Elderly cat far from impressed with renal diet

[TheSilverySoothsayer]

DCat (17) has gone onto Royal Canin Renal on advice from vet. For the first few days it wasn't too bad, now she is turning her nose up at it, mostly. She has beef or chicken pouches, and biscuits.

Last night she kept meowing loudly and fetching me to her bowl, expecting me to provide something else. I am trying the little and often approach.

She also has a tablet for heart/kidney each day, and every other day half a steroid for arthritis. I administer these to her in the time-honoured way (fight cat wrapped in towel (cat, not me)), with a prawn before and a couple afterwards.

She seems reasonably happy apart from this. Although sometimes cruises house meowing loudly - could this just be cos she is old and a bit deaf?

Any help gratefully received.

[SilverApples]

Mine was on a renal diet, I checked with the vet who said that oily fish was fine to supplement with. Ours enjoyed sardines and salmon, hated the RC pouches and much preferred the dry version.
I'd check what other foodstuffs are OK for your cat.

[Chesntoots]

My old boy was put on a renal diet, tablets and some powder for his food. He refused to eat any of it.

I went back to the vets in a massive panic that I was failing him. The vet told me instead of the renal stuff to go for fish instead. I would give that a go instead.

[timtam23]

My old girl cat (18 yrs) had kidney failure and the vet suggested a renal diet (Hills) - but also said that with kidney failure it is better if they are eating ANYTHING, even if it's not the special diet

My girl didn't think much of the renal diet - the other 2 cats seemed to love it though! - so I gave her whatever she wanted to eat - usually a fish pouch of some sort plus some Dreamies for treats. She died last month and I'm glad she seemed to enjoy her food over those last few months.

[MyCatLovesMeSometimes]

Dcat had kidney failure at Easter and is now on pills for life.

Our vet also said it's more important that she eats something even if it's not the special renal food. We got a bag of purina pro plan healthy kidney food which she tolerates as it's salmon flavour, from pets at home, not as good as a kidney diet one but better than nothing.

[Goodkingwalkingslass]

Agree that it's definitely better that they eat something rather than nothing, but studies show that renal diets do prolong life so worth trying to get her to eat some if not all specialist kidney diet. I would try the Purina Veterinary Diets kidney food called NF, available in wet and dry formulations and also Hills k/d. Your vet can order both for you or you can order online. Sometimes switching between these two and the Royal Canin can mean they eat the specialist kidney diets. All the best.

[TheSilveryPussycat]

Thanks so much. She was on white fish (though the last time she had some, 5 weeks ago, she threw it up) and Whiskas Senior before this, then she had the proper tests. She's been picking at it a bit, so not on complete food strike.

I have tried explaining how it's keeping her alive and how much it costs, but she doesn't seem to understand

We are due back to the vet's in a week or so to see how she's progressing, so I'll ask about the sardines etc then.

I suppose you can't hazard a guess about her life expectancy?

[timtam23]

Silvery My 18 yr old had a blood test at the beginning of this year which was suggestive of early kidney failure, she was pretty much untroubled by it until early September (although had problems with arthritis and was asleep most of the time) and then went into a fairly rapid terminal decline and I had to have her put to sleep a month ago

I found it comforting that she made it to 18, she had been getting quite stiff & old and I wouldn't have wanted her to linger on for many more years. I also didn't mind if she refused the renal diet as I knew it wouldn't make a massive difference to her life expectancy and I'd rather she enjoyed her food even if it wasn't ideal for her kidneys.

[GerundTheBehemoth]

My last foster cat needed a renal diet - she didn't like any of the wet foods much but did really enjoy the dry Hills KD and ate almost nothing else for her whole life. She was a young cat, born with severe congenital kidney issues and not expected to live for more than a few months, so a bit different to your situation, but she exceeded all expectations and lived for two years and eight months (and was a very happy and lively young cat until the last couple of weeks).

[TheSilveryPussycat]

Hi again (NC reversion).

Well, DCat actually seems to quite enjoy her grub now, some of the time. Perhaps it's doing the trick. or maybe she's been reading MN behind my back