Why is my young cat's urine foamy? Is it a kidney issue?

Thank you for submitting your question regarding Charlie. It sounds like he is otherwise acting normal. As long as this is true and he does not have a history of urinary disease, it should be fine to monitor him. If he develops blood in the urine, straining to urinate or starts to act ill, then he will need to see his veterinarian. Offer plenty of fresh water to keep him well hydrated as this will help his urinary system. I hope this information helps!

This could be a sign of excess protein in the urine. Mention this to your veterinarian next time you take your kitten for vaccinations, or take him to your veterinarian for an exam. The vet can then take a urinary sample and analyze it and rule out a health problem. Some cats could have hereditary kidney disease which needs to be ruled out.

It is concerning that he is drinking and urinating excessively. Since he is so young, I am concerned he has a congential kidney disorder causing kidney failure. He should have an ultrasound of his kidneys to look for abnormalities. Call your vet and give him/her an update to let your vet know he is drinking and urinating excessively.

I recommend to play it safe and have some lab work run. Given their age, it's better to play it safe. Catching kidney disease early means you can start treatment (which is usually just a diet change) and this can increase the length of quality life after diagnosis. I hope this helps.

Every lab has different reference ranges, so according to the lab that your cats blood was run in, the BUN and CREA are considered to be mildly elevated. However, unless your cat has a low specific gravity (concentrating ability of the kidneys), we have to assume that the BUN and CREA levels are not indicating any kind of kidney failure. In other words, if the kidneys are concentrating normally, and the pet is asymptomatic, then the BUN and CREA levels should simply be rechecked at a later date or another more sensitive test called the SDMA test should be done to clarify what is really going on with your pets kidneys. So based on the information you have provided we cannot say if Frodo has true kidney disease, but if his urine test was negative for bacteria then no infection is present. Ask your vet about Frodo's specific gravity and if that was normal or not. If it was normal, then go forward with the SDMA test to confirm that the kidneys are ok. If you need further help regarding your pet Frodo's case, since this can be a bit complicated to explain on the forum, please feel free to request a private consultation with either myself or another expert here and we will be more than happy to assist you further. I hope that this helps and best wishes with your pet Frodo moving forward! Take care: )

Hello and welcome to Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. Semintra has actions of decreasing blood pressure and decreasing the protein loss with kidney disease. Therefore, if no kidney disease is present, and no high blood pressure is present, then you might see signs of low blood pressure or changes in the sodium and potassium. These are unlikely to occur but possible. Foaming urine is a sign of protein in the pee. Has the urine been checked for protein? I would recommend a Urine Protein:Creatinine Ration to properly assess if protein loss is present. Checking the blood pressure is a good idea as well (although somewhat difficult to perform in stressed cats accurately). I would probably recommend starting on a kidney food as a early management/prevention vs. starting on Semintra, unless your vet has a high suspicion clinically that Nomar has kidney disease (weight loss, dehydration despite drinking/peeing a lot, overly dilute urine, etc.). Kidney values only go up once 75% of the kidneys are affected, so we have to rely on other indicators to catch kidney disease early. Talk to your vet about IRIS staging. Best of luck with Nomar, I hope he feels better soon.

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!