The mystery of Oliver the cat

[pomtzu]

Lara - I had also heard that the thinking on giving a dog or cat with kidney issues a low protein diet was no longer carved in stone, and that the new school of thought is to give good quality pure protein. I brought this up with Myndi's vet and she said that she is not sold on the idea at this time - and it also depends on the animal and all the factors considered. Being that Myndi is so old and is doing well on the canned K/D - I'm all for leaving well enough alone. If she was younger, perhaps I would do more research on it and consider a change, but she's 17 and still going, so I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth!

Sending good thoughts for Oliver - hope he likes his new food.

[Barbara]

First of all- there is no reason why you shouldn't have Oliver for a long time to come. You know that Filou had this condition and survived it for 5 years! My vet said at that time that it is important that the cat eats or it begins to digest its own proteine which gets him to lose even more weight. So I am more on the high quality- delicious food line.
As the illness processes sub-q fluids may be necessary. Filou went every week to the vet for that but with a more relaxed cat (and a not so squeamish owner) you can administer them yourself.
Best of lucks with Oliver

[Catty1]

Hi Lara: My little kitty Zoe is 12 years old and a bundle of energy! She wasn't getting bony - but I sure didn't want her any thinner. I got a high calorie wet food from the vet, but see if your pet store has some too. It has helped!

[Emeraldgreen]

Pomtzu- I think the K/D food is good. It sure worked well for my cat Jade who had kidney issues for years. She loved it and wasn't losing weight on it. I think if Ollie was not so thin, I'd probably go the K/D route as it worked so well in the past. But I'll see if I can get him to put on a bit of weight.

Candace- that sounds like a good idea about the high calorie food. I did buy 2 cans of A/D from the vet a few weeks ago but holy smokes is it expensive! 2.50 a can. He liked it one day but not the next. But I've heard that there is a Wellness (I think) high calorie chicken wet food that I could get from the petstore that I'll check out.

Barbara- My hope is that Ollie won't need the fluids for awhile but when he does, I'll be able to help him from home thankfully. I used to give my cat Jade 100cc's once a week sub-q at home and it made such a difference in her life and allowed us to have her for a longer period which was great. Thanks for the encouraging words. I really do hope that we have some more years with him.

I didn't realize it until recently but George, Oliver's best friend is drinking a ton of water. I've been so focused on Oliver that I didn't notice that George was drinking even more than Oliver. I'm in the process of saving up for the blood work and analysis for George now. It's crazy how fast the money goes at the clinic. Close to 800.00 on both these guys in less than 2 months. But I have myself to blame because when I first brought them both in, I could have had the full geriatric blood panels done on both cats and chose to only do the CBC's and t-4 but everything we need to know now (kidney and diabetes) is in the full panel. Live and learn.

Thanks for all the ideas and comments.