My cat with early stages of kidney disease wont eat food

[khursh]

About a month ago, I took my cat ( 8 years ) to the vet because she was showing pain whenever we tried picking her up. We took her to the er vet and they ran some tests and what my vet could tell me that visit was that she had a heart murmur and needed to have a blood panel and some other tests done. We waited two days for the results and were told she had the early stages of kidney disease and would have to change her diet.

A few days later we noticed she wasn't eating her current food ( we were waiting on the new food to arrive ) and hardly drinking water. Concerned, we took her back to the vet and agreed to do an x-ray to see if there was any blockage or anything else. The results said she didn't have an enlarged heart ( like the vet assumed ) but one of her kidneys was enlarged and had a lot of gas, suggesting we do a urine culture to see if she had an infection. They gave her an injection of pain killer ( because of the way they took a urine sample ), a shot of antibiotics, an ointment that would encourage her to eat, and a few cans of royal canin to eat while we waited for her new food to arrive.

Whatever they gave her made her high as a kite and overly sensitive to everything around her. We called the next day and they told us it sometimes happens to cats and it would clear up after a few days. She didn't poop but she did pee and ate very little. We got the results of the urine culture and the vet told us that she didn't have any signs of infection and the enlarged kidney was from the early stages of kidney disease. I asked if she needed to be put on any sort of supplements and was told she didn't - just to keep her on the new diet and monitor her.

The vet's recommendation was to feed her royal canin dry and wet food, so I ordered both. She ate a few kibbles of the dry food and hasn't touched it since. She did take an interest in the wet food, licking the juices up immediately with eating a few bites here and there, sometimes finishing it off. Her appetite varies from day to day - sometimes she'll eat a whole can, but oftentimes she'll only eat half. She always licks up the juices, however. But lately, I've noticed she hardly eats the wet food now but still continues to lick up the juices. She'll drink water and uses the bathroom semi-regularly. Concerned, I used some of the ointment to get her to eat more along with a can of her wet food. Again she only licked up the juices and ate a mouthful of the wet food.

I'm very concerned about how little she's been eating for the past 3 days. Again, she'll lick up the juices and maybe take a bite, but most of the time the wet food stays in her bowl untouched. I tried experimenting with a can of her old wet food and seeing if she'd eat that. Again she licked up the juices and took a mouthful, but like with her specialty food, didn't touch it save for a mouthful. Overnight I noticed she did eat some of it, but left the royal canin untouched. I'm thinking maybe she's already bored with that flavor of royal canin and will either try a new flavor or Hill's brand of renal cat food ( dry and wet ). I will also be calling her vet later today when it opens and leave a message for the vet who saw her.

In the meantime, I'm very worried about the current state of my cat. I've noticed she's lost a bit of weight between the time we took her to the vet and now. I don't know what to do to encourage her to eat more and to be frank, I can't afford to have another round of blood work and xrays done. We already racked up $1.600 in vet bills and our care credit limit is $2000 which we have 6 months to pay off. I will be asking my vet what to do, but I'm curious if any of you who have had a cat with this problem has suggestions on what to do or what worked for you.

I did some reading and it was suggested that you could make your own chicken broth ( no added salt, onions, or anything else. Just straight broth ) and mix it in with the wet food to make it soft and easy for the cat to eat. I've also considered purchasing a small blender and using it to grind her wet food up into a paste in hopes of having her eat it, along with mashing some of the dry food up into a powder, mixing it with the chicken broth and hoping by licking it up, she'll eat the food in the process. When I get the prescription for the new food, I will also be trying it as well, but my concern is she'll do the same thing -- eat it for a short time and then stick her nose up at it after.

If any of you have suggestions or experiences that worked for you, I'd deeply appreciate sharing them with me.

The website which suggested the chicken broth was this one: Tanya's Comprehensive Guide to Feline Chronic Kidney Disease - Persuading Your Cat to Eat

I will be asking the vet to see if adding a phosphate binder to regular food would help her eat since she doesn't seem to like royal canin's wet food.

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. It sounds like you are reading about kidney disease, or you probably wouldn't have known about the phosphorus binder. Are you using Tanya's web site? Tanya's Comprehensive Guide to Feline Chronic Kidney Disease - Everything You Need to Know to Help Your Cat (felinecrf.org)

A lot of cats do not like, or tire very easily of, the renal foods. Looking for lower phosphorus foods might be a better way to go initially before adding any phosphorus binder to her food. You need to know what her phosphorus level is first before automatically giving her a phos binder. There is a section on the above noted web site about lower phosphorus foods you could try. Canned food is always better because of the moisture content. You also need to know her kidney values and understand what that means in terms of staging.

The ointment they gave you is probably Mirataz which is an appetite stimulant applied to the pinnae of the ear, but often a cat also needs anti-nausea meds as well, when they are feeling under the weather.

Trying all of your ideas about her food is a good idea! You can also try pates, rather than chunky food to see if she will eat that better. You can make broth if you like, but you can also try adding some water to mix with her food, and there are also some things like Delectable Bisques and Lil Gravies, as two examples, that can be easily added to food to make it 'soupier'.

I would encourage you to start reading through Tanya's web site. It is very detailed, and some find it a bit overwhelming due to the volume of information. But it is well worth it to push past feeling overwhelmed as there is no better source that I know of for learning all about kidney disease in cats. There is also some discussion about possible supplements that you can read about as you go through the sections.

Lastly, I don't know of any process for collecting urine that normally requires pain meds. The most sterile and effective way is through cystocentesis, which is using a needle to aspirate urine directly from the bladder. My cat has had this done numerous times, along with a few other urine collecting processes, and never once had to have a pain med for any of them. I bring this up because cats with kidney disease will require routine blood work and urinalyses to monitor their progress and you don't want to be having your cat given pain meds every time.

This is a start in the right direction. The more you know, the more you know what you need to ask about.

 

[khursh]

Thank you for the reply -- much appreciated. I've browsed through the link you mentioned before ( it's where I got the chicken stock idea ). I'm looking into other "broth" - type foods I can add to her dry food to get her to eat it and will be trying out another flavor of Royal Canin to make sure she doesn't get bored of her current flavor ( which I think she is ).