Kidneys and Potassium

IMPORTANT: If your cat is in any distress or discomfort, please consult your own vet as your first priority.
Post Reply
User avatar
Mollycat
VIP Cat Chatter!
Posts: 2705
Joined: Mon Feb 25, 2019 10:58 am
No. of cats in household: 1
Location: UK

Kidneys and Potassium

Post by Mollycat »

I know we can't truly answer this without a vet and a blood test but for lots of reasons that all boil down to either Covid or Molly or both, blood isn't urgent enough to warrant a visit. Also (disclaimer) I'm not looking for anyone to say yes to this, the multiple choice is more like a) definitely not, b) wouldn't think so but not sure, or c) sounds logical but couldn't say either way.

Molly has been on her ckd diet for a few weeks, maybe 4-ish even though she was diagnosed post radioiodine 2 years ago and was on normal food in the interim. She has shown no symptoms of ckd except for a good volume of urine, and as she was low potassium both immediately after treatment and 6 months later she has been on supplement ever since. Despite the added potassium her bloods a month ago still showed low potassium as well as low chloride and high sodium. That's when we started on the renal support food.

The question is - her urine volume has dropped dramatically since her diet change, I'm taking it as a sign her kidney function is improved as I've already seen happen twice before when first starting renal support food - am I definitely wrong or is this a possibility?

And the offshoot question - is it possible as her urine volume is around one third of what it was before, that she isn't just flushing out the potassium as fast as I'm throwing it down her neck and we might see some improvement in the next bloods - no, or maybe?
booktigger
VIP Cat Chatter!
Posts: 2664
Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2014 1:36 pm
No. of cats in household: 3

Re: Kidneys and Potassium

Post by booktigger »

Urine output reducing once on renal food makes a lot of sense, and you would expect that if she isn't urinating as much, the potassium is staying in her system longer. Did she ever have any symptoms of low potassium, or was it just picked up on the bloods for her hyper-t? I have seen kidney function improve (and indeed go back in normal range) just on a diet change a few times, which is why it's one of the few prescription diets I believe work.
User avatar
Mollycat
VIP Cat Chatter!
Posts: 2705
Joined: Mon Feb 25, 2019 10:58 am
No. of cats in household: 1
Location: UK

Re: Kidneys and Potassium

Post by Mollycat »

Yes booktigger it was all picked up in her discharge bloods from hospital, the early ckd as expected and the low potassium. No symptoms, but then there were no symptoms of ht either and she was on 70. Incidentally that was another prescription diet that worked like a miracle, the y/d - on off and on again she went 70 to 35 to 72 in just a few days each time, and post treatments I think 30.

I don't want to send her hyperkalemic though it's unlikely until the ckd gets more advanced I think. I wish she was easier and we could investigate more deeply because she really is odd. It's not that she didn't lose weight when she was ht, she was constantly battling obesity, and post treatment her weight normalised and stabilised on normal food.

The potassium on its own is one thing but combined with the high sodium and low chloride I'm hoping the diet is going to be a bit of an electrolyte balance reset. She's a funny thing I think her system has been so unbalanced for so long she feels better and better with everything we do but she never felt ill in the first place.

Anyway so on the urine and potassium you're thinking on the same sort of logic as me, hopefully we might have a point.
booktigger
VIP Cat Chatter!
Posts: 2664
Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2014 1:36 pm
No. of cats in household: 3

Re: Kidneys and Potassium

Post by booktigger »

I suspected that was the case, I was wondering if there had been any symptoms so that you might now be able to say x is better too - I had a cat who had been borderline hyper-t when he first came to the rescue, 5 months later I asked the vet to repeat his bloods as I was convinced he was, she didn't want to as he had gained weight, but fortunately I had a good relationship with her and persuaded her on the basis that his paws were really warm and he wouldn't sleep on my knee for more than 10 mins - not exactly the most common hyper-t symptoms. She was shocked, but glad I'd pushed when his levels came back at 90!!
User avatar
Mollycat
VIP Cat Chatter!
Posts: 2705
Joined: Mon Feb 25, 2019 10:58 am
No. of cats in household: 1
Location: UK

Re: Kidneys and Potassium

Post by Mollycat »

Ah well if we're talking vague symptoms! very tricky to untangle as she was nervous and vocal when I got her aged 6 and quite soon developed the bedtime yowlies. It took her so long to allow me to touch first here then here then here but only if she was up on this perch, she was so finicky it's really hard to sort out the growing confidence from improving health and developing other health conditions.

Post radioiodine she chilled out massively and the yowlies reduced but did not stop and the apparently random hissing and grumps continued. She made friends with my partner. Resorbed teeth extractions also made a big difference and the yowlies have now almost completely stopped, and she is much more confident, exploring outside the flat, making us move so she can occupy the sofa between us. She is back spending time on the bed when we're in it which she hasn't done since partner moved in 3 and a half years ago. But overall it seems to have gone in steps which have pretty much correlated with medical changes.

You're certainly getting me thinking differently booktigger, thank you this is really helpful!
Post Reply