2017 was, in some places, a fairly stressfull year and by Christmas I had hoped it was all over. But in the couple of weeks running up to Christmas I noticed that Linus was drinking more than normal. I left it over Christmas as it could have been due to me having the heating on more so I wanted to observe and check he really was drinking more and it wasn't my imagination.
It wasn't my imagination, so when Hilda went to the vets for her annual MOT and vaccinations between Christmas and New Year Linus came along too to get checked out. My initial thought was Diabetes, Fluffy was diabetic towards the end of her life and while this felt similar it wasn't exactly the same so I wasn't totally sure. Hilda got a clean bill of health and then we turned our attention to Linus. After explaining what I had noticed the vet thought similarly to me and, after giving him a quick all-over check, took a urine sample to check.
The various bits of analysis took a couple of minutes and the good news was that it wasn't diabetes. Just about everything else was also normal, the bad news was that it was a very dilute sample and the specific gravity was way below normal. One blood test later and the results were in, Linus is in the early stages of kidney failure. What was needed now was a change in diet. Sounds simple enough but Linus cannot have chicken so the task of finding a suitable diet was handed over to one of the vet nurses.
I took the vet nurse something from Bothams Bakeries in Whitby as a thank you as I knew the struggle she was going to have searching for suitable Linus food. I have spent years reading the ingredients of every new cat food on the market, usually with great dismay. It no longer surprises me to discover that in a 'fish' cat food the first ingredient on the list is usually either Chicken or the dreaded "Meat and Animal Derivatives". So to find a selection with no chicken and also very strict limits on protein, ash and phosphates was not going to be easy.
We are both pleasantly surprised to discover there was more options than we thought, there was only one specialist renal food (which he won't eat) but between us we have found 6 different dry foods from 4 manufacturers and good collection of tinned and pouched foods from 5 manufacturers. So Linus is now enjoying a smorgasbord style buffet dining experience of dry food and a random daily sample of different 'wet' foods to try. The idea is we can work out which ones he likes and settle on those for his future diet.
So far we have discovered that some 'wet' foods are actually very dry but the addition of some water makes them palatable (to Linus not me!). In addition to the specialist renal food one of the dry foods has also been rejected by Linus so until the remaining 3 samples arrive from the manufacturer he is on two different dry foods. He isn't keen on mousse style wet food, I think it must be the texture, he eats it but not with any enthusiasm and doesn't ask for more when it's done.
Linus is due his annual MOT at the end of this month so I will report back on progress after that.
