Lowering high SDMA

[MaiasMom]

Looking for any advice on how to lower high SDMA. It isn't very high, it's sitting at the lower end of high so vet isn't THAT concerned beyond doing blood work again in 6 months but I want to work on lowering it in the meantime.

It does signal the possibility that renal failure is in her future, so will be starting her on kidney support gold soon also.

[booktigger]

Lucy was diagnosed through SDMA, I just changed her dry food to renal and gave her a couple of pouches of renal wet food a week and it did reduce her SDMA, think it went from 16 down to 10. Good luck

[Mollycat]

Try not to overreact to early signs of kidney failure. We used to refer to Chronic Renal Failure CRF whereas now we call it Chronic Kidney Disease CKD.

Kidneys can lose two thirds of their function before any signs show at all. Before vets got in house testing and when the only test was urine, it wasn't usually spotted until a cat was already quite ill, so the outlook was less bright. More recently the blood tests for urea and creatinine and even more recently SDMA have brought the possibility of diagnosis so early that it can be positively harmful to switch to a full renal diet.

The lower end of high is only a whisker from the high end of normal, firmly stage 1 - did the vet also run the bloods for urea and creatinine? If those were normal and vet says don't do anything, don't do anything.

[MaiasMom]

Try not to overreact to early signs of kidney failure. We used to refer to Chronic Renal Failure CRF whereas now we call it Chronic Kidney Disease CKD.

Kidneys can lose two thirds of their function before any signs show at all. Before vets got in house testing and when the only test was urine, it wasn't usually spotted until a cat was already quite ill, so the outlook was less bright. More recently the blood tests for urea and creatinine and even more recently SDMA have brought the possibility of diagnosis so early that it can be positively harmful to switch to a full renal diet.

The lower end of high is only a whisker from the high end of normal, firmly stage 1 - did the vet also run the bloods for urea and creatinine? If those were normal and vet says don't do anything, don't do anything.

Thank you so much! It seems that the roller coaster of feline renal failure has changed a bunch since 2014 when I last was on it. SDMA wasn't a number in our dictionary back then so to speak.

Yes, her BUN (27), Phos (4.8), and Crea (1.6) are all within normal range, not even high normal all of those 3 are in the middle area of normal. I was reading that SDMA can be elevated due to dehydration also, and she isn't fed prior to vet appointments so wondering if that could have caused the elevated SDMA to be 14.

I won't do anything until her next blood work 6 months from now. Thank you again, you calmed my mind a ton!

[Mollycat]

How old is she? When mine get to around 12 I usually have them have a dental and full blood screen and I pretty much expect to see some loss of kidney function by then without feeling that it's making a dent in their life expectancy. I'm not "right" it's just my own personal kind of shorthand of things that won't surprise me and seems a good age to get a full medical.

This is a pretty comprehensive guide, USA based but does account for European measurements and some treatment differences. It really is a pretty comprehensive guide from start to finish of CKD, very well researched http://www.felinecrf.org/index.htm