How can I tell if my cat has CRF? |
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The signs of CRF are often very subtle:
If you suspect that your cat may have CRF, a trip to the vet and bloodwork can confirm it. The earlier you get your cat to the vet, the earlier you can begin treatment — which will probably prolong you cat's life, not to mention make her feel better. In Cleo's case, she had always had problems with periodic vomiting, but the vomiting began to get worse. It took me a while to realize that she'd lost a lot of weight. Being an indoor cat, she had one of those stomach pouches — but one day I realized that her pouch was totally gone. I knew it was time to go to the vet's. This was in December 1999. The vet thought she might have CRF, so she did bloodwork. The numbers were fairly normal. And the truth is that except for the weight loss and vomiting, Cleo was still acting quite normal. At this point she weighed 6 lb 12.5 oz, down from her normal weight of 12 pounds. The vet gave us a prescription for Reglan, to help control the vomiting. At first it did seem to help. Right before we were scheduled to go away on a two week vacation, Cleo began to vomit more than normal again. Since we were going away, I took her to the vet. There was nothing really new there. While we were away, she became dehydrated, and our pet sitter took her to the vet. She had lost a little more weight; 6 lb 3 oz. When we came back, the vet wanted to keep her one more day. They had began to feed her Hill's Prescription Diet K/D, and she seemed to be doing well on that. They also began to give her Winstrol, a kidney and appetite stimulant. Unfortunately, when we took her home she began to vomit again. And she didn't want to eat the K/D at all.We took her back to the vet on Monday, and she wanted to do barium x-rays. She also did more bloodwork. The x-rays were negative (no cancer), but the bloodwork showed she was in CRF. She had lost another pound; now she was down to 5 lb 2 oz.
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