Our cat has been diagnosed with Feline Chronic Renal Failure (Feline CRF) but so far we’ve managed to halt the disease with just a couple of natural supplements to her food.
It started when we noticed that Blue, a 13-year old Russian Blue, was peeing all over the house. She had done this once before, almost 5 years ago, after we moved into a new house and she was too frightened to go to the bathroom outside, as she had done her whole life up until then. We set up a litter box but she would only use it some of the time.
That time, after we paid for a battery of tests to find out she was healthy, we found the answer in a helpful booklet by animal behaviorists. (Turned out she did not appreciate the flushable, biodegradable cat litter I had found. As soon as we switched to a different brand, the problem was solved.)
This time switching the kitty litter hadn’t worked. The vet said she had a bladder infection, so we put her on a round of antibiotics (now, there’s a recipe for a fun time!). That settles that, we thought.
Wrong. She was continuing to pee around the house. It was almost bad enough to make you wish you didn’t own a cat.
She has feline chronic renal failure, the vet said, looking at her blood work. She just can’t hold it long enough to get to the litter box all the time and she’s dehydrated because her kidneys are starting to shut down. She will need subcutaneous fluid injections regularly, he warned, and a low protein diet can help.
She’s old and it will just be downhill from here, he said.
Hhhhmmmmph.
Some friends have shared with me that it was at this point in their cat’s saga that they simply decided to put the cat down. I wasn’t ready to take that step yet, even though I’ve promised the kids can get a dog when the cat dies.
I refused to believe there was nothing more I could do for her — or for us, who were dealing with finding cat pee all over the house.
I got online to do some research. I found the rec for the low protein/low salt/low phosphorus diet to reduce the amount of waste processed by the kidneys, and also a suggestion to increase the wet food to dry food ratio, giving her more moisture with her food. That made sense since dehydration stresses the kidneys, too.
The vet had prescribed Hill’s Prescription Diet k/d for kidney health. At first it gave her diarrhea, but we integrated it into her old food and gradually switched her over completely. She’s happy because she’s getting a lot more wet food than she used to get.
But there had to be something else I could do to help her. What would I do if she were a human? I wanted to support and nourish her systems.
Kitty Probiotics
I found some probiotics for pets at Vitamin Cottage and began opening a capsule onto her food at dinner. She doesn’t seem to mind the powder and eats it right up.
The probiotics help her body recover from the antibiotics and nurture overall health through digestive health. She seems to have an overall sense of wellbeing these days, and a spring in her step.
Cranberry for Urinary Tract Health
Even more than probiotics, though, I wanted to help support her kidneys and bladder. Cranberries are great for solving chronic bladder and urinary tract infections, and help keep the kidenys clean, I thought, but how do you get cranberries into a cat?
That’s when I found the CatBerry cranberry treats for kitties. She gets two at snack time at mid-morning every day.
If she acts fussy, she’ll get a regular kitty treat alongside the cranberry, and that usually gets her to eat them both.
The result?
The kitty is back to using her litterbox and we are all happier for it.
Hooray! I feel like trumpeting it from the rooftops!
