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Home Management of Chronic Renal Failure in Cats

Submitted by Michael Adams on November 27, 2009

Just like the elderly people in our family need extra care, elderly pets too need special care and medical attention. It is common for older cats to suffer from various painful diseases. One such disease is chronic renal failure in cats.

The kidneys have an extremely vital function of filtering the impurities and toxins from blood. When they are not functioning properly, the toxins may not be filtered out from the blood and some of the vital nutrients required by the body may be accidentally excreted, creating a nutritional deficit. Unlike the damage sustained by many of the organs in the body, the damage received by the kidneys is irreparable.

Also, unfortunately, the symptoms of kidney disease are also not that apparent until there has been a substantial damage to the kidneys. The initial symptoms of a renal failure appear in cats only after almost 75% of the kidney is damaged. There are four main functions that a cat�s kidneys perform�elimination of waste products, production of hormones, regulation of electrolytes of the body and the activation of vitamin D in order to control the calcium and phosphate levels in the blood. Cats that suffer from chronic renal failure often suffer from dehydration and therefore should be given large quantities of water. In a lot of cases, the fluids ingested orally are not enough to keep them hydrated and therefore intravenous injections for fluids often have to be given. It is also important to feed your cat canned food which has more of moisture than dry food. In extreme cases, some cats may require to be given subcutaneous fluids which are injected in a special manner. Your vet will teach you how to perform this delicate procedure. Usually, the cat requires to be given subcutaneous fluids everyday. However, in certain cases, if the prognosis is good and the cat is responding to treatment, you may decrease the frequency of giving the subcutaneous fluids. Cats that suffer from chronic renal failure also have an increased risk of developing high blood pressure. For such cats, the blood pressure is checked rather frequently. A lot of cats are able to respond well to treatment for hypertension. However, they may need extensive therapy, continued over the entire span of their life, in order to keep their blood pressure under control. In cats, the kidneys produce a hormone called erythropoietin, which is used in the manufacture of red blood cells. When the kidneys are not functioning, the synthesis of the hormone is impaired and the RBC levels drop drastically. To keep the RBC levels in check, the cats may have to be given genetically engineered forms of the hormone.

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