really low and she didn’t need a food with low Phosphorous. That could be as dangerous as high numbers. Newer studies have found that lowering the Phosphorous in the diet and providing high quality protein are more important than the lower protein in managing Kidney disease. After all cats are obligate carnivores and require meat protein to survive and thrive. So the importance of today’s post is that blood work is a necessity in helping to determine if your pet indeed has Kidney disease and to help formulate a plan of action for treatments. Although all the numbers are important, the BUN and Creatinine are the ones your doctor is going to rely on most in his/her diagnosis. And always, always, always get a copy of the tests. You paid for them, they are yours. We actually recommend getting and keeping a complete copy of your pets records at all times. No matter how much you like your Vet, you never know what the future holds. Join us tomorrow for the letter C.  

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Approximate Normal Ranges for Common Tested Blood Values

 

BUN    14 – 36 MG/DL

Creatinine   .6 – 2.4 MG/DL

Calcium (Ca)   8.2 – 10.8 MG/DL

Phosphorus (P)   2.4 – 8.2 MG/DL

Potassium (K)   3.4 – 5.6 MEQ/L

Sodium (Na)   145 – 158 MEQ/L

Packed Cell Volume (PCV)   29% – 48%

Well we do hope weez shed a little mowe light on da subject of blood test and kidney disease. And we hope weez made weadin’ blood test wesults a little less scawy. Da list above is in no way complete and da nowmal levels may vawy slightly fwum lab to lab. Andyways, meez gunna go now mommy’s purromised a stwoll in da sun.

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So till da next time………………………………Be Blest!!!

 

Luv and Hugs and Kitty Kisses  

Dezi and Lexi

 

cat-animated

 

http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2012/08/06/kidney-disease-in-cats.aspx

http://www.vetinfo.com/renal-failure-cats.html

http://www.felinecrf.com/tests0.htm

The Three A’s

Meowllo evewypawdy it’s Apwil furst. Most of ya’ know dat means Apwil Fool’s day. A day in which peeps pull mostly hawmless pwanks on udder peeps and then say, Apwil Fool’s. But stead of me duin’ a whole posty ‘bout such a day meez joinin’ in da Bloggin’ fwum A to Z. And since today be da furst day of Apwil, weez gotta talk ‘bout sumfin’ wiff da word A. Dat be a weally easy letter in ow house as sissy’s name is Alexandra. And mommy’s name is Audra. But weez kinda ‘cided to delve a little fudder into this CRF/CKD diagnosis of sis Lexi’s. Cuz guess what? Da fing dat alewrted da VET to sissy’s condition stawts wiff a A too. And da meds/nutraceuticals hims purrscwibed stawt wiff a A too. We kuld purrawlly do a whole week or more on just da letter A.  So here goes.

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As you all know back in Januawry mommy took sis Lexi to da VET fur blood tests cuz her actually fawt sissy might be diabetic. But after getting there hims did a uwinalysis instead and sed it wuld be easier on Lexi. Well finkin’ it wuz diabetes, mommy agweed cuz dat wuld fur sure show up in da uwine. Da VET disappered into da back too wun da tests and when hims weturned he had a test stwip and a box wiff 3 colors on it.  Sis Lexi’s stwip wuz da lightest shade of blue and da VET sed dat meant she wuz in da early stage of Renal Disease. Honestly mommy dusn’t member ifin hims told her what kinda test dat wuz or not. She wuz a bit upset as you can magine so she didn’t catch evewyfin’ dat wuz sed dat day. But mommy did wight down keywords and descwiptions of what da VET sed. It seems Lexi had Albumin in hers kidneys, (Our second A fur da day) and therefore the VET said she no doubt had CRF/CKD

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So what you say? What’s Albumin? Well Albumin be da smallest protein produced in the liver. It’s found in the blood and rarely in da urine of a healthy kitty. So findin’ small amounts of it in da uwine is a pretty sure sign there are underlyin’ health problems. But notice me said health problems and NOT kidney disease? Me did that on purpose. It can most assuredly mean Kidney disease. But it can also be a symptom of these inflamatory diseases: dental disease, skin disease, IBD, or infectious diseases like FIV or FLeuk. It can also be a sign of diabetes, hyperthyroidism, hypertension, high blood pressure and cancer. So the Vet misspoke. (benefit of the doubt thing) While Albumin shouldn’t be in the urine, in and of itself it doesn’t automatically mean kidney disease. It does mean further testing is needed to give a proper diagnosis. And that’s where da “strip test” comes in. Altho’ it’s not an A so we will be discussing it when we get to the E’s. 

Anyways, sissy was diagnosed with CRF/CKD and the Vet sed she needed to take Azodyl. ( our furd A word) Azodyl be a neutriceutical so no prescription is needed to buy it. It must be kept cold and given in it’s capsule formula. Da only other way to give it is da way we do, in a spoon of butter. You may also give it in a little oil. We know you’re wondering just what this Azodyl does. It does one thing. It creates good bacteria that’s needed to restore the balance in us cats. It helps to restore the healthy function of the kidneys.

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We do hope dat yous awe all innewested in learnin’ ‘bout this pawful killer of cats. About da tests required to give a purroper diagnosis and it’s treatments. We will continue to cover it duwin’ this Bloggin’ A to Z. And member ow 3 A’s today, Alexandra, Albumin, and Azodyl.

Till da next time…………………………….Be Blest!!!

 

Luv and Hugs and Kitty Kisses  

Dezi and Lexi

 

Click to access Kidney-Disease.pdf

http://www.vetoquinolusa.com/

 

 

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