Post #113705 by vintagegirl on Fri, Sep 10, 2004 6:57 PM

My own cat was found on a doorstep, barely a week old in a cardboard box with a dirty rag and an ashtray full of water. The vet said she'd probably not last long, but she was bottle-fed and eventually grew into the feistiest (and somewhat psychotic) feline ever. But at age seven she came down with kidney disease and once again the vet said that (even with daily fluid injections (to flush the kidneys...kinda like kitty dialysis) she wouldn't last more than a couple more months. He suggested putting her down (also considering her somewhat feral demeanor). But I did some homework into pet nutrition and feline renal disease, changed her diet completely (she now has a better diet than I do), added some supplements, and learned how to do her daily injections myself. That was 7 years ago. All of her blood levels are completely normal with the exception of one very slightly elevated one which has remained constant. She has just as much energy as before (if not more) and is as feisty as ever.

When I proposed my new found diet to the vet he thought I was crazy, but figured I couldn't put the cat in worse shape. When the first blood test came back after the first month of injections and a new diet, the vet thought it might be a mistake and said he'd never seen such a drastic turnaround involving kidney disease.

Human or animal, we are what we eat.