Polycystic Kidney Disease in the Cat
The polycystic kidney disease the cat (English polycystic kidney disease , PKD ) is an autosomal - dominant inherited disease of the kidney , which is popular with Persian cats occurs.
Pathogenesis and clinical picture
The disease manifests itself in urine- filled, one millimeter to several centimeter large vesicles ( cysts ), which can originate from the proximal as well as from the distal renal tubules and occur in the renal cortex as well as in the renal medulla . As with PKD in humans, the end stage is a cystic kidney that usually occurs on both sides . Occasionally, cysts in the liver and pancreas are also seen in those affected .
Clinical symptoms usually only appear in the late stages of the disease, when large areas of the kidney tissue are affected. The enlargement of the kidney can then possibly already be felt and the animals gradually develop signs of chronic kidney disease with decreased appetite , increased thirst , increased urination and weight loss. According to incomplete genetic investigations, it can be assumed that this stage occurs much earlier in genetically affected animals than in mixed-breed animals.
Diagnosis
The cysts can often be detected by an ultrasound scan from 6 to 8 weeks of age . However, since the disease develops gradually, it can only be excluded with certainty as people get older. At the age of four months, a 75 percent prediction certainty is already possible, at eight months this is 91%. There is also a genetic test that can be used to identify carriers of the PKD predisposition of the PKD1 type . It was developed by Leslie Lyons ( University of California, Davis ).
Treatment and control
Therapy of the disease is not possible; only symptomatic therapy can be carried out to reduce the symptoms of the disease.
The control is aimed at the early detection of sick animals and the exclusion of positive animals from breeding. By mating a polycystic heterozygous cat with a PKD-free cat, it is possible to breed PKD-free offspring. Since such a mating can also result in animals with PKD, it is not permitted under Section 11b of the German Animal Welfare Act : In the report on the prohibition of torture breeding under “Other monogenic inherited individual defects and diseases”, it is classified as “torture breeding”.
literature
- DS Biller et al .: Inheritance of Polycystic Kidney Disease in Persian Cats. In: Journal of Heredity. 87 (1996), pp. 1-5.
- KA Eaton et al .: Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease in Persians and Persian-cross Cats. In: Vet Pathology. 34: 117-126 (1997).
- St. J. Ettinger, EC Feldman: Textbook of Veterinary Internal Medicine . Vol. 2, 5th edition. Saunders, 2000, ISBN 0-7216-7256-6 .
Web links
- Genetic test to detect polycystic kidney disease ( memento from January 7, 2010 in the Internet Archive )