CKD in cats

UKTigerlily

Hi there,

Two days ago my cat got diagnosed with CKD. I'm wondering about feeding her, I have some Hill's Prescription Diet k/d food (dried) and was going to order some of the wet pouches also on Monday, but I know other companies make these kinds of food and wondered if others are better. Also, cheapest places to get it and whether it should be just wet (as I assume dry is ok as it's made for it, but she does like wet, I planed to give dry at night & wet in the morning)

Any help really, it's possible she's had this for 18 months as she started having symptoms in February last year but they thought Hyperthyroidism and both blood tests came back ok and didn't show CKD or diabetes back then so now I wondered whether it was really the CKD all along. Might've been something else but she was losing weight and had increased thirst back then and has lost weight everytime she's been weight but once in 18 months, her ideal is down as 3.80kg and she was 4.53kg so we didn't worry at first, now she is 3.39kg.

So, any help or advice more than welcome! No medication has been given other than antibiotics for an infection but they didn't know if a bladder or kidney infection, just said they'd treat it whichever it was.

spookylukey

Sorry to hear about your cat, the first place I'd suggest you look is http://www.felinecrf.org/ - this site will tell you all you need to know and more. It may seem overhwelming at first but if you work through the sections you'll soon become an 'expert' and have some other options to discuss with the vet.

Food-wise I believe wet is considered better than dry in terms of CKD cats, my cat isn't normally a fussy eater but we tried a few types which he turned his nose up - the one we settled on is Kattovit renal chicken (link says urinary but it's the renal you need to select)

http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/canned_cat_food_pouches/kattovit/kattovit_urinary/450041

If your cat likes this then it actually works out very economical to buy in the larger 400g cans - £1.32 a can so that's 33p for a 100g portion (equivalent to the size of a normal Felix pouch for example).

There's lots of other renal foods to choose from, many have reviews so you can get an idea of whether it might be popular! http://www.zooplus.co.uk/esearch.htm#q%3Drenal%26cats%3D1Cat%26catl%3D2%26p%3D1%26ci%3DCategory_facet%253D1%253A1Cat

no1catman

Has the cat had a blood test - do you know how bad the results were?
I wouldn't worry too much about the type of food, what is important is that the cat eats.
As has been said wet food is better than dry. They need high liquid content to lessen the 'taste' they have in the stomach - has increased drinking.
With my previous cat, I used to add hot water to her pouch - it became more of a meaty soup! There were times though when all she would eat was a few pieces of cooked ham - hardly good cat food! Yet, what saved her continuing to go downhill, was fish fingers! Microwaved two - cut away the outer breadcrumbs, mash together, she loved it.
Asked the vet how will we know when it's time to say good-bye, 'when she difficulty with her mobility' (when they won't eat to survive they live off muscle) - she had at least another nine months.


Good luck

UKTigerlily

Thanks both! She has had a blood test and it does show in her blood, I asked the Vet if she knew what stage she'd be at and she said maybe 1 or 2 but it was hard to tell. I think she's had symptoms for 18 months but it's only recently she's been drinking for over a minute at a time non stop and was incontinent once, the night before I took her back to the Vet. I don't know what ranges anything are at, but she said to urine test her again in 2-3 weeks and depending on that will depend on whether she is blood tested again. She's 17 1/2

Luckily she eats well right now, before she went off her food, last year when they thought Hyperthyroidism but she's fine with it now, so that's a good thing. I'll have a look at the renal food in the links, ty both.

Handy to know about the mobility, mine walks wrong but she does have arthritis in her spine and probably elsewhere as it was diagnosed aged 9, she's now 17 1/2, so i'd expect it anyway. But the Vet did say something about the muscles when I said she's down 25% or so of her weight, will she get to the point she can't function. Will go have a look xx