Back in August I posted questions about a wonderful little kitten who
could not, apparently, wash  his fur or clean himself, and so smelled
like a litter.

No one, including myself, thought of what, sadly, was to be the
problem, so I am posting this to inform you of one other problem which
might be present with a kitten who seems to be untrainable.

Dear little Edward started "leaking" urine about 3 weeks ago. He had
never quite gotten the hang of cleaning his rear, and always smelled
bad. I thought he had a bladder infection, and so took him to the vet
early January.

Edward is part Persian, apparently, because he has PKD, polycystic
kidney disease. His right kidney had either never been formed or had
been destroyed, it wasn't clear which. He is very lucky in that his
left kidney was unaffected or only mildly diseased. We had his right
kidney removed, and he seems to be recovering beautifully. We will
always be waiting for the other shoe to drop with the left kidney, but
focus on the fact that we have our beloved companion still with us for
as long as possible.

If you have a kitten who does not seem to be able to stay dry, clean,
and smell good, it really is probably messiness, a bladder infection,
or too much fur "down there." But, don't rule out other causes. An
X-ray will reveal if there are other issues. Edward's cystic right
kidney had been huge when he was born, therefore making continence
impossible. We did not know...other vets did not figure it out,
either, before the large puddles on the floor started.

Just a warning, and a description of what an X-ray will show...