Feline Kidney Disease

[tplongy 10]

Hi All

Further to my post last week about "lethargic" cat, I took my female cat (18.5 years old) to vets just in case and, as I suspected, there was a problem. She has kidney disease. Vet has put her on half a renal tablet per day and special diet food. Bit conflicted about the diet though.

 

My cat is in otherwise good health, as have caught her fairly quickly she has only lost a little weight, but obviously felt very poorly. Vets also gave her 5 days of antibiotics just in case. That was Friday night.

 

On Sunday night, for the first time in about 8 days, she came downstairs out of her bed, to go into garden and look for meece (her favourite pastime) and also then came in for her usual nighttime televiewing/cuddle time (usually about 3 hours - so clearly she felt better already.

 

She normally eats for England, about 2 full pouches + treats per day. In past 8 days not exactly off her food, but would only eat if we put it in front of her like she couldn't be bothered.

 

Vet made a very big point about "normal" cat food being a no-no and certainly no treats by way of meat, only white fish or chicken if absolutely critical and could be mixed in with food to try make her eat the special renal food.

 

BUT she then went on to say basically you can give her normal food but her kidneys won't be able to process it and eventually you will be cutting short her life - which if carefully monitored could be 2 years.

 

So - read a few threads on forum - I know its early days yet but she is not currently on "danger list" or at least doesn't seem so. over the weekend she has eaten the food, but only at say about 3/4 a pouch a day (guidelines say 1-2 pouches) although vet emphasised this was supposed to be high density thus less food needed.... but basically she is eating bits but hardly enthusiastic about it.

 

This morning I chopped about 4 prawns into the food and for the first time she wolfed the whole bowl.

 

Any ideas anyone? I have seen the posts about quality of life/versus following letter of vets law - but neither do I want to give her something which is actually going to reduce her life. We aren't (hopefully) anywhere near the stage where she is on deaths door or anything...

 

Cheers

[gingers 10]

Hi

My 19 year old cat has had kidney disease for the past 5-6 years. He has a renal diet and fortekor tablets. At the moment he prefers Hills K.D. pouches and dried food. He used to have Royal canin , which he ate for a while then went off it. I occasionally give him a small treat (usually a couple of prawns).

A year or so ago he was being very very sick , I found out he was visiting a neighbour who has a cat , they were feeding him. He was so ill that the vet was talking about him having to stay in and go on a drip, we were always at the vets. After I discovered what was happening and explained to the neighbours , they stopped feeding him. He has hardly ever been sick since. I do believe the correct diet has helped him.

It is hard trying to get the right balance , maybe try a different make of food to see which your cat prefers.

Hope this helps.

[medusa 16]

I'm firmly of the opinion (for my animals) that I'd rather have them happy for a week than miserable for a year. As far as I'm concerned if they're eating the food and it's doing them good then that's great, but if they don't like the food and are eating too little as a result (and losing weight and getting miserable) then I'm afraid I would rather they enjoyed the food they do like and have a good quality short time left than see them wasting away before my eyes and have a similarly short time left, but as a miserable cat.

 

I'm the first to admit that some of the prescription diets work really well and that there are cats who really like them. My Merlin was on Hills c/d for almost all of her 15 years after developing FLUTD at a very early age. She was a happy, jolly and trusting cat right up until her last few days and she loved her special food (in fact some of the other cats liked to eat it too, which is why it cost so darned much!).

 

However, when Tiffy had a problem that was thought to be stress related causing her to create struvite crystals in her urine the vets recommended that she had the Canin wet food equivalent (since she was already eating a lot of Merlin's c/d and that hadn't prevented the issue) and she simply refused to eat the stuff.

 

Tetley was the same- he had liver disease and would go out and bring back long dead birds rather than eat the special food provided for him. Poor old lad was was adamant that however good it was for him, he'd rather eat maggoty roadkill than special food, so I settled for giving him a good time for the time he had left.

[tplongy 10]

Hi Gingers/Medusa

 

Thanks both for your feedback, i guess as this is the first week I will just wait and see how she goes on and see if she has gained weight on Friday. She is booked in Friday at vets to see how she has gone on.

 

I cooked her some white fish last night and put a spoonful in with her kidney food and she ate some of that - and then this morning she ate the scabby leftovers (which ordinarily she wouldn't even condenscend to touch after all that time!) before I got chance to clean the bowl up and put new down! you gotta love cats eh?

 

Anyway, the odd prawns seem to be getting her to eat although not at her usual level.

 

I noticed another post yesterday about toileting whereby a cat on renal food ended up having lactolose to help it toilet. Our Tinky goes outside, so not sure if I now should be watchign to see if she is doing her numbers 2's OK???

 

I am going to pop to the petfood shop and suss out the different varieties as she eats both wet and dry food and does love her biccies, am just giving her the only stuff the vet had which is Royal Canin at the moment.

[gingers 10]

Renal diet food can only be purchased on prescription. My cat definitely prefers the KD (at the moment ) , he has the sachets but I believe they also do a tinned variety which is different (I think it is minced). If you ask your vet they should order/provide samples for trial , if they don't I go to Peak vets at Woodseats and they have offered to order different types in for me. Good luck.

My cat used to be constipated (I think) when he ate more dry than wet food but now he eats mainly the sachets and a bit of dry food he's ok.

Edited August 9, 2011 by gingers

[tplongy 10]

well I assume vet will give me a prescription so I can buy online. I will see how it goes. The bill on Friday was the last thing on my mind, but going from experience the vets prices will be massively higher.

 

The vidalta prices from the vets are almost double to the prices I buy online for - I just get prescription from vets.

 

I just want to get her some of everything so she has the variety- its bad enough with normal catfood, what they like one week - they don't like a month later!! normal cat behaviour and all that!

 

[medusa 16]

Hills do make a kidney disease food (both wet food and biscuits) which is available on prescription, so there's always a chance that she will prefer that over the Canin one- it's certainly worth a try, as is offering a variety so that you have good odds of getting her to eat properly. No matter what the vet says about one brand being better than the other or wet food being better than dry (or vice versa) if she doesn't like it then the vet's opinion t not going to make her eat it.

 

Apparently the wet food for FLUTD diet is more effective than crunchies, but Merlin arrived with me at 5 weeks old, refusing steadfastly to eat wet food (at a time before manufacturers made biscuits small enough for small kittens) so she grew up on biscuits I broke up with a pestle and mortar to allow them to fit in her mouth. If it didn't crunch, she didn't eat it, not even fresh meat.

 

Crossed fingers that your little one decides to play ball and eat her medicine

[tplongy 10]

I'll see what our vet says on Friday, she didn't have any dry food in and my girl also loves her crunchy biscuits, despite having almost all her teeth out due to gingivitus about 3 years ago!

 

this is when you realise that domestic cats can't really be THAT related to big cats - can you imagine Mr Lion/Leopard/Panther/Tiger saying "um don't fancy that deer/zebra whatever today am bloody fed up with it, will just wait whilst something better comes along"???!!! Centuries of breeding or however domestic cats are related obviously removed that particular "I want food whatever form it comes in" and replaced it with a "you want me to eat WHAT?" gene!!! ha ha.

 

If my girl realises prawns are an option then the Royal Canin can go whistle - thus the reason why am only putting a tiny bit in... goes a long way hopefully - that is if she ain't picking em all out!