First the Diabetes; Now CRF

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SabsMama

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Sab's still doing well controlling his diabetes with food alone. I am giving him a combination of Wellness Grain Free, Evo 95% and Wysong. He's enjoying the variety.

He's continued to loose weight since his diagnosis. He's dropped nearly a pound since February. A couple bouts of vomiting sent us back to the vet. She gave him some fluids & it was as if she'd given him a steroid shot. He perked right up - and held his weight! I took him back a couple weeks later for more fluids & again he perked up.

Then I took a picture of him curled up, napping in the sun. He looked miserable, like he didn't feel good at all. I wasn't the only one to notice that he didn't feel good in the picture, either.

So last week it was back to the vet & we did his creatine level. It came back at 2.3. While this is in the normal range, the vet feels that the fluids have been successful in flushing out the toxins that the kidneys aren't filtering out anymore. Tomorrow we to back to the vet to learn how to do SQ therapy at home. I'm hoping that giving him fluids once a week will boost his health. I've also added Pepcid to his medicine routine to help with the vomiting. I am also hopeful that the fluids will help his poo not be so dry. He strains to poop (he pees fine) and it comes out really hard. I actually caught him pooping in the kitchen one evening, trying to push out a hard poo!

I am hopeful that this will be the end of bad health news for Sab for at least a little while. Poor cat's been through a lot, and he's taken it in stride. He is, however, getting very weary of our weekly trips to the vet. Hopefully he'll tolerate the SQ fluids at home very well.
 
HI SabsMom, I think your little guy will feel much better with regular subq fluids. Subq's are a standard treatment for CRF and will help keep your kitty feeling better. A supplement I've been using with my cat very successfully is Azodyl. Its a bit spendy ($35 a bottle) and it has to be refrigerated but its kept my cats CRF stable for well over a year now. There is another website for CRF cats that is as terrific as this one - it Tanya's CRF website - www.felinecrf.org. Jan
 
Hi, I am trying to post this from a phone. I have a lot of info on CRF in my signature links. And Tanya's website that was just mentioned is invaluable. Holly
 
2.3 creatinine is usually a borderline number. Fluids can help if Sab is dehydrated, but dehydration can also cause constipation which can also make kitties feel yukky. It may also help to make the canned food a bit soupy and add 1/4 tsp of miralax to his food every day.
 
HollyandSpader(GA) said:
Hi, I am trying to post this from a phone. I have a lot of info on CRF in my signature links. And Tanya's website that was just mentioned is invaluable. Holly
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you're a Catster mom? Me too! I'm not as active on the site as I once was, but here's Sab's page: http://www.catster.com/cats/347194

I do water down his wet food. It's like having food for later, as he slurps it & gets it on his nose, so he has to clean it off later lol
 
CRF is very, very common in older cats. It sounds like he's in early stage, which is nothing to panic about.

You also sound like you have the right diet going, with high quality protein sources. With early stage CRF (now commonly called CKD: Chronic Kidney Disease to make it less scary sounding), you want a high quality protein, low phosphorus food, and to do anything you can to increase moisture intake. It sounds like you are already adding water to the food, which is great. Another thing that can help encourage drinking is a pet fountain--it encourages cats to drink before they get thirsty, which is very important since a thirsty cat is already dehydrated.

Here is a link to an updated chart with phosphorus values: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8Uu8g1u8Su9YTgxNGE1MDItM2MyMC00Y2Y3LWI4ODMtMzhkYTkxOGM4NThk/edit. You want something under 250 mg phos/100 kcal.

You don't mention the flavors of Wellness, Wysong, and EVO 95% you're feeding, but here are the low carb, kidney friendly flavors:

Wellness Turkey (201)
Wellness Chicken (214)
EVO 95% Chicken & Turkey (155)
EVO 95% Beef (234)

Also good are several Merrick's flavors that are good, also.

With the exception of the majority of the Au Jus Diets, which are only for supplemental feeding because they are not nutritionally complete, there aren't any Wysong canned foods that are good for diabetics with CKD.
 
Hi. My cat probably has CRF. You cat's creatinine test is very low. That's good. He might even test in the normal range in the future. My vet prescribed three herbal supplements for my cat: Standard Process' Renal Support (a pill), Solidago (a pill) and Rehmannia Eight (a tincture). I believe they help Max.

I second the Miralax. It works for my cat.

I give subcu fluids, too. The needle is pretty big, and you'll think, "Oh, my!" but you can do it. There are a couple of tricks. Number one is to warm some water on the stove, and put the bag of fluids in the water to warm it up. Cats' normal temperature 101.5 to 102.5. My cat loses it if I put room temperature fluids in him. It's just too cold. It takes a while to get the fluids in. Max fights me the whole time with room temperature fluids, but only a few times with warmed fluids. Every second that passes will seem like an hour while you are hoping he doesn't jump and make the needle come out. The second trick is finding a position for the cat that makes it less likely he'll claw at you, jump, or make the needle fall out. You can put the cat on an ironing board. It requires him to keep his balance, and he digs into the pad with his claws. However, what I found works best for me is to put him in a square bottomed, tall box - I use a laundry basket in that shape. I don't know why it works for Max, but it does. Maybe when, and if, his legs get stronger, it won't.

As for the cat fountain, unless you going to put it somewhere you can't hear it, buying a cheap one is a mistake. Good ones are expensive, but worth it. I am certain that Max drinks more water due to the fountain. Mine is a Petmate. I got it several years ago, and I hope they still make good ones. I have a cheap one, too, but I can't stand the sound.

Good luck.
 
It sounds like you are doing everything right for early stage CKD. Most of those foods sound good depending on the variety. There is one Wysong food that is good, the Gourmet Chicken is .6%Phosphorus on Tanya's list and 5% carbs. I have a tab on Tess's SS which list all for the LC/low phos foods I have found for Tess. Click on Tess's SS in my signature and then the LC/low phos tab.

Miralax works really well for constipation and can be given daily. This site http://www.felineconstipation.org/ has helped me understand a lot about feline digestion and elimination. I wish a lot of all this info had been available years ago when my Cleo was dx w/ CKD. :YMHUG:
 
Ann & Tess said:
It sounds like you are doing everything right for early stage CKD. Most of those foods sound good depending on the variety. There is one Wysong food that is good, the Gourmet Chicken is .6%Phosphorus on Tanya's list and 5% carbs.
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The Wysong Gourmet Chicken contains Wheat Germ, Ground Extruded Whole Soybeans, and Ground Brown Rice. Personally, I would not feel comfortable feeding a food with these ingredients (even in small amounts) to a diabetic cat, especially when there are options without these ingredients. I don't trust pet food companies not to play with the amount of these filler ingredients from batch to batch.
 
I totally agree with warming the fluids! I just filled the sink with hot water and put the bag in, leaving the drip chamber connection out of the water. The poke with the needle was the worst part, but as the fluids were going in Grey (GA) would lay down as if the warm fluids were soothing.

Suzanne
 
the Techs did tell me to warm up the fluid before giving it to him. As I've done his insulin injections prior to coming off of it, I'm used to giving him needles. (I work with rabbits & other small animals & have given them such meds countless times, too.)

I've been getting him Wellness Grain free varieties but don't want to make that his only diet b/c of the high rate of urine crystals that seem to develop on this food. I can only get Evo 95% duck at my pet store & he's not fond of it. He's definitely a poultry cat. I've considered ordering food online but the shipping is so expensive! He's also snubbed the Wysong so that's going back to the store. Hopefully the store can get me some of the other Evo cans from other stores so I don't have to drive 40 min to get them.

Do any of you buy your SQ fluid supplies online? I'm wondering if the shipping costs justifies the cheaper prices vs. the vet office.
 
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