I have a 17 year old beloved cat. Several years ago he was diagnosed with early CKD...but his numbers were only slightly elevated and have only slightly worsened over the years. Around September ‘20 I notice he started losing weight. Since then he has been in and out of the vet (which he hates). He has gone from 8.5 lbs his whole life to now just over 4 lbs. He also constantly throws up and hasn’t had solid stool in 9 months. Here is a overview of what we have tried:
- Added in a wet food (alternate between Blue Buffalo Natural Veterinary Diet K+M Support Grain Free and Hill’s Prescription Diet k/d Kidney Care - he is a grazer and picky so really just whichever he’ll eat. I now see that Hill’s most recent order is Vegetable & Tuna Stew)
- Still eats dry food (currently mixture of mostly Blue Buffalo Natural Veterinary Diet K+M Support Grain-Free Dry Cat Food with a little Hill’s Prescription Diet w/d Multi-Benefit Digestive, Weight, Glucose, Urinary Management with Chicken Dry Cat Food)
- Tried Royal Canin Cat Multifunction Renal Support + Hydrolyzed Protein Dry Food...no change
- Gets 50mL of Lactated Ringers (Sub-q fluids) 2x per week to help with dehydration...but they don’t want him getting more because o
- Tried 2 rounds of Metronidazole with no luck
- Completed 1 round of Prednisolone (Steroids) with no luck when the vet started thinking IBD
- Had Thyroid tested...everything looked fine
- Had more bloodwork and urine analysis done recently and kidney values were still only slightly elevated so the vet doesn’t think worsening CKD is reason for weight loss/vomiting/soft stool
The vet now wants to do an abdominal ultrasound to check for thickening in the intestines or cancer. Then put him on a more aggressive round of steroids...but would have to monitor him due to the CKD. So I am really at a loss of what to do. He hates going into the vet so much so I’d hate to keep making him go if it’s just needing to accept that he is 17 y/o. So my thought is to make sure I have him in the right diet.
So novel condensed to my actual question...with all these health (but mostly CKD and IBD) and a picky cat, what would be the best diet to have him on?
And I see lots of recommendations for raw. I don’t know anything about it and honestly worry he wouldn’t like it.
- Added in a wet food (alternate between Blue Buffalo Natural Veterinary Diet K+M Support Grain Free and Hill’s Prescription Diet k/d Kidney Care - he is a grazer and picky so really just whichever he’ll eat. I now see that Hill’s most recent order is Vegetable & Tuna Stew)
- Still eats dry food (currently mixture of mostly Blue Buffalo Natural Veterinary Diet K+M Support Grain-Free Dry Cat Food with a little Hill’s Prescription Diet w/d Multi-Benefit Digestive, Weight, Glucose, Urinary Management with Chicken Dry Cat Food)
- Tried Royal Canin Cat Multifunction Renal Support + Hydrolyzed Protein Dry Food...no change
- Gets 50mL of Lactated Ringers (Sub-q fluids) 2x per week to help with dehydration...but they don’t want him getting more because o
- Tried 2 rounds of Metronidazole with no luck
- Completed 1 round of Prednisolone (Steroids) with no luck when the vet started thinking IBD
- Had Thyroid tested...everything looked fine
- Had more bloodwork and urine analysis done recently and kidney values were still only slightly elevated so the vet doesn’t think worsening CKD is reason for weight loss/vomiting/soft stool
The vet now wants to do an abdominal ultrasound to check for thickening in the intestines or cancer. Then put him on a more aggressive round of steroids...but would have to monitor him due to the CKD. So I am really at a loss of what to do. He hates going into the vet so much so I’d hate to keep making him go if it’s just needing to accept that he is 17 y/o. So my thought is to make sure I have him in the right diet.
So novel condensed to my actual question...with all these health (but mostly CKD and IBD) and a picky cat, what would be the best diet to have him on?
And I see lots of recommendations for raw. I don’t know anything about it and honestly worry he wouldn’t like it.