OWNERS TURN TO SPECIAL DIETS TO HELP WITH CAT’S ILLNESS
Source: Daily Sun (Extract)
Posted: March 30, 2020
A sudden diet change isn’t easy, for people or felines, but it was worth it for Charles Checker.
Last winter, Charles, a Maine coon, had started a pattern of vomiting. Patti O’Connor-Allen said that was out of character for the beloved pet. O’Connor-Allen and her husband set out to work with their veterinarian in New York to figure out what was wrong with Charles. After three blood tests, they discovered that their 11-year-old kitty was enduring stage 3 renal failure.
“That was a shock,” said O’Connor-Allen, of the Village of St. Charles. “They gave me pamphlets to read, which was difficult reading — very scientific.”
But what O’Connor-Allen did gather was that it was likely the protein in Charles’s diet was the culprit.
The cat’s previous fare consisted of Fancy Feast, which, as turns out, had too much protein for the cat. At the advice of their vet, the couple set about restricting Charles’s food to a diet that would reduce his level of creatinine — a natural substance found in blood that, in higher levels, can signal unhealthy kidney function.
They bought Royal Canin Healthy Cat Food to improve Charles’ kidney function in the hopes of dodging injections as long as possible, which was a next step to prolong his life.
But Charles turned out to be very fond of his previous diet.
“We had to keep him away from protein, and wouldn’t you know, Charles loves protein,” O’Connor-Allen said. “He can smell it cooking from the next room and comes over and meows and really wants it.”
The couple resisted his complaints and maintained his low-protein diet regimen, which isn’t cheap.
They pay almost $200 every six to eight weeks for four small cases of 12 cans of cat food, which are 3-ounce cans.
But it’s been worth it.
Two blood tests at VCA Buffalo Ridge Animal Hospital showed Charles’ creatine levels have stabilized, which means the couple doesn’t have to give Charles injections.
Dr. Alan Krause, of Faithful Companion Veterinary Services in Lady Lake, said the idea to feed the cat a low-protein diet is to spare the cat’s kidneys.
The new diet can slow down the “burn” through the kidneys, sometimes adding time to a cat’s life by managing the toxins the kidneys are excreting.
“If we can, we want to add years to his life,” Krause said. “If we can’t do that, we want to add life to the years he has left.”
Because Charles is a family member, O’Connor-Allen couldn’t be more relieved.
“Like any mother, I just want him to be happy and healthy,” she said.
