My cat has acute kidney failure and won't eat. Will he recover?

Sorry to hear about your kitty. It sounds like he is in the advanced stages of kidney failure. Unfortunately kidney damage can not be reversed once it occurs - only managed. Once cats get to this stage of kidney disease, most treatments are focused on trying to make cats feel as good as possible for as long as possible. Sometimes treatments that are prescribed include SQ fluids (water given as an injection under the skin to increase hydration), anti-nausea medications, blood pressure medications, antacids, and other therapies to manage complications associated with kidney failure. It is hard to give a prognosis without knowing the specific details of your cat's bloodwork and history, but if he is not eating or drinking, he may be suffering and can quickly decline. If you are concerned about your kitty's quality of life, have a discussion with your veterinarian.

These lab results do not provide any "normal" values, which can differ based on the type of equipment used to run the sample, however I would agree that based on what I am used to as normal values Sabrina is in either renal failure or has very severe dehydration. Renal failure seems more likely given that she is also quite anemic (has low red blood cells), although her liver values do not look high to me. Typically renal failure is treated with aggressive intravenous fluid therapy, and with kidney values this high it seems unlikely that only getting fluids every 12 hours will make much of a difference. Also, with anemia such as she has, great care has to be taken not to give fluids too rapidly as to worsen the anemia. Persian cats are predisposed to a type of kidney disease known as polycystic kidney disease. This is easily diagnosed with ultrasound examination of the kidneys. Unfortunately, the prognosis is grim.

Poor Echo! This definitely looks like kidney disease from first glance. Since he is only 8 months old I would be concerned about acute. BUT I would certainly want to recheck his kidney values soon as well as an urinalysis. The concentration of his urine will also help to determine if these values are truly due to kidney failure or something else. Since he is so young, I would also consider having an abdominal ultrasound done on his kidneys to see if he is suffering from polycystic kidney disease. I hope this helps!

It really depends on the cause of the renal failure and the damage done. It's definitely possible that he can recover after not being treated for this long, but I'm afraid I can't be more specific than that with fully knowing his case. Your veterinarian would be better able to answer this question, because they would know the most about Echo's specific case. I hope that helps and he gets better soon.

Part of this decision should be based upon how Squeakers is doing clinically and how bad or not bad his values are. In general, if kidney disease is caught early on, it responds very well to treatment. Most of the time, treatment is simply a diet change to a kidney friendly, prescription diet. Pet’s where the disease is more advanced, may need to take a pill to decrease protein loss through the kidneys and they may need subcutaneous fluids on a daily or weekly basis. For cats with more advanced disease, they may need hospitalization and IV fluids to see if they will recover. Again it all depends on the blood values and how the pet is doing clinically. Most cats with kidney disease, if caught in time, will live an average of 2 to 3 years of quality life after diagnosis. This is variable though. Some pets progress quickly and others live longer than 3 years. You don’t know until you try. I hope this helps to guide your decision making. You can also find a fair amount of information about kidney disease on this website. Use the search feature. Please feel free to post any additional questions.

Hello and thank you for contacting Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. It sounds that Puss suffers from acute kidney failure, which is most commonly caused by intoxication (for example ingesting antifreeze, human anti-inflammatory medications, lily pollen and more). This is a serious condition and the best place to be for Puss is a vet hospital. There are a few methods to induce urine output (drip, diuretic medications) and I do hope he will start producing urine very soon. However, as I am sure your vet advised you, the prognosis are uncertain, if Puss is not able to produce any urine at the moment.

Are IV fluids able to be performed? If they are I would recommend doing that over subcutaneous fluids. I would also talk to your veterinarian about starting an antacid with Mimi. When cats are in kidney failure they have a build up of acid in their stomach which make them not want to eat. Otherwise when cats are in kidney failure an aggressive treatment for at least 3 days and it is not helping, they typically at that point don't see any reversal in the kidney failure.