petslave, Sorry to hear Tessa's numbers are a little elevated, but being a good mommy you sure have them caught early enough!  So many of us face CRF with our kitties now that they are living longer.  Maybe we should have a topic just on CRF kitties, there's so much we can do now a days that wasn't understood well enough just a few years ago.  You're on the right track though with a good diet from Kaffe!  That's half the battle.

The sub-q fluids can be daunting, but there are many tricks you can use to make them go quick and be very comfortable for the kitty.  Here's a great website for all kinds of ideas and help with them: http://tinyurl.com/63max   Some things I've learned that have never been mentioned by a vet, are to be extra careful with the bag of fluids so it doesn't become contaminated.  Change out the lines everytime; don't let the needle touch any surface before administering (including your hands); keep the bag in a nice dark cool area, etc.  This will prevent any bacteria from getting into kitty's kidneys, so many people start fluids and then kitty ends up with a kidney infection!

Eggshells do not replace phosphorus binders.  If the phosphorus is high, a binder is easy to administer (Alternagel).  Keeping the phosphorus nice and low will keep her feeling really good.

One of the most valuable things I did was join the Yahoo CRF group, where people from all over the world share their personal experiences with their kitties and vets/vet techs are regular members on the forum.  If you're not aware of it, here's the URL:  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Feline-CRF-Support/   Be aware, though, that these people are die hard renal food addicts and when raw food comes up there's a food fight everytime!

The most important thing is that many, many people have CRF kitties that live 10 years or more after diagnosis!  You'll see that on the Yahoo forum.  What was once a death sentence, now is just a fact of life for kitties and with proper treatment living to be 20+ years old is NOT that uncommon.

Are you aware of Calcitriol?  I call it the CRF miracle drug.  A lot of vets are still not using it yet.  Here's the Yahoo group for it: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/Calcitriol/  This forum is monitored by two well know vets and loaded with info on stopping the progression of CRF.  Tessa's creatine is a little high, you would like to see it at 3.0  or less.  Calcitriol will bring that number down.

One last thing, be sure to keep the BP monitored.  High BP is common with CRF, and kitty with not show any symptoms at all.  Just like in people, high BP is the silent killer but is completely treatable if caught early enough.

Good luck, petslave, we know you can do it!

"The Tessa Files"

OK, back from the store with some brain teasers for all you smart & kind home-cooking wizards:

Teaser #1 - Ranger chicken prices:  $1.69/lb for whole chicken, $2.19/lb for drumsticks, and $2.99/lb for thighs.  All have skin on them.  Which is the better deal after cooking & removing bone & skin?

Teaser #2 - conversions:  convert grams to cups ( no scale).  (I found a dandy but cumbersome converter online, but wanted to see if anyone had a quick method)

Teaser #3 - imagine you are stranded on a desert island with your cat(s) with everything to make home-made catfood, except a grinder for the eggshells.  How would you grind the shells?  ( no grinder)

Smash them with a shoe. rock or a log. 

 You could try some POGO mouse treats for cats. http://www.petextras.com/pogos.html

Nabiya!!  Tell Brutus' person she can buy dead mice (or live ones) at the pet stores for feeding snakes!  Those will probably be cleaner anyway, well as far as diseases & parasites, and if she buys them dead, she won't have to kill them.

Laurie    I read your reply to my eggshell delimma right after the killing mice post - guess what I thought you were talking about 

Rolling pin, very good idea kaffe - I don't have one but have a large drinking glass that would work.  Or a heavy pot.  I thought I would put them in a soup bowl & use the round-bottomed glass to crunch them.  DON"T worry about converting grams to cups!!!  I found this cool converter that is very accurate:

http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/cookingconversions.asp


Guess what, I remembered to buy everything but the @!#^ taurine!!  I even bought kelp, dulse AND potassium gluconate because I couldn't DECIDE, then forgot the most important thing!!

This is just chock full of the most incredibly wonderful information
Bless you all for teaching and helping us learn.
Thank you

I'm sure with a chicken coop, Brutus' person is probably glad to reduce the amount of mice there.  But I would really worry about parasites & diseases, not only for Brutus but for the people that are catching the mice.  For example, Hanta virus is a concern here out west for anyone handling wild mice or cleaning out their nests. 

The domestically raised mice are safer in that respect, but of course they raise them on commercial mouse food, too!  Most of the bigger chain pet stores sell them frozen at all different life stages, from newborn to adult.  Gross.  But probably some of the best food.  My cats always threw up the mice they caught & ate.