Kidney failure in young cat?

[waitingwithhope]

Our young 4 year old cat seemed to be losing weight, we took her to the vet only to discover that she had lost 3 pounds in the past year. After blood work and testing, we discovered that her BUN level was 35, her creatinine- 400 and her urine showed a slight bladder infection, with glucose in the urine. She is now being treated at the vet hospital for two days of IV fluids, antibiotics (for the infection) and has been put on a special diet for her kidneys. All indications point to kidney failure but the vet is perplexed by the same things we are: a) she is a very young cat b)she is seemingly normal- not throwing up (she did so twice within the past couple of months), is happy, purring, active and alert c) her blood pressure is completely normal, along with normal blood work (with the exception of the BUN level & creatinine levels being high which does indicate problems with the kidneys). Also her urine was highly diluted-another sign of poor kidney function.
My question is, has anyone else gone through this? Can she recover at all? Could it be a bladder infection gone wrong? Can her red blood cells come back? We felt, based on her great disposition and the fact she appears to be happy, eating & active that we would try everything to keep her with us-is there a point in which you'd say that her kidney failure is too much to overcome?

[Aleda M Cheng, D.V.M., C.V.A]

I am very sorry about your poor cat.

Cats can get kidney failure at a young age most commonly if,  1.  they were born with a kidney congenital abnormality, which is usually undiagnosed until they have a problem, or,  2. they were exposed to a renal toxin such as ethylene glycol poisoning.

Your cat may have acute renal failure which can be secondary to a severe bladder or kidney infection or other disease.  Cat kidney's can return to normal or close to normal once they are treated for the instigating problem.

I will pray for the best for your cat!

[waitingwithhope]

Sadly, today, our cat has taken a terrible turn for the worse. She woke up throwing up white foam (which I have read is a sign of severe dehydration), then attempted to eat after much encouragement, but then had an "accident" all over. She barely touched her food since, drank a few sips and is completely lethargic. I fear she won't even last the night. Tomorrow we will do the most humane (and saddest) thing and allow her to be put down. We're all so upset over this, but we don't want her to suffer either.

[waitingwithhope]

Thank you so much! Here is the update so far: she was treated for fluids for the two days at the vet hospital, her red blood cell count went slightly lower to 18 (which we were told could be due to fluids), however, the good news is, her urea level was down to 18 from 35. She is eating well, peeing & pooping fine (from what we can tell- although last night she leaked pee on her favorite blanket) and she is on a special moist food diet from the vet for cats with kidney problems. While at the vet, she gained almost half a pound (although it was probably due to fluids, we were told it still was a good sign). She will be on the antibiotics for two weeks still and we're taking her back next week for sub-Q.
We know for sure that she was not exposed to washer fluid or anything with ethylene glycol  (we keep it high on a shelf in the garage which she is unable to get to due to two double doors & she is always indoors so she couldn't have gotten to it any other way. We have questioned ourselves if she possibly licked an air freshener liquid (from a plug in one), but we can't figure out how she would have scaled a wall to get at it and then how she was able to then lick it and if that even would cause a problem?
We were told it was probably not an infection (other than the bladder infection) only because all her other blood work was normal, she did not have a fever etc.
However, I think maybe it is possible that either the bladder infection affected it or she must have some sort of congenital abnormality..? Hard to know.
Thanks for the prayers, we really do want her to pull through and it is so hard too to not know if she will be fine for a month and then pass away or if she will rebound altogether.