I'm also trying to give him sub-Q fluids but he's difficult to keep calm. I've watched the youtube vids on how to do it, but they all feature relaxed, cooperative cats, whereas mine is a high-strung former alley-cat :/ Hints welcome!

Hi, MrsLizzyKate...
I had a kitty with renal disease. She'd lost her appetite due to her disease and I could NOT get her to eat the prescription diet. I ended up trying all sorts of different wet foods (not prescription) and mixing those with warm water to make a sort of food "slurry" that she could easily lap up. My vet said the key thing was to get her to eat, even if it wasn't the prescription food.

Fortunately, she was one of those calm kitties who sat nicely while I gave her sub-q fluids. She ended up having a really nice quality of life for an additional three years after her diagnosis.

Hints for fluids: I always warmed the bag of fluids in a large bowl full of warm water so that they wouldn't be such a shock to her.

I always prepared a shirt or sweater of mine on the bed (my station was my bed, with the bag hanging from a clothes hanger on my curtain rod ) and I would place a couple of treats on the edge of the shirt where she would be facing.

When I first began administering fluids, I would have my partner nearby to chuck her under the chin a bit and be able to grab her if she tried to bolt. Soon, her presence was not necessary.

Do you have another person who can help restrain him?

I hope that things work out for you and kitty.

Thanks for your kind response junebug. Good to hear that the sub-Q gave her a good quality of life for so long. I do warm the fluids, but I like the idea of putting down the sweater, and the treats. And yes, my husband helps me, but he's been a dog person all his life and hasn't yet learned the delicate art of being soothing to a cat! So sometimes I make him stay out of the room until the last minute. But we had the best results yet today--we got 75 mL into kitty before he managed to pop the needle out by wiggling. We're supposed to do 100 mL, but this is only the fourth try, so we're getting better at it!

We have a maine coon that had kidney issues. Vet put him on c/d food from the vet. He refused to eat the canned foods, but will eat the dry. We go to the cat "health food store", food with no chemicles, additives, dyes. Those are hard on the kidneys. It has been 5 yr. that he has been eating the special cat foods from MudBay, but he has had zero problems. I did get 2 books on cats with problems, and read a lot. Do some googling on special needs for cats. You can purchase special foods on line, like amazon also if you have no special store. I also did read, feed them no food with fish, shrimp, etc. It is hard, as 3/4 of cat food has fish of some type in it. Cats can be fussy, ours will go 1-2 days without eating, like he is on a fast. Doc says not to worry, all cats do that.
Darlene

I had a CRF cat for 6 years. She did not like the RX diet either. Are you familiar with the Tanya site? She has compiled a website full of information for CRF cats- she has a list of commercially available foods broken down by those all important kidney criteria. We ended up feeding our cat one of the brands from that list that was almost equal in phospherous and protein to the RX diet, but probably much higher ingredients.

I made food for my kitty for a while- found a recipe online. I would make it and freeze it in wide mouth canning jars. It was a lot of work, and she preferred the commercially available stuff to that.

We also got to a point with our cat where it was more about having her eat than worrying about what she was eating. She ate a lot of human grade meat, and did quite well on those higher quality proteins. I've heard that there is some research to indicate that some CRF cats do well with high quality proteins- definitely true for my cat at certain periods of time. I also swore by probiotics.

Alas, mine was never tolerant of the fluids either. She was a fighter her whole life and was not cooperative with such things. After trying a bunch of unsuccessful methods, I ended up using a restraining bag, and she was much calmer when bundled in that. I could never have given her fluids as easily, or as long as we did, without that and she was definitely more content with that for whatever reason.

Good luck with your kitty.

Thanks Darlene and Quasifish. I just picked up some of "dave's pet food restricted diet" cat food with low protein and low phosphorous. Maybe that's what you were referring to quasi. He actually seems to like it, but I have to rotate things or he stops liking them. Darlene, I know, so much cat food has fish in it. But I've pretty much gotten rid of the ones I had with fish. And Tanya's site is great, very reassuring to have such good info available. Thanks again all!

Hi,

I'm sorry to hear about your kitty. I know that is a very stressful time. I have had several CRF cats over the years and some foods that we tried were Hill's a/d (high calorie which is great for those with waning appetites), Hills k/d (renal diet), Gerber turkey or chicken baby food (great treat for picky eaters), and certain flavors of Organix and Weruva (low phosphorus canned food).

In the end, I believe that it is important that your cat eat anything. I tried to give my current CRF cat the best low phosphorus and low protein foods on the list, but he got bored of them. He began losing even more weight and my vet said just to give him whatever he wants to eat now because keeping his weight up is the main priority. We supplement his food with a phosphate binder (aluminum hydroxide powder).

I also give my CRF cat 150ml LRS subcutaneously every night. Do you warm up the bag before you administer it? I noticed that it made a difference because my cat used to be squirmish until I did it. Just place the bag in a tub of warm water and let it sit for a while. Make sure you also run the line too in order to remove the cold solution.

My CRF cat is also on Calcitriol and Azodyl. Has your vet mentioned those medications to you? I recommend them both..look into them, especially the Azodyl, because I have noticed an improvement in my cat's bloodwork ever since he started it.

If you have any questions, feel free to message me. I have a lot of experience with managing CRF, especially right now because of my current CRF kitty. I wish you all the best!

Stephie, thank you so much for the support and advice. I do warm up the bag, but I never thought of the liquid already in the line! Brilliant. Yeah, my kitty gets bored so quickly. Even with rotation I'm only getting the prescription food in him one out of every four feedings. He used to be a stray so I don't know where he got this gourmet attitude! But things are going better on the sub-Q fluids. He's getting used to it, and a little catnip afterwards helps him forgive me :) I will also look up the aluminum hydroxide, Azodyl and Calcitriol too. Thanks again!!!