slippery elm bark for crf cat?

My cat Crumbs has not been wanting to eat lately. She won't touch the k/d food any more, so I've been trying to tempt her appetite with a variety of other foods that are relatively low phosphorous. I've been reading http://www.felinecrf.org/ and her symptoms seem to point to excess stomach acid making her feel bad, so I'm trying slippery elm bark as it's one of the first things they recommend. The problem is getting it into her when she has very little appetite to begin with, and it makes her food smell funny when I mix it in. Does anyone have any advice? I was really hoping this would help, but it can't if she won't eat it. Right now she's mainly eating tiny amounts of Weruva chicken and baby food ham, and a few Temptations treats here and there. She will lick the gravy off Fancy Feast, but won't eat much of the pieces. She doesn't seem to like pate style foods any more.

momto3cats said:

 
My cat Crumbs has not been wanting to eat lately. She won't touch the k/d food any more, so I've been trying to tempt her appetite with a variety of other foods that are relatively low phosphorous. I've been reading http://www.felinecrf.org/ and her symptoms seem to point to excess stomach acid making her feel bad, so I'm trying slippery elm bark as it's one of the first things they recommend. The problem is getting it into her when she has very little appetite to begin with, and it makes her food smell funny when I mix it in. Does anyone have any advice? I was really hoping this would help, but it can't if she won't eat it. Right now she's mainly eating tiny amounts of Weruva chicken and baby food ham, and a few Temptations treats here and there. She will lick the gravy off Fancy Feast, but won't eat much of the pieces. She doesn't seem to like pate style foods any more.

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If you make the slippery elm bark 'syrup', you can draw some up into a syringe and give it to Crumbs orally.  I did that with one of my cats who didn't like the taste of the SEB in her food.

Some thoughts about eating--

Have you talked to your vet about giving subq fluids?  That helps our elder kitty a lot--he's 18+ years old and gets subq fluids twice a week.  When he doesn't eat, I give him baby food.  There's also a new Fancy Foods pouch food that's mostly 'broth'--when he's feeling finicky, I give him that.  It's not cheap and he mostly licks the broth and doesn't really eat the bits of food in it, but I figure he's getting some calories and nutrients and it's better than nothing.  

With a previous kidney kitty who went off eating sometimes, I'd blend up some of her wet food with extra water in the blender and make it liquid so she could lap it up. If you have a syringe with a bit larger opening than the ones for meds, you can even syringe a bit of food into them that way--sometimes it got my cat started eating again, if I could get some food into her initially via syringe.

She may not be wanting to eat because her tummy is upset.  Is she constipated as well?  The SEB will help with constipation, but I'm not too sure about the nausea.   As for food, the original Fancy Feast pate varieties are actually pretty good and low in phosphorous for CRF cats. 

Have her numbers been checked lately with a blood test? Is she on any other supplements to help with her CRF?  Do you give her sub-q fluids to help flush her kidneys and keep her hydrated?

Thank you both! I did get a little SEB into her yesterday, mixed with baby food, and she has started eating a bit better. I'm going to try making the syrup today. 

Her last blood test was in May, and the vet didn't say anything about subq fluids at the time, just wanted her to eat k/d. Her numbers were not too bad. Maybe it's about time for another checkup. Although if the SEB helps her eat better, I'll probably wait a while longer, I hate to stress her out by going to the vet too often.

I have thought about using the blender to make her food more soupy, that might be easier for her to eat and get extra fluid into her.

I know this thread was started a little over a month ago, but I wanted to add my experience. My 14.5 year old cat is also suffering from CRF and he had huge belly issues, such as vomiting everything he ate. It was a constant battle to get him to keep anything down!
I heard about Slippery Elm Bark being one of the best treatments for cats with gastrointestinal problems. I read that it could possibly even reverse CRF, though I remain skeptical that it is that "magical". I was skeptical that it would help at all to be honest. While looking online I found a huge jar of Slippery Elm Bark powder at a very decent price, therefore I decided to give it a go.
As soon as I got it, I mixed a sprinkle of it in his wet food and he wouldn't touch it, not one bite. I tried it a few times and it was always met with refusal. I smelled the powder and it had a really strong smell and we all know how picky some cats can be! I was about to give up and deem the treatment as modern age quackery, when I found on the internet that you shouldn't give your cat the raw powder, that you needed to make a syrup!
I figured it wouldn't hurt to give it one more chance. I took a metal cooking pot and poured 1 cup (250 ml) of cold water into it and whisked in 1 teaspoon of the Slippery Elm Bark powder. Then I brought it to a light boil for about 3 minutes. The end result should be a light brown syrup with a pretty pinkish hue. I poured it into an empty glass pickle jar, let it cool, lidded it, and stored it in the door of my fridge.
You can add 1/2 teaspoon to 1 teaspoon to your cat's food up to 4 times a day. I give my boy 1 teaspoon twice a day, because that is his feeding schedule. You can keep the syrup in the fridge for about 5-7 days, before needing to make a new batch. It is really quick to make, therefore not a big problem. The jar of powder will last me for years I am sure!
Anyway, he immediately ate all of his food with the addition of the syrup. I even think that he likes it! No exaggeration, as soon as I added the syrup, he has not vomited his food once and it has been quite a few weeks now. He went from vomiting after every meal to vomiting nothing. I would say that is a HUGE improvement!
Also since the syrup is made up of water, it helps to get some extra fluid in him. If you add it to wet food or home made raw or cooked food, then it makes it nice and moist, which is what you want to do with a CRF kitty. I'm not sure if the Slippery Elm Bark is a magical cure, but it has definitely proven itself to me and my kitty is much happier and he looks great. Even my teenagers, who hardly notice anything except their cell phones, noticed that our old cat put some weight back on him. I'm quite pleased with the results.

I have a 10 year old cat that was recently diagnosed with CRF.  We're doing the SubQ and Pepcid treatment. For the last 3 days Dot has not wanted to eat anything. I tried to syringe feed her about 10mL of food and within a couple of minutes she vomited it all back up.  It does not seem like the Pepcid is working as it appears to be a lot of acid with the return of her food.

After reading about the Slippery Elm Bark syrup treatment I decided to try it out. SEB is not easy to find locally.  They only had two brands, both capsules, and each contained magnesium stearate and cellulose along with 1,600 mg of SEB.  So I've made the syrup and I am waiting for it to cool.  My questions is to everyone, especially Loreli80 (http://www.thecatsite.com/u/74617/lorelei80), how your progress has been since it's been nearly a year since your post on this topic.

If anyone has had any success with the Slippery Elm Bark syrup I would appreciate your feedback and welcome your stories.

Best regards,
Will

I was not able to find a way to 'Edit' my post after submitting it.  The dosage of each capsule is 400mg, not 1,600mg as previously stated.

I have a CRF cat myself, and try as I might, I cannot get her to eat anything that has Slippery Elm Bark syrup in it   I've tried just adding it to a little tuna juice, tried giving it to her plain, tried mixing it into her food, tried everything except forcing it down her throat, which we are NOT going to to. 

Anyway, a lot of people seem to have good luck with the SEB, although it most definitely is not a CURE.  Nothing cures kidney failure, unfortunately. 

Are you familiar with this website:  http://www.felinecrf.org/nausea_vomiting_stomach_acid.htm   It is my "go to" for anything kidney related.  The particular page of the website that I referenced for you is the one on loss of appetite particularly, but it also discusses over acidity, etc.  AND the use of SEB, among other things.  (we actually give our girl Famotudine injections for her acid issues)

Peruse that website and let me know what you think. 

I did end up having pretty good results with the SEB syrup. At first I was just adding the powder to her food, but she refused to eat it. The syrup was accepted much more easily, and it seemed to make her feel better. I think it helped with excess stomach acid and with constipation.

Shortly after I started this thread I also started giving sub-q fluids, and that helped a great deal. I think the main reason she wasn't eating was dehydration. I don't use SEB anymore, because I've found other ways to help her when she doesn't feel like eating (fluids for dehydration, pumpkin for constipation, treats to get something in her tummy when she has too much acid in there).

ETA: I also tried Pepcid but did not find it helpful. SEB worked better for my cat.

Slippery Elm is not very palatable. Marshmallow root has just about the same effects as Slippery Elm and is a LOT easier to administer.

I have a kitty who has chronic pancreatitis, early stages of renal disease, and is IBD to boot.  Poor kitty. He is going to be 15 at the end of the month.

He also is chronically constipated and is on Lactulose 2 ML BID.- He weighs 9.8 lbs and is doing pretty well now. He is an Oriental Shorthair and his name is Sir Hubble Pinkerton.

At the advice of a feline only holistic vet I bought some NOW Slippery Elm powder andI have been giving him 2 caps a day size. #3.  These are the easiest ones to give him and let me tell you that I have found that the SE works great.

My problem is loading the capsules. I did get some advice from a list- but have forgotten which one and have probably lost the email by now with the suggestions- so if anyone can help me load the powder more easily that would be great. It took me 15 minutes tonight to load 16 capsules and that is only good for just basically a week.

I thought of making the syrup but he is very picky eater right now and I am positive he wouldn't eat anything sprinkled or added to his food.

We had a minor set back this morning- he threw up his breakfast shortly after eating (may have eaten too fast) but my vet thinks it is just a minor setback and suggested I give him 1/4 of a 16 MG Cerenia pill and he has been fine today.

My fingers get really cramped- I have chronic Lyme disease and the old joints don't work as well as they used to, so I thank anyone for any  suggestions that makes the capsules load far more easily.

Jo and Sir Hubble Pinkerton