One of the scariest characteristics of felines is their great flexibility and agility, hence the popular saying that these animals have 7 lives, although this is not true, because the cat is an animal very sensitive to many diseases and many of them, as a Polycystic disease of the kidneys can also be observed in humans.
This disease can be asymptomatic until it is advanced enough to pose a significant risk to the life of the animal, so it is essential that the owners know more about this pathological situation, in order to diagnose and treat it to the greatest extent possible.Before.
In this Animal Expert article, we will talk about symptoms and treatment of polycystic kidney in cats.
Renal polycystosis, or renal polycystosis, is a very common inherited disease in Persian and exotic short-haired cats.
The main feature of this disorder is that the kidney produces fluid-filled cysts, these are present from birth, but as the kitten grows, cysts also increase in size, and can even damage the kidney until it causes kidney failure.
When the cat is small and the cysts are very small, the animal shows no signs of disease and it is common for manifestations of the disease to occur when significant kidney damage has already occurred, usually the disease is diagnosed between 7 and 8 years of age..
This disease is hereditary, so it has a genetic origin, is the anomia that suffers from an autosomal dominant gene and that any cat that presents this gene in its abnormal form, will also have renal polycystosis.
However, this gene cannot mutate in all cats, and this disease particularly affects Persian and exotic cats and lineages created from these breeds, such as the British Shorhair.In other breeds of cats it is not impossible to have a polycystic kidney, but it is very strange that this happens.
When an infected cat reproduces, the puppy inherits the anomaly of the gene and disease, however, if both parents are affected by this gene, the puppy dies before birth due to a much more serious pathology.
To reduce the percentage of cats with renal polycystosis, it is essential to monitor reproduction.However, as mentioned above, this disease only presents symptoms at very advanced stages and sometimes when a cat reproduces, it is not known to be sick.
Sometimes renal polycystosis progresses very quickly and harmfully in small cats, usually having a fatal outcome, however, as we have already mentioned, it is usually a disease that causes symptoms in adulthood.
Symptoms of kidney failure include
When detecting any of these symptoms it is essential to consult the veterinarian, assess renal function and, if they do not work properly, discover the underlying cause.
If you have a Persian or exotic cat, although you have no symptoms of the disease, it is important that in the first year you go to the veterinarian to study the structure of your kidneys and determine if they are healthy or not.
Beforehand or even when the cat has already developed symptoms of kidney failure, the diagnosis is made by ultrasound; in a sick cat, ultrasound shows the presence of cysts.
Of course, the sooner the diagnosis is made, the more favorable the course of the disease.
Unfortunately, there is no cure for this disease, as the main goal of treatment is to stop the progression of the disease as much as possible.
Drug treatment aims to reduce the work of the insufficiency kidneys and prevent organic complications that may arise from this situation.
This treatment, combined with a low-phosphorus and sodium diet, without changing the presence of kidney cysts, can improve the cat’s quality of life.
This article is for informational purposes only, in Animal Expert.com.br we cannot prescribe veterinary treatments or make any type of diagnosis, we suggest that you take your pet to the veterinarian in case of any condition or discomfort.
If you would like to read articles similar to, we recommend that you visit our Hereditary Diseases section.