Did your vet say why Rufus has a heart murmur? What is the shot and what is it for? Is the hyperthyroidism being treated? What type of heart disease does Rufus have and what is the treatment plan for it?

Many times, hyperthyroidism causes a heart murmur, but if you treat it, the murmur goes away. Or he could have a different heart disease not related to hyperT4. I've known many many cats that have been cured of hyperthyroidism with radioactive iodine while in kidney failure to go on and have a good quality of life for several years before the kidney failure eventually catches up with them. Others don't do so well. Some vets use methimazole (the hyperthyroid medication) to see how bad the kidney disease is before treating the cat with I131. If the kidney disease is too bad, they just keep the cat slightly hyperthyroid on methimazole in order to support kidney perfusion (hyperT4 is beneficial to kidney disease) instead of curing the hyperT4 with I131.

As far as diet goes, I looked at the ingredients in Hills k/d, Royal Canin, Eukanuba renal, and Purina NF and none of them impressed me much. They all have corn products, Eukanuba has Ethoxyquin which is a horribly toxic and possibly carcinogenic preservative banned in human food, some had animal digest (a nice way of saying pre-pooped feces); really none of them are things I'd feed my pets. I did a little search and found Feline Instincts but it is a raw diet and I don't know if you'd be interested in that. It's a more holistic approach. Here's their website
http://www.felineinstincts.com/orderNow/orderNow-idx.php#renal

I also know of a site that will have a certified veterinary nutritionist come up with a recipe for Rufus if your daughter is willing and able to cook his food. It is expensive though, $200 for the consultation, but it IS a diet balanced and complete by a certified nutritionist. Here's their website:
http://www.petdiets.com/default.asp?Menu=Home&PageName=/main.asp

Another source for a complete and balanced recipe for cats with renal disease is Dr. Pitcairn's Natural Health for Dogs and Cats, which is certainly less expensive than the nutritionist consult.

Unfortunately I do not know of any commercial renal diets that I would feel comfortable feeding my own cat. It seems they all have serious drawbacks.

The biggest drawback to the prescription renal diets is that many cats would rather starve to death than eat them. They are NOT palatable to the majority of cats. So it really doesn't matter how lousy they are. Chances are that Rufus wouldn't eat any of them anyway.

That's why the CRF websites will tell you that it's much more important that your cat eat SOMETHING than that he eat a specific renal diet. You can do a lot to assist and protect his kidneys while feeding his regular food by feeding small meals 3-4 times a day with about a 4 hr interval between meals AND mixing his canned food with warm water to increase his fluid intake.

Laurie

You may want to check out www.naturesmenu.com

Call them and ask if they have a renal diet. They may have one, but its not advertised on their regular "menu"; you might have to ask for it.

Meghane: Thanks. Good info. I felt the same when I read the ingredients. And whatever food we feed Rufus will also be eaten by Pepsi her other cat. Up to this point we were feeding them Felidae but dry. Since the entire area where I live is in short supply of the Royal Canin we ended up getting the Purina brand for now but I'm going to look into your two websites. What concerned me was this food requires a script. Which makes me think there's something special in it or not in it that would require a prescription. ???
He gets liquid meds twice a day for the hyperthyroidism. We also have to give him saline solution subtucaneously ?(my sp is atrocious)100cc daily for the next month. We go in tomorrow for a training session. He said the real test will be how well his kidney's react when the meds take effect. So the meds are being introduced gradually. He believes the heart murmur is from the thyroid problem. Rufus is not acting like a sick cat with the exception of the weight loss. At this point anyway.

Rufus should definitely be getting canned food because increasing the fluid intake is essential to keeping the system flushed of toxins in a renal patient. Prescription renal diets are formulated with low protein to be easier on compromised kidneys, but Pepsi's protein should not be restricted if (s)he is healthy. The two cats should be fed separately if a renal diet is used for Rufus.

Laurie

Feeding them separate isn't really an option. My DD lives in a large studio apt and where Rufus goes Pepsi follows.

Oh, I feel for you. I am in a very similar situation. One of my cats has hyper-T and CRF, my other does not and feeding them separately is not a very viable option. At first we were constantly covering and uncovering bowls of food on demand- great if you're home all day and want to be a slave to a cat. Forget ever leaving for the day...

I have switched my kitty over to non-RX food, both canned and dry, and she is doing very well- her last numbers were better than when she was on the RX diet. The dry food is a commercially available brand that is made for older cats, so it's fine for my old boy to eat too, and it's analysis is about equal to science diet RX- at least where it matters for CRF cats. When we feed wet food to her, we give her a blob, she eats off it, and it the other cat eats it we don't worry about it a whole lot. The wet food I do have to order online, but even with ridiculous shipping it still costs about half what canned K/D did- and she actually LIKES this food. I don't know if the ingredients are really much better quality, but right now I'm mostly concerned with just getting her to consume calories in a food that works for her. Since she was diagnosed a little over a year ago she has put on 4 pounds. We've had to increase her sub-q fluids, so that's a sign that things aren't really even staying stable, but she's doing very well with management and is living a happy life. She gets thyroid meds 2x/day too, but in pill form.

If Pepsi is younger, I wouldn't switch him over to a food like what I feed my cats that is for seniors, he would still have younger cat nutritional needs. I don't know what you should do if that is the situation.

There are also homemade diets- many on the internet. Getting the cat to eat them is really hit or miss in my experience, but does you give you control over ingredients. The one I made for my cat was potato and chicken with a few other ingredients. It is a pain to make and I freeze excess in jars in the freezer. Once we found the other non-RX canned food, she liked it better, it was easier on me, and her numbers were actually better than when she was on homemade food.

If you search the internet, you will find a lot. Here is a link where I have gotten a lot of info over the past year- there should be info about the commercial foods and CRF, look for the link to the chart for US pet foods- very interesting place to start. You can email me directly too if you want more info about what we do.

Good luck.

Q

Here is a link that might be useful: feline CRF info

I can't vouch for feline products but the rx formulas (even regular formulas) of hills and royal canin are total crap. I feel horrible for even feeding my shih tzu (paisley) Royal Canin. Seems she developed bladder problems and had been on SD adult, switched to SD s/d and k/d, developed again, now she is on Royal Canin urinary formula and just got over another bout of issues. My other furbabies are on Blue Buffalo (which I love!!!!) and they are mailing me a complete food analysis of their canine formulas. This will give me the chance to compare Royal Canin rx food to theirs and see if her needs fall under any of their foods.

I hope Rufus can find a great food and get to feeling better! Best of luck to you all