update on any-dots

So I am at home now. I was a wreck and wouldn't get anything done this afternoon. I talked to my boss and have come home. Good thing I have some banked overtime.

I stopped at the vets on my way home and cuddled with Jenny for about half an hour and talked to the Vet for a bit. Basically there are two types of Kidney failure in cats, Acute and Chronic. Based on the symptoms the vet is positive that Jenny has Acute kidney failure. I have read over the symptoms and I agree 100%. I think she must have got into something at my dad's house that she shouldn't have.

So the other part of any good medical diagnosis is bloodwork. Her blood levels of Urea and Crea-whatever are definitely elevated above the levels that you would see in a normal functioning liver but actually well below what the average cat has with Kidney Failure.

Now. The prognosis with Acute Kidney Failure is usually worse than with chronic failure since the levels of the blood markers are usually much higher. But, in Jenny's case they aren't. Here are a description of the normal symptoms: suddun anorexia (check), listlessness (check), vomitting (only once), diarrhea (nope), strange odour (nope), seizures (nope), frequent urination (a bit, not enough to have raised alarm bells - I was keeping track of it because of Smokey. And here is the clincher... Many cats are in systemic shock by the time thy reach the veterinary hospital. Jenny definitely wasn't in systemic shock. So given that the vet thinks it is acute, but that the levels are relatively low (her "crea" measurment was around 460 which is higher than the normal range that caps out at 330, but the vet said most cats with kidney failure are in the 600 to 700 range and that she has seen as high as 1100), the prognosis is good. She is on an IV for 48 hours and they are going to recheck her blood levels on friday. If they are still high, then she will probably have to go to a 24 hour clinic.