Note, this web site is no longer being updated. The medical information on it is most likely out-of-date. This web site serves to provide a picture of Hobbes and his life with CRF from 2003 - 2005. We miss Hobbes...Every day, we miss him.
Meet Hobbes... Hobbes is a seventeen year old male bombay who has Chronic Renal Failure or CRF. He was officially diagnosed with it in March 2003 (when he was 16), and began treatment then. His vet had suspected he had CRF for a while, about a year before that, however, it wasn't bad enough to warrant much in the way of treatment. Though his vet told us about the suspected diagnosis, it really didn't sink in until Hobbes got very sick in March of 2003. When we took him to the vet, we learned he had lost about 2 pounds from what he weighed at his previous check-up just a few months earlier.
Read details about Hobbes, his diagnosis, and up-to-date updates on him. We were very scared for a while. However, we learned a lot about treatment options (thanks in large part to Tanya's CRF Information Site, the Feline CRF Support Group on Yahoo, and his new vet who is wonderful) and started on the road to management that very day. There's no way to recover the lost kidney function, but with simple treatments kitties can make the most of their remaining kidney function with good quality of life. Hobbes has been officially CRF for almost a year now and is here to show you how he manages and how he doesn't mind being CRF a bit.
Hobbes starts each day with a bowl of Lactulose. The Lactulose is actually for his liver and not for his kidneys. Like many other mature kitties, he has several health issues and it's important to treat them all if possible (unless treating one causes a problem in another system--then it gets trickier--fortunately Hobbes doesn't have any problems that conflict--extra fluids and Lactulose are good for both his liver and kidneys). (His other problem is having calcium oxalate crystals in his bladder. Again, fortunately, what's good for treating CRF is good for treating calcium oxalate crystals.)
The ammonia is normally processed by the liver, turned in to urea, and then sent to the kidneys, but his liver wasn't doing a good enough job so it gets a little help and the lactulose makes it so his colon can help pull the urea from his blood. Though Hobbes takes his Lactulose to help his liver, many CRF kitties take it for constipation. There's been some theorizing that it may help CRF as it may help clear other toxins from the blood stream, that it may have anti-tumor properties, and that it may help in preventing salmonella. (For lots of information about Lactulose.)
Hobbes gets 4 bowls of medicine a day to help support him. He LOVES them. We sprinkle freeze dried salmon or chicken on top and he just chows down! If we had to pill him or give him liquid medicine he'd hate life and probably wouldn't be doing so well. I worry a bit about giving him so many kitty treats as they are probably high in protein, but on the other hand, his kitty mental health is important too and keeping him happy is one of my big goals. I've had to get creative at times with getting him to take his medicines, but we've worked it out.
The four bowls of medicines include:
Lactulose &
Vitamins Potassium Gluconate, B vitamins and Iron (to help build red blood cells).
In the evening he gets:
another bowl of Lactulose &
Norvasc (blood pressure medicine), Pepcid AC (to prevent an acidic tummy, which CRF kitties can be prone to) mixed in with the same vitamins that he gets in the morning
This picture shows all the different medicines he takes. The Alu-Caps (white bottle) is Aluminum Hydroxide to bind phosphorous and let his digestive system take care of it rather than taxing his kidneys. He gets that on his food. We don't count it as another bowl of medicine as he just takes it with food and he doesn't seem to notice the taste (and he's pretty finicky).