VetriScience Kidney Health Chews for Cats, Chicken, 120 Count

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.

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.

I'm giving 4 stars because my cat with renal issues won't touch them. The other two healthy cats won't eat them either. I tried on many occasions. Luckily I was able to use them up when my senior dog started urinating more often, I compared the ingredients to the version for dogs (practically the same just different amounts) and calculated the correct dosage. The dog was back to normal within 3 or 4 days so I believe it's a good product.

I am mixing this with chicken broth and bit of manuka honey to see if my cat will touch it. Terrible smell. Nothing to attract a cat or any other animal. Tried to feed it today with some regular food and the cat actually eats AROUND anything that touches this stuff. It smells nothing like anything a an animal or human would enjoy. We put B vitamins in capsules for a reason!! Waste of money and will make your cat LESS likely to eat food when it is not feeling well.

These are better accepted than the Renal Essentials fish flavored tablets so if your cat refused those, you might give these a try. I find some of the cats like them one day then not the next. The trick may be to feed just before meal time when they are hungriest. I wish the manufacturer could figure out which ingredients cause the fussiness and find alternatives. I don't like that these contain rosemary extract, but most people are feeding processed, junk food pet diets and rosemary would be amongst the least of their concerns. If you're concerned, you could feed the Renal Essentials tablets( Vetri-Science Laboratories Renal Essentials for Cats - 60 Count ) to avoid the rosemary. Most of our cats don't like the tablets but they are easy enough to crush with a mortar and pestel and, when added to food, don't create an extreme repulsion. With renal disease, the most important thing is that the cat eat and that it eat easy to digest quality protein. If adding a supplement affects appetite, it isn't worth trying to add it to food. If your pet refuses all Renal Essentials, try the Rx Vitamins Rx Renal Feline (your vet might carry this). This comes in a small enough capsule to be shoved down the cats throat or possibly hidden in a pill pocket. I also like the organic pet superfood immunity ( Organic Pet Superfood IMMUNITY Premium Supplement For Dogs and Cats ) formula for quelling the autoimmunity that contributes to most feline renal failure. I like the idea of giving these products for pets with various autoimmune conditions, not just renal disease. Always ask your vet before trying any new supplement for your pet.

My nasty goblin boy Pepperoni is 18 yrs old with advanced chronic kidney disease, when we adopted him two years ago they gave him two months to live. With research and trials I found a diet that helped him thrive but recently I saw a decline in his health and activity. I bought these treats hoping to supplement something dietary I was missing and not expecting as drastic of a change in him. We have been feeding these for a couple weeks and first of all he LOVES them. He only has one tooth so I have to squish them with my hands but when he hears the bag he comes running and screams at me until I give him his snacks. Since feeding these as a supplemental treat to his diet he has been much more active, he used to just sleep all day on the couch and now he BOLTS through our apartment and jumps around, he loves to hide behind doors and jump out and scare us. Even my small dog who he used to ignore, he has been trying to play tag with! I will definitely be repurchasing these for as long as he wants them, his quality of life has drastically improved and we are so happy.

I have a 6 year old female cat who has had 4 urinary tract infections over the years - mainly crystals in her urine. This last time was brought about by the stress of moving. She was given an antibiotic injection which definitely helped, but I wanted to do something a little more proactive in trying to keep her urinary tract healthy, since she seems to have this problem at the drop of the hat. I purchased 4 different products and so far I've only had a chance to try 2 of them, this one and Pet Naturals UT Support for Cats (45 count) . I paid about $11 and there are 120 chews in the Vetri-Science bag and it recommends 4 chews per day which breaks down to 30 days worth of chews. They are very soft and easily break into smaller pieces. My cat is suspicious and picky and won't eat them unless I disguise them amid crunchy treats that have no health value whatsoever. She will still try to avoid them, so I also have to give them before she eats. Considering the number of chews for the price, so far I'm happier with this one. I paid about $8 and there are 45 chews in the Pet Naturals bag, it recommends 2 chews per day and that breaks down to only 22 days of chews. These are not that soft, so I've had to cut them into smaller pieces and again mix them into crunchy treats with no health value. She likes crunchy treats better than soft, so she doesn't pick these out, but the fact that that there are only 22 days worth of chews in the bag makes it not such a great deal. As soon as I've evaluated the other 2 products, I will update this review.

Purchased these for a cat with kidney disease. He at two of them and would not try any more of them no matter how many times I offered them. Tried to feed these to 5 other cats and only one of those was willing to put these in his mouth. He proceeded to spit it out immediately. The ingredients looked much better than most treats so I had really wanted the cats to like these.

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.

These chews saved my cat!! He's pretty much back to being healthier than I ever remember!! I'm Grateful for these! 🙏🙏🙏💕

This is something that is incredibly hard to rate it's overall effectiveness on as I am not a vet. What I can say is that this product, in conjunction with bi-weekly subcutaneous fluids, plus a healthy diet focused on non-grain low-protein food has seemed to help the longevity of 2 of our feline friends with chronic kidney disease. It's sad that such a common disease in felines has not come up with a cure yet, but hopes are that it will soon. While my cat grew tired of the taste of these within a few months, slight flavour tweaking with other powders seems to keep her eating them. Not all kitties are the same, some will take to these others not so much, but things can be done to encourage kitties to eat them. Ultimately, I believe they help, I hope you get some extended life out of your family friend with these. It sucks to lose our companions, I do think that these help but there is more to extending a comfortable life for our friends than treats. So much for my usual humorous Amazon reviews...

There was a paper from Amazon in with the treats that stated $19.00 Even with USD to CAN exchange rate this was wildly overpriced. After all this the treats were hard and not appealing to my cat at all. I requested a resolution with the seller and didn't receive any proper reply Buyer beware

My cat thinks these are actual treats - she loves them. I haven't had her retested so I don't know if they are making a difference with her kidneys. She doesn't seem to be drinking or urinating quite as much which is a good thing. UPDATE: I've been ordering these chews since May. I just opened the 5th package from this company. All the others were excellent. This package is obviously old or past their prime (I can't find an expiry date). I use them to encase my cat's pills. This package of chews are not very chewy. I really depend on this product since it's the only method I have found to use for pilling as well as to help with her kidney issues. I hope the company stands behind their product.