Is there a printable handout about cat kidney disease?

Yes, and it's the block of text in the middle of this page. Ctrl+P, or Cmd+P on a Mac, prints it as plain black on white with the navigation and the colour panels stripped out. There's a PDF as well, linked at the top.

Can my veterinary clinic print and hand this out?

Freely. Print it, photocopy it, put it in the new-diagnosis folder, write your own clinic name and number at the bottom of it. Nothing to sign, nobody to ask, no attribution wanted. If it saves ten minutes of a hard conversation on a busy afternoon, it's doing its job.

Is there a PDF I can download?

There is, linked at the top of this page. It's built from this page every time the site changes, so the file and the page can't disagree. If you'd rather not download anything, printing the page gives you the same sheet.

What does the handout cover?

One page. What the disease is in two sentences, the numbers worth knowing, the first two weeks in order, the signs that mean phone today, and what to have in front of you when you do. It stops there deliberately, because that's about what anyone can hold on the day they're told.

Can I translate it or adapt it?

Yes. Translate it, cut it, put it on your own letterhead. The one request is that if you change any of the clinical content you take my name off it, because I can't stand behind wording I haven't read.

The printable starter guide

Is there a printable handout?

Yes. It's below, and the way to get it is to print this page.

Press Ctrl+P, or Cmd+P on a Mac. The page prints as plain black text on white, with the navigation, the colour panels, the links and everything else stripped out. It won't eat a clinic's toner and it won't come out of a LaserJet as a grey rectangle.

There are two files, and they are for different jobs.

The full starter guide, seven pages, in colour. What the disease is, the six numbers worth knowing, the first two weeks in order, the whole call-the-vet list split by how urgent it actually is, and what to have written down before you dial. This is the one to keep on your phone or email to somebody.

The one-page version, black and white. The same sheet as below. For a clinic that wants to photocopy fifty of them without eating a cartridge of toner.

Any veterinary practice is welcome to print this and hand it out. No permission, no charge, no attribution, nothing to sign. Add your own clinic name and number to it if that's useful. If it saves you ten minutes of a hard conversation on a busy afternoon, it's doing what it's for.

Your cat has been diagnosed with chronic kidney disease

What it means. Her kidneys have permanently lost some of their filtering capacity, so waste builds up in her blood and she loses more water than she should. It happened slowly and it won't reverse. In a great many cats it's manageable for years.

What it doesn't mean. It isn't an emergency today, it isn't contagious to your other pets, and it almost certainly isn't the result of anything you did or fed her.

Four numbers worth knowing

Creatinine and SDMA. Waste products her kidneys should be clearing. Her stage is based on creatinine.
Phosphorus. The value that most changes how she feels. Lowering it is the single most useful thing we do.
Potassium. Drives muscle strength. Usually runs low early on and can run high in late-stage disease.
Her weight. The most useful thing you can track at home, and the most often skipped.

Two more that aren't on the blood panel: urine protein (UPC), which is cheap, available anywhere, and worth asking for by name, and blood pressure, which needs equipment a lot of clinics don't have. Both are treatable when they're found.

The first two weeks, in order

Get more water into her. Wet food instead of dry where she'll take it, more bowls in more rooms, wide and shallow rather than deep.
Treat nausea before you fight about food. Most kidney cats who won't eat are nauseated, not stubborn, and most never vomit. Ask your vet about an anti-nausea medication.
Start one medication at a time, two or three days apart, so you know what caused what.
Book the recheck before you leave. Ask when specifically, because it isn't the same interval for every cat.
Buy a kitchen scale. Weigh her weekly, same day, and write it down with the date.
Sort the food out slowly. A canned kidney diet is best if she'll eat it. Take two to three weeks to switch, and never on a day she feels rough. A cat eating an ordinary food beats a cat refusing the correct one.
Put the medications on the fridge with the times you actually give them, and tick them off.

Call the vet the same day if

She's eaten nothing for twenty-four hours, or far less than normal for three or four days
She's vomiting repeatedly, or can't keep water down
Her ears, paws or legs feel cold against your cheek
Her gums are pale, white or yellow
She's weak, wobbly, collapsed, or can't stand
She's breathing fast, hard, wetly, or with her mouth open
She's straining in the litter box and producing nothing. In a male cat, go now
There are no wet clumps in the box in twelve hours
She hasn't passed stool in two days, or her stool is black and tarry
She's restless and can't settle, and it's worse at night

Have these ready when you phone

Her weight. When she last ate, and what. When you last saw wet clumps in the box. Every medication she's on and when you last gave each one. Whether she's had fluids, how much, and when.

Never give her

Any anti-inflammatory or painkiller meant for a person. Ibuprofen, naproxen, aspirin, and especially acetaminophen (Tylenol), which is lethal to cats. Also never a leftover anti-inflammatory prescribed for another pet, and never a human enema, because phosphate enemas can kill a cat.

Full guides at kidneycats.org, written by Dr. Steve Pelton, DVM. Free, no products, no sign-up.

For veterinary practices

If you want this in your new-diagnosis folder, print it and use it. A few notes that might help:

It pairs well with your own clinic's contact details written at the bottom, and I'd rather you added them than had a client phone me instead of you. If you change any of the clinical content, please take my name off it, because I can't stand behind wording I haven't read. And if there's something you'd want on a handout that isn't here, tell me, because you're seeing the same conversations I am and I'd rather the sheet was useful than mine.

For a folder or a shared drive there's the full seven-page guide in colour, and the one-page black-and-white sheet if you're photocopying in bulk. Both are printed straight from this site, so they say what it said the day I made them. The site itself is the thing that can't go stale, so if you're choosing what to give somebody, give them the link.

What this deliberately leaves out

Staging, prognosis, survival figures, the full medication list, fluids technique, and everything about the end. Not because those don't matter, but because none of them belong on a sheet handed to somebody in the first ten minutes.

Those live here: IRIS stages, life expectancy, every medication explained, subcutaneous fluids, and knowing when it's time.

Medically reviewed by Dr. Steve Pelton, last updated July 26, 2026. First published July 25, 2026. Reviewed quarterly.