Hi Everyone! Wanted to quickly post an update on Aurora. I'm sorry, my spreadsheet is way out of date but I do track her numbers 2x per day and keep them in a notebook - she's currently on a very small micro dose of lantus - she's usually slightly over 100 in the AM pre shot and sometimes at night for her evening check she's around 80's. Ok - the reason for my post is Aurora was drinking quite a bit of water the past few months. I took her yesterday to the vet for a full check up, CBC and they ran a fructosamine on her. Came back with elevated kidney values. I have had the worst time feeding her - literally bought every single grain free brand/type out there and she either refuses to eat them or gets sick of them quickly. I did switch to raw for quite awhile but she eventually didn't want to eat that either and it is expensive to keep throwing away. I know it's bad but they are both currently eating fancy feast. I know, I know....but my hands are kinda tied, they won't eat anything else. BUN 62 ( range 16-37 ) BUN/Creatine Ratio 23.8 Phosphorous 4.1 ( range 2.9 - 6.3 ) Total Protein 8.4 ( range 6.3 - 8.8 ) Creatine Kinase 118 ( Range 64-440 ) T4 Thyroid 2.6 ( Range 0.8 - 4.7 ) Fructosamine 324 ( range 191-349 ) It's been a hot minute since I have done sub q fluids at home ( had another renal cat about 8 years ago ). They are going to give me a 60 ml syringe and I will just fill from the IV bag the syringe and warm in a heating pad and give 2x per week. We will also start her on the standard process renal supplements 2x per day. Anyone have any feedback otherwise? Thanks everyone!
Hi Nicole! I'm sure you know https://felinecrf.org/. The founder of that site, Helen, always says that the best thing to feed a CKD kitty is whatever they are willing to eat. FF isn't the best because of the phosphorus levels but if that's what Aurora will eat, then I think you're doing your best. At least you know FF won't knock her out of remission. Her phos seems to be normal but if that starts going up you can use phosphorus binders from Thriving Pets. What was her Creatinine (not Creatinine Kinase, which is a different indicator)? The normal range for that should be 0.9 - 2.3 mg/dL.
Yes! I was a precious member of that group and re joined today I will definitely need a refresher. Creatinine is 2.6 and range is 0.9-2.3
I'm sorry about the elevated kidney values, but that is something that can be managed. Sending prayers.
So the creatinine is just a bit high but the BUN is elevated. Fluids should do her some good. I moved Ruby onto an all raw diet made with boneless ground meats and EZ complete after trying unsuccessfully to feed her prepared raw from Primal that made her sick but the phos was also too high for her CKD (she's stage 2). She seems to really like the taste and I rotate her meats to avoid boredom. Have you ever looked into that? Feeding her boneless will keep phosphorus low, between .8-.9% DMB, and it's relatively inexpensive if you get from a place like My Pet Carnivore, based in Indiana, even with shipping.
Thank you! I will try and look into that raw. I was getting raw from my local pet shop who has a butcher make it but there is ground up bone in there I know because I was picking out some of the pieces that I felt were too big or sharp edges but I was told that the bone pieces were acceptable in size and not to worry
Since Aurora has CKD I think avoiding all bone is prudent. Some meats like rabbit rarely come in a boneless grind because it's too labor intensive to get the little bones out, but you can get a lot of meats ground without bones. I just did a quick search on My Pet Carnivore and they don't seem to have much in the way of boneless, but you can check Raw Feeding Miami or Hare Today. I buy from these two because they have lots of boneless and they can ship to me in NYC relatively quickly by ground so things don't thaw before they arrive. The customer service with these two companies are great so you can ask lots of questions before you buy. Here's the website where you can buy EZ Complete, and it's a great resource for raw feeding in general: foodfurlife.com
