Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is the most common serious disease in older cats. With good management, affected cats can maintain quality of life for months to years.
Feline CKD welfare is substantially improvable with good management. Cats with untreated CKD experience nausea, dehydration, and accumulation of uremic toxins causing profound malaise. With appropriate diet, fluid support, and management of concurrent conditions (hypertension, anaemia, phosphate elevation), many cats with CKD maintain good quality of life for extended periods. The challenge is early detection - CKD is often only discovered when 70-75% of kidney function is already lost, because cats compensate effectively until late in the disease. Annual blood screening in cats over 7 years significantly improves early detection rates.