GG: My Mother was on Dialysis for several years before she passed. You will need to meet with a dietician for some basic guidelines and for follow up care also. your Dad will be tested each week to check blood levels and you will need to make adjustments as you go on. They should give you a chart each week, indicating what to target, either to reduce or increase levels. Since each person is so differant while in treatment, work with the staff. The kidney foundation can also give you some help, as well as any support groupd the center may have. Dialysis is hard, I will not kid you. My best to all of you as you are all effected by this. One thing that you wil have to watch for is the potasium levels as well as proteins. One may lower while the other needs to be increased. As for cooking, salt is a definate no in any way. Read all labels carefully and do not add any into cooking. Herbs and spices will help with flavoring foods. We foundthat garlic helps a great deal.

Laurie, we have not tried cyproheptadine with her as of yet. It is RX, right? She's gained or maintained her weight adequately over the 3 years, but she has short episodes where she doesn't eat well from time to time. She's having more problems since her brother passed away, but that was still less than a month ago. I've been using nutrical on her, which seems to work a bit like an appetite stimulant, or it settles her stomach enough to make her feel like eating. One of the biggest problems we are having of late is that she often wants to eat her dry food and not the wet we put out. Since she had her teeth pulled last fall, she just swallows the kibble pieces whole (she doesn't like them moistened or broken up though). When the dry kibble expands in her stomach, it is apparently too much for her and she throws it up. Almost worse than that, her new MO is to climb up on the bed at night when she is feeling sick and allbut throw up next to our heads. We wake up to her doing the nauseas, watery-mouth thing. She has thrown up a lot in her life with all her health problems, but never thrown up on the bed, and definitely not practically on one of us. We are getting to the point that we are going to have to lock her out of our bedroom at night. I feel terrible, but that's just too much. She's due to go into the vet, hopefully this week, but I'm sick today so will make the appointment tomorrow or when I feel well enough, and I'll talk to the vet about these things. I probably should have started a new thread for this, but gosh, she's really frustrating me lately. I feel bad and know that it's probably triggered by grief, but it gets to a point that she's driving me crazy too.

Just like Abby, Max still is not eating and hasn't in several days. It is virtually impossible to even get his pills in his mouth and he is drinking very little water. Yesterday and again today he threw up bile, which is a bad sign, and like Abby just lays on the couch. He is so thin, shakey and his back legs are weak. I have decided not to have him suffer through this terrible kidney disease anymore and he will be going to a better place, described in the poem "The Rainbow Bridge," to see his sister Bonnie. I will be taking him on Friday and like Laura, this is the most difficult decision anyone has to make. I call Max my little man, because my other 3 dogs are all girls. I will always remember him as a free spirit, so happy and hyper. I will remember his kisses and cuddling up to me on the couch at night, and his barking at people walking past the house and being so happy with himself when they passed by because he did such a great job scaring them off. He was with me for a wonderful 14 years, and I will wish him a safe journey, and I will miss him forever. Godspeed, my little man,until our journey comes full circle and our paths cross again.

How old is your cat? What brand of food did you feed? Most foods are filled with cheap grains and fillers, grains probably stressed the kidneys over the years and overtime lead to this. Cats are 100% carnivores, the only time they eat plants is to soothe their digestive tracts. Grass,catnip ect. Vets in gen know a lot about how to treat these kinds of issues but sadly because of mass capitalism, ( if you think purely in a $ view point- this makes perfect sense to the makers of the food) The foods they preach to be good are crap ( S/D science diet, and (Iams - a brand that does animal testing BTW). actually cause many of the issues they do services for. Use the prescription food only when you MUST and then switch to raw or grain free canned. Pre made raw Natures variety Bravo Primal canned/dry Innova EVO Instincts wellness grain free,and wellness core ziwi peak Orijen- a dry