Laura Gonzalez explains how to protect your cat's kidneys through diet, hydration, salt intake, weight management, blood pressure control, stress reduction, and litter box hygiene. Kidney disease is common in cats and often preventable with these practical steps.
Welcome, pet lovers. I'm Laura Gonzalez from the 2 veterinaria channel. And today I'm here as a guest on Animal Expert to give you some advice on how to care for your cat's kidneys. The first of these is proper nutrition. When a kitten already suffers from kidney disease, it's extremely important to maintain certain levels of phosphorus in the diet, as well as an adequate amount and quality of protein. If we base the diet of our cat, who already has kidney disease, on a very high protein diet, this will have a negative impact on the function of its nephrons, which are the structural unit of the kidney and what allows this kidney to filter the blood correctly. The second is to maintain proper hydration, since older kittens in particular are very prone to mild but chronic dehydration and this has a negative impact on the function of the nephrons in the kidneys. Therefore, it is necessary to maintain adequate hydration by trying to stimulate their water intake, for example with fountains or keeping fresh water freely available throughout the day. Third, avoid salt consumption. Salt consumption can secondary stimulate the formation of edema and also increase blood pressure. This also has a negative impact on kidney function and nephron functionality, which is why salt consumption should be avoided. Fourth, we should try to avoid obesity at all costs. Obesity negatively affects kidney function in three main ways. First, fat accumulates in different organs around these organs, including the kidneys, which can alter kidney function due to the accumulation of this fat. Not only that, obesity produces a state of chronic inflammation in our body that among other things, also negatively affects kidney function. In addition to all this, obesity predisposes to an endocrine disease called diabetes, specifically type 2 diabetes, which among other things, damages the vessels of the renal glomerulus, which is a structural part of the nephron. Fifth, blood pressure must be properly monitored, especially if the kittens already suffer from kidney disease, because kidney disease can secondary to high blood pressure. And this high blood pressure also secondary to damage the vessels of the renal glomerulus, further worsening the kidney disease. Sixth, stress must be minimized. Cats are sensitive to any change we make to their environment, and stress for cats is often their daily lives. Some of them end up suffering from a condition called urethral obstruction, and this secondarily can also affect the functionality of the nephrons if their kidneys are damaged, further worsening kidney function. Seventh, it is very important to keep our cat's litter box clean. On the one hand, there are some cats that stop using their litter box as soon as they see it getting a little dirty and many of them start doing their business in other places in the house. Furthermore, having this litter box in poor hygiene conditions also increases the risk of urinary.
