crf links/how to deal with fd and crf

Spader was diagnosed with early CRF on New Year's Eve '04. He was also a diet controlled diabetic, until a dental at the end of December of '06 put him
back on the juice. I went out with Janet's food charts in hand and bought various low carb, low phos, medium protein foods and did a hit or miss approach until I came up with the magic mix he ate. The other cans stayed in the pantry just in case he got picky. I bought various flavors of Wellness, Merrick, Nature's Variety, Hi-Tor Neo, PetGuard, Pinnacle, Iams, Newman’s Own, etc.

I had been doing fluids on my own with a lot of success. The vets matched the internet prices, so that helped out a lot.
Also, I put several cups of purified water around the house and purchased a cat fountain (The Cat-It). I also added water to his canned food.

He ate mostly the low phos Friskies Special Diet flavors and FF Chicken and Tuna. Sometimes he got picky and ate all meat baby food.

I ended up adding a phosphorus binder during the last year and a half.
Here are some links:
Feline CRF Information Center
Tanya's Feline CRF Information Center
I think I memorized and printed out every page!
FelineCRF-FD Yahoo Group
FelineCRF Support Yahoo Group
These groups are awesome. Saved my butt!

Mail Order CRF Supplies
I printed out the Brico prices and brought them into the vets.

How to give subQ fluids
Feline CRF hints
Foods list by Phos
http://webpages.charter.net/katkarma/canfood.htm
Feline CRF Documents


A wonderful section of info from Feline Outreach.
Feline Outreach

This is really helpful, thank you very much. Which additional medications did you give?

I have Charlie on Adozyl which I try to give an hour before feeding. The vet has also given sucralfate as a phos binder to give before meals, but it is very unpleasant for us both... I have foamy sucralfate deposits all over the apartment! I also give famotidine to control stomach acid, but I try to mix it with the azodyl or in food.... Otherwise it all gets a bit much. I also add Miralax to his food and water to help stop constipation.

That's all on top of 2 units of insulin twice a day, home testing when i can, and 100 ml of fluids morning and night....

It's high maintenance, but working... He's got his appetite back and has put on weight. In fact its been a big transformation... From depression and malaise back to his usual affectionate self. Next step will be to try to control his diet better, now that the anorexia has subsided.

Which phosphorus binder did you give? I think I'd much rather mix powder into food than force down sucralfate.

John

I am going to send a link to this thread to new member MustLoveCats as her oldest is now FD and CRF. thanks Holly!

Hi, I used Aluminum Hydroxide as a phosphorus binder. Worked like a charm. Holly