Supporting quality of life in feline patients with chronic kidney disease

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is defined as a progressive and irreversible loss of renal function over a period of 3 months or longer (Polzin, 2011). Marino et al (2014) established that 50% of 86 randomly selected cats, recruited from a veterinary practice, showed signs of CKD. This is considerably higher than the 30% incidence level previously reported in the literature (Lulich et al, 1992). The difficulty in detecting early stages of kidney disorder may mean that the actual percentage is much higher within the feline population.

CKD may be influenced by genetic, individual and environmental factors (Jepson, 2016). Decline in kidney function is considered normal in ageing animals (Polzin, 2011), however incidences of CKD in much younger patients indicates that age is not the only influencing factor. One suggested theory is that following an initial insult to the kidney, resulting in nephron damage, the kidneys try to compensate for the loss of function, resulting in further damage and nephron loss (Finco et al, 1999).