Kidney Failure in Cats

I've been reading up on kidney failure. There are usually no symptoms until end stage, which can precipitate suddenly, because a cat can function just fine on kidneys working only at 30%. But if a cat gets sick, and loses fluids through a cold, stressing the kidneys, the cats goes suddenly into end stage, which is what has happened to Dex.

There is no cure. Dex's BUN readings are so high, I doubt she will make it long.

Diets for CRF usually are low protein, low sodium and include fermentable fiber. The problem is the kidneys regulate potassium and phosphorus. Cats in renal failure can have too much or too little potassium, usually the latter, and high phosphorus levels, which is in most common meats in cat food. The least objective protein, I read on one site, is egg whites.

Dex is beyond all this. She won't eat and probably will not survive more than a few days, if that. I read there is no real suffering in end stage renal failure, just feeling ill, maybe nauseated.

Her vomiting foamy white liquid, as she did for three days prior to yesterday, is another sign of renal failure. I did not know that but now I do.

One of those two things, potassium or phosphorus, can't remember which now, regulate calicium or something. Anyhow, the bones, in renal failure, get sucked of their calcium, to keep blood levels up, when something is too low. (I'm fuzzy over what I just read) I feel Dex has had that happen, as her bones suddenly do not feel like they carry the density they did even as recently as two weeks ago.

Contributing factors to renal failure in cats are: dental disease, high blood pressure, high sodium intake, genetics, diabetes, hyperthyroidism, (common in older cats and now linked, or thought to be, in some cases, to eating too much mercury containing fish), and there were some other causes listed.

Old age was also listed as a factor.