Mari has kidney disease

addiebee

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Hey, guys. My longterm foster, Mari, was drinking and peeing - A LOT. So I had her tested. I don't have her values with me, but I recall the Creatinine was 3??? I need to call the vet in the morning and consult them.

She will NOT eat the kidney food. I have tried all flavors of KD wet and Royal Canin wet. She also has no interest in the KD dry. She is hardly eating her regular dry.

I can try the RC dry. But rather than have her starve, I have just been feeding her old food, which is probably not the best for her - Earthborn "chicken catch-a-toria".

I know it's better for her to EAT than NOT! So I gave in.

I add warm water to it and thin it out.

What else can I do? I know the wet is better for her than dry. I tried mixing the two (kidney and regular) and she wouldn't eat that either. :-(

I know there are other prescription foods out there...  anyone else try some of the others and have had success?
 

mrsgreenjeens

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I'm so sorry to hear about Mari.  My
Sven
had it for several years before we lost him this past spring. 

As far as eating, this is one of the main issues with "kidney cats".  They don't seem to want to eat much.  But our Vet was of the opinion that any food was better than NO food, just as you stated.  And Earthborn is a decent food...grain free, I think, isn't it?  The new way of thinking is that good protein is not bad for kidney cats.  ('course, your Vet may not be up on the latest thinking!)

Have you checked out this website yet?  http://www.felinecrf.org/diet_and_nutrition.htm

It's full of wonderful information about pretty much anything you need to know about kidney disease. 

There are many, many people on this site of have cats with kidney disease, so be sure to ask all the questions you want.  But as far as prescription kidney foods go, that one is touch and go.  What one cat likes another won't...same with any food.  And what one likes today, they may  not like tomorrow.  My guy wouldn't eat ANY of the canned ones, and got tired of the kibble very quickly.  We tried all the varieties, then went back to his old food too
.
 

tobytyler

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I'm sorry to hear that.  Toby suffered from CKD as well for the past several years.  He passed last spring, but it wasn't from CKD.

There is something that you can do that will make a world of difference and that is to start her on sub-q fluids.  The vet will show you how.  If anything like potassium needs to be suplemented they can usually add it right to the fluids.  It's a little intimidating at first, but believe me you will get the hang of it - no pun intended 
.  And, you can do it in under 5 minutes.  They can also do this for you at the vet, but she will need to have this done probably every other day or at least a few times a week,  so that would be expensive. I believe that giving Toby fluids gave me those several years I had after the dx.  His kidney values actually improved somewhat, he was comfortable, and his disease never progressed into CRF.  I never had him on a kidney diet - I tried but he wouldn't eat it.  It's the phoshorus content of the food that you want to keep to a minimum, if I remember correctly.   I didn't have the resources of this site at the time.

I used to warm the fluid bag in warm water first and Toby would mostly purr when I was giving them to him.  Of course I always followed with treats, and when he was done with his fluids he would run to the kitchen for treats.  It turned into a great bonding experience and I now cherish those moments.  I miss him so much.
 

gooned

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I just lost one of my babies to CKD. I've done lots of reading and research during and after that perhaps you can benefit from. First, Tanya's CRF site mentioned in an earlier response is a wealth of information. Be sure to check out the food tables that list the phosphorus content. Also, check out http://www.catinfo.org/#Kidney_Failure  which is a web site created by a Vet.

A common theme of CKD management seems to be discontinue the dry food and get her on some sort of wet food. Tanya's tables are invaluable. It lists the phosphorus content of the kidney foods as well as many wet foods. My baby was a dry food junkie. If I knew then what I know now, I would have fed her much more wet food. I am now converting all of my cats to wet food. I still leave Wellness dry food down but am amazed how slow it disappears. And the litter boxes are ALMOST a joy to clean now.

There are many high quality wet foods that are reasonably low in phosphorus. I could not find the phosphorous amount in your Earthborn canned. Perhaps you could get that from Earthborn. If you find it too high, check out Solid Gold, Wysong, ahd Hill's Science Diet. All have some flavors that are low in phosphorous. I'm not a fan of Science Diet but the phosphorus content on many of their cans are fairly low. Of course, the kidney food is best and maybe you can combine her old food with the new and work on a transition. 

Good luck
 
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bgregory

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So sorry to hear about your kitty's kidney disease.  I had a CRF cat (chronic renal failure).  I noticed he was getting lethargic, and when I weighed him he had lost several pounds!  He wasn't eating so I took him to the vet who diagnosed him.  I was told he only had about 6 mos. to live.  They kept him overnight and put him on fluids to rehydrate him.  He was doing very well in the morning, so we continued the fluid therapy.  Two years later he was doing great, but was unfortunately hit by a car. :(  When he wasn't eating I started him eating again by giving him baby food.  I didn't know what else to try, and someone suggested it.  It stimulated his appetite enough that he started to eat again.  You have to make sure it doesn't contain any garlic or onion salt.  I bought Gerber turkey and turkey gravy.  His prognosis was poor, but with love and sub-q fluids he made a miraculous come back!  I wish you all the luck with your kitty!
 

stephanietx

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So sorry to read about Mari's diagnosis, but you're in a good place for info!  I lost my Callie in 2010 from CRF.  She had been diagnosed in 2005 or 2006 at the age of 10 yrs old.  We opted to not do fluids because we knew she'd just fight us.  I'm of the opinion that eating something is better than eating nothing for kidney kitties.  I've known several owners who feed Fancy Feast, which isn't all that decent, but that's what the kitty will eat and that's what's more important.  We were fortunate in that Callie LOVED the Rx food (dry).  We gave her some canned food twice daily just to get her meds in her, but it took a period of time to get her to finish her serving.  I've even added meat baby food to the mix before to entice her to eat. 

One thing that's common among kidney kitties is constipation and upset tummies.  Ask your vet about using Pepcid if you think her tummy is upset and she's not eating from that.  For the constipation/hard stools you can try plain canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling) and something like Miralax. 
 
 

tobytyler

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So sorry to read about Mari's diagnosis, but you're in a good place for info!  I lost my Callie in 2010 from CRF.  She had been diagnosed in 2005 or 2006 at the age of 10 yrs old.  We opted to not do fluids because we knew she'd just fight us.  I'm of the opinion that eating something is better than eating nothing for kidney kitties.  I've known several owners who feed Fancy Feast, which isn't all that decent, but that's what the kitty will eat and that's what's more important.  We were fortunate in that Callie LOVED the Rx food (dry).  We gave her some canned food twice daily just to get her meds in her, but it took a period of time to get her to finish her serving.  I've even added meat baby food to the mix before to entice her to eat. 

One thing that's common among kidney kitties is constipation and upset tummies.  Ask your vet about using Pepcid if you think her tummy is upset and she's not eating from that.  For the constipation/hard stools you can try plain canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling) and something like Miralax. 
 
Good point about the tummy issues.  All my cats LOVE canned pumpkin just on it's own.  Start with about a teaspoon or so twice a day.  I never did any measuring, mine couldn't get enough of it and would eat the whole can (if I let them).  Funny, I was at Vitamin Cottage the other day and they had canned organic pumpkin for cats! in the kitty remedy section.  It was really expensive compared to the same thing you buy at the grocery.  Even the Safeway here (in the sticks) has organic plain canned pumpkin.  It doesn't have to be organic unless that's something important to you.

Sorry about your Callie, StepanieTX.  I know she was loved and very well cared for
 
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