(no subject)

[quietann]

short list, 'cause I am sleepy...

Myrtle is in the very early stages of renal failure. It is really no surprise given how old she is, and the various medications she's been on. The vet wants her on k/d wet food for now. Spook gets to eat it, too, because I have no way to give them separate food. Hopefully it won't make him get hairballs again; I'd been feeding a hairball-preventing senior food as their main diet, and it was *so* nice to not have to clean up cat hork. I am not sure about how the cats will feel about k/d long term, so if anyone out there has experience with how to vary the diet of cats with kidney failure, I'd love your advice.

We went back to Ipswich to get Ben's car part this afternoon. We took all back roads through North Andover, Haverhill, Groveland, West Newbury, Newburyport, Newbury, Rowley, Ipswich, Tospfield, Georgetown, and back into North Andover. It's all very beautiful and semi-rural and historic, and I saw a couple of houses along the Merrimac River that I would move to in an *instant* if I suddenly became wealthy. I have a couple more ideas about where to get good dirt for the garden, and one (Essex County Co-op in Topsfield) is even open on Sundays (but not today, because of Easter). The roads were pretty quiet because of the holiday, and only once or twice did I encounter a really obnoxious driver.

More garden stuff: Most of the plants made it through the winter and are now budding out. This includes all 12 raspberries! Yay!!! I have icicle violas, dwarf irises, puschikinia, scilla, grape hyacinth, and crocuses blooming all over. In a few weeks I will have more raspberry plants, strawberries, and possibly blueberries. Eventually there will be plenty to share with friends...

hmmm... more sleepy.

Comments

[coffeekitty.livejournal.com]

one of my cats had kidney failure (eventually died of it; he was a stray who had had a rough time of it). the most important thing, as i remember, was to make sure that he stayed hydrated. you may need to give kitty sub-q fluids at some point. the first sign of his final decline was that he began to have accidents outside the litter box. he was generally OK (until his final decline) as long as he was getting enough fluid, but he deteriorated very rapidly if he at any point got dehydrated.

[donnad.livejournal.com]

My Midnight lived three years with chronic Kidney disease, She was getting daily Sub-Q fluids and was on the k/d diet for the last three years of her life. Be very careful, if you can segregate the food from the other cat, do it. It has a very high, easily digestable fat content and if Spook eats it, s/he will gain weight. Keisha did, and we are still trying (4 years later) to get her to lose it,(we got tipped off to the thyroid condition because she suddenly lost 3 to 4 pounds)

If the cat wont eat k/d, mix it(the canned stuff) with a teaspoonful of tuna. But both our cats seemed to like it.

Midnight never had accidents outside the box, until after her stroke, when she wasn't quite here, and it was only a few days later I lost her. Keep the box as clean as possible and you should hvae no problems.

I would be glad to tell you more of my experiences with a cat with kidney disease if you are interested. The main thing is, if you want her to live longer and be happier, do what the vet says. If they say Sub-Q fluids twice a day, you *have to* do it twice a day. (It's really easy, I can show you all the tricks, having done it at least once a day, sometimes twice, for three years.) Someone else I know had a cat with kidney disease and couldn't bring themselves to stick a needle in the cat every day, the cat didn't even last a year past diagnosis, and my Midnight's levels were worse than their cats at the beginning.

Do you know what the numbers were? The creatinine and BUN? Have they talked to you about giving her Sub-Q fluids yet?

Oh and one other thing, we had less hairballs when both cats were on k/d.

[quietann.livejournal.com]

This is all useful.... I don't remember the exact numbers, but the vet said that a change in diet and making sure Myrtle has plenty of water is enough for now. I added a water bowl in the loft where she likes to sleep so she doesn't need to come down the stairs (which is painful for her) to get water. It's quite likely that her joint issues will become severe enough that she will need to be euthanized well before her kidneys really fail.

As for litterbox issues... Myrtle is simply the best cat I have ever had when it comes to the box. She has *never* had an accident. Spook on the other hand... well, the k/d is giving him diarrhea, though it's all been in or right by the box so far. He's already fat, so the k/d isn't the best food for him but I have no idea how to separate the cats (I can give Spook special food if I put it on a windowsill, since Myrtle cannot jump... but keeping *him* out of *her* food is another matter entirely.)

[donnad.livejournal.com]

Giving any cat new food without easing them into it will likely give them diarrhea, Did you gradually mix it with other food a little at a time to get them used to it, or did you just switch foods abruptly?

Are your cats fed at the same time each day or are they allowed to munch all doy like ours? If they are fed at the same time you could give them their foor seperately and watch them eat. The k/d will certainly not hurt him. But keeping an eye out to make sure Myrtle gets what she wants first, and that she can't get the others food, but letting Spook finish what she doesn't eat is fine.

When we first got Lily, she was n a special high calorie kitten food that we didn't want Keisha eating so we just fed he up high on a box, she could jump up to it, but Keisha couldn't (she was too fat).

Anyway, if you have any specific questions feel free to call or email.

[donnad.livejournal.com]

re: Myrtle's joint issues...
Midnight had joint issues too, we found that mixing Glucosamine condroiten in her food helped quite a bit. Start with 200 mg a day for a week then drop it to 100mg a day. Got that suggestion from Dr. Karen.

Midnight got a mix of k/d canned food, tunafish and Glucosamine Condroiten every day, in addition to her blood pressure meds and Sub-Q fluids.

[quietann.livejournal.com]

The joint issues thing with Myrtle is bone cancer, not arthritis.