High cost of food for renal diet

Fire_Fox

Both cats and dogs need minerals from bones, what are you using to supplement that?

LooniesMum

I think the "ash" part of cat food probably provides the minerals? My cat likes to supplement his diet with fresh squirrel from time to time; not sure how low phosphorus they are :rotfl:!

I'm going to see what the vet says about just giving fresh meat like chicken and fish - we're cooking for 4 all the time anyway, so a bit extra for the cat isn't going to make a lot of difference! We don't usually add salt when we cook so maybe it would be OK. Last visit the vet said the idea was to give really pure protein so there's very little to break down and minimal by products.

Fire_Fox

Yes what is listed as 'ash' in petfood is bonemeal. I was concerned as Pinkneonmartini seems to be suggesting a diet based around meat, milk and cereals which doesn't contain a balance between animal protein and bone. That is fine if the vet has recommended exactly that for a specific animal, or suitable supplements are being added but not is not suited to general use.

If you buy in raw mixes for pets these are not simply minced meat and fat, they contain minced bone and offal too - one of the biggest problems with home cooked diets is people making up their own mixes and not getting the balance of nutrients right. Cats particularly MUST have offal in their diet to supply nutrients such as taurine, as well as calcium from the bone which 'offsets' the phosphorus in the meat.

pinkneonmartini

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Yes what is listed as 'ash' in petfood is bonemeal. I was concerned as Pinkneonmartini seems to be suggesting a diet based around meat, milk and cereals which doesn't contain a balance between animal protein and bone. That is fine if the vet has recommended exactly that for a specific animal, or suitable supplements are being added but not is not suited to general use.

If you buy in raw mixes for pets these are not simply minced meat and fat, they contain minced bone and offal too - one of the biggest problems with home cooked diets is people making up their own mixes and not getting the balance of nutrients right. Cats particularly MUST have offal in their diet to supply nutrients such as taurine, as well as calcium from the bone which 'offsets' the phosphorus in the meat.

Sorry, i should have explained, i tried a bit too hard to keep it kidney specific I'll give you the full monty

Millie's a rescue dog, that we adopted and were told that she was 4, but she was quite morbidly obese (8kgs for a teacup yorkie!!!!) she looked like a breeze block with a face.

It took 2 years to bring her weight down to under 4kg, and it was at this point she started to present with signs of diabetes. After closer inspection our vets confirmed that she had been puppy farmed, had a bad spay (very dodgy zig-zagged scar!) she'd obviously been overfed to maintain milk for her countless pups, which had led to her essentially getting the canine equivalent of type II diabetes (from years of an over indulgent lifestlye).

The vet also confirmed, that there was no way she was only 6, it was more likely that she was 12 or older! X-rays revealed that in the past she'd had broken knees, broken ribs, a smashed up eye socket, and a fractured lower jaw. All of which had been left to heal themselves!!! :eek::eek::eek: Some F***ER had beaten several shades of S**T out of her on a regular basis :mad:

We had essentially adopted this little lady in her twilight years after a lifetime of abuse. And it was just a fluke that in trying to correct some of the awful problems she had, alot of underlying issues decided to spring into life.

The diabetes presented with accompanying chronic pancreatitis on a Friday afternoon, by Monday she'd gone blind from the build up of glucose deposits in her lenses. This made her food-faddiness all the worse because she couldn't see what she was eating.

So our vet suggest we put her on a liquid multivitamin&mineral solution. One drop on each meal (morning and evening). It's just a standard one from our local pet shop, he had hoped that the extra "top-up" would help combat any organ deterioration from the caninsulin, but 12 weeks later she went into organ failure.

We still use the drops, but the vet is happy that at her stage in life her diet is adequate. And to be honest we've had that many episodes where she wouldn't eat for days, then we panic coz she can't have her insulin if she doesn't eat, and how do we get the renal meds down her neck when she won't swallow? .... that we're all happy if she eats ANYTHING! lol

Fire_Fox

What a sad story. With a happy ending.

LooniesMum

Oh poor Millie. You've clearly got lots of issues to deal with besides the renal issue.

pinkneonmartini

ooooohhhh tonnes!!! lol thats why i tried to keep the initial diet advice renal specific, coz her whole diet is just such a nightmare! yesterday she decided she would only eat corned beef, and yet this morning she was happy to tuck into her fishy wheatabix lol

and please excuse my F-ing and Jeffing in my last post, but it really makes my blood boil to think of the things heartless cruel people can do such tiny animals.

pics of millie-moo:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=28282633&postcount=145

rita-rabbit

poor millie - some owners need shooting

LooniesMum

Just an update on this since my last post. The vet said it was ok to give boiled fish instead of prescription food, so I guess if we see some at the right price we could try that. Having said that, we had haddock yesterday and we gave some to the cat but he seems more thirsty this morning, so I'm not inclined to chance it again. I've compared prices with the 2 pet food suppliers mentioned in this thread, but by the time you add postage on it's not actually any cheaper than buying direct from our vet. We seem to be stuck with it - it's very expensive but we have no choice. The wet food dries out really quickly too, so if it's been out more than 12 hours or so, he won't eat it. It's even more annoying when it costs so much and then ends up in the bin! :mad:

~Chameleon~

LooniesMum wrote: »

Just an update on this since my last post. The vet said it was ok to give boiled fish instead of prescription food, so I guess if we see some at the right price we could try that. Having said that, we had haddock yesterday and we gave some to the cat but he seems more thirsty this morning, so I'm not inclined to chance it again. I've compared prices with the 2 pet food suppliers mentioned in this thread, but by the time you add postage on it's not actually any cheaper than buying direct from our vet. We seem to be stuck with it - it's very expensive but we have no choice. The wet food dries out really quickly too, so if it's been out more than 12 hours or so, he won't eat it. It's even more annoying when it costs so much and then ends up in the bin! :mad:

Was it smoked (yellow) haddock? If so, that would explain the increased thirst. Stick to white fish such as coley, pollock, hake, cod etc. You can usually buy bags of frozen white fish fillets quite cheaply from the supermarket if that helps.

Online orders... most places usually offer free postage if you spend a certain amount. I think with vet.co.uk it's £40 so two bags of dry or a bag of dry and a couple of cartons of wet would bring that up to qualify for free postage.

I would only offer half a pouch/tray of wet food at a time. This is sufficient for one meal and is actually the right size portion for a normal cat.... any more than that and they are stuffing themselves and over-eating.