New and scared

Hi, my name is Sabrina and my Icki (Kitty) was JUST diagnosed with CRF. I have read so many sites about this and I am so confused. I cannot bare the thought of losing my Ick. He is 15 years old and too sweet and cute to be sick. I am VERY confused and depressed and I need some sort of guidance. I have read all the CRF posts and I feel a little better but still confused. He has just come back form radio-iodine therapy, and my vet called me yesterday saying that everything BUN and creatine were normal. I asked her does that mean that he does not have CRF and she said no that he did because of the ultra sound. I don't know what all this is about but again more confusion. He is barely eating the Iams renal food unless I doll it up for him. I want a food that is better, and I know this sounds strange but looks more appetizing for ME to feed him. I don't like the way it looks or smells and he doesnt either. I want something more natural. I'm also giving him a multivitamin, which he loves. I am afraid to change his food because apparently he isnt THAT progressively ill. If I change his food what if that makes him sicker? I dont know! You know by changing things for his health it may screw things up inside and make it worse in the end. I'm having a hard time trying to explain this logic. I mean with all the protein controversy on it how is anyone to know what the heck to follow. Is it okay to give hi sour cream? Cream cheese for treats since there arent any unfavorable proteins or phosphorus in them? He was in the hospital for 13 days, he came back even more matted than when I left him there (a symptom of hyperthyroid). Can I shave him? His matts are too close to his skin and Im afraid to hurt him. LOL I sound like a freak but I think Im still in shock and I'm thinking about too many things right now so I apologize for all the left field questions. Anyway, Im thankful I found this site and look forward to meeting others with these same problems.

Certifiably ADD,
Sabrina

I'm sorry your kitty is sick. Hopefully someone here has more experience with CRF. My kitty has hyperthyroidism, but his kidneys are okay for now. Another really good resource is the hyperthyroidism group on Yahoo!, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/feline-hyperT. The people there have a lot of experience with kitties who have been diagnosed with hyperthyroidism as well as some fo the other conditions senior kitties get, like CRF and diabetes. They seem to have a very good understanding of the test values as well.

Good luck to you and your baby.

Hi, I'm sorry you are having to deal with this. My Patrick was 15 when he was diagnosed with CRF, it's been almost 3 years and he's still with me

I'd suggest that you get copies of all blood work and the ultra sound report, join the yahoogroups crf group Feline-Crf-Support.

I'd also suggest you start taking a look at the katkarma food lists, it is slightly out of date, but still is a great resource, and will let you compare a wide range of foods for their protein and phosphorus content.

Katkarma Dry Foods List and Katkarma Canned Foods List

Just take a deep breath, compile a list of questions for your vet and have a good talk with them about what stage of crf they feel your kitty is in, how often they want to check kidney values, what exactly it is they saw on u/s, etc.