September 12th 2008 6:15 pm
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Saturday, Sep. 06, 2008
Pet Talk: Prevent kidney disease in cats
Prevent kidney disease in cats
By: Dr. Jon Klingborg
Cats may have nine lives, but they do have one weak spot -- their kidneys. Not all cats develop kidney problems later in life, but enough of them do that it is worth identifying the signs before kidney disease becomes kidney failure.
Just like us, cats have two kidneys. The kidneys perform a number of key jobs -- they filter and remove toxins from the blood, they signal the bone marrow when the blood is becoming too thin (i.e. anemia), and they help to regulate blood pressure.
To cats, it is protein that tastes good, which makes sense since they are obligate carnivores (they must eat meat to be healthy). Protein is both good and bad -- good because it provides the body with energy and the building blocks it needs for muscle and other tissues; bad because the main byproduct of protein digestion is the highly toxic molecule ammonia.
The liver tries to neutralize this poisonous ammonia by converting it into a slightly less harmful chemical called urea. The kidneys eliminate this urea, and as you might have guessed, "urine" was named because it is high in urea.
When the kidneys start to have trouble, they still filter the blood and they still produce urine. Many people mistakenly think that an animal that is urinating cannot have kidney problems. In fact, the opposite is true. Many animals in the early to middle stages of kidney disease actually produce extra urine -- in the laboratory we find that this urine is less concentrated because the kidneys haven't filtered the toxins out of the blood.
As the kidneys struggle to do their job, toxins will slowly start to build up the blood. There are a number of chemicals that veterinarians measure to check on the kidneys, but the main one is called the "blood urea nitrogen" or BUN. As the BUN increases, it starts to have a "depressing" effect on the cat.
Cats with an increased BUN become slower and less energetic. Their grooming behavior often decreases and their appetite is suppressed. In many cases, owners will see these changes in behavior and conclude that the cat is "just getting old." It's true, most cats with kidney problems are older, with an average range between 10 to 14 years of age when kidney disease becomes an issue.
However, once identified and treated, cats with kidney problems can return to their energetic, social and well-groomed selves. Evaluating a cat's kidneys is often accomplished with blood work and a urinalysis -- at a total cost that is less than $200.
Some cats are so good at hiding health issues that they are in kidney "failure" before alerting the owner that there is a problem. These cats need aggressive intravenous fluid therapy to dilute and remove the toxins in the blood and (hopefully) give the kidneys the help they need to start working again.
Long term treatment for a cat with kidney problems usually involves a diet change to lower protein diets (less protein produces less BUN) and increased fluid intake. If anemia or high blood pressure is an issue, there are excellent and effective treatments available.
Cats age about six "human years" for every year of their life. So, I suggest that older cats have blood work performed every year or two to evaluate their kidney function (as well as liver, pancreas, thyroid, etc.) and establish a baseline. Like most problems in life, kidneys disease is easier to resolve when it is a little problem. To paraphrase Ben Franklin, "A test in time may save one of your cat's nine" (lives, that is).
Dr. Jon Klingborg is our veterinarian associated with Valley Animal Hospital in Merced. He may be contacted at askdrjon@pacbell.net.
September 12th 2008 8:25 am
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Feral mama cat uses corncobs to track kittens
By CAROL REITER
creiter@mercedsun-star.com
This is a yarn about corncobs, two nice women, a weird way of counting and a mama cat.
She lived under an overpass, not 20 feet from a busy freeway. She scrounged for food and hid from people. Then she got pregnant. And she got skinny. That's when Linda Tiller and Melanie Sanchez stepped in.
The pregnant overpass dweller was a cat. She was skin and bones, and Tiller, the owner of Franklin Pet Cemetery in Merced, wanted to catch the little cat and feed her and try to get her healthy.
But unknown to Tiller and her employee, Sanchez, the cat had more important things to do. She had kittens to take care of.
"My mom and dad live on the property, and the cat was coming from under the freeway a couple of times a day to eat," Tiller said.
Although the cat would eat, no one could get near her. Then one day, Sanchez noticed something.
"Near one of our sheds, I saw three kittens," Sanchez said. And that day, three dried-up corncobs with teeth marks on them were laid next to the shed.
Sanchez and Tiller noticed the corncobs, but didn't think anything about them. They worked at trying to catch the kittens, and soon there were more.
"In three days, there were five kittens under that shed," Sanchez said.
And there were five, dried-up corncobs with teeth marks on them laid out in front of the shed.
"We couldn't figure out the corncobs," Tiller said. "We thought maybe that's how she kept count of her kittens."
The kittens were about five weeks old at that time, and Tiller and Sanchez set about to try to tame them. But they couldn't get near them. So they borrowed a trap, first caught two kittens, then two more. They brought the mama cat inside the office with her kittens, and she nursed her four babies, then ran back out.
The next day, four corncobs were in front of the office door. But the wildest of the kittens, a little black one, was missing. And when Tiller and Sanchez went out early in the morning, they saw the mother cat walking toward the freeway -- with a corncob in her mouth.
"She had moved four of the corncobs to the office door, and we knew where that last kitten was," said Tiller. "She had moved it back under the freeway."
For a couple of days, the mama cat came to the office, nursed her kittens, then headed back to her lone black kitten under the freeway. Then it got hot.
"It was one of those 107-degree days," said Sanchez. "I saw her come walking toward me with something in her mouth."
It was the last kitten. When the cat got near Sanchez, she dropped the kitten in front of the woman. When Sanchez reached for the baby, it took off. The mother cat grabbed it again and held it while Sanchez got a firm hold on it.
"We got that kitten inside, and the next morning, all five corncobs were laid out in front of the office door," Tiller said.
Tiller and Sanchez think that the mama cat was keeping track of where her kittens were by using the corncobs. There was no food value to them, and they never saw the kittens, or the cat, playing with the dried-up cobs.
All five kittens are now two-and-a-half months old, and they were spayed and neutered and received their shots this week. The mother cat has also been spayed and has moved into the mobile home with another stray cat that Tiller had taken in a couple of years ago, Handsome.
"We called him Handsome because he was so skinny and so ugly," Tiller said.
Tiller and Sanchez are fairly sure that someone dumped both the mother cat and Handsome. Neither cat could truly fend for itself and would've starved to death if not for the two women.
"The one thing that people need to do is spay and neuter," Tiller said. "They can make such a dramatic impact if they would just do that. Even if it's a neighborhood cat that no one owns."
Tiller wants to find good homes for the kittens, but the kittens must be indoor cats. Plus, there's one major requirement Tiller is demanding from anyone interested in adopting the kittens.
"They have to be loving," she said. "These kittens have been through so much."
Oh, and the corncobs? They're lined up in a row, outside the door of the office where the kittens are living.
Five of them.
On a personal note: Mommy was the lady that lent the cat trap to Ms. Linda. She is a super sweet lady that helped Mommy with her losses of her beloved sons. Mom saw these corn cobs and watched as the story unfolded. These ladies are the sweetest in the world!
November 17th 2007 7:18 pm
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That Hungry Old Cat
By Dr. Jon Klingborg, DVM
Changes in a cat’s eating habits may be your only warning that he has a serious health problem. Just like us, most cats will lose their appetites when they are sick. An older cat that is eating less could by trying to tell you that he has a serious problem like dental, liver, or kidney disease. If your cat isn’t eating like he used to, then he should definitely receive a thorough physical exam.
However, some cats will actually start to EAT MORE when they are sick! The two most likely causes of an increased appetite in older cats are diabetes and an overactive thyroid gland. This week, we’re going to talk about an overactive thyroid gland—referred to as hyperthyroidism.
Think of the thyroid gland as the boss at the factory. The thyroid gland tells all parts of the body how hard they should be working. If the thyroid gland is hyperactive, then it keeps sending the message “work harder, work faster.”
The result of an overactive thyroid gland is that the cat’s metabolism can double or triple. A hyperthyroid cat cannot eat enough to feed his high metabolism, and he starts to lose weight. Sounds like a great diet, right? Not really! As the metabolism increases, the heart has to beat faster, the blood pressure will rise, and all of the internal organs are pushed to their limits.
When the thyroid gland is overactive, hungry old cats start to lose a considerable amount of weight over a short period of time (a few months.) Inside, their heart muscle may thicken because the heart is working too hard, the kidneys may start to fail, and increased blood pressure may actually cause sudden blindness.
Hyperthyroidism is fairly common in older cats—any cat above ten years of age is at increased risk. Recently, a link between canned cat food and an overactive thyroid gland was discovered. It appears that eating canned cat food as the primary diet will increase the risk of developing hyperthyroidism by five times! Even if a cat’s diet is 50 percent canned food, the risk is still increased by 3.5 times. (There may be a chemical in the cans that causes this.)
Other research implicates some flame retardants chemicals that end up in water, fish, house dust (and everything in between!)
Hyperthyroidism is treated in three different ways: medicine, surgery, or radiation therapy. The medication usually needs to be given twice a day for the rest of your cat’s life. It works by ‘poisoning’ the thyroid gland into normal function and has few side effects. Medication is a practical and cost effective option for most cat owners.
Surgery to remove the overactive thyroid gland is tricky and does have a high complication rate. For that reason, radiation therapy has become a more popular treatment. The cost of radiation therapy is about the same as surgery (around $1500) and is 98% effective at curing hyperthyroidism after one treatment. In other words, cats that are treated with radiation don’t need to take medication—because they’re cured!
If you’ve noticed that your older cat has an excellent appetite but is still becoming skinny, then it is time to get him looked at by a veterinarian. With a physical exam and some blood work, the doctor can tell if your cat has an overactive thyroid gland and whether this is affecting the kidneys or the liver. Diagnosing complications such as increased blood pressure and thickened heart muscle is a little more challenging in older cats, and the physical exam will determine if it is necessary to run those additional tests.
Dr. Klingborg is my vet.
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