Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is common in pets, but most don’t exhibit signs until their condition is advanced. Early CKD detection improves your pet’s prognosis, and our Commonwealth Animal Care team explains why your pet should be routinely screened for this disease.
Chronic kidney disease in pets
The kidneys play a role in many vital bodily functions, and when your pet’s kidneys are compromised, their health is negatively impacted. In most cases, the exact CKD cause is unknown, but the resulting damage interferes with:
- Water conservation — The kidneys are responsible for regulating water output. When your pet is dehydrated, their kidneys have little fluid with which to remove the bodily toxins, so these organs concentrate the urine. When your pet consumes too much water, the kidneys produce dilute urine. In CKD, the kidneys lose their urine-concentrating ability, which causes a pet to drink more water to process the body’s waste, resulting in increased urine output.
- Toxin removal — Filtering units (i.e., nephrons) in the kidneys remove waste from the body. CKD damages nephrons, allowing waste and toxins to accumulate, making the pet feel ill.
- Red blood cell (RBC) production — The kidneys produce erythropoietin, a hormone that triggers the bone marrow to produce RBCs. CKD inhibits the kidneys’ ability to produce the hormone, resulting in nonresponsive anemia.
- Blood pressure regulation — CKD damages sensors in the kidneys that help regulate blood pressure, leading to hypertension, a condition that can further exacerbate CKD.
- Protein conservation — Nephrons filter out waste while preserving important proteins, but CKD damages this filtration system, causing protein loss in the urine.
- Calcium and phosphorus balance — CKD prevents the kidneys from properly balancing calcium and phosphorus, leading to increased phosphorus levels, which can exacerbate kidney damage.
- Sodium and potassium balance — CKD prevents the kidneys from maintaining an appropriate electrolyte balance, leading to low potassium levels and weakness.
- The pH balance — CKD interferes with the kidneys’ ability to keep the body pH balanced, hindering many metabolic processes.
Most pets don’t exhibit signs during CKD’s early stages, However, as a pet’s condition progresses, their signs include increased thirst and urination, decreased appetite, weight loss, foul breath, oral ulcerations, and vomiting.
Screening tests for chronic kidney disease in pets
Pets in early CKD stages usually don’t show illness signs. Therefore, wellness examinations, including screening tests, are important to detect the condition before the disease becomes advanced, so treatment can be initiated as early as possible, improving your pet’s prognosis. CKD diagnostic screenings include:
- RBC count — Because CKD impedes the kidneys’ erythropoietin-producing ability, a low RBC can indicate the disease.
- Blood urea nitrogen (BUN) — BUN is a waste product from protein digestion, and elevated BUN levels can indicate CKD.
- Creatinine — The breakdown of creatine in muscle metabolism produces this waste product, and elevated creatinine levels can indicate CKD.
- Phosphorus — Elevated phosphorus levels typically indicate CKD.
- Urine specific gravity — Because CKD inhibits the kidneys’ ability to concentrate urine, an affected pet’s urine specific gravity is usually abnormally low.
Symmetric dimethylarginine testing for chronic kidney disease in pets
The kidneys typically remove symmetric dimethylarginine (SDMA), an amino acid that is produced during protein metabolism. Elevated SDMA levels can indicate CKD. Testing SDMA along with other parameters, such as BUN, creatinine, and a urinalysis, is the best way to screen your pet for CKD. In conjunction with other CKD screening tests, SDMA is recommended because this diagnostic screening offers the following benefits:
- Higher sensitivity — In comparison with other parameters, SDMA is a more sensitive kidney function indicator. SDMA increases with as little as 25% kidney function loss, whereas creatinine and BUN don’t increase until a 70% kidney function loss occurs.
- More specific — Unlike BUN and creatinine, SDMA is not affected by other factors such as body condition, advanced age, and disease state, which can skew test results.
- Earlier detection — SDMA typically can detect CKD about 10 to 17 months earlier than BUN and creatinine.
Pets who benefit from SDMA testing
SDMA testing provides valuable insight to a pet’s kidney health. Specific incidences include:
- Wellness examinations — Pets are excellent at hiding vulnerabilities, such as illness. When your veterinarian performs SDMA testing during your pet’s wellness exam, they can detect CKD as early as possible.
- Hyperthyroid cats — Diagnosing CKD in hyperthyroid cats is especially difficult because their hypermetabolic state and reduced muscle mass can skew creatinine and BUN results. These conditions do not affect SDMA, making this diagnostic screening a more reliable CKD indicator.
- Preanesthesia — Many anesthetic agents are metabolized through the kidneys, and ensuring your pet’s kidneys are healthy before anesthesia is extremely important.
- Tick-borne diseases — Pets exposed to tick-borne diseases, such as Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever, have an increased kidney dysfunction risk. If your pet tests positive for a tick-borne disease, your veterinarian should evaluate their kidney function, which includes SDMA screening.
- Medical cases — Many health conditions increase a pet’s CKD risk. If your pet has a medical issue, your veterinarian should evaluate and regularly monitor their kidney function, which includes SDMA screening.
Detecting CKD at the condition’s earliest stage is crucial to initiating an appropriate treatment plan that can improve your pet’s prognosis. Schedule your pet’s wellness exam and kidney diagnostic screening with our Commonwealth Animal Care team.
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