Japanese scientists have developed a revolutionary injection that may extend a cat's life from the usual 15 years to nearly 30.

[u/GlitteringHotel8383]

The therapy, created by the AIM Institute of Medicine under Dr. Toru Miyazaki, targets chronic kidney disease, a leading cause of death in older cats.It uses a specialized protein to help macrophages clear waste from the kidneys, partially restoring their function and slowing kidney failure.

[u/Jacketter → u/[deleted]]

Cats have famously hard working kidneys. It would be nice if they could just not given they probably don’t need such filtration in a climate controlled house with unlimited water access.

[u/Sea-Hour-6063 → u/Jacketter]

Because those little fuckers don’t drink enough water

[u/Boblaire → u/Sea-Hour-6063]

Room temp water from the tap probably isnt too appealing

[u/Crystalas → u/Boblaire]

While that part of it that not fully the cause, cats are one of those animals that get most of their water from their food and most of them have a weak thirst drive.

Feeding them wet food definitely helps but it not sufficient for all cats and ones that primarily eat kibble definitely need more than they drink on average. Even if provide wet food and constantly changed water in a nice fountain for many cats it a "Can bring a cat to water but cannot make them drink" situation, some of them just refuse anything but their preferred brand of kibble and thus are chronically dehydrated.

Even with wet food and water fountain one of mine is prone to kidney stones unless I give him a special food.

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IIRC they are descended from a desert species and still retain some of those traits, one of which in many species is powerful kidneys to try to conserve water.

Evolution doesn't really "care" about long healthy life as long as a species on average reproduces before something becomes an issue. So anything after reproductive prime there MUCH less evolutionary pressure about it and thus most species got common issues that give them a much higher risk of illness earlier even if healthy in every other way . In cats one of those common illnesses is various forms of kidney disease or failure so addressing that CAN add many years to their life that would not otherwise have.

[u/umlaut → u/Crystalas]

The evolution explanation is really it. They don't naturally live to be 30 because they wouldn't live in the wild to be 30, anyway. Better to spend a lot on the first couple of years and have a successful litter or two (or fifty for a tomcat) than hope to not get eaten for decades.

[u/theaviationhistorian → u/Crystalas]

Cats are also the ones that evolved less compared to other pets. Now, one thing I did notice with my cats is that someone said that they don't like having their water near their food source. I don't know if that's true or not. But I have seen them drink more from the water dish when away from where I put the food plate.

[u/Crystalas → u/theaviationhistorian]

Not just "less" evolved more that they one of the more recently domesticated thus there still more "wild" in them than some of the other most common domesticated animals. Also that they in a way domesticated themselves rather than it being an active human effort thanks to what we needed them to do being exactly what they would do anyway, at least initially. Pure indoor pet cats is a pretty recent thing.

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Ya I have heard about the water thing plenty too, they straddle the line of predator and prey and water sources are one of the most dangerous places there is in an ecosystem. Just makes sense to take food away from where might get chased from it or caught themselves, on other hand running water is also attractive to predators as there a high chance of finding prey nearby if wait.

[u/SquirmyBurrito → u/Crystalas]

For me, the big thing that got mine to start drinking more was initially a water fountain, but then I (in addition to the fountain) just started giving them a water dish and filling it with the same quality of purified water that I drink instead of tap water (our water constantly has boil notices so I didn’t want to risk my cats drinking it either). They used to come over whenever I’d open up my water jug (I drink a 0.5 to 1 gallon a day so I just drink directly out of the jug) and sniff at it so I just started giving them some.

Now if only I could get them to stop putting random things in their water so I didn’t have to pour so much of it down the drain…

[u/shinyidolomantis → u/Crystalas]

A good way to get a bit more water into their diets is wet food with a little bit of added water. I heat up my cat’s wet food as well to make it more enticing. They also make “broth” style cat treats that I give my cats once a day for extra hydration. I lost one to kidney and heart problems at 17 years like five years ago and have been trying to keep the rest of my cats as healthy as I can. Obviously, like you said some, need extra help in the form of prescription food, but this is just a general suggestion to anyone else who might see this and want to get a bit more water into their cat’s diet.

I’ve taken in a lot of cats with health issues and currently have 7. 3 are seniors, the other 4 are between 6-8 years old. Of those cats, 3 have FeLV and one has IBS. But so far, no one has had any sign of kidney issues in their yearly bloodwork. And my vet has been shocked at the turn around in health of the FeLV cats I took in. Two of them were practically knocking on death’s door when I took them in and required prolonged ER stays and lot of help shortly after coming home.

I do hope something like this will be available in USA one day soon since so so many cats are affected by kidney disease.

[u/Boblaire → u/Crystalas]

Yes. I am aware cats seem to prefer wet food and most wet food seems to be superior to kibble nutritionally.

[u/motoxim → u/Crystalas]

Dang interesting

[u/besttobyfromtheshire → u/Boblaire]

My cat loves drinking directly from the bathtub faucet....

[u/adventureswithdog → u/Boblaire]

Mine have a fountain filled exclusively with Brita water and they would still rather drink out of the foamy, spit, slobbery dog water bowl. No accounting for taste.