Help 😭my boy has chronic kidney disease

[Amanda24]

My boy of 14 yrs had a major op and had to have his eye removed 4 days after surgery he was so miserable I took him back to now find he's got chronic kidney disease
I can't bear the thought of loosing him.
He's come home drinking alot and only lick the gravy off the food I gave him I need to get some renal food but is there any safe food to give him until it arrives. The vet said 70 percent damage does anyone have the same diagnosis to support me and my furr baby. I'm desperate for reassurance

[fjm]

Chronic kidney disease is extremely common in older cats- you will find many posts and lots of help here. While you are waiting for the renal food to arrive (be aware it may take some experimenting to find one that he likes) a commercial food formulated for older cats may be your best bet - Gourmet senior is highly palatable. If he likes real meat a fairly high fat (15-20%) mince beef or pork or lamb will give him plenty of calories without being very high in phosphorus when it is measured per 100kcals. Reducing phosphorus while keeping protein reasonably high is the key. If you are feeding mostly mince you will need to add a little calcium - 1 teaspoonful of finely ground eggshell per kilo of meat is about right.

If you are struggling to get him to eat try Lik-e-Lix - most cats love them. Mashing his food can help to ensure he eats the solids as well as the gravy.

[Mollycat]

Reassurance is not a problem. This is going to sound weird but that 70% loss is still very early days, and with your care your boy could have many years of normal happy healthy life ahead. Although the new SDMA test can detect loss of kidney function at 40% loss, the traditional tests don't even detect it until more than two thirds of kidney function are lost. Kidneys are overengineered, you can lose one altogether without a problem, and a cat can lose three quarters of kidney function without showing any symptoms.

Any food is safe to give him until he is over the operation. Remember he has had major surgery and is adjusting to life with altered vision and less accurate distance judgement - this can be psychologically a big deal and could be part of why he isn't feeling great. Make sure he drinks - if you can get tinned tuna in spring water (absolutely not brine!) mix it 50/50 with tap water to encourage him to drink. When a cat with CKD is anaesthetised vets commonly like to have them on IV fluids before or before and after the procedure to aid recovery. If nothing showed up in the pre-op tests, there's a good chance your lad might be a bit dehydrated. That can also skew the test results a bit.

There are renal and pre-renal foods for early stage CKD. This is because the precise details of what needs adjusting can change as the disease progresses. For example early on potassium might be low as too much is lost in the urine, but in the late stages it can go very high as it is no longer filtered out of the bloodstream. The key word is chronic - it is a long term, manageable, progressive condition, with lots of options and when caught early, really nothing to panic about. There is as fjm says a ton of help from experienced ckd cat owners like myself, fjm and many more, and from really excellent resources like http://www.felinecrf.org/index.htm which I cannot recommend enough. You have come to the right place, you and your boy will have all the support you can possibly want.

[mr_frisky]

Agree that CKD is extremely common, and can be managed for years.

I know a cat who has one eye and he's fine.