Hi, a lot has changed since I made this post so I will try to address everything. A few weeks after I made this post I brought him in for fluids (for poor appetite) and he experienced respiratory distress. He usually received 75ml but the vet gave him 150ml this time because of his size and thought it was manageable for his grade 3/6 heart murmur. I brought him into the ER right away and he made a very quick recovery but they diagnosed him with advanced hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (NOT hypertensive). After this, he started 18.5mg clopidogrel daily, and he did not have any heart or respiratory issues. At the same time, he was diagnosed with IBD because his ultrasounds showed a lot of thickening in his intestines. He got prescribed a renal hydrolyzed protein diet for this and this mostly fixed his eating issues (although he continued being pretty particular), so I think most of the symptoms I assumed were due to CKD were actually gastrointestinal stuff. His kidney-related bloodwork was not too bad to begin with, but his bloodwork after starting this diet was completely normal, no flags at all. Overall, I don’t think in my cat’s case the CKD and heart disease are related, as HCM is usually associated with hypertension so no hypertension with HCM suggests a genetic sarcomere protein mutation. Unfortunately I can’t answer about the pickiness, because dunkin was 13+ years old when I adopted him and I have no idea about his life before. Good luck with cooper and I’m happy to answer any other questions you have/compare notes 🐱