PELUSHKA PERSIANS

What is PKD?

 

 

Polycystic kidney disease (PKD) is an inherited condition that causes multiple cysts (pockets of fluid) to form in the kidneys. These cysts are present from birth in positive kittens. They start out very small but grow larger with time and may eventually severely disrupt the kidney. When this happens the kidney can no longer work and kidney failure develops.  At the moment there is no way of predicting how rapidly the disease will progress in any particular cat.

 

 

How Common is PKD

 

 

Unfortunately PKD has now become very common in some cat breeds, Persians and Exotic Shorthairs having the highest incidence of problems and studies around the world have shown that approximately one in three cats from these breeds are now affected by the disease.

 

 

How PKD is inherited

 

PKD is the result of a single, autosomal, dominant gene abnormality. This means that:-

• Every cat with the abnormal gene will have PKD; there are no unaffected carriers of the gene.
• Every cat with PKD will have the abnormal gene, even if that cat only has a few small cysts in its kidneys.
• Every breeding cat with PKD will pass the disease on to a proportion of its kittens, even if it is mated with an unaffected cat.

It appears that inheriting two copies of the abnormal gene, ie, one from each parent, causes such severe disease that the affected kitten dies before birth. All affected cats are therefore considered to be heterozygous, meaning they carry one PKD gene and one normal gene.

 

Can PKD be cured?

 

Unfortunately there is no available treatment that will prevent the development of kidney failure in a cat that is affected by PKD. The cysts are present from birth and cannot be removed, nor can they be prevented from growing.

Once kidney failure has actually developed, treatment can be used to try to reduce the amount of work that the kidneys have to do, and to try to reverse the secondary effects of renal failure. Such treatment will improve the cat's quality of life, but will not alter the underlying disease or stop the cysts from growing larger.

 

Do all cats with PKD die of Renal Failure?

 

The number of cysts present in each kidney, and the rate at which the cysts grow, varies considerably from cat to cat. Severely affected cats, or cats with rapidly growing cysts will develop renal failure at an early age, and will die from PKD. Most affected cats will appear to be quite healthy until later in life, but will eventually succumb to renal failure and die from PKD. Some cats with few cysts or slowly growing cysts may remain healthy into old age, and may die from other conditions before renal failure develops.

Unfortunately there is currently no way to predict how quickly the condition will progress in an individual cat, and at what age renal failure will occur.

 

What can be done about PKD?

 

All cats that carry the abnormal gene are affected with PKD. However, affected cats can be identified before they reach breeding age by a simple test that is readily available to breeders, thus making it relatively easy to eliminate the disease from a breeding group, and if affected cats are not then used for breeding, PKD could be eradicated in a single generation.  Sadly there are still many experienced breeders who, for reasons known only to themselves, continue to breed from positive cats.  Breeders that state they are a PKD aware cattery are simply that - aware of PKD - it does not mean they are a PKD negative cattery, and anyone considering buying a kitten from such a cattery, should first ensure that the kitten is from PKD negative parents before commiting themselves to any purchase.