Posted on 10/03/2012 8:15:31 PM PDT by Nowhere Man
God Bless you both.
I hope she is, too.
Lol — I love the leg. Too cute.
Well, the vet told us that it looks like kidney problems. Mom and I are a bit depressed because we are so worried for Whitey because we do not want to lose her. I know eventually the kidney disease will take her but I’m hoping we do get a good amount of time out of her if we give her fluid and keep her eating. She is the last of Spunky’s, her mother, kittens, one brother, Greystone, died of kidney failure at the age of 5 and the other, G.W. (Dubya) died last year at 10 from cancer. I do try to remember we kept another car with kidney failure alive for 2 and half years, she was a Burmese cat named Muffin. We got Muffin from my aunt when she passed on. We pick up Whitey tomorrow afternoon.
Hope all went well.
Well, we brought her home, we will have to give her fluids twice a week and meds to stimulate the appetite and lower the blood pressure. She did eat a little at the vets but we still have to feed her special kidney food with a syringe. Her kidney values have gone down, they are still a bit high but so far, they went in the right direction. I think as long as we are able to get food into her, we do have a chance although it is touch and go for now. She mainly sleeps for now since the trip the vets was a long one, 32 miles each way.
Well, this morning, Mom reported that Whitey went to the litterbox, drank water and ate dry Fancy Feast food for 2 minutes on her own. A while ago, she did the same thing but ate the wet Fancy Feast for about 1.5/2 minutes on her own. She is grooming herself a lot too. She still sleeps a lot but she seems to be coming around, hopefully we will do better. It’s almost time for her meds, I figure will give her medicine at halftime (Steeler game).
Whitey is eating on her own, some dry and wet foods, Fancy Feast and Meow Mix. She goes more for that than the kidney diet food but the goal is to get her to eat on her own and then I will mix some kidney food with the regular food. The vet said that sometimes you just got to let them eat what they like and if they don’t like the kidney food too much, he recommends Fancy Feast as a backup. We do have her on fluids twice a week, we will administer them tomorrow and Thursday. She still sleeps a lot but gets around better, albeit still a little slow and we do hope she keeps on improving. I know kidney disease in kitties are tough but I had one cat live for 2 and a half years on what we are doing now.
Terrific news! Sounds like Whitey has some very devoted caretakers. :-)
Well, we gave Whitey her first dose of IV fluids for her kidneys. It’s a bit tough but we got the required 150 ml into her. She’s sitting in the middle of the living room washing herself. She still eats and drinks and getting around a little bit more.
Ditch the Meow Mix, it’s garbage.
We had a kitty in renal failure, kept her going for six years, and it never did take her. She eventually got lymphoma and passed on last year just after turning nineteen.
Can’t remember when or who but I got this from another Freeper on a doggie ping thread. He had a dog with kidney failure and, instead of the kidney food he went with .... are you ready.....?
Grain free.
I thought, “Can’t be. That stuff’s all high protein.” So I googled around a bit and, sure enough many pets do really well on it.
Her dry food was a challenge but I found two grain frees that were relatively low protein. One was Taste of the Wild Chicken Flavor and I can’t remember the other. Didn’t have the guts to take her off the renal food completely (Hill’s KD) so I blended it with the TOTW.
Canned was much easier, and I set a ceiling of 10% protein. There’s a lot out there for that, much more so now. Good one to start with is Wellness (NOT “Core” though) as they have several flavors and they all top out at 10%. Make sure it says “grain free” on the label, as one or two of their flavors are not.
Did that for two months, then took her in. Lo and behold sure enough her values improved. One of them even bounced back to “normal.”
The speculation as to why is that grains in a cat’s diet are inflammatory, and any inflammation is going to be tougher on the kidneys. Unlike us they’re carnivores in the wild, so their systems aren’t built for carbs anyway.
The vet also said that the super low protein is “controversial” among veterinarians. Not necessarily helpful as long as protein is within reason.
Also, get her a kitty fountain. She needs to be drinking as much as possible, and these really do help.
Same principle as reversal of type 2 diabetes with people on the Atkins plan.
Wellness foods, where do you get that? She mainly goes for the wet foods.
http://www.wellnesspetfood.com/recipes.aspx?pet=cat&ft=2
Ok now I remember. Sardine Shrimp & Crab, Salmon & Trout, and Chicken & Lobster are NOT grain free, the others are. Over on the right is an "Enter your zip code" store locator.
Never knew that! I thought that was strictly a “not having sugar” thing.
A friend of mine who worked for a vet said that a lot of cats that eat dry food have urinary problems. She said to add vitamin C to their water.
At least with humans, any kind of starch or carbohydrate is prohibited on Atkins, especially if you're trying to reverse high blood sugar levels.
An excellent book for anyone interested is called "Protein Power", it's actually quite a hefty book, and it's mostly about research findings and health benefits for people who go low carb... it has so much hardcore research material, I would NOT recommend it as a diet book for people first starting out on lo carb; it's not that easy to read... besides, the actual diet only occupies the last chapter. But if you're looking for particular health benefits, you really want that detailed information.
Looking for a link to the books, I found that he actually has a website, which also of course includes a link to his book... and it appears to have quite a bit of information... much like the book...http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/
BTW I don't have blood sugar problems, but I was interested to find that the low carb diet can have a part to play in preventing quite a few health problems...my problem is, after a couple weeks I swear I can smell bread baking somewhere, and I'm just dying for a bowl of spaghetti...LOL... so I alternate between low fat high fiber, and high protein low carb. It's good for my health, is my main thing, Twiggy I will NEVER be.
My goodness, that’s a fascinating blog. Thanks much.
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