New here need advice please

HELP...What do you do when you're not sure what your furrbaby needs?
The vet diagnoses Kidney Disease and says he needs surgery but if that goes well and if he stays on a strict kidney diet...he could live many more years. So a friend helps us and Tango has his surgery and we put him on this two dollar a can kidney food. And he refuses to eat it more than once per day. And we've had to take him in for fluid injections because he won't eat it so he's not getting any fluid. So we decided to try and put him on an all organic grain and gluten-free wet food thinking that we could supplement the kidney diet. But that doesn't appear to be working either. He does not like the organic food so he's just not eating. Or drinking. And I don't know what to do!
A: refuse to feed him anything but what the vet suggests and watch him starve and hear him cry because he's hungry. But possibly prolong his life...yet he's miserable?
B: Give him the food he loves and all he wants of it so that's he's happy...but know that we're shortening his life?
This baby has been with me for 16 years in my darkest moments when nobody else was around. It was just me and Tango. I cannot imagine life without him. I just can't. But I also love him too much to let him suffer or be miserable. I don't know what to do.

Welcome to TCS!

You could ask your vet whether Semintra would work for your cat - it's contraindicated in some cases. It's a colorless liquid that's added to regular cat food in lieu of a kidney diet and accepted by most cats.

Semintra

It's really important that your kitty is eating.  That should be the first priority, rather than what  he is eating.

Please consult with your vet about this issue!!

You might also find this website helpful:

http://felineckd.com/

There are also list sof prescription & non-prescription canned food in order of phosphorous levels that might aid you in finding a food your kitty will eat:

http://felineckd.com/canned_food_usa.htm

http://catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPhosphorus9-22-12.pdf

TangosMoms said:

HELP...What do you do when you're not sure what your furrbaby needs?
The vet diagnoses Kidney Disease and says he needs surgery but if that goes well and if he stays on a strict kidney diet...he could live many more years. So a friend helps us and Tango has his surgery and we put him on this two dollar a can kidney food. And he refuses to eat it more than once per day. And we've had to take him in for fluid injections because he won't eat it so he's not getting any fluid. So we decided to try and put him on an all organic grain and gluten-free wet food thinking that we could supplement the kidney diet. But that doesn't appear to be working either. He does not like the organic food so he's just not eating. Or drinking. And I don't know what to do!
A: refuse to feed him anything but what the vet suggests and watch him starve and hear him cry because he's hungry. But possibly prolong his life...yet he's miserable?
B: Give him the food he loves and all he wants of it so that's he's happy...but know that we're shortening his life?
This baby has been with me for 16 years in my darkest moments when nobody else was around. It was just me and Tango. I cannot imagine life without him. I just can't. But I also love him too much to let him suffer or be miserable. I don't know what to do.

Click to expand...

You may be able to do both with the Semintra that @jcat mentioned above.  Choosing between A and B above seems simple to me:  QUALITY of life trumps QUANTITY of life every time.  Would you rather have a long suffering life, or would you rather have a shorter enjoyable life?