VetriScience Laboratories Renal Essentials, Kidney Health Support for Cats, 120 Bite Sized Chews, 0900662.120, 120 chews

These chews are more like meaty Gummis than "treats". I break them into little pieces and add to the meal. This is why I give them five stars - kidney cats pee like crazy, dehydrating themselves and depleting their potassium and B vitamins, which leads to weakness and other problems. Giving subcutaneous fluids as we do (it's not that hard, don't be scared), there's even more peeing. These chews replace the lost vitamins and minerals and I have seen a real difference in our girl, who is in her second year of lab-verified kidney failure. Use a high-quality canned food (if they won't eat a "prescription" food, what's the point?), a spoonful of Gerber pureed jarred meat stirred in, the crumbled chews, two a.m. and two p.m., and once a day 2.5 mg of a Pepcid tablet - quarter a 10mg tab. Kidney kitties also get sour stomachs because of their imbalances, and if they feel yucky, they won't eat. This combined plan is keeping her eating, perky, and not just wasting away. The Gerber meat probably doesn't have kitty-required taurine, so it's being used to tempt and is soft on her elderly mouth, not a complete food. Works great. The Pepcid can be crushed and stirred into the food, but better put in a clear gelcap and given with a piller followed by an eyedropper squirt of water to be sure it goes down. Sub-Q fluids are key to flushing out the stuff the kidneys can't handle anymore - there's lots of online info about the needs of cats in kidney failure. These chews won't replace adequate fluids, but I can see a real difference in her strength since we started these. Good luck and I hope this helps.

We started using this when we had basically given up all hope for our 14 year old cat. The vet was recommending dialysis and thousands of dollars of intervention. We said no, thankfully. He is not perfect and we can hear him yowling in pain sometimes but this product and some other changes we made to his diet made a huge difference. At least try this before you spend serious money.

Let me say that I don't hate the product itself. I was very happy to get the first bag of these Renal Essentials treats. Our old boy was thrilled to have treats again and it has helped him eat his other food. I ordered them again when I saw that they were on sale with prime shipping. What a difference from the first bag! The original ones were moist and appetizing. These are dry as dust and not in any way edible unless mixed in his food. The bag itself doesn't seem to have any of the absorber packets to help keep the contents moist. I was so excited to be able to give our senior cat treats again, since he has CRF. I'm not sure I will be buying them again -- or maybe just not from Amazon.

It was encouraging to see a kidney/renal friendly treat for cats with chronic kidney disease but customer service and product guarantee fall short of other reputable brands offering free returns if the pet does not like/eat the product. This is very short sighted from Vetriscience and cannot recommend for this significant reason particularly with the very high cost.

We have four cats in our household, one of which was recently diagnosed with Kidney Disease. She had been fighting a severe infection that her poor little body just could not flush out and had been on multiple rounds of antibiotics. Our new vet who has turned out to be absolutely amazing and vital to improving the health and life quality of our fur babies, recommended these treats. She said this will help support the renal function making it easier for our baby to fight any future infection and prolong her life. We started using this supplement along with another that was recommended and have seen a vast improvement in her health. She is infection free and thriving. I haven't seen her so happy or playful in months. There is no cure for Kidney Disease but there are things you can do to slow the progress, extend their lives and give them a better quality of life. After hours of research and many questions with our vet I have learned that Kidney Disease is common with domestic cats and most often starts between seven and ten years old. The earlier the detection, the longer and healthier life. Hydration is key, we feed exclusively wet food as cats, unlike dogs and other animals, don’t obtain the majority of their hydration by drinking but rather from their food. Kibble actually dehydrates them and causes the kidney disease to progress faster with increased symptoms and discomfort. In addition to hydration, supplements like these can help their kidneys to “deteriorate” slower. They also offer support, like in our case, working to acidify her urine and helping to clear the infection. With KD they are unable to process the hydration intake as well and their urine becomes dilute which can contribute to infection. Cats with KD are at risk for having more frequent infections that are harder to resolve due to this. So this supplement is vital to her long term care. I’m so thankful that this product is available. All of our cats are street rescues. One is of an unknown age but is at least seven years so we started giving him these supplements as well in the spirit of prevention. He LOVES these treats and often tries to steal them from the other cat.