Herbs to Give a Cat With Kidney Infections and Kidney Stones
If your cat has a bad kidney infection, there will be apparent symptoms that include the following: a foul or strong odor from
the urine [litter box], poor appetite, or a normal appetite accompanied with frequent vomitting, weakness, hiding or
sleeping more than usual and a fever, which by itself, can kill a cat in a short time if it's high enough.
Because of all this, I recommend having your veterinarian check your cat's urine for bacteria every 6 months as a preventitive
measure. This may sound like a bit much but, if your cat did have a mild infection that went unnoticed by you over 6 months of time,
it could cause a lot of irreversable kidney damage.
If bacteria is actually found to be present in the urinary tract, and to be
causing an infection, it is my opinion as well as that of many holistic doctors and other natural
health care practitioners, as long as there is no high fever present, antibiotics do more harm than good.
It is in my experience and opinion, better for the cat's health and more effective, to instead use
frequent doses [every hour if possible] of a probiotic formula.
You might have to mix it in a very small amount of moist food or vanilla / plain yogurt to get
the cat to eat it. if it still will not eat it, you'll have to get some syringes from your vet to suck up the yogurt mixture and squirt it into the kitty's mouth.
They will hate this but it only takes a minute and having them feel good and be healthy, active and happy is
a small sacrifice for you both to pay. Take it from someone who knows from experience with a CRF[chronic renal failure] cat.
If your cat has problems with reoccurring kidney infections, there is a deeper cause. However,
probiotics such as acidophilus and bifidus, given on a daily basis, [2-3 times a day as a healthy maintenance dosage] will keep the infections away and from
causing permanent scarring to the kidneys, until your vet can discover the root cause. If there are kidney stones
present which harbor bacteria, cannot be reached by antibiotics, and therefore keep causing the infections to return,
" Primal Defense" is great as well as "Vitamineral Green" [even better in my opinion and cheaper]. The reason I recommend
these two formulas is because they not only contain probiotic strains, they have what other probiotic formulas or acidophillus
and bifidus alone do not have.... homeostatic micro soil organisms. These are like probiotics only much smaller and therefore able
to reach the microscopic places that probiotics and antibiotics cannot reach such as inside the craters of the bacteria harboring
kidney stones. Both can be purchased on line. If it is found by your holistic vet that there are no kidney stones present to cause
the reoccurring kidney infections, then there is a distinct possibility that the cat's chi energy [vital life force] is in
desperate need of balancing. Your holistic vet can do this if they are a certified Reiki practitioner.
See "reiki" for more info on this subject.
The other problem kidney stones can cause is blockage of the urinary tract. If partial blockage of urinary flow is present,
you will know if this might be happening by paying close attention to what's going on during urination and what's left behind in
the litterbox. For example, the cat may try to urinate for a long time while seeming to strain a bit and only leaving behind tiny
amounts of urine in the box, shown by dime sized or smaller wet spots. If full blockage has ocurred, they will make frequent attempts
to urinate, but no urine will come out and their breath will smell like urine or amonia because the waste is accumulating in the blood
and acting as a toxic substance. The cat has become uremic from urea polluting the bloodstream.
In either case, partial or full blockage, I recommend getting your cat to the vet AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!! and DO NOT GIVE THE CAT ANY MORE
WATER OR FOOD. A cat can and will die from full blockage if emergency surgery to remove the stone is not performed.
You also do not want to give the cat any kind of herbs that act like a diuretic. This will only create more fluid in the urinary system which cannot be
excreted due to the blockage, therefor causing your cat to suffer even more.
I will admit, although I do NOT recommend doing this, My cat became PARTIALLY blocked, I was financially broke and it was on Thanksgiving
when all the vet offices were closed. Only the very expensive emergency vet was open. So, knowing a good bit about herbs, I took a big chance
and rushed out to the nearest health food/ vitamin store and purchased an herbal formula called Stone Free by a brand called Planetary Formulas.
It is supposed to act as a kidney tonic, a diuretic, and over time, dissolve the stones. I crushed up about one fifteenth of the tablet and
put it in a tiny amount of food so I knew if she ingested it or not. I must say, I was up all night watching her closely for signs of full blockage,
but she had urinated abit more that evening and by the morning, she was pissing up a storm and became unblocked! Sometimes this can happen if
the stone(s) are small enough to pass through the urinary tract and only need a good bit of urine to flush them through.
Again I repeat, I DO NOT RECOMMEND DOING THIS and definitely DO NOT DO THIS IF the cat is COMPLETELY BLOCKED and CANNOT urinate AT ALL.
For those of you who are also knowledgable in the many uses of herbal remedies and are thinking about using this particular formula on your kitty
who you know for sure has stones, I would say in my unofficial opinion that you should try it but.....I would NOT give it to your cat if they have kidney
disease or inflamed kidneys due to an infection. The licorice in the formula raises blood pressure which if your cat has kidney disease, they already have
high blood pressure or at least hypertension which can easily increase the blood pressure and cause a stroke. The parsley in it is a wonderful diuretic
and is loaded with naturally occuring potassium and is great for helping to clear up a kidney infection however, if the kidneys are inflamed which is
usually the case with an obvious infection, you do not want to use parsley because it will irritate the kidneys. Some other herbs to research that might be
suitable for a cat with a kidney infection AND stones, would be as follows: hydrangea, gravel root, dandelion root or leaf, goldenrod, marshmallow and cornsilk for soothing the walls
of the urinary tract.
Do not forget to adjust the dosage by the cat's weight and if you're going to round off the weight to an even number, always round down to keep from overdosing.
As an example of dosing, say your cat weighs 10 pounds....the normal average weight for a healthy adult is 150 lbs therefore, your 10 lb cat weighs one 15th of that
normal adult human weight.
So if the adult dosage on the bottle is for ONE tablet or capsule, then I would give my cat one 15th of that tablet or capsule content.
When in doubt, always ask your regular vet, holistic vet, or a cerified, experienced herbalist at a vitamin /nutrition store.