Cat renal diet - need advice please

Hi

I'm hoping someone here can offer me some advice regarding the
practicalities of finding an alternative renal diet to the Hills Feline KD.
I am in the UK and my vet, and all the other local ones only stock Hills.
I've scoured the internet to no avail but to be honest, I'm not sure what
I'm looking for.

I adopted my cat (who is aged about 6) back in April from a rescue centre
and just one month later she had to be taken to the vet for her excessive
drinking and urinating. She was diagnosed with CRF. I was absolutely
devasted as last year I lost another cat aged only 4 - to sudden heart
failure. I'd had him since he was 7 weeks old but in April thought maybe the
time was right to perhaps adopt an unwanted cat.

I love her dearly and but am also finding it hard to come to terms with the
it all. I did the wrong thing from the start and started looking on the
Internet for more information on the condition only to end up more upset by
what I learnt.

Initially she took to the Hills diet like a duck to water and the excessive
drinking and urinating slowed right down.

A couple of weeks ago she caught an infection (how, I do not know as she is
an indoor cat and too shy to go out). She ended up in the vets overnight on
a drip to rehydrate her, plus antibiotics. She was quite poorly. Since then
has refused to eat the Hills at all.

In desperation to get her to eat, she's now enjoying (very much, by the way
she tucks in), lamb flavoured dry Whiskas. I've tried reintroducing the
Hills with it, being firm and not giving in when she refuses to eat it - all
to no avail. I can't watch her starve herself and the vet said he would
rather she ate anything than nothing.

I'm looking for another alternative to the Hills, particularly another
flavour other than chicken, and if anyone knows of something I'd be very
grateful. The only other thing I can say about her food habits is that she
has always refused 'wet' meat and will only eat the dried stuff.

Before she had her recent crisis, she was doing so well on the diet, plus
one tablet a day, you would never have thought anything was wrong with her.
She was so full of herself.

Now, she's back to that - but on the wrong food - and, according to the
vet - facing monthly injections as well if she continues to refuse the renal
diet.

Thanks for listening.

sarah

"sarah" wrote in
:

I'm looking for another alternative to the Hills, particularly another
flavour other than chicken, and if anyone knows of something I'd be
very grateful. The only other thing I can say about her food habits is
that she has always refused 'wet' meat and will only eat the dried
stuff.


I'm so sorry about your kitty, this is a very difficult thing to deal with.
I did some web searching and found a great link which lists protein and
phosphorus content for various foods -- it looks like there might be some
premium foods you could try (many of these can be ordered online, I think),
and there are several veterinary diets besides Hill's. The site also lists
some appealing-sounding baby foods:

http://webpages.charter.net/katkarma/canfood.htm

Good luck in finding something. Keep us posted.

--Catherine
& Rosalie the calicohead

arah wrote in rec.pets.cats.health+behav:

Hi

I'm hoping someone here can offer me some advice regarding the
practicalities of finding an alternative renal diet to the Hills
Feline KD.

You might try this site, which has excellent information:

http://www.felinecrf.org/

Lauren
________
See my cats: http://community.webshots.com/album/56955940rWhxAe
Raw Diet Info: http://www.holisticat.com/drjletter.html
http://www.geocities.com/rawfeeders/ForCatsOnly.html
Declawing Info: http://www.wholecatjournal.com/articles/claws.htm

Can you find Purina's n/f over there? It's another renal diet, & one that
my CRF cat liked a bit better than Hill's KD.

Cathy

"sarah" wrote in message
...
Hi

I'm hoping someone here can offer me some advice regarding the
practicalities of finding an alternative renal diet to the Hills Feline
KD.
I am in the UK and my vet, and all the other local ones only stock Hills.
I've scoured the internet to no avail but to be honest, I'm not sure what
I'm looking for.

I adopted my cat (who is aged about 6) back in April from a rescue centre
and just one month later she had to be taken to the vet for her excessive
drinking and urinating. She was diagnosed with CRF. I was absolutely
devasted as last year I lost another cat aged only 4 - to sudden heart
failure. I'd had him since he was 7 weeks old but in April thought maybe
the
time was right to perhaps adopt an unwanted cat.

I love her dearly and but am also finding it hard to come to terms with
the
it all. I did the wrong thing from the start and started looking on the
Internet for more information on the condition only to end up more upset
by
what I learnt.

Initially she took to the Hills diet like a duck to water and the
excessive
drinking and urinating slowed right down.

A couple of weeks ago she caught an infection (how, I do not know as she
is
an indoor cat and too shy to go out). She ended up in the vets overnight
on
a drip to rehydrate her, plus antibiotics. She was quite poorly. Since
then
has refused to eat the Hills at all.

In desperation to get her to eat, she's now enjoying (very much, by the
way
she tucks in), lamb flavoured dry Whiskas. I've tried reintroducing the
Hills with it, being firm and not giving in when she refuses to eat it -
all
to no avail. I can't watch her starve herself and the vet said he would
rather she ate anything than nothing.

I'm looking for another alternative to the Hills, particularly another
flavour other than chicken, and if anyone knows of something I'd be very
grateful. The only other thing I can say about her food habits is that she
has always refused 'wet' meat and will only eat the dried stuff.

Before she had her recent crisis, she was doing so well on the diet, plus
one tablet a day, you would never have thought anything was wrong with
her.
She was so full of herself.

Now, she's back to that - but on the wrong food - and, according to the
vet - facing monthly injections as well if she continues to refuse the
renal
diet.

Thanks for listening.

sarah

"sarah" wrote in message ...
Hi

I'm hoping someone here can offer me some advice regarding the
practicalities of finding an alternative renal diet to the Hills Feline KD.
I am in the UK and my vet, and all the other local ones only stock Hills.
I've scoured the internet to no avail but to be honest, I'm not sure what
I'm looking for.
snip

There are some great yahoo groups that discuss CRF cats (we have one
too). My favorite is Caring-For-CRF-Felines. There you will find all
sorts of people with lots of experience on this issue. I've found
this resource to be invaluable. Many people, myself included, do not
believe Hills K/D is the best choice for any cat--too many grains, too
many by-products, too low in protein. I personally have taken my CRF
kitty off of that stuff, and only give high-quality, no by-products,
dry and canned foods. They may be higher in phosphorous, but my cat
seems to do better on foods such as this. With proper hydration, your
CRF baby can live many years with this disease. Purrs to you!

dragon

"sarah" wrote in message
...
Hi

I'm hoping someone here can offer me some advice regarding the
practicalities of finding an alternative renal diet to the Hills Feline
KD.
I am in the UK and my vet, and all the other local ones only stock Hills.
I've scoured the internet to no avail but to be honest, I'm not sure what
I'm looking for.

Here you go:

http://www.felinecrf.org/diet_and_nu...scription_food

http://www.felinecrf.org/tinned_food.htm

http://www.felinecrf.org/dry_food.htm

I recommend you join the Feline CRF Support list too, link to it on homepage
of above site.

HTH

Helen

On Thu, 02 Dec 2004 20:44:23 GMT, "sarah"
wrote:

Hi

I'm hoping someone here can offer me some advice regarding the
practicalities of finding an alternative renal diet to the Hills Feline KD.
I am in the UK and my vet, and all the other local ones only stock Hills.
I've scoured the internet to no avail but to be honest, I'm not sure what
I'm looking for.

I adopted my cat (who is aged about 6) back in April from a rescue centre
and just one month later she had to be taken to the vet for her excessive
drinking and urinating. She was diagnosed with CRF. I was absolutely
devasted as last year I lost another cat aged only 4 - to sudden heart
failure. I'd had him since he was 7 weeks old but in April thought maybe the
time was right to perhaps adopt an unwanted cat.

I love her dearly and but am also finding it hard to come to terms with the
it all. I did the wrong thing from the start and started looking on the
Internet for more information on the condition only to end up more upset by
what I learnt.

Initially she took to the Hills diet like a duck to water and the excessive
drinking and urinating slowed right down.

A couple of weeks ago she caught an infection (how, I do not know as she is
an indoor cat and too shy to go out). She ended up in the vets overnight on
a drip to rehydrate her, plus antibiotics. She was quite poorly. Since then
has refused to eat the Hills at all.

In desperation to get her to eat, she's now enjoying (very much, by the way
she tucks in), lamb flavoured dry Whiskas. I've tried reintroducing the
Hills with it, being firm and not giving in when she refuses to eat it - all
to no avail. I can't watch her starve herself and the vet said he would
rather she ate anything than nothing.

I'm looking for another alternative to the Hills, particularly another
flavour other than chicken, and if anyone knows of something I'd be very
grateful. The only other thing I can say about her food habits is that she
has always refused 'wet' meat and will only eat the dried stuff.

Before she had her recent crisis, she was doing so well on the diet, plus
one tablet a day, you would never have thought anything was wrong with her.
She was so full of herself.

Now, she's back to that - but on the wrong food - and, according to the
vet - facing monthly injections as well if she continues to refuse the renal
diet.

Thanks for listening.

sarah


I don't know how advanced your cat's CRF is, and this is another
Hill's option, but you might want to check into Hill's g/d. I have a
CRF cat who refused to eat the k/d eventually, and after reading the
Hill's manual, I asked the vet about g/d (this cat also has a heart
murmur). Cosmo has been on the g/d for several years now, and is
doing pretty well on it. I'm sure others will have other
recommendations.

Good luck with your baby.

Ginger-lyn

Hi again

I'd just like to say a big thank you to everyone who replied. I shall check
out all the links. I have already printed off a list of cat foods from one
of them.

My cat is still largely refusing the Hills k/d. However, I've tried a
compromise with her - she has it left down at night with nothing mixed in
with it. Most mornings she has ignored it (probably as she is now allowed to
sleep on my bed since she was poorly recently) but today it looked like
she'd at least moved it round the dish!

Other than this change of food preference she seems virtually back to her
old self again which I'm delighted about. She's off to the vet on the 23rd
for a checkup so paws crossed things will still be ok.

thanks again

sarah

From: "sarah"

My cat is still largely refusing the Hills k/d. However, I've tried a
compromise with her - she has it left down at night with nothing mixed in
with it. Most mornings she has ignored it (probably as she is now allowed to
sleep on my bed since she was poorly recently) but today it looked like
she'd at least moved it round the dish!

Hi Sarah,
I found when I had a cat with CRF, it was more important that she ate, rather
than what she ate. Of course, ideally a proper diet would be great. But many
cats refuse to eat them, especially the Hill's brand. Maybe you could check
with your vet to see if he can recommend another brand. I would also like to
reiterate what others have said about the support groups. They were invaluable
to me and helped so much. Here's a list of some CRF support groups. The very
last one listed is the largest list:

http://groups.yahoo.com/search?query...&submit=Search

Lauren
________
See my cats: http://community.webshots.com/album/56955940rWhxAe
Raw Diet Info: http://www.holisticat.com/drjletter.html
http://www.geocities.com/rawfeeders/ForCatsOnly.html
Declawing Info: http://www.wholecatjournal.com/articles/claws.htm

"sarah" wrote in message
...
Hi

I'm hoping someone here can offer me some advice regarding the
practicalities of finding an alternative renal diet to the Hills Feline
KD.
I am in the UK and my vet, and all the other local ones only stock Hills.
I've scoured the internet to no avail but to be honest, I'm not sure what
I'm looking for.

I adopted my cat (who is aged about 6) back in April from a rescue centre
and just one month later she had to be taken to the vet for her excessive
drinking and urinating. She was diagnosed with CRF. I was absolutely
devasted as last year I lost another cat aged only 4 - to sudden heart
failure. I'd had him since he was 7 weeks old but in April thought maybe
the
time was right to perhaps adopt an unwanted cat.

I love her dearly and but am also finding it hard to come to terms with
the
it all. I did the wrong thing from the start and started looking on the
Internet for more information on the condition only to end up more upset
by
what I learnt.

Initially she took to the Hills diet like a duck to water and the
excessive
drinking and urinating slowed right down.


I think you should have another blood test done. Its possible your cat is
recovering from ARF (acute renal failue) because no renal diet produces
instant results.



A couple of weeks ago she caught an infection (how, I do not know as she
is
an indoor cat and too shy to go out). She ended up in the vets overnight
on
a drip to rehydrate her, plus antibiotics. She was quite poorly. Since
then
has refused to eat the Hills at all.

If she was fed k/d while in the vet's clinic, she may have developed an
aversion to the food. She maybe associating the unpleasant experience at
the clinic with the food. This is why "sacrificial foods" should be fed
under certain circumstances.



In desperation to get her to eat, she's now enjoying (very much, by the
way
she tucks in), lamb flavoured dry Whiskas. I've tried reintroducing the
Hills with it, being firm and not giving in when she refuses to eat it -
all
to no avail. I can't watch her starve herself and the vet said he would
rather she ate anything than nothing.


Oh absolutely. It doesn't matter how perfectly formulated a food is if the
cat won't eat it.


I'm looking for another alternative to the Hills, particularly another
flavour other than chicken, and if anyone knows of something I'd be very
grateful. The only other thing I can say about her food habits is that she
has always refused 'wet' meat and will only eat the dried stuff.


That definitely has to change - especially if she has renal disease.



Before she had her recent crisis, she was doing so well on the diet, plus
one tablet a day, you would never have thought anything was wrong with
her.
She was so full of herself.

Now, she's back to that - but on the wrong food - and, according to the
vet - facing monthly injections as well if she continues to refuse the
renal
diet.

I've a problem with k/d with a few of our renal cats - I think the protein
content is too low for all but end-stage renal cats. Protein should not be
restricted in renal cats until their BUN reaches 60-80 mg/dl. The low
protein content of k/d also contributes to unpalatability. Unnecessary
protein restriction also can have very deleterious effects in cats.

Our renal cats have made dramatic turnarounds on Hill's x/d w/Chicken. X/d
contains more protein, acceptable phosphorus and ideal acidity for renal
cats. In early to mid-stage renal disease, the acidity of the diet takes
precedence over protein and phosphorus. In fact some feline nephologists
believe the acidic nature of most feline diets may contribute to the
development of CRF.

Speak to your vet about x/d.

Good luck.

Phil