Kitten Food for kidney patients

[dinahsmum]

I agree with Elaine and Kazz that eating something is much more important than eating exactly the right thing or not eating the 'wrong' thing. There were times when Mini was miserable that she ate the strangest things, after turning her nose up at prescription food, ordinary cat food, chicken, fish etc. Just pressing the trigger and getting the system going again seemed to stimulate the ordinary appetite. Ham is good and smelly and often acceptable when other things aren't.
I found a 'cat drinking fountain' was good at encouraging her to drink too - that's important.
I'm sure you'll get more confidence in her health and your ability to cope with it very shortly. It's all a horrible shock at the beginning.
Hope Tigs is a good boy at taking his pill. Is it just one a day?
Stay with us, you'll get lots of support and advice here - we're all in it with you.

[AnnShoebridge]

Hi Elaine

Tigs' blood was tested just a few weeks ago. It wasn't routine. We already knew that he had renal insufficiency from a previous blood test. However, just a few weeks ago he went off his food, his tummy became very distended and his 'meow' was a very weak attempt at a proper meow whereas he's normally extremely vocal.

Hope this helps you.

Ann

[Elaine]

Do you have a copy of his blood test at all?
I used to find it very helpful to keep a copy or a record of the blood results, that way you can keep an eye on how fast/slow the condition progressing.
As Hilary said drinking and fluid intake is as important as eating with renal issues such as CRF. Cats do not instinctively go to water when they are thirsty, due to their history in the wild as hunters they would have gotten all the fluids they needed from their pray. Ofcourse this is no longer the case with many cats since domestication.
I think I am right in saying that myself, Karen, Hilary and Charlie all gave our cats some extra fluids in their food.
CRF cats are prone to dehydration due to increased urination and are at time unable to replace the amount of fluids lost through urination by drinking alone.
Did your vet say what was causing the tummy to distend?
Sorry for the long winded posts, I tend to get a little carried away when it comes to CRF. Just tell me to shut up when you think I am rambling

[charliebubs]

You're not rambling, Elaine!!

Hi Ann and welcome to Catsey. I sadly lost Midas to CRF last year and he was only about 7/8 years old Elaine has given some wonderful advice already and was my oracle when Midas was poorly.

I had problems with Midas wanting to eat towards the end of his life and it was caused by him having such high stomach acid and he was bringing up a lot of bile. He was prescribed antacid tablets by the vet (as well as Fortekor and the renal diet) and I raised his food bowls and added warm water to the food to try and entice him.

Although kitten food is a no, no........towards the end I was feeding Midas whatever he wanted to eat, as I thought that was better than nothing.

As Elaine has said, I was also adding water to his food to try and make sure that he was drinking enough. I also bought a water fountain to try and encourage him to drink more and that seemed to help. I was quite lucky (if that's possible) that Midas did want to drink a lot, I think because of his stomach acid and bile he was always drinking - probably to get rid of the taste.

You are fortunate that Tigs has been diagnosed in the early stages. Unfortunately Midas was diagnosed too late and there was really nothing to prevent to onset of the problem. I did have his bloods tested fairly regularly and kept the results so that I could personally monitor how he was doing - as well as the vets monitoring. It helped me - probably psychologically

I hope some of that helps.

Charlie
x

[Elaine]

http://www.catsey.com/showthread.php?t=19732

The above link might help you to get some photos of your dear kitty onto Catsey.
I would love to see him xxx

[AnnShoebridge]

For those of you who want to know what Tigs looks like...here he is.

Ann [IMG]

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[Elaine]

Aww thankyou Ann, Tigs is gorgous xxx

[Fran]

What a handsome cat!!!

[Elaine]

How is Tigs' appetite? Is he eating any better now?

[AnnShoebridge]

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[/IMG]

Hi Elaine

No, I'm afraid he isn't. We're averaging 1 sachet per day whereas, as you know, cats usually have 1 sachet per meal time. Whatsmore, most of this is being thrown away. We have an appointment at the vets on Tuesday so I'll let you know how we get on

Thanks for your concern and interest.

Ann