Cats sensing ESRD

[JCS327]

Does anyone else out there have pets - cats specifically, who have started avoiding a patient with ESRD?

[rabbit01]

I am in ESRD and have noticed that cats avoid me. I guess their smell senses are far more tuned that humans. I don't notice that I have a smell and I have asked my family and they say no but my renal nurse did say to me that as people progress into ESRD they can emit a urine type odour from their skin as it is not being cleared from the blood. I assume it is this that the cats can detect. I read a while back about dogs being used to detect cancer in people by the smell of them so I guess it is similar. So just another of the delightful things that we have to suffer with CKD!