I started noticing yesterday – Rey’s excessive urine output. It isn’t frequent urination. Rather, it’s a large volume of urine each time he urinates.
I noticed it today again, after I gave him a Malaseb bath.
So I quickly contacted the vet and she advised me to bring Rey in for a check-up.
At the same time, I also brought Robin in for his vaccination.
Before going, I searched online and found three possibilities: kidney disease, diabetes or hyperthyrodism. I read the other symptoms for each of them and Rey didn’t seem to have any of them. I also thought the colour of Rey’s urine appeared normal (I was wrong, please see below). Rey wasn’t dehydrated either (from the pinch test). But I did fear an acute kidney issue. Hence, the need to see a vet urgently, especially when I don’t know how long he has had this large volume of urine output.
At the vet’s, first Robin was vaccinated. Robin had no other issues, his diarrhoea has settled.
Then, we spent quite a long time on Rey. The vet didn’t think it was diabetes (confirmed by normal blood glucose later) and hyperthyrodism does not normally happen to young cats. That leaves the kidneys.
Despite having urinated massively before 2pm today, Rey’s bladder was full again (it was just past 5pm), so the vet tried to express some urine out but that failed. Rey was next shaven so that an ultrasound could be done. While this was going on, Rey, who was stressed, urinated and the vet managed to collect enough urine for the urinalysis. She also saw how much urine was excreted. From the colour, the vet said the urine appeared slightly diluted. To hold Rey down for the belly-up ultrasound (which Ginger consented to ready last time), four humans were needed. That’s how strong Rey is.
The vet was also concerned about FIP, but from the ultrasound there was no indication of such. There was no accumulation of fluids anywhere (hence, no signs of wet FIP). No symptoms of dry FIP either (weight loss, diarrhoea, jaundice, fever, loss of appetite, ocular and neurological symptoms). Rey’s appetite has been fantastic all this while and he has only gained weight. Today, he weighed 5.8kg (gained another 100g from Sunday). Anyway, we shall see from the ALB/GLOB ratio in the bloodwork later.
The ultrasound, however, showed inflammation of the bladder wall. So this might already have been there and I hadn’t noticed Rey’s massive urine output earlier because I’m not in the room all the time. But as I recall now, I did always scoop a large amount of urine litter. That must have been Rey’s.
The ultrasound also showed some slight structure loss on both kidneys. The vet said Rey could have been born this way or he might not have been drinking enough water in his previous home. We won’t really know. There was urine in the pelvic area too. On the subject of cats and kidney disease, the literature states that 1 in 3 cats will eventually get kidney disease as they age. Hence, the recommendation to feed wet food to cats. By nature cats do not drink much water as their ancestors come from Persia which is a desert. They obtain moisture from their food.
Anyway, a Chem10 bloodwork (and later, an SDMA) was necessary along with the urinalysis. We waited with bated breath for the results.
The bloodwork showed that Rey’s creatinine and urea were both normal. His liver readings were normal too. There’s high globulin, but this could be because of his balding issue and the flu (still sneezing), or the bladder inflammation. The ALB/GLOB ratio was 0.5 (grey zone for FIP). Again, Rey does not have any symptoms of wet or dry FIP so further investigation is not warranted at this moment. By my own simple arithmetic, if the globulin reduces later, perhaps this ratio would also increase (below 0.4 suggests FIP, and above 0.8 excludes FIP, in between is the grey zone). The SDMA test was done as well and Rey had a reading of 13 which is normal. The SDMA is for early detection of chronic kidney disease.
Rey’s urinalysis showed no protein loss, a normal pH but his specific gravity (SG) was 1.028. For a young cat of Rey’s age (2 years old), it should be at least 1.035. So, yes, the SG is a little low for his age.
But the vet assured me Rey’s kidneys are working fine from all the readings above and that all we need to do now is to monitor him. Rey was given Clavamox for the suspected bladder infection and maybe kidney infection, and Cystaid Plus for his bladder (20 days).
Rey’s vaccination can only be done after he has recovered from all this (including the balding problem, the flu and the ear infection), most likely next month. A follow-up on his urination condition to be done in two months’ time.
Well, so we thought Robin was the worst off, but it looks like Rey has more complicated issues. But Rey still wins paws-down on appetite! The vet says a good appetite is always a good sign. But Rey is overweight and needs to eat a little less!
Robin is okay now, there’s no more diarrhoea but he is still on the probiotics to heal his gut. He would also need to be dewormed again in about 10 days.
It’s been a long day!!