Reptile & Amphibian Forums

About two weeks ago, my cat, Coke, was diagnosed with the early stages of CRF. To make a long story short, she has had chronic constipation since last July and her vet didn't seem to be as concerned about it as I was, so I took her to a new vet. After looking at Coke's bloodwork (it was done at the end of March) and some xrays, the vet determined she was in the early stages of kidney failure. Coke is currently on cisapride chewies to help with the constipation and Hill's K/d dry food. She will be going back to the vet in about two weeks for more bloodwork. In the meantime, I figured some of you all have probably dealt with this before and might know what I can expect. I also have a few questions:
1. Is the prescription food supposed to make thier poop stink? Not that it was all roses before, but I have noticed a yuckyier smell when I clean the boxes.
2. Right now, I have all my cats (two 2yr old boys and 16y old Coke) eating the food. Does anyone know of a good way to get them to NOT eat her dry food?
3. The vet also mentioned that I may have to give her fluids. Is this a hard/scary thing to do?

Any other information is very appreciated!!!!!
Thanks,
Caitlin
Coke, Pippin, and Miko

Hi Caitlin,

I'm sorry your cat has been diagnosed with CRF. I presently have 2 cats with this disease, one 10 years old and the other 17.

The "good" thing about CRF is that there are things you can do to make a cat comfortable and give them quality time. Some cats with CRF do very well and can live for years. This is especially true when it's caught in the early stages.

K/D is a good food for cats with kidney disease, although it may contain some by-products that your cat may not be able to digest well. This can cause the stool to have a stronger odor. My cat that is eating K/D does not have this problem, although she does not eat this food exclusively. She also gets chicken, tuna and ground turkey. At this point, with the pet food recall, I am not comfortable feeding any of my cats canned cat food.

The only way to keep the other cats from eating the KD is to feed the cat separately and don't leave the food down when the others can get to it. What I do is offer the dry K/D several times a day. This is easy for me because I'm home a lot.

There are a couple of fairly new suppliments that are helpful for cats with CRF, Epakaitin and Azodyl. If your vet carries them, please ask if he or she feels they would be helpful for your baby.

Fluids aren't too bad to give once you get used to it. I'm a vet tech so for me it's second nature, but most people are able to give fluids at home. If not, perhaps you can bring your cat to the hospital for fluids or hire a tech to come to your house when the time comes.

Please feel free to ask if you have any other questions.

Regards,
PHKitkat

I am going thru the same thing and am putting a timeline of sorts below so you can kind of see the luck I've had with the Science Diet KD and other things that have happened (that may well happen with your cat).

At age 13, Stanley started having constipation problems. I keep it under control with hairball treats/tube hairball stuff and Latulose (stool softner from the vet). If you have something that works for the hard stools, stick with it. It has kind of been trial and error to find the right combo for Stanley.

At age 14, Stanley was diagnosed with early CRF. I started him on Science Diet KD. The diet has almost stopped his kidney values from getting worse for a year an a half now. He'd done really well on the food. I feed him ONLY the food with an occasional single treat or two each day (he has to have "food" with one of his meds, so I have to give him a treat to get him to eat). Do not feed anything but the KD if you can help it. It works best without other "junk food" in the cat's system.

At age 15 1/2, yesterday, I took him to the vet for a check up. I take both my boys in to the vet every 6 months for a basic blood check (condensed blood profile) since they turned age 11. It helps with early detection. Anyway, Stanley's kidney values came back with one number higher than the last check and one number lower than the last check, but the food esentially holding at a pretty stable value... However, he has picked up another problem as a result of the CRF, Anemia. I hear it is pretty common. The vet is going to have me start on a human anemia med for him (had to get it at a human pharmacy). Give him a shot twice a week for now and check in 3 months. Maybe go to once a week. It looks fairly simple.

My vet also mentioned down the road he'll need fluids once or twice a week. The vet can do it for me, or, she says it won't be that difficult to do at home once I am shown how... Also cheaper and easier on the cat to do at home.

So, the food works really well, but you will want to have your cat checked out every six months (or less if the vet advises) to keep on top of any changes. So far, simple steps early on have keep his kidney failure slowed considerably... It won't stop it from progressing, tho.

As to the poop smell, I don't notice much change. I also don't really know how to keep your other cats out of the food. Fortunately, Stanley's brother, Pookey, is also 15 1/2 and benefits from the KD.
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Tammy
Stanley and Pookey

I just thought of something -- I feed dry KD as Stanley does not eat wet food. The wet food is the best to feed them for CRF, so keep up with that if that is what you feed, but the reason I don't notice a strong smell in his litter box is I feed dry vs. wet.
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Tammy
Stanley and Pookey

Coke will only eat dry food. I need to pick up some more food for her today, so I will as the vet about the poop thing. Also, the vet recommended giving her 1/4 table of pepcid every other day. Has anyone else done this? I have read on a feline crf website about using Slippery Elm instead, but I am not sure about this.

Thanks,
Caitlin
Coke, Pippin, and Miko