Medical News Good and Bad

The results of Renn and Cammie’s physical examinations have come in. There is some good news and some bad news, though not very bad news.

Firstly, Renn is in as good health, as I had suspected. My big boy with the tiny appetite manages somehow to keep himself fit, inside and out. There was a trace of protein in his urine, but that is nothing to worry about. I don’t know how he accomplishes it, but Renn is doing well, and there isn’t much more to write about that, except that I am relieved.

There is less cause to be enthusiastic about Cammie’s health. She is at the beginning of kidney failure. The laboratory to which the tests were sent noted that the princess (though they didn’t refer to her as such) is not yet in that condition, but her veterinary re-phrased that. Cammie is “in the early stages of kidney failure.” Cammie’s creatinine levels are at the very high end of the normal range, and her specific gravity is on the edge of the lowest at which a healthy cat should be.

The treatment for this is, at this point, purely dietary. Cammie needs to eat food specifically created for this condition, and I will be collecting some this week. Those who are familiar with my princess through this blog will know that her appetite is not catholic. She likes a very small variety, and will not even sample anything else. The food she needs to eat comes in a wider range of flavours and textures than it once did, but the very fact that it is medicated food may put her off. I’m hoping that, like Mikey and Life brand cereal, she - despite hating everything - will eat it. I won’t tell her it’s good for her.

This also means that I will be reserving Cammie’s dental cleaning for an earlier time than I had expected. The procedure will be a relatively simple one. The longer I leave it, the more will need to be done, and, possibly, the greater the complications offered by her renal situation. Surgery and new food: not something to which Cammie would look forward with relish.

The results of the tests were clearly not the success for which I had hoped, despite Renn’s health (and, as he enters middle age, let it not be thought that I am ungrateful for his report.) Someone with Tucker’s enjoyment of most foods would have been a better candidate for needing special nutrition, but my roly poly has his own worries. So Cammie and I will deal with her troubles; her doctor attended a seminar not long ago which featured a speaker who had three renally-challenged cats, and all three were faring very well on diet alone. I am encouraged by this. I will be even more encouraged if Cammie likes her new food.