Water retention, where does it come from?

[Inamoment]

And how does furosemide work? I am actually asking for the cat. We knew something was badly wrong, her abdomen was so swollen, but we didn't want to know what it was. By the time we took her to the vet she weighed 3.8kg, should be 3. She had blood tests, fine, ultrasound, okish but they shaved half her fur off. And, i think, intravenous furosemide. The next morning she looked back to normal size and the litter tray was full. Poor little soul must have been up and down stairs all night. She is now on cloppy dog roll and furosemide, just like me.she has heart failure but I'm not as worried as i might have been if it wasn't for this forum

[shopman]

UTI's with cats are not uncommon and can result in them not being able to pass water and so it builds up in them - see purina.co.uk/cats/health-an... for further advice.

[Hidden in reply to shopman]

In which case a catheter would be needed to empty the bladder, furosemide would just cause it to fill up even more. I think you are confusing urine retention with water retention.

[shopman in reply to Hidden]

No not at all, it is usually just a uric crystal that blocks the urethra so doesn't matter whether normal function or enforced extra with the Furosemide, hopefully the crystal dissolves and normal function continues. One cause of this is a cat that only eats dry food. Yes if necessary surgical intervention may be required.

[Inamoment in reply to shopman]

It's not a uti, as i said it's heart falure

[Hidden]

Hi,

In very simple terms the heart is basically a pump which works to make sure blood reaches every part of the body. The blood carries oxygen and nutrients.

When the heart is damaged, for whatever reason, it doesn’t pump as well as it should. The flow of blood is sluggish and fluid can leak out into tissues causing the swelling. In humans swelling in the ankles and feet are common because these are the structures furthest away from the heart.

Furosemide is a diuretic medication, it acts on the kidneys making it produce more urine. The extra urine production reduces the circulating blood volume, less blood volume means it’s easier for the heart to pump the blood. The pumping action is improved and there is less chance for blood to leak into the tissues causing swelling.

[Inamoment in reply to Hidden]

She had a litre of fluid in her abdomen. Does the diuretic increased weeing concentrate the blood so that osmosis draws in more fluid from the abdomen which is then removed by the kidneys?

Why should blood vessels leak more plasma, i suppose that is what it is, if the flow is sluggish?

[Hidden in reply to Inamoment]

Osmosis would certainly make sense as a mechanism for getting rid of the odema in the abdomen. Where the fluid collects depends on whether it’s the right, left, or both sides of the heart which is affected.

Blood vessels are porous to allow gaseous exchange etc so it makes sense that fluid passing briskly through a porous tube will leak less.

As I said, it was a very simple explanation! Lots of other factors come into play as well

[Alison_L]

"Cloppy dog roll", love it. When I had my stent, I was given Ticagrelor, and the nurses at that hospital pronounced it "tick a gorilla", so that's how I now refer to it.

What lovely people we are - I half expected a few replies along the lines of "why are we talking about a cat?", but everyone's giving sensible replies. Made my day

[Inamoment]

We are all much the same, i heard we share 50% of our dna with the banana. There are lots here with water retention but I've not seen an explanation of where the fluid comes from or how it ends up in your bladder

[ShortyG]

Hi, not sure how it would work in a car but for a human, Furosemide works by blocking the absorption of sodium, chloride, and water from the filtered fluid in the kidney tubules, causing a profound increase in the output of urine (diuresis). The onset of action after oral administration is within one hour, and the diuresis lasts about 6-8 hours.

Hope this helps

[ShortyG]

Stupid autocorrect 😂