Kidney Failure - Looking for suppliment/general info

[Dawn & Nova]

My step mother just called, my Sammy (she was my cat, but when I moved out from my dads place a dozen years ago, he asked me if he could keep her) was diagnosed with early kidney failure.. by the numbers it looks like she is stage 2, but because of issues with with their other cat who recently lost his life to HCM, she hasn't been to the vet in a while so there's no baseline for how fast she is progressing. She's 13.5 years old, has always been very much too thin and has had a number of problems with food (assisted feeding for well over a year..still takes encouragement)..

So it doesn't come as much of a surprise to me, given her age and troubles with food that she's having kidney problems.. but it still sucks .

Her regular doctor is out of town until the 1st.. dx was made by a sub.. so don't really have a ton of information until the regular doctor gets back.. My step mom has been reading online.. found Tanya's CRF site and has been pouring over that.. she's still pretty messed up over the death of her HCM cat (was like 2 weeks ago ) so I don't want to overwelm her.. but figured if there's a forum that knows about kidney problems and can give a quick run-down of the basics and most important things to do, this is probably it haha!

The doctor prescribed hills k/d.. Sammy has a lot of food sensitivies, but seems to at least so far be eating the wet.. much to the surprise of everyone.. I would guess that the wet is "better" then the dry, but really have no idea.. any thoughts on that?

Also was prescribed Azodyl.. haven't read about it yet, but second hand explination is that it's live bacteria that kills evil toxins in the kidneys or something.. is this a standard medication given? Are there other compounding options? The pill is apparently big, and the cat is tiny.. Are there better medications?

Also really curious about supplements that would be helpful.

Anyways, thanks in advance.. I'll pass any info on to her.

P.S. Should also add that the cat *seems* fine.. they took her in for a check up because they sorta thought she might be drinking/peeing more then normal.. but weren't sure.. most of the numbers were over my head.. but I guess the big concern was she has lots of red blood cells in her urine..

 

[Larry and Kitties]

Azodyl has been discussed in Yahoo's CRF group. It comes in a capsule. The manufacturer say giving the capsule is best but that the contents can be sprinkled on food. High-fat food is preferred since it provides better protection of the Azodyl from stomach acids (the capsule does too). There was a study being performed to quantify using the capsule vice sprinkling on food (I tried to enroll my civi Spot in the study but his CCRF was not bod enough. Here is the manufactures site.

http://www.vetoquinolusa.com/pages/pro_azodyl.html

Canned food is better than dry for CRF since CRF cats drink and urinate a lot and usually are dehydrated and thus more water is good. What many say that low phosphorous vice low protein is what is wanted so you can used J&B chart to find low phosphorous (<250) canned food. KD is both low protein and low phosphorous.