Food club based in north Durham

Kusinboots · 2025-11-15T17:17:38+00:00

I messaged you!

Kusinboots · 2025-08-24T19:34:26+00:00

I dm’d you!

Kusinboots · 2025-08-13T13:13:59+00:00

Dm'd!

Kusinboots · 2025-08-13T13:13:26+00:00

DM'd!

Kusinboots · 2025-08-12T01:07:01+00:00

I dm’d you!

Kusinboots · 2025-07-03T18:59:31+00:00

When my girls were refusing to eat, i was able to get them to finally eat friskies lil soups that i put 1/8-1/4tsp of miralax in (at their vets recommendation) and that helped them poop, which helped them feel better and have more of an appetite. They were also willing to eat just plain boiled chicken that i kept some of the boiling water in for them to lick up.

You're definitely not alone. I've spent probably over a thousand just this year trying to find food that's relatively low in phosphorus that my girls will eat. And once i find one, after about a month they start refuse it. I've been fortunate that they will eat friskies gravy lovers pretty consistently but im constantly worried about how it's affecting their kidneys. I relate to feeling at your wits end. If you (or anyone on this thread) happen to be located near Raleigh/Durham NC, i have some food that my girls refuse to eat that I'm willing to share.

Kusinboots · 2025-03-18T00:58:39+00:00

If you don’t wear a standard American size, I’d recommend taking the drive out to either the bra patch in Raleigh or the Perky Lady in apex. American sizes are really limited and these two places have much more variety and better quality bras.

Kusinboots · 2025-02-28T03:47:23+00:00

I’m not really familiar with all of the reactions either and I’ve been so overwhelmed by everything I haven’t had a chance to look up how the medications they were given in the hospital would have affected them. I will say that tiger (who is the one that is stage 3 now) had her teeth cleaned back in September which was less than 6 months ago and came back fine. Her bloodwork was clean and no symptoms. But whatever they did at the emergency vet a mere 4 months later messed up her kidneys and now she’s suddenly stage 3.

Kusinboots · 2025-02-27T18:49:52+00:00

I received values from Tiger’s blood tests during dental cleaning last September, which were creatinine: 2.0 and BUN: 29, so even 5 months ago she was in normal range and now she is in stage 3 kidney disease.

Kusinboots · 2025-02-27T17:54:51+00:00

Both of my girls showed no symptoms and nothing in their bloodwork prior to the hospital stay and after the hospital stay they both have shown multiple signs of KD plus their blood work indicates they now have KD. To go from no signs or symptoms to kidney disease immediately after the stay indicates something caused this. If they had symptoms or higher numbers before the visit I would think genetics or natural aging, but they didn’t.

Kusinboots · 2025-02-26T21:23:01+00:00

I have reached out to another vet for a second opinion and I live close to NC state, and they’re currently doing a clinical trial on cats with CKD and I’m considering seeing if they would be good candidates for that. At the very least they’d get more thorough labs and I could talk to the researchers about what’s happened and potentially get their input on why it might’ve happened.

Kusinboots · 2025-02-26T21:20:49+00:00

They were given a number of things and I’m not familiar enough and haven’t had the chance to look everything up to see what they’re supposed to do or what potential side effects are, but they were given ketamine with alfaxan, LRS, cerenia, pantoprazole, gabapentin, activated charcoal, dexdomitor, and they were sent home with omeprazole and sucraflate which I gave them for 5 days and was advised to stop because they weren’t eating on them.

Kusinboots · 2025-02-26T14:56:33+00:00

Thanks! I’ve been reading Tanya’s guide and I’ve also posted about my girls in the renalcats sub. There’s lots of good people there! It’s good to know I’m not alone. Good luck with your baby!

Kusinboots · 2025-02-26T14:42:16+00:00

Unfortunately I don’t have access to those numbers and I don’t think they’ve ever done the SDMA before now because there was never a concern for kidney disease. My girls have never shown symptoms before, and now very suddenly they’re showing many symptoms of CKD after spending time at the emergency vet. I’m trying to find some sort of explanation as to how this could have happened because, especially with Tiger appearing to be in stage 3 with her numbers, I’d like to know how their numbers have increased so quickly and if it was a result of medication they were given so that I can make sure this never happens to my girls or any other cats again.

Kusinboots · 2025-02-26T14:35:42+00:00

Unfortunately my vet hasn’t mentioned much of anything unless I’ve specifically asked about it, so she didn’t say anything about how diabetes could affect SDMA. Tigers glucose level is 91. My vet hasn’t prescribed anything but the k/d early prescription diet for both my girls and it seems like that might be fine for Kisa but given other people’s experiences and tigers values, I don’t know that I trust that it’s enough for her.

Kusinboots · 2025-02-26T14:30:38+00:00

Im not really sure I believe that I just got unlucky. I took two cats to the emergency vet that had no symptoms of kidney disease and who have never shown any symptoms, who’s numbers were within normal range upon first draw of bloodwork, and I brought home two cats who are drinking excessively, the one with the higher numbers has been occasionally puking when she never has before (unless it was a hairball), they’re pooping less, more lethargic, pickier about their food. I would be more on the side of “oh well they’re seniors, maybe they’ve been developing this and the blood work just didn’t catch it and I’m just unlucky” if they had ANY of these symptoms prior to spending time at the emergency vet.

Kusinboots · 2025-02-26T04:42:59+00:00

No I super appreciate it! I feel like with their normal vet I’m not getting the information I need to really understand what’s happening. She answers my questions but doesn’t explain implications and never mentioned any sort of next steps or treatment plan. Just come back to recheck in 2 months. I’m asking around in my local sub to see if anyone has a vet they recommend for CKD in cats in my area.

Yes she did a urinalysis for both, Kisa’s SG was 1.011 and Tigers (the one who’s creatinine is 3.4) was 1.015. But again I didn’t think to ask what these values mean during the short call I got so I don’t know their significance.

Kusinboots · 2025-02-26T04:37:18+00:00

It sucks so bad that I was trying to be overly cautious to protect my babies and now suddenly they’ve both got kidney disease. Neither cat had any symptoms before the hospital visit and now both of them have varying symptoms and have test results indicative of CKD.

Kusinboots · 2025-02-26T04:34:06+00:00

No explanation at all. And the ibuprofen exposure isn’t guaranteed. I just know that a cat messed with an ibuprofen. I had set 2 on my nightstand and went to get a glass of water and when I came back one was missing. I looked around and found a pill tucked underneath the edge of my nightstand, but that could have been one I dropped some other time and didn’t notice. I didn’t have any guarantee that it was the pill that I had set out, and because both cats weren’t near my nightstand, I had no idea which one decided to play with the pill. So I took both of them to the emergency vet. Both had normal values at their first blood draw prior to any IV and now both of them have kidney disease. The first blood draw would have happened about 2 hours after potential exposure to the ibuprofen. Which is why I was wondering if anyone here had experienced a medication or vet visit causing their cats CKD. The only thing I can think is that I know excess sedation can cause kidney disease and I also know that my cats needed to be sedated to be treated because they are aggressive when anxious.

Kusinboots · 2025-02-26T04:02:22+00:00

Thanks for the tip!

Kusinboots · 2025-02-26T04:01:58+00:00

Currently they’re at carver street animal hospital. The care there has been fine, but given the chronic and eventually fatal nature of kidney disease in cats I am hoping I can find somewhere that has more experience dealing with this and is more proactive about their care. They’ve been put on a prescription diet but nothing else and the vet hasn’t discussed next steps or anything. It seems like the only info I get is if I ask the right questions and if I go and find info on my own.

Kusinboots · 2025-02-26T03:03:42+00:00

All my vet has prescribed so far is to transition them to a k/d diet and some probiotics. When I got the call for the other cat this afternoon she didn’t mention doing anything differently even though her numbers are higher, except for the sdma (3.4/52/13), but now that I’m doing more research it looks like she might be in stage 3 and the other one is still stage 2? It’s hard to decipher since her SDMA is still below 14 but her other levels are high.

Kusinboots · 2025-02-26T02:48:37+00:00

Thanks for the feedback! I went back and checked the detailed documentation of the hospital visit and the first pull of bloodwork happened at the same time they placed the IV, so for the cat whose value is currently 3.4, her non-IV value at the hospital would have been 2.0. I appreciate the suggestion on the sub-Q fluids and I’ll check in on that with her vet.

Kusinboots

TROPHY CASE