Health woes for Agatha the cat

[nlbarber]

I've been worried about Agatha--she seemed to be drinking a lot, leaving the kitchen water bowl dry several times when I wasn't watching. (There's another bowl in the bathroom, so she never ran out completely.) And then over the last couple of weeks I've noticed how wet the litter box was. Several years ago, she was on steroids for quite a while to treat an overgrooming problem, and the vet had warned me of the possibility of feline diabetes--mentioning flooding the litter box as the primary symptom. So, I made the appointment fully expecting that she might have diabetes. Recent discussions on piffle of the difficulties of getting a cat stabilized had me worried, plus all the attendent thoughts of "how can my cat-sitters cope with this when I have to travel?" Nothing like crossing the bridge well before you come to it.

Turns out she has "renal tubular disease", not diabetes. Her kidneys still filter the wastes out, but the parts that should then concentrate the urine aren't working any more. Almost all the liquid that comes in, goes out. And she has to keep drinking to stay hydrated, as she isn't re-absorbing fluid in the kidneys any more. The vet says she can just live with this, at her age (she's 12)--all I have to do is make sure she doesn't ever run out of water. And change the litter box more frequently, I assume. I didn't think to ask if there is any treatment, period.