Tuna water question

[Hope and Aria]

Hey all! Aria was in the hospital last weekend for dehydration (which was causing some kidney issues) so now I'm on the overprotective Mommy stance of trying to get her to drink more to stay better hydrated. I've been using tuna water which she loves. I limit her to 1 can of seafood based FF a week. Should I be worrying about the tuna water that I'm giving her? I get that the dehydration is definitely top priority right now, but for the future. Any other suggestions on liquid things I can tempt her with. I add water to her food and she has water dishes all over the house and a water fountain style water dish in the kitchen. Calories are not a problem. She's very skinny, so any extra are appreciated.

My hope is to find something that she will definitely want to drink so I can see a decent increase in her liquid intake. I knew something was going on as her numbers started going wonky and as soon as she was back and fully hydrated, her numbers stabilized dramatically.

 

[sehjak (Susan & Lanky)]

Dr. Lisa A Pierson, DVM has a detailed article on cat nutrition at:
http://www.catinfo.org/index.htm
On page 8 of the long, downloadable pdf version, she talks about food enhancers and gives a recipe for making "tuna water". Seems like that would be an OK thing to do in your case too. Hopefully others on the board have additional information, ideas & opinions that will help you.

 

[Hope and Aria]

Thanks Susan I keep a mason jar of tuna and water in our fridge and switch out the tuna every few days. I hadn't thought of chicken broth. If she'll drink it, that could be a great solution. We make our own here and I don't add salt until we use it for recipes, so that could be perfect. Now here's to hoping my finicky girl will drink it

 

[sehjak (Susan & Lanky)]

Be sure that you do not use onions in your homemade broth - I've read where onions in any form are extremely toxic to cats...

 

[Vicky & Gandalf (GA) & Murrlin]

Have you spoken with your vet about giving Aria sub-Q fluids at home? It is not as difficult as some may fear and certainly helps kitties with kidney issues. You don't have to give much for it to help - 50ml once a day. I've been doing this for Gandalf for over a year and a half now and he has maintained his kidney values at just below high-normal levels.

 

[Gia and Quirk]

I recently got a Drinkwell fountain for my group and even the cats who did not regularly drink water are using it. The fountains are available at most larger pet stores both on and off line and at big retailers, I got mine from Amazon.

 

[Hope and Aria]

We got a new one last weekend. It's our 3rd (my girls are 15 years old and I got it when it first came out.) I highly recommend it.

Vicky - I'm going to ask about that when we go back in 2 weeks. Something is going on with her but they want to see how the next few weeks go before making any changes to her diet/routine.