What are some natural remedies and diet tips for my cat's kidney disease?

Question

My cat, 6 yrs old, could possibly have kidney failure (it might be a bladder infection but I won't find out for another 2 weeks after antibiotics); he's still energetic and doesn't show any signs of illness. Ironically I have kidney disease as well and am using natural remedies like dandelion root tea and other herbs. Wheatgrass has also improved my health a lot. I am wondering these herbs would apply to cats as well?

Does anyone have any suggestions for diet (should it be homemade)? I've been doing research and they all say low salt, but some sites say good high quality protein while others say low protein. And should I stop using the chemical Frontline (flea medicine) on my cat?

Also, where on my cat are his kidneys located?

Thanks!

Answer 1

First off...the kidneys are located just past the send of the rib cage on both sides...the right kidney is slightly closer to the front of the cat. Frontline Plus doesn't go into the animals system, so it will have no effects on the kidneys...so don't stop using it. I wouldn't reccomend any "natural remedies" without consulting your vet...cats and people can very different recations to plants...and a lot of plats can be nephrotoxic (toxic to the kidneys) in cats!

A diet wont help kidney failure until bloodwork confirms Azotemia...this means the that BUN and CREATINIE are elevated. So unless this has been confirmed by your vet, changing the diet wont help. However, if Azotemia is confirmed, then a low protein/low phospherous diet is highly recomended. The protein that is in the kidney diets is a high quality one. Several brands make kidney diets.... Purina NF, Royal Canin/IVD modified....Hill's K/D..... Royal Canin Renal LP..... However, they are by prescription only, so you have to get them from your vet. If you are interested in making your own diet, you can contact UC Davis, and for a small fee, they will formulate a diet you can cook at home specificaly for your cats needs....

I'm not sure why its going to take so long to confirm that your cat has kidney disease...a simple blood test should confirm if the kidney values are normal or not.

Good Luck!

http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&S=0&C=0&A=572

http://www.felinecrf.com/

Answer 2

First off, talk to the vet about what a cat can and cannot eat with kidney failure, or do the research online. I do not have experience with this, and my advice comes from my research with cat food for healthy cats, although, in my research, anecdotally, what I am going to say has helped cats with early stage kidney disease. If you feed a grain free, wet food diet of high quality, such as Wellness, Innova, Natures Variety, Etc, It might help your cat's kidney function. You can find grain free varieties at almost any reputable pet food store. If you can go with an all meat brand (Natures Variety), that will even be better. Diets like this are much closer to what a cat would eat in the wild. Stay away from Fish. Cats have a very hard time processing this.

Answer 3

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Answer 4

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Answer 5

You should be able to find out before then, it's a fairly simple blood test to check kidney function, any vet should be able to do this inhouse.

Shouldn't be any need to stop using Frontline - it's the only non-systemic flea product i.e it stays on the cat's skin and doesn't get near his kidneys. The lipid layer in the cat's skin acts as a barrier to stop the Frontline entering the body, unlike Revolution which is designed to work systemically.

Cat's kidneys are relatively where ours are - either side of the lumbar spine, but I don't suggest trying to feel for them. Just be aware the signs of kidney failure in cats is a little different to kidney failure in humans - they don't get odema (swelling) for one thing.

Diets suitable for kidneys should be low in phosphorus and have small amount of high quality protein. Prescription diets are available for kidney trouble and bladder trouble, ask your vet what they provide.

Chalice

Answer 6

1) Did your vet do bloodwork on your cat? Was the Creatinin and BUN levels high? This is usually an indicator of kidney disease (then again, I'm not sure if they're also high with bladder infections or not.)

2) Did they do an x-ray of your cat? If they did, they should be able to tell if there's drastic kidney damage from that. Usually cats with CRF (Chronic Renal Failure) will have smaller/abnormally shaped kidneys.

Usually the best thing for a CRF cat is change in diet. Vets recommend a low phosphate, low sodium, low protien diet. Often they will recommend Hill's K/D or Purina NF. My cat simply wouldn't eat those though, went straight for his brother's food so I had to do a bit of research.

After reading a lot of natural books I've decided that if the protein is a quality protein then more protein in the diet than the vet recommends may not be a problem. The goal is to create as little work for your cats kidneys as possible here.

I have heard that wheatgrass can help both cats and humans ... I got some wheatgrass juice for mine and he didn't have any interest. I'm thinking about getting some of the grass not juiced to see if he'll nibble on it but haven't done that yet. Wheatgrass wouldn't harm your cat and could in fact help but I haven't heard about dandelion root - there are a lot of plants that are toxic to cats so be very very careful. This may not be a full list but it covers a lot of toxic plants:
http://www.cfainc.org/articles/plants.html

My cats won't really eat a home cooked diet go figure - maybe I'm a bad kitty cook. There are some recipes out there however specifically for CRF cats and there are people who swear by them:
http://users.ameritech.net/critterz/crf_recipes.htm
Make sure you definately do not feed them onions - onions are toxic to cats. Some people feed their cats baby food ... be very aware that most meat based baby foods as well as chicken stock in cans have onions - read the labels carefully if you decide to try this.

Mine are eating an organic canned food. Right now they are getting Petguard Premium Feast and Petguard Turkey and Barley (I want to get Turkey and rice because it's lower in phosphorus but I'm going to have to buy a case of it because it's not available locally.) When I feed the premium feast I add a little bit of canned pumpkin to reduce constipation (not too much, add this slowly because you don't want to overdo it. Also make sure it's plain canned pumpkin not pumpkin pie mix.) Right now he gets phosphate binders and his numbers are still coming down so I'm not as concerned about the phosphorus levels in a high quality food because I need to keep him eating so he doesn't lose more weight.

Yahoo Support groups:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/Feline-CRF-Support/
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/Feline-Phosphorus-Management/

Other good resources:
http://www.felinecrf.com
http://www.felinecrf.org
http://www.sniksnak.com/cathealth/chronickidney.html
http://www.geocities.com/jmpeerson/canfood.html
http://webpages.charter.net/katkarma/canfood.htm
http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.php?action=library&act=show&item=003

Books:
- Dr. Pitcairn's New Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats
- Protect Your Pet: More Shocking Facts

Answer 7

Reverse Kidney Disease Naturally : http://NaturallyGo.com/Help

Answer 8

Was asking myself the same thing