At what age should an indoor cat be take a chronic renal failure test?If a cat has no symptoms of CRF (touch wood) at what age should an indoor cat be take a chronic renal failure test? what will be done and needed? how often should a test be administered?
Posted by The Bride Beatrice
Never. If it's indoors, all you need to get it are FRVCP shot (sp?) annually, and maybe a rabies in case they get outside. No FIV/kitty leukemia is necessary on indoors cats. I believe vets will only test for renal issues if they are showing symptoms of it.
Posted by Kila
CRF is a very common disease among older cats. Some experts say screening for kidney disease should be done annually after the age of seven because symptoms are very hard to spot until the disease has progressed quite a bit.
Posted by desmogirl
That depends. Has the cat eaten a kibble diet its whole life? Do you have reason to suspect kidney damage? Is he/she drinking a lot more water than usual? Vomiting? Bad breath?
If your cat has been on kibble its whole life I would say start looking for possible symptoms at 10 years old or earlier. Kibble does your cat's kidneys no favors and is widely thought to be the main cause of CRF in cats.
If your cat has eaten all commercial canned food its whole life then you're probably good until 15 years old or better. Grains are inappropriate cat food and cause undue stress on all the organs, but at least canned food contains moisture that the kidneys need.
If your cat has eaten a prey model or whole prey diet its whole life CRF really isn't a concern. Skip CRF testing unless you see symptoms.
Posted by Ken S
There really isn't a crf test. They give a regular blood test that tests for all sorts of things. The bun and creatinine among other things help determine if a cat has crf. blood tests should be done occasionally to see what type of problems may crop up.
Since this is something you are concerned with, I hope you are feeding a good diet that is appropriate for the species. That would mean NO dry foods
Posted by mightysquirrell
They say it's good to start having blood tests done on your cat when they reach senior status (which, as someone already said, is considered to be 7 years, I believe). Blood tests can spot early symptoms of things other than CRF, too.
I wish I had reguarly screened my senior cat, for I didn't notice anything was amiss until she was in a serious emergency. The symptoms onset so gradually and so slowly, and are so often mistaken for just "being old" that it's usually the case that people don't know until it's serious. My girl was diagnosed a month before her 16th birthday and is now almost 17. I'm on a CRF yahoo group, and it seems like most people on the list have 10+ y/o cats, but there are some who have seemingly young cats with it, too (4,5,6,7..). That seems pretty uncommon, though. I think if you want to wait til age 10, you should be ok.
Orignal From: Kidney Disease: At what age should an indoor cat be take a chronic renal failure test?
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