Keeping a cat with kidney disease is one of the most challenging times in a pet owner’s life. No caring pet owner loves seeing their feline in the pain and other symptoms kidney disease causes. However, this health issue could happen to any pet owner’s cat. Thus, all responsible cat owners will do everything possible to relieve their pets of this disease’s weakening symptoms.
So, what is the way out of this condition? The good news is that we have different medical methods to treat kidney problems in cats. You can tap into CBD’s power to alleviate your feline of kidney disease symptoms. This post sheds more light on CBD oil for cats with kidney disease. Keep reading to discover how it can benefit your ailing cat and improve its quality of life.
Kidney Disease in Cats
The kidneys’ primary function is filtering blood. This filtering allows necessary components to return to the bloodstream while waste products end up in the bladder and pass out as urine. As your feline pet ages, its kidneys weaken, negatively affecting their functionality. Increased kidney damage raises the chances of developing kidney disease.
Chronic kidney disease is one of the most prevalent conditions affecting cats. Felines over the age of 12 years are the most vulnerable. Older cats are more exposed to this condition than dogs, and the rates of diagnosing this health issue are increasing annually. Besides age, additional factors like genetics, bacterial infection, heart disease, blockages, toxin ingestion, chronic dehydration, and autoimmune challenges cause kidney failure.
Symptoms of Kidney Disease in Cats
Sick cat kidneys can’t do their filtering job well. Thus, the waste products that should leave the body leak and accumulate in the bloodstream. An affected cat starts manifesting symptoms like:
- General body weakness.
- Reduced appetite.
- Weight loss.
- Anxiety.
- Stress.
- Depression.
- Vomiting, sometimes accompanied by blood.
- Diarrhea, sometimes containing blood.
- Excessive thirst.
- Chronic dehydration.
- Foul breath.
- Aching in the kidney region, marked by a bent back and stiff gait.
- Irregular, reduced, or absent urination.
Failing to treat these symptoms could cause kidney failure and death. Thus, it is essential to develop a proper response plan and manage your cat’s health properly to alleviate the symptoms and consequences of kidney dysfunction.
Treatment Options for Cats with Kidney Disease
Veterinarians treat kidney disease using different methods. But please note that chronic kidney disease has no cure. All the treatment options only manage symptoms. Below are the top ways of alleviating your cat’s discomfort.
- Intravenous fluid treatment. This method corrects the imbalances and helps a diseased cat flush out toxins. Moreover, it guarantees fast symptomatic therapy distribution.
- Symptom management and support. This alternative depends on a cat’s manifest symptoms. Its administration can include appetite stimulants, anti-nausea medication, painkilling pills, and anti-inflammation drugs.
- Special kidney diet. Vets can also place a diseased cat under a special kidney diet. This treatment option administers low-sodium with moderate protein to avoid stressing a feline’s kidneys.
- Dietary supplements. Sometimes, a vet can prescribe dietary supplements to support kidney function. They may also prescribe the same for the liver because sick kidneys usually overwork the liver.
Top Ways CBD Oil Benefits Your Sick Cat
CBD oil has many health benefits your cat can enjoy. It helps relieve kidney disease symptoms and improves a feline’s overall qualSSity of life. Below are some of the benefits of administering CBD products to your feline friend.
Relieved Stress, Anxiety, and Depression
CBD oil benefits your cat by relieving it of its anxiety. Cats usually suffer mood changes when facing separation anxiety. You can solve this problem by spending more time with the cat or modifying its behavior. If the cat still suffers from depression and anxiety, and the cause is unknown, the pet might be experiencing an underlying medical condition. Kidney disease is one of the possible options.
The good news is that CBD relieves cats of depression and anxiety by stimulating the brain receptors that regulate stress, anxiety, fear, and mood. It also facilitates a balance between the inhibitory and excitatory chemicals in the brain. This way, your cat feels calmer.
Pain Management
Your cat can also enjoy pain relief thanks to CBD’s painkilling power. Have you noticed your cat walk with a stiff-legged gait and an arched back? It might be suffering from kidney disease pain. CBD oil reduces your pet’s painful sensations by stimulating the receptors that control pain. These transmitters’ activation makes the cells reduce their release of pain-inducing chemicals.
Decreased Vomiting
A cat with kidney disease suffers from vomiting due to accumulated waste products in the blood. CBD regulates vomiting and nausea by affecting the serotonin receptor, preventing conditioned gaping reactions that cause nausea.
Support for the Endocannabinoid System
Chronic conditions like kidney disease weaken the ECS, compromising the body’s ability to maintain balance. CBD boosts your cat’s ECS and allows endocannabinoids to stay longer in the body by attaching to the enzymes, stopping endocannabinoids’ degradation.
Decreased Inflammation
CBD benefits your feline by reducing inflammation. Damaged kidneys release inflammation-causing chemicals that attract more immune cells to injured body parts, causing low-grade kidney inflammation. Prolonged chronic inflammation can damage the kidneys further, hastening the disease’s progression.
CBD changes the equation by stimulating the CB2R and other white blood cell receptors, reducing low-grade inflammation. This activation informs the cells to stop generating inflammation-causing chemicals.
Administering CBD to Cats With Kidney Disease
You can administer CBD to a cat with kidney disease in different forms. The most common forms include treats, capsules, and tinctures. CBD tinctures come with droppers because you need to apply them under a cat’s tongue. This CBD form is excellent because measuring is easier than with other products. You may also add tinctures to a cat’s food or water if administering it directly is difficult.
Some users give CBD to cats in the form of treats. The treats contain CBD and have natural flavors such as tuna, making them irresistible to pets. Still, pet owners should keep in mind that these treats also have the highest caloric content. This content may or may not benefit a cat that needs to maintain a given weight level. Moreover, applying an exact dosage can be more challenging than tinctures.
You may also give your feline CBD in the form of capsules. However, these pills aren’t as attractive as treats. You can insert the capsules into food during mealtimes. Many people use this alternative if treats or tinctures are unavailable.
These three forms expose your cat to different efficacy levels and experiences with CBD. For instance, sublingual tinctures dissolve into the bloodstream faster than treats because they don’t need to go through the digestive system to start working. So, how fast you want your feline to start experiencing CBD benefits determines whether you will administer treats, tinctures, or capsules.
CBD Dosage For Cats With Kidney Disease
So far, the FDA hasn’t officially approved administering CBD oil to cats, but it hasn’t banned it either. That means the FDA knows that the oil isn’t harmful. However, we don’t yet have official or industry-accepted dosage guidelines. The good side is that pet vets can give you individual suggestions based on a cat’s age, weight, dietary needs, and general well-being.
The golden rule governing the entire dosage regimen requires you to administer CBD oil to your cat in small doses. This stage is necessary if your feline is new to CBD and allows you to monitor how the cat responds to the treatment. Afterward, you can increase the dosage until the cat achieves optimal benefits. That’s why we recommend consulting a vet before subjecting your feline to any CBD regimen.
Bottom Line
The secrets surrounding proper CBD oil administration and dosage for cats suffering from kidney disease are out. What are you waiting for? It’s your turn to use this valuable information to give your cat the best it deserves and improve its quality of life using CBD oil.
The author of this material is Tia Moskalenko, a dedicated cat lover and a researcher at AskGrowers. Tia publishes her insightful tips for CBD users and scans the market for safe, top-quality products that people and animals can intake without health consequences.
