best foods to feed a with chronic renal failure?my cat was diagnosed with chronic renal failure about a few days ago and she is very thin. she also has a mouth abcess so what would be best foods for her to eat and which are water based to help her live as long as possible, we have tried the kidney diet food but she refuses to eat it?
Posted by alex07
to encourage the cat to eat, smear tuna or delicious smelling food like human grade chicken, steam it. One of the causes of kidney failure is commercially produced kibbles that contain bad preservatives, corn fillers.
Posted by Dotty Bollinger
don't feed dry food to your cat.
"Dry cat food can also contribute or be directly related to certain health conditions:
Feline Diabetes
Elizabeth Hodgkins, DVM, does not mince words about the connection between dry cat food and feline diabetes. On her web site at www.yourdiabeticcat.com, she states, "Without the constant feeding of highly processed, high carbohydrate dry foods, better suited to cattle than cats, adult-onset feline diabetes would be a rare disease, if it occured at all."
IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disease)
Dr. Lisa Pierson, DVM, states, "Too often these cats are treated with a high level of steroids and a so-called 'prescription' DRY diet. I feel very strongly that this common therapeutic regimen needs to be re-evaluated. There are an impressive number of anecdotal reports of cats that were terribly ill with IBD exhibiting dramatic improvement when ALL dry food was removed from their diet."
CRF (Chronic Renal Failure)
Dr. Lisa Pierson, DVM, states, "It is troubling to think about the role that chronic dehydration plays in feline kidney failure. And remember, cats are chronically dehydrated when they are on a diet of predominantly dry food.""
"...but I've learned along the way that all kinds of very serious feline disorders can be reversed or dramatically improved if we feed these magnificent creatures properly."
"Newman's Own Chicken and Brown Rice
Paul Newman's signature cat foods use Bell & Evans Chicken. These chickens are fed a 100% natural all-vegetable diet with NO antibiotics. The named grains are also grown without pesticides or synthetic fertilizer.
First named ingredients: Organic Chicken, Sufficient Water for Processing, Ocean Whitefish, Brown Rice, Flaxseed, Oat Bran, Guar Gum, Dried Kelp. Although pricer than most other premium foods, Newman's Own is well worth rotating in your cat's diet. Several other formulas are available."
Posted by G'hound
Over many years or keeping pets I've lost 3 dogs to CRF and one cat to it at age 18. Everything depends upon the degree of Kidney failure and the levels of toxins in their blood. They don't show bad symptoms until only 25% function remains and even then they can be flushed with subcutaneous fluids (at home if your vet agrees and shows you how.) With the aim of keeping the pet more comfortable you can address acid-sore digestive systems with Sucralfate (Antepsin) and even Omeprazole to supress acid production (Slippery Elm Bark being a natural remedy.) You can also treat nausea issues with suitable drugs from the vet.
Your aim needs to be to place as little stress as possible on the kidneys by feeding foods that you and your vet believe to be less stress-inducing. (Lower in phosphorus so that there will not be such a build up and imbalance of phosphorous, or raw or canned foods because of the greater moisture content) You aim to keep the levels of BUN and Creatinine within reasonable limits and you watch for things like anaemia.
Eventually the kidneys will fail totally, an event signalled by a total refusal to eat or drink. Soon the pet may start to expereince seizure; and this, really, is the time you need to let them go before it gets too bad. Human sufferers say that kidney failure make you feel like you have the flu really bad and feel nauseaous too.
The reason I'm answering this though is because my cat 'Kipper' found her own answer: she started drinking milk (not normally considered good) but the calcium in this altered the phosphorous balance in the blood helping her to feel better. If you look at the link below about a drug called 'Calcitrol' you'll see why.
Anyway Kipper reached almost 18 years of age and had kidney problems for the last year and a half. We had her PTS when she became too sleepy and began to get seizures. I reckon only the last week of her life was truly bad.
Every cat is different so you have to ride the trreament and feeding roller coaster of hope an despair. With one of my dogs I went thru virutally every food in the supermarket including human baby food and even Manuka honey. We do that, we try everything so that they have a chance.
I hope this will help you keep your cat comfortable and that you can treasure the quality time that remains for her.
Posted by D F
I would ask the vet what to feed your cat. Most vets have prescription food for cats with renal problems. They cost more, but they are designed specifically for certain medical problems so they can improve them. Considering the abscess, you probably need a moist food in a can for the time being.
I had a cat that had hyperactive thyroid and had to give him wet canned food, and it was about twice the price of normal canned cat food, but really wasn't that expensive given his size. Kibble, on the other hand, cost a lot more.
Posted by Ken S
You can fix this if YOU learn
If your cat is not in final stages, this is not want you want to do. You do not want to put your cat on the
Vets low protein diet. There are simply so many better options out there than to hand the poor cat a low amount of poor quality protein - which often results in a poor appetite and muscle wasting since the body is now robbing its own muscle mass to feed itself a decent quality and amount of protein.
. There are new thoughts on this and the thinking is it is not the amount of protein but the quality of protein that matters.
The Merck veterinary manual [www.merckvetmanual.com] says that cats need "4 g of protein of high biologic value per kg body wt/day". That's about 7 calories from protein per pound body weight per day. If a cat isn't a good eater and consumes, say, 20 calories per pound per day, then 7/20 = 35% of calories can safely be from protein. It must be high quality protein, which means meat, milk, and eggs, and not grain or soy.
I am under the assumption that you have been feeding mostly dry foods. Many use a vegetable based protein instead of animal and that is part of the problem.. Your cat needs protein as it is a carnivore and cutting down on it will lead to other health issues and may cause faster degeneration.
You want to cut down on phosphorous (no fish allowed now)
The best way to do this is with a raw diet which you can make yourself or buy. (Making yourself is better) link provided at the bottom
If you are unwilling to do that then something like the non fish flavors of Wellness or Merrick with NO grains are good alternatives. Wysong is also a good canned choice. This list gives a breakdown. Remember you want low phosphorous
http://binkyspage.tripod.com/CanFoodOld.…
http://binkyspage.tripod.com/CanFoodNew.…
You should be giving sub-Q fluids as needed.
You also will want to look into phosphorous binders. Something like aluminum hydroxide
Ask your vet or look into calcitrol
You may want to talk to the vet about having injectable Pepcid AC on hand or you can buy it in pill form (ac not plain pepcid) and give 1/4 tab for stomach upset which happens a lot in crf cats due to acid in the stomach.
I hope this stuff helps, here are many links for you
Please read this about diet
http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.php?action=library&act=show&item=003
Making cat food
http://www.catinfo.org/makingcatfood.htm
other links. Read, read, read!!!!
http://www.felineoutreach.org/EducationD…
http://www.marvistavet.com/html/kidney_f…
http://www.felinecrf.org/
c
About that vets diet. This report is for dogs but applies to cats
http://mousabilities.com/nutrition/crf/b…
http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/Opera/21…
Orignal From: best foods to feed a with chronic renal failure?
No comments:
Post a Comment