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- Jul 2, 2017
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Hi there,
My cat was diagnosed a couple years ago with kidney disease. We've been lucky to catch it early and keep her numbers stable through natural methods (Hills KD diet and acupuncture) but she's taken a turn I don't know how to handle.
My beautiful, 17 year old, medium haired, black "mutt cat", Nadia, has always been small. Her happy weight is 6.5 lbs, with her highest being 6.8 and her lowest, but still healthy, weight being 6.0. In the past 2-3 months, she's dropped down to 5.1 lbs.
I took her to the vet a month ago rather panicked, thinking she had parasites or a hyperactive thyroid- ANYTHING than would explain such rapid and dramatic weight loss. She tested negative for parasites and her T4 is 1.6.
The vet told me this is simply a symptom of KD, and happens with an old cat. They told me "older cats lose their appetite, this is to be expected". I just can't agree- it feels like we're missing something.
She's wanting to eat alllll the time. As in, every 1-2 hours. She's always been a drinker and she's still drinking. She's not acting "old" or in pain. She still runs and jumps from our counter to the top of the fridge- which is really far with our kitchen set-up. If anything, I'd label her as more active and friendly than usual. Nothing is indicating to me she's simply old- I think something isn't right.
The vet did talk me into finally giving her subcutaneous fluids at home. I had been resisting, mainly because I was squeamish and worried we'd do it wrong. I feel like it has helped, she used to throw up a couple times a week (small amounts of clear liquid) and she has stopped during the month she's received fluids.
I had high hopes that the fluids, plus feeding her 7 times a day, would help her regain weight. It hasn't- she's staying strong at 5 lbs.
I turn to the forum because I've received such helpful advice here from all of you who might have been in a similar situation. However, I was motivated to post because I've been picking different morsels from post to post, thinking "this part describes Nadia, maybe that would help" but not finding anything that's over 90% similar to her situation, mainly because of the severely underweight aspect of her problem.
I'm worried the KD food isn't meeting her other nutrition requirements since she's so small. I think I'm going to switch her to raw.
Things that complicate our treatment- she hates fish. She's a picky eater (otherwise said, she's a cat). Also, we have a 1.5 year old Siamese male who is over double her size. While they're not buddies, they peacefully coexist and he's fairly respectful of not stealing her food, but he does eat things she's left behind. It prevents me from leaving her food out all day and letting her pick. She currently gets a 100% wet food diet.
Something that will help our treatment- we live in Austin, TX, which is SO naturally based and pet focused. If an oddball treatment or diet exists, I'd wager I can find it locally. I did mention she has had acupuncture, which to the surprise of my vet, lowered her kidney numbers
Any advice on how to fatten up a cat while not hurting her kidneys?
I'm so appreciative for any stories anyone can share as to what worked for their fur friend!
My cat was diagnosed a couple years ago with kidney disease. We've been lucky to catch it early and keep her numbers stable through natural methods (Hills KD diet and acupuncture) but she's taken a turn I don't know how to handle.
My beautiful, 17 year old, medium haired, black "mutt cat", Nadia, has always been small. Her happy weight is 6.5 lbs, with her highest being 6.8 and her lowest, but still healthy, weight being 6.0. In the past 2-3 months, she's dropped down to 5.1 lbs.
I took her to the vet a month ago rather panicked, thinking she had parasites or a hyperactive thyroid- ANYTHING than would explain such rapid and dramatic weight loss. She tested negative for parasites and her T4 is 1.6.
The vet told me this is simply a symptom of KD, and happens with an old cat. They told me "older cats lose their appetite, this is to be expected". I just can't agree- it feels like we're missing something.
She's wanting to eat alllll the time. As in, every 1-2 hours. She's always been a drinker and she's still drinking. She's not acting "old" or in pain. She still runs and jumps from our counter to the top of the fridge- which is really far with our kitchen set-up. If anything, I'd label her as more active and friendly than usual. Nothing is indicating to me she's simply old- I think something isn't right.
The vet did talk me into finally giving her subcutaneous fluids at home. I had been resisting, mainly because I was squeamish and worried we'd do it wrong. I feel like it has helped, she used to throw up a couple times a week (small amounts of clear liquid) and she has stopped during the month she's received fluids.
I had high hopes that the fluids, plus feeding her 7 times a day, would help her regain weight. It hasn't- she's staying strong at 5 lbs.
I turn to the forum because I've received such helpful advice here from all of you who might have been in a similar situation. However, I was motivated to post because I've been picking different morsels from post to post, thinking "this part describes Nadia, maybe that would help" but not finding anything that's over 90% similar to her situation, mainly because of the severely underweight aspect of her problem.
I'm worried the KD food isn't meeting her other nutrition requirements since she's so small. I think I'm going to switch her to raw.
Things that complicate our treatment- she hates fish. She's a picky eater (otherwise said, she's a cat). Also, we have a 1.5 year old Siamese male who is over double her size. While they're not buddies, they peacefully coexist and he's fairly respectful of not stealing her food, but he does eat things she's left behind. It prevents me from leaving her food out all day and letting her pick. She currently gets a 100% wet food diet.
Something that will help our treatment- we live in Austin, TX, which is SO naturally based and pet focused. If an oddball treatment or diet exists, I'd wager I can find it locally. I did mention she has had acupuncture, which to the surprise of my vet, lowered her kidney numbers
Any advice on how to fatten up a cat while not hurting her kidneys?
I'm so appreciative for any stories anyone can share as to what worked for their fur friend!
), and there was no way she would eat that stuff. Our Vet agreed we could keep her on raw as long as we substituted the bone with something else due to the high phosphorus in bone. So we did that for awhile until she decided she no longer cared for raw. As you said, they tend to be very picky, and as the disease progresses, they get worse. 
) She would wake me up when she was ready for the first meal and I would give it to her and then take the next bowl off the icepak and let it start thawing. Worked like a charm to get even MORE food in her. Still didn't help her gain any weight though. And I made sure to pick foods with the highest amount of calories I could find that still had fairly low phosphorus. 
