A Chat With A Senior Vet

I went to purchase Vincent’s fluids, tube and needles today and had a good chat with the senior vet at the clinic.

We asked about Fortekor, how it works, what it does and if Semintra might be better.  Semintra is known to produce much better results, but Fortekor has been THE drug for a long time. Vincent is currently on Fortekor. His vet advised that we start with this and see how it goes.

According to what I learnt today, Fortekor is a heart medicine too (as Vincent’s vet has told me), and it’s an ACE inhibitor, so it reduced blood pressure as well as the pressure on the kidneys. Hence, slows down the wear and tear of the kidneys.

The vet also explained that perhaps there is some possibility of some sort of “repair”. There is no “replacement” once the nephrons die, but when there is injury or damage, there is the possibility of “repair”. This sounds good, doesn’t it?

We also discussed diet. The vet believes in the prescription diet. He shared that he had a client with a cat diagnosed of kidney insufficiency at 8 years. At that time, there was only one brand of prescription diet for kidney cats and this cat was SOLELY on this kidney diet. Only this one food (wet and dry).

Guess how long the cat lived?

21 years.

Believe it not?  21 years.

Even some healthy cats don’t live that long.

So, again, this is anecdotal evidence, but just one case. But if you read the reviews at the prescription diet websites, some are pretty good too.  Their cats are solely on this kidney food.

However, holistic wets do not subscribe to prescription diets. Some even say vehemently that the prescription diets alone will do a lot of damage to the animal.

Well, I guess both camps have their own reasons. One believes in scientific allopathic research (western) and asks, “which animal lives better and longer life, the zoo animal or the wild animal in the jungle?” One believes that raw food is the animal’s natural food and that should be the “best” food for the animal, not some food that is produced in the lab.

I don’t particularly belong to any of the above camps.

Rather, I belong to the camp that says: Whatever works and makes my pet feel better, I’ll go with that.

The senior vet agreed. Whatever works for your pet, he said.

So, Vincent is doing well on raw food and his readings have improved. He has gained weight too. But he is still licking rocks and trying to eat soil, so I am kiasu – I want the best for Vincent. I’ll give him some renal food as snacks and supplements, but not as his main meals.

I don’t think there’s harm doing this….

Hopefully we get the best of both worlds.

Subcut 200ml.

I bought a packet of RC Cat Renal, and it seems to be very tasty, I guess.

Ginger and Heidi was trying to steal Vincent’s food!

Vincent seemed to love it too! He particularly loves the gravy!

But he is still on his raw diet as we have seen very good results with this. The renal diet to is supplement whatever vitamins and minerals he might need so that he will stop licking rocks and eating soil!

Ginger ate up whatever Vincent could not finish.

The ingredients for the renal wet food:

Water sufficient for processing, chicken by-products, chicken liver, pork liver, wheat flour, vegetable oil, pork plasma, modified corn starch, corn flour, egg product, glycine, powdered cellulose, fish oil, potassium citrate, calcium carbonate, natural flavors, taurine, DL-methionine, guar gum, fructooligosaccharides, vitamins [L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), DL-alpha tocopherol acetate (source of vitamin E), thiamine mononitrate (vitamin B1), niacin supplement, biotin, D-calcium pantothenate, riboflavin supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), folic acid, vitamin B12 supplement, vitamin D3 supplement], salt, citric acid, choline chloride, cysteine, sodium silico aluminate, sodium carbonate, marigold extract (Tagetes erecta L.), magnesium oxide, trace minerals [zinc proteinate, zinc oxide, ferrous sulfate, copper sulfate, manganous oxide, calcium iodate, sodium selenite].

The ingredients for the dry renal food:

Brewers rice, corn, chicken fat, wheat gluten, corn gluten meal, chicken by-product meal, soy protein isolate, powdered cellulose, natural flavors, wheat, chicory, fish oil, calcium carbonate, sodium silico aluminate, potassium chloride, DL-methionine, psyllium seed husk, potassium citrate, L-arginine, fructooligosaccharides, salt, choline chloride, vitamins [DL-alpha tocopherol acetate (source of vitamin E), L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), niacin supplement, biotin, riboflavin supplement, D-calcium pantothenate, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), vitamin A acetate, thiamine mononitrate (vitamin B1), vitamin B12 supplement, folic acid, vitamin D3 supplement], taurine, trace minerals [zinc oxide, ferrous sulfate, manganous oxide, copper sulfate, calcium iodate, sodium selenite], L-lysine, marigold extract (Tagetes erecta L.), rosemary extract, preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid.

Source: https://myanimalcare.org/2018/10/05/a-chat-with-a-senior-vet..

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