Jean A. Hall, DVM, DACVIM (SAIM), PhD: No financial relationships to disclose
Presentation Description / Summary: Hypercalcemia is associated with increased risk of calcium oxalate urolith formation because of increased calcium fractional excretion and hypercalciuria. Hypercalciuria is also thought to occur in normocalcemic cats with calcium oxalate uroliths. Cats with a genetic variant of the AGXT2 gene have a 2.5 x increased incidence of stones. Increased water intake increases resistance to calcium oxalate crystal formation. Dietary considerations to lower the risk of calcium oxalate stone formation in cats include feeding long-chain PUFA, avoiding severely restricted phosphate diets, and consuming a betaine and botanical supplement based on genetic and metabolic findings.
Learning Objectives:
understand that the lifespan for cats with non-obstructive kidney stones is shorter compared with stone-free geriatric cats, suggesting that kidney stones have an effect on mortality rate and/or rate of CKD progression.
describe how increased dietary long-chain PUFA alter serum fatty acid concentrations and lower risk of urine stone formation.
understand the genetic variants of the AGXT2 gene, and that cats with different variants respond differently to a dietary intervention known to reduce the risk of calcium oxalate stone formation.
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