hello please help me decide whats best treatment and diet for my beloved 12yr old cat called garfy

shes best described as a persian tabby as shes tabby coloured and her dad was a pure white persian

she had blood tests the other day and the vet asked for urine sample to confirm if she was having kidney probs, her urine isnt as strong smelling as it should be and ive been told we need to lower the protein in her diet and medicate her with a tablet

"there was no blood or sugar in her urine but her urine wasnt as concentrated as it should be" said the vet

ive read enough to be put off complete dried food such as "go cat" which she doesnt like anyway, she has a great appetite and loves "felix" canned food and its the fish ones rather than meat, we live in the uk and arent keen on raw feeding as im worried i could harm her with bacteria which heat treated food should eliminate

ive missed out on her life between the age of approx 4-10 yrs old as i broke up with my ex gf and she kept her, but in jan 2010 she was rehomed with me as my ex wasnt taking care of her and was being neglected so her son could have all her attention

ive a feeling the vet will recommend this type of food thats low in protein but possibly made out of grain and ive read its lacking in moisture and cats need more water this way

please help me with options if you are experienced with early stage of kidney failure, i love my garfy so much and im desperate to know if she will still expect to live to a good age of say 16-18 yrs and cost and dedication isnt an issue for me and im sure im not alone in my feelings towards my little bundle of joy

Hi there and wecome!

From what you've written it does sound as if it's early stage renal insufficiency but please don't panic, because with some treatments and correct diet Garfy can have many years ahead of her yet!

Actually the best thing to do is to redirect you to a wonderful site about CRF which also has an excellent support group,( see link below ) where you'll get lots of helpful advice and information. I've copied the page about food and diet.

Tanya's Comprehensive Guide to Feline Chronic Renal Failure - Diet and Nutrition

In the meantime you need to feed foods low in phosphorous. Prescription diets are discussed on the site above. Do get copies of the blood results from the vet to give the group an idea of the renal values in order to give you the best advice tailored to Garfy's needs.

tanyas-crf-support : Tanya's Feline CRF Support Group

Best of luck with things!

your quick reply is very appreciated here in our time of need im going to look at the link right now

We'll help here as well but the people over there are the real experts!

To give you some hope though - personally I don't envisage you'll have any problems with this considering you've caught it early! Always the best time!

Does she have any other conditions just out of interest?

did the vet do her blood pressure too?

its very uplifting to hear we can deal with this at the early stage and she will have a very good chance of living to a good age, it seems a diet low in protein and more importantly low in phosphorus, filtered water and giving her access to food to eat little and often is key to slowing down the development of crf

other than a fatty lump which has been tested in dec 2009 and not found to be cancerious she is happy and well, she loves to wrap herself round my hand or arm and have her belly stroked and has up until this week before i took her in to the vets been very vocal about being fed and watered and the change to her behaviour in becoming quiet and hiding in the rabbit's hutch made me request blood tests

ive been feeding her and my other 6.5yr old ginger tom on mostly foilpacks of meat or fish and just last week switched to tins but think foilpacks are better quality

ive also learnt from this forum that cats need meat and im worried that for several months now both cats have had just fish selection food because they lap it up and were starting to refuse the meat selection even when it was in foilpacks

her blood pressure is being tested tomorrow along with a urine test which the vet says will be most accurate if taken directly from her bladder which i hope is safe as i can only imagine that means piercing her bladder with a syringe

All the tests are perfectly safe - I promise!

The best foods for renal are Hills K/D dry, which if you call Hills, they can send samples for you to see if your puddytat likes! Another good one which I think is less expensive and available from zooplus is Happy Cat renal. I would also recommend the Royal Canin wet food puches, for renal kitties wet food is really the best as they get easily dehydrated. They come in chicken, beef and tuna, Sooty loved those as it gave him a variety. I found the best place for renal food was VetUK.co.uk as not only were they the cheapest for the renal food but you can also collect points to use!

If your kitty doesn't like the renal foods at all, you can feed normal food but get phosphorus binders, as it's the phosphorus levels (it is a by-product of protein) you need to keep low. If the levels are high, it usually lets the illness progress faster.

I'm going to guess that the tablet is Fortekor?

Don't panic though, as even if CRF is a terminal disease, it is a very manageable one, that in many cats has been kept in check for years!

Ems xxx

__________________
Mummy to;

Sooty 9.6.1996 - 28.04.2011 Rest in peace my love!
Storm (Sueragdandy Phantom) 28.02.2010
Benji (Kassaro Benjamin Franklyn) 08.03.2011

the vet gave us the same foods as you're recommending

we have hills k/d chicken flavour and royal canin tuna flavour, both are wet food pouches not dry

you're right it's fortekor 2.5mg and she is to have one tablet a day, it's over 50% cheaper from vetuk.co.uk thanks for telling me about it

we also have a prescription for pepto bismol for the relief of any stomach acid and she is to have a 1/4 of a tablet once a day

i think there is a liquid version but im not sure if it will match the dosage of a 1/4 of a tablet i'll have to see

the vet wasn't as enthusiastic about her having a normal lifespan but she seemed stressed with the queue of patients and wasn't keen to chat about garfy's condition

talking about it on here and getting feedback from others in the know is such a massive relief for me to know it's a common condition and that i've made the right choices with her diet and meds

thanks to everyone for the comments i am very glad i found this forum what an absolute god send

her blood pressure test came back good it was 134/80

we've tried her on royal canin renal wet food mixing 100g pouch with a couple of heaped tea spoons of felix tinned fish flavour food and she ate most of it but i think i need to mix it in more as she did her best to eat round the renal food