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Kidney Disease

Sent to Cat Experts August 12 2006 at 3:26 AM
   

My 15 year old female spayed tabby is always thirsty. She eats a can a day of wet (fancy feast) and nibbles on dry food. She's of average weight and fairly spry yet. She did recently lose a house mate (2 months now) so she's been howling a bit. It seems to be from loneliness and not pain. She has plenty of output in her litterbox and normal (most of the time) stools.
At her age I just want to make her as comfortable as possible and can't afford a large vet bill. Is this a sign of kidney disease?

Thank you!
Monica

 

Customer (name blocked for privacy)
Status:  Closed   Value: $8
Answer
August 12 2006 at 3:47 AM (21 minutes and 6 seconds later)
         
ACCEPTEDCheck Mark

Dear friend,

As cats age their kidneys work less effiently (like ours) and the may feel dehydrated. Tha leads to extra drinking because the kidneys may not be dispursing all the fluids to her bloodstream. When a cat has stress - it weakens the immune system and allows infections to take hold. At her age excesss drinking can also be a sign of diabetes.

You can help by making sure she drinks a lot to keep her kidneys flushed. Even add water to her canned food. A few drops of fish oil daily improve kidney function. Also, give her one drop a day of unsweetened cranberry juice to lower the PH of her urine and keep her from developing UTI's.

Please let me know if you have any further questions. I am happy to help.

Very sincerely,

Terri



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Terri Riba -- Feline Healthcare Expert -- 100% Positive Feedback on 10127 Cat Accepts
20 years in vet care: general medicine/ Emergencies/critical care/ behavior/ nutrition/ holistics
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