Questions Re: New Ckd Diagnosis

[susan denning]

Hi, I had a couple of questions about my new diagnosed kidney disease, 15+ years old cat. She is thankfully in the early stages (Creatine of three - Phosphorus, electrolytes, and hemoglobin still normal). She was on SO food for the benefit of my other cat, and I'm wondering if that could have stressed her kidneys out? If so, I'm wondering if it might be worth trying her on a low phosphorus, normal food and seeing if she stabilizes before doing KD food?

My other question about her is that I don't seem to be finding much poop from her, which concerns me as she doesn't go outside a lot. Is it possible for cats to be constipated and not show symptoms (vomiting, loss of appetite)?

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

I'm sorry your little Trixie has gotten this diagnosis, but thankfully she is in the early stages. I've had three kidney cats myself, and the first thing I always advise is for people to become acquainted with this website: Tanya's Comprehensive Guide to Feline Chronic Kidney Disease - Everything You Need to Know to Help Your Cat. It was my "go to" for anything kidney related. It's not interactive, but is full of information, including foods, listed in order of the amount of phosphorus in it!

None of my cats would ever eat the prescription kidney diets, but I was able to find lower phosphorus foods they would eat, at least once in awhile . But our Vet stressed that eating ANYTHING was better than nothing, and kidney cats are prone to not wanting to eat, at least as the disease progresses

Now to your questions. As to whether the S/O contributed to her diagnosis, I don't know. Was it dry food? I, personally, think dry food contributes to kidney disease, and I think many people here on TCS believe the same thing. Whether or not this is true has not been proven, but relatively speaking, cats do not drink much water, and dry food is "drying", so it makes sense to me that it can contribute to kidney issues. AND since the three cats I had that got kidney disease were all fed dry food for most of their lives, that just adds fuel to the fire. NOW, I only feed wet food with extra filtered water added to that wet food, and so far so good . So, yes, I would try going with a lower phosphorus food and see if she stabilizes.

As far as possibly constipation, since she apparently DOES go outside on occasion, it's hard to know if she is or not, but it's very common with kidney cats to be constipated. All mine were. We overcame that issue by using Miralax everyday, twice a day, without fail. Skip a dose, and they would become constipated immediately. Give too much, and they would have soft stools. It's a balancing act, but we soon learned just how much to give each cat. Between 1/8th and 1/4 teas. dissolved in a tiny bit of water and mixed right into a tiny bit of food, just to make sure they ate it. Then they got more food . It's if they missed a dose that they would then vomit when they strained in the litterbox trying to poop . The loss of appetite is just a kidney related issue. We gave our guys (and girl) appetite stimulants to help with that. (we used Mirtazapine transdermal gel vs pills) and also gave Pepcid A/C via injection vs pills because our girl used to vomit up any pills we would give her

One more thing I want to say is that all my furries lived approx. three years after diagnosis. I'm hoping your girl lives at least that long, if not longer.

 

[susan denning]

Thanks. I appreciate the encouragement. My biggest concern right now if is I can feed both my cats separately.