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Anyway, today I write about the urinary system, particularly about the kidneys and what happens when they begin to falter.  My reasoning for writing this particular post is that recently I’ve had a few clients say to me: “well I don’t think it is kidney failure, my cat pees a lot”.  I’m not sure why this is the frame of thought but when kidneys stop working it means they stop filtering, it DOES NOT mean they stop producing urine.  Often in end stage renal failure they are producing lots and lots of pee.

Our kidneys function to remove metabolic wastes and toxins circulating in our blood and excrete it via urine, while at the same time conserving water keeping our hydration levels in place.  The kidneys also help to manage our blood pressure by exchanging certain electrolytes.  Furthermore they produce erythropoietin, something we need to help produce our red blood cells!

The kidneys are made up of individual units called nephrons (there are thousands of them per kidney).  When 66% of these nephrons are destroyed we begin to see loss in urine concentrating ability, if this progresses to 75% loss we begin to see toxins in the blood.  From this we have a couple of ways to monitor the functioning of your pets kidneys.  First would be to measure the specific gravity of the urine, this shows us how well the urine is concentrating (we want well concentrated urine, NOT dilute).  Second would be to measure certain waste products in the blood that are usually filtered out by the kidneys (obviously we want these to be low).  As with all my posts the recommendation is regular veterinary visits, but with this I’d go a step further, unless otherwise indicated I would start regular blood tests at 8 to 10 years of age.  This is when pets typically see changes in the functioning of their kidneys.

Signs to look out for:

1. drinking and peeing a lot (this is due to the nephrons inability to filter and concentrate)
2. urinary incontinence (especially accidents overnight)
3. vomiting and anorexia (this is due to the toxins building up in the blood)
4. lethargy and weakness (due to loss of red blood cells and loss of potassium)
5. pale gums (loss of red blood cells)

Once we detect the deficiency in renal function the next step is staged.  Kidneys are staged and sub-staged according to:

1. The level of metabolites and toxins in the blood
2. the concentration of the urine
3. the protein level in the urine
4. the blood pressure of the animal

Based on their stage and sub-stage your pet may be treated with diet, medications, and/or supplements.

In summary:

• Kidneys are made up of thousands of functioning filtering units called nephrons
• The function of nephrons is to filter blood, excrete toxins and metabolites in the urine while reabsorbing/retaining certain electrolytes and water
• We see clinical changes when we loose >66% of the function
• regular veterinary monitoring is recommended to detect these changes early to initiate protective measures and prolong life