My rescue kitten's brother died of kidney disease. Vet visit needed?

I am so sorry for you loss! This can be genetic. I would have an echo done on her heart to look at her heart walls and chamber sizes. I would also have your vet do a proBNP (idexx) on her to get a baseline number. ProBNP is an heart muscle enzyme that increases with heart muscle damage or stretching. This and the echo together would give you a good idea on what the heart is looking like. I would recommend to do this once a year to keep a close eye on it since we know her heart could be genetically prone to issues. I hope this helps!

If you are looking at getting another kitten this should be fine. I would make sure you are getting Knopa checked on a regular basis. A test that may help stage her level of kidney disease would be the SDMA test. This test checks for a kidney biomarker that will help in staging the kidney disease and also detect early changes related to the kidneys. If she is not doing well, now may not be the time to get a new kitten as introducing another cat to the environment may stress Knopa out.

There are a number of causes of weight loss in cats. I'm assuming that the information of 1 kidney being larger than the other was something that the vet noted when the belly was palpated on exam. That finding, in and of itself, doesn't necessarily mean the kidneys are the issue. I see that Neko is only 3 years old. Weight loss in a younger cat could be due to kidney failure, though its much more common in senior cats. Working only off of the information that Neko is a young cat who losing weight and has 1 kidney larger than the other, with no other history given, it is hard for us to get any impression for what may be wrong. Again, if she were a senior cat I would suspect kidney failure, and I would then recommend a canned prescription kidney diet, lots of water, TLC, and know that time is limited -- with the understanding that we don't KNOW its the kidneys without blood work. However, since Neko is young, its harder to jump to this sort of advice. It could be her kidneys, but other concerns would include inflammatory bowel disease, intestinal worms, or even something like FIP (feline infectious peritonitis). Some causes are relatively inexpensive to treat, and others are much more difficult. Additional information about any other signs would help us-- is she vomiting, how is her appetite, is she playful and active or is she dumpy and lethargic, is she hiding, etc. Please feel free to resubmit a question on the forum (no charge), or request a consultation (for a fee) and we can give information back and forth and would likely be able to assist you further that way. Thank you for asking Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

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!

I am so very sorry for your loss. I can't image how surprising and upset that must have been for you. The best way to find out why you're little boy passed away would be an autopsy. Without an autopsy, my best guess would be heart disease. Cats get a heart disease called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, where the heart muscle is abnormally thick and doesn't pump blood effectively. Often and tragically the first symptom of this disease is sudden death. Little One could be grieving the loss of her brother - this is quite common. The surviving pet's routines and life are suddenly different and their playmate is gone, so they experience true loss. Depending on how recently your boy passed away, I might be concerned about a toxin making them both sick. If you know about any potential toxin exposure or if there is mouse bait in or around your home, Little One needs to go to the emergency vet right away. I would be most concerned about a toxin if it was within the last 12-24 hours that your boy passed away. Beyond that, it's unlikely that it's effecting her so much slowly. All in all, if she's really acting strange, not eating, sleeping too much, having any vomiting or diarrhea, it would be best to take her to the emergency clinic for an exam. If you still have your little boy's body, doing the autopsy could ease your mind as well. Please accept my condolences during this difficult time.

I would suspect an infection, a toxin or congenital defect for a kitten so young to have kidney failure. If you can post the blood work and her signs and what treatment plant you are on, we can provide more help

These kittens are very young and the fact that a sibling passed away is very concerning. They need to see a vet to check for different viral and bacterial infections that they could be suffering from which may have been the cause of death with the one that passed. They are pretty young to be showing signs of depression.