Prevalence of acute kidney injury and outcome in cats treated as inpatients versus outpatients following lily exposure.

Objective: To investigate the prevalence of acute kidney injury (AKI) and outcome in cats treated for lily exposure as inpatients (IPs) or outpatients (OPs).

Methods: Medical records of cats with lily exposure were retrospectively evaluated; 112 cats were included. Signalment, type of exposure, time from exposure to presentation, decontamination procedures, treatment group (IPs vs OPs), creatinine and International Renal Interest Society AKI grade at specific time points (initial presentation, 0 to 24 hours, 24 to 48 hours, and 48 hours to 2 weeks), whether an AKI developed at any point, whether AKI grade was static or improved when comparing baseline to last documented AKI grade, and outcome (alive or dead/euthanized) were recorded.

Results: There were no significant differences in prevalence of AKI between the IP cats (45 of 96 [46.9%]) and OP cats (7 of 16 [43.8%]). Of the AKI cats, 27 IP cats (60%) and 4 OP cats (57.1%) had a static or improved AKI grade. Inpatient cats had a significantly higher survival compared to OP cats (100% vs 86.5%).

Conclusions: Cats exposed to lilies in both groups had a higher prevalence of AKI than previously reported; however, many cats with AKIs had a static or improved AKI grade by the last documented AKI grade. Although the survival was lower in OP cats compared to IP cats, overall survival was excellent.

Clinical relevance: Results of our study suggested that IP cats have a superior outcome than OP cats; however, cats treated as OPs may still have favorable outcomes.