What's the life expectancy for an older cat with kidney disease?

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.

Hi and thanks for posting! The time each cat has when first diagnosed with chronic kidney disease does vary on the age of the cat and stage of the kidney disease. Cats that have this can do very well with great supportive and supplemental care. Kidney disease can be managed with prescription diets, certain kidney friendly vitamins, SQ fluid administration, and blood pressure medication if needed. While kidney failure is not typically painful, other secondary issues they can acquire may be, such as urinary or lung infections. Sometimes kidney disease can cause nausea which can be uncomfortable but not necessarily painful. Nausea is often treated in these patients with anti vomiting medications. Kidney failure patients may pass in their sleep, but not always. They can develop serious complications from compromised kidney function which can lead some owners to humanely euthanize them towards the end due to decreased quality of life. I hope this helps you and I thanks again for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach!

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.

Unfortunately kidney values can not be interpreted without a urinalysis and specific gravity. Elevated BUN is not always CKD but this would be more likely in the face of poorly concentrated urine ( pred will also effect this). CKD is staged via what is called IRIS. This takes in to account creatinine, protein in the urine, and blood prressure. SDMA is newer and thought to be an earlier indicator then BUN/creatinine as these as insensitive markers of kidney function. This has now been incorporated in to the new IRIS scheme. What i would recommend for your kitty is a urinalysis and blood pressure to better stage. For early stage CKD kitties a renal diet is recommended. It is also important to treat any high blood preesure or significant protein in the urine as these can worsen kidney function. I hope this helps and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach!

There is no way to be able to tell how long she will live however you can significantly prolong Linda's life with feeding her a kidney diet, such as from Hill's Science Diets or Royal Canine kidney diet. A Creatinine level of 2.0 is not yet alarming, just slightly high.There are other kidney parameters to check such as Blood urea nitrogen and Phosphates, and if they are within the normal values, I would not worry too much about CREA 2.0. Feed a kidney diet and that should be beneficial.

There are many options, the one change which is proven to extend life expectancy and quality is to convert to a specialist kidney diet, preferably wet kidney food. These are enriched with antioxidants and b vitamins, contain highly digestible protein to reduce the amount of work the kidneys need to do and are high in antiinflammatory omega fatty acids. A kidney tonic such as pronefra can also help. Regular blood and urine testing to track progress is important as additional measures to treat high phosphorous, urine protein loss and high blood pressure may need to be added over time

Hello. It is possible that the new food is helping the creatinine levels, but regardless of the reason, this is good news. Remember, blood work is a snapshot of what is happening at the moment the blood was drawn. Twilight may have been a little more dehydrated at the last blood draw, & creatinine is a very sensitive marker of kidney function, more so than the BUN. So, be happy that the number is better today. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.