Tails of Truth: The Truth about Veterinary Medicine

Kidney Disease in Cats, Part 1: Early Detection & Longevity

• Dr. Angie Krause, DVM CVA CCRT • Episode 9

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Summary 

In this episode of the Tails of Truth podcast, Dr. Angie and JoJo dive into one of the most important topics in feline health: chronic kidney disease (CKD). They discuss why early detection is so important, how to interpret blood work, what staging means, and how cat guardians can support their feline companions with both preventive care and holistic treatments.

From decoding blood work and hydration strategies to discussing blood pressure monitoring and daily supplement routines, this episode is packed with practical tips and reassuring insights. Dr. Angie also shares her go-to holistic supplements and explains how they support kidney function, reduce inflammation, and improve quality of life.

Stay tuned for Part 2, where we dive into diet, medication, and end-of-life support

🎁 Don’t miss the free Kidney Disease Course, available with code TRUTHTAILS.

🛒 Products Mentioned:

Key Takeaways

  • Most cats develop kidney disease as they age, often before symptoms show.
  • Annual blood work starting at age 8 is key for early detection.
  • Hydration is essential; dry kibble may exacerbate issues.
  • Monitoring blood pressure can prevent serious complications like blindness.
  • Supplements like UltraEFA, RxRenal Beadlets, RxBiotic, and HempRx Feline Drops support kidney health.
  • In-home blood pressure readings provide more accurate diagnostics.
  • Cats with CKD can live for many years with proper support.
  • Understanding your cat’s stage of disease helps guide care.
  • The relationship between food, inflammation, and kidney health is vital.

Sound Bites

  • "We have time to manage kidney disease."
  • "Kibble is dehydrating for cats."
  • "Hydration is the key, but cats didn’t get the memo."
  • "We’re not just treating numbers, we’re supporting lives."

Please subscribe and review! xoxo Dr. Angie & JoJo


Dr. Angie Krause (00:01)
Welcome back to Tales of Truth podcast where we tell the truth about veterinary medicine. I'm Dr. Angie and this is my co-host Jojo, veterinary nurse extraordinaire. And today we are going to be talking about kidney disease in cats. I love talking about kidney disease.

JoJo (00:17)
Yay! Well that's because

we see it all the time.

Dr. Angie Krause (00:22)
Every day. There's not a day that goes by where I am not treating a cat that has kidney disease. And they have kidney disease for years and years and years of their life.

JoJo (00:24)
every day.

Hmm.

Yep, four years before somebody finds out they have kidney disease or before they're presenting with symptoms or four years and we know all about it.

Dr. Angie Krause (00:46)
Yes to all of those. So if you're checking your cat's blood work yearly, like eight or nine after, like eight or nine years of age, then usually my cat's going to make an entrance here. She keeps trying to come and hide in the light box. Okay, Fiona.

JoJo (00:47)
That's what I thought the answer was. Yes, yes and yes.

She is the reason that this

podcast is delayed today, too And then we started recording and she decided it was time to use the litter box

Dr. Angie Krause (01:10)
She is the reason.

I know. She's

a problem. And I just want to tell everyone listening that I was trying to get her to settle down and not bother me during this recording and I fed her some fancy feast just as like a little please, please offering. I never feed you anything like that. And she's still bothering me. She just ate the fancy feast and came back.

JoJo (01:29)
Mm-hmm.

Well, maybe she's, yeah, that's so funny.

I think she's like, we don't want to talk about kidney disease. What's that about? What is she telling us? Okay.

Dr. Angie Krause (01:45)
Yeah, she's like, I'm so bored. Okay,

so we're talking about kidney disease and cats have kidney disease for a long time before they have symptoms. And let's see, I need to figure out how I'm going to prevent her from doing this. Okay, there we go. Cats have kidney disease for a long time before they ever have symptoms. We usually find it on paper first, and then we do what we can to optimize their kidney function.

Nothing.

JoJo (02:16)
knowledge how funny this is because how are you

being able to talk and do this at the same time?

Dr. Angie Krause (02:23)
One time I was on live TV for Stella and Chewy's and I had to manage a dog and answer live questions from newscasters and it's ⁓ just a secret power of mine.

JoJo (02:31)
my gosh, so hard.

I am watching, I'm like, it's

so amazing at this dual tasking that's happening and there's a tail going across the screen and Dr. Angie is picking up her cat and still talking about kidney disease. So we will get focused when Fiona allows us.

Dr. Angie Krause (02:49)
Okay, okay, I

think she's gone for a minute. Okay, so you should start testing your cat's blood. So if you're listening to this podcast and your cat doesn't already have kidney disease and you think, how do I detect kidney disease? Usually we detect it on blood work. And I like to start like eight, nine, 10, checking blood work.

once a year. And then if I find kidney disease, I like to start checking every six months. Which is greedy, I know it's greedy. But I want all the information.

JoJo (03:28)
Yeah, ⁓ it's not greedy. I'm still laughing. I'm still

laughing because I still hear your cat doing something. What is?

Dr. Angie Krause (03:36)
yeah, now

she has, she got her basket of toys, because I have a basket of toys, and now she's picked the toy out of the basket and now she's chasing it around.

JoJo (03:40)
Uh-huh.

It's so fitting for a cat episode. So I'm gonna reflect back because so I heard you say that you like to start blood work somewhere between eight, nine and 10 years of age doing it annually. And if you can be really greedy once you detect kidney disease every six months.

Dr. Angie Krause (03:48)
Yeah

Yes.

Yes. Yeah.

Yeah. If I could have whatever I wanted in the form of information as a clinician, I want to know how the BUN and creatinine, those are the two most sensitive indicators of kidney function. And I want to know those every six months. I want to follow those.

JoJo (04:24)
Yeah, do you see that that will tell you what I'm imagining and telling you if you're tracking every six months on a cat with kidney disease, how quickly their kidney disease is progressing.

Dr. Angie Krause (04:34)
Yes, yep. I want to get a sense of how quickly this is going to move along. For most cats, if we're doing regular blood work and they get diagnosed with their kidney disease early, so maybe they're carotidines in the high ones or low twos, then I like to check in because this is, we're likely managing this for years. This is a diagnosis we make and then know we have years of life left usually.

JoJo (05:03)
Mm hmm.

And I have seen and I'm sure you have seen when people get that first diagnosis, even if it's the earliest stage, like it's just kidney disease is barely popping up on the blood work. The fear still presents. It's scary to hear that.

Dr. Angie Krause (05:19)
It's horrifying because

the word kidney failure has your cats in kidney failure. And so, you know, when it's a vital organ and we were telling you it's failing, that's terrifying. And so most people come pretty upset, pretty disturbed. And so just want, if you're listening to this and your cat just got diagnosed with kidney disease and they're creating still on the one or two, it's like, it's like we have time. We have time. Yes.

JoJo (05:47)
huh. huh.

Dr. Angie Krause (05:48)
The other thing I'll say is that the reason I like to look at it over six months, like every six months over years, is that sometimes cats get dehydrated or sick and their creatinine is high. And it's not necessarily because they have kidney disease. It's because they're dehydrated. We call that pre-renal azotemia. And it doesn't, ⁓ it doesn't tell us much. So we need kind of two points in time. One point in time doesn't tell me.

JoJo (06:07)
Mm.

Dr. Angie Krause (06:18)
enough information.

JoJo (06:22)
Fair, that's so fair. And with insurance, people might do blood work every six months. It's actually not that terrible of an expense.

Dr. Angie Krause (06:27)
Yeah, does it do?

No, I mean, it depends on where you're running it. I've definitely from doing relief different clinics, some clinics, blood work is really expensive. And other clinics have found ways like what we did where you tell IDEX like, hey, this is the panel I want to run and they give you special pricing so you can make it more affordable. So you can do smaller panels.

JoJo (06:55)
Can you also speak to what creatinine does in the body and be you in what those two values are?

Dr. Angie Krause (07:01)
Yeah, so basically

what you're thinking about is that the kidneys are filtering toxins out of the blood. So your cat's blood runs through the kidneys and when the kidneys are not the filter that they used to be, those markers, those toxins, those chemicals stay in the bloodstream. So we find them at higher levels. So instead of peeing them out,

they stay in the blood and that's why they get increased. Yes.

JoJo (07:34)
Perfect because I always actually

wondered like we don't do we don't do your analysis for every kidney and kidney disease, but is it a marker of function?

Dr. Angie Krause (07:45)
So the urinalysis can be important because it tells us how concentrated the urine is, which tells us how well the kidneys are working. So if you have a cat that's been sick, maybe hasn't eaten for a few days, and you do blood work and you find a high creatinine, high BU in, it doesn't necessarily mean the kidneys are failing. So that's when it's good to go do a urinalysis where we look to see how concentrated the kidneys are, because that's the kidneys job.

is to filter the blood and make urine. And if that urine is really concentrated, likely we have good kidney function. We're just dehydrated.

JoJo (08:25)
Okay, thank you for sharing all that. It kind of really narrows the scope down of what those numbers actually mean and what's happening. It feels a little less scary. ⁓ I was wondering also, so once people get this diagnosis, they wanna know if they could have prevented it. And I mean, that is one question that gets asked. And I have heard you say in every appointment,

Dr. Angie Krause (08:28)
Yeah.

Yes. It's a little less scary.

Yes.

JoJo (08:53)
any kidney that lives to be senior years, we're going to see some form of kidney disease.

Dr. Angie Krause (08:59)
Yeah, like 99.9 % of the time there's something going on. Every once in while I see a cat that just has perfect kidneys for life, but that is the exception. So most cats are going to get kidney disease, but it's not necessarily going to be the disease that ends their life. And so can we prevent kidney disease?

We don't really know, but there are things that we can do to support your cat's kidney function because we know there are ways that we can precipitate kidney disease like with toxins like lilies. And so there are things that we can do to damage the kidneys like having low blood pressure that can damage the kidneys. Most of the time cats don't have low blood pressure, but under anesthesia, if we're not monitoring blood pressure, that could damage the kidneys. So there are things that we could do to hurt the

JoJo (09:31)
That's it.

Dr. Angie Krause (09:49)
kidneys,

but one thing we can do to support the kidneys is to have your kiddies stay hydrated, which is it's a really kind of hard thing to do because cats are desert animals. They don't feel thirsty and they're terrible at hydration. They don't carry around the Stanley cups like we do and focus so much on their hydration and so we have to we have to find ways to trick them into drinking.

JoJo (10:08)
Well, yeah.

I just imagined that, right? Like, they have

these human water bottles now. I don't know if you've seen these that actually have a digital, it keeps track of how many ounces you drink and then it like gives you reminders that you need to drink again. And it's crazy time to me. It's like your phone going off. Like it's time to stand again. And so at some point you just ignore it. But I can't, I was imagining a cat.

being told like you haven't reached your hydration minimum for the day. Yeah.

Dr. Angie Krause (10:41)
Yeah.

Your hydration goal. Yes.

So we have to trick them and we do things like fountains. So cats really like moving water. So I'm a fan of fountains. Some cats just want you to turn on the faucet and that's fine too. If you can do that. And then we like to put as much moisture in their food. So whether that's a canned diet or a commercial raw diet. And if you're doing a commercial dehydrated raw, if you could add water back in, that's ideal.

JoJo (11:14)
Is kibble dehydrating? Is it compounding it? Compounding the lack of moisture?

Dr. Angie Krause (11:16)
Kibble is dehydrating.

Yeah, mean some cats with that are eating kibble will drink more water, which is great, but some don't. There are so many reasons why I don't like kibble and I suppose this is one of them, but I don't know that I have any data to back me up to say kidney disease is going to be precipitated by feeding your cat kibble.

So I won't I won't make that claim, but don't do it for a lot of reasons if you can. Yeah.

JoJo (11:52)
If you can, exactly.

Okay, and so I heard you talk about low blood pressure. But once a cat has kidney disease, we're not worrying about low blood pressure, we're worrying about high blood pressure or hypertension. And so you have recommendations around that as well. I like what stage of kidney disease. And maybe, I'm gonna pause this, maybe we should start there, because there are stages of kidney disease.

Dr. Angie Krause (11:58)
Yes.

Yes.

So the minute. OK.

There are stages of kidney disease, and if you want to look them up, go to Iris, I-R-I-S, kidney disease, cats, stages. Like, Google that. It's a foundation. And it will show you how we categorize your cat's kidney disease, which I think is pretty cool. And so the minute there's any kidney disease at all, I recommend people having their cat's blood pressure checked now.

I like to do it at home if you can. And we'll get back to that. But after a cat has kidney disease, they are at higher risk of developing high blood pressure.

And this high blood pressure rarely has any symptoms. And usually the first symptom we see is that they go blind and they just suddenly go blind because their retinas detach from the back of their eyes. Now, sometimes if we treat it fast enough, we can get a little bit to reattach, but often they're mostly blind.

So because our first symptom is often sudden blindness, I really try to catch hypertension before it causes this. And it's actually really easy to treat. We use a drug called amlodipine and the pill is so small, you can often hide it in the food. So my last cat, it's like, it's so small. And we start with a fourth of a tablet.

JoJo (13:38)
Yeah, it's like a tic tac. It's probably even smaller. It's probably even smaller than a tic tac. Yeah.

Dr. Angie Krause (13:46)
And most cats are managed on a fourth of a tablet once a day. And for the most part, we're fixing hypertension, we're helping your cat's organs live much longer, ⁓ and we're preserving their vision. And so if you can get your cat's blood pressure checked, that's the best. And if you can get it done at home, that's even better. Now we have...

Now, when we were doing house calls, you and I would go check blood pressures. But now we have a house call service in the Boulder area that will come to your house. And there are a couple nurses that will do it for your kitty, which I highly recommend doing that.

JoJo (14:25)
it's gonna be the

most accurate because your cat is gonna be most relaxed at home. mean, imagine when you go into a doctor's office and you get a high blood pressure reading, they'll often just say, yeah, like you're here, you're nervous, that's expected. Your cat is probably feeling that tenfold going into a clinic where there's dogs and new environment and new smells. So it's not gonna be the most accurate reading in the clinic. fair, yeah.

Dr. Angie Krause (14:50)
They're just getting in the cat carrier, like in the house. Their blood pressure's

high. And then they have their car ride. You should still do it.

JoJo (14:55)
But if you can only do it in a clinic, it's still a great baseline. At least then we know what your cat's baseline

is. But if you have the option to do it at home, it's a really pleasant experience and a more accurate indicator of where their blood pressure actually is.

Dr. Angie Krause (15:03)
Yeah.

bother your veterinarian until they'll come to your home. Just harass them. I know so many of that's are going to be like, what? I'd be like, just stop by, send a nurse out.

JoJo (15:13)
You're just gonna get hate mail for that. Dr. Angie said I should call you again and again and again.

Well, not everybody, not every clinic has a Doppler though either, right? Cause they're using the automated.

Dr. Angie Krause (15:34)
⁓ yes. I'm

going to try to hold my opinion. Because I want, I want someone to check your cat's blood pressure, even if it's not the machine or like I prefer Doppler because I think it's more accurate. But maybe, maybe I'm old and the Cardel, like the automated systems are better. And maybe I need to update, but I mean, I still see most clinics using a Doppler. I do.

JoJo (15:39)
I

Do you? I feel like that

was the big win for a while when I'd go into a clinic and they had the card. I'm like, wow, this is great. It's so easy. But yes, I hear I'm I'm old too. So there you go.

Dr. Angie Krause (16:09)
I

Yes, yes.

And the reason why we like the Doppler is it's simpler technology, but it's often more accurate. I'm not saying that the, I don't know, automated pressure checkers. I don't know. I think Cardella is a brand. Isn't Cardella brand? Yeah.

JoJo (16:27)
Yeah, and I don't know, but that's how I know it as is the card out.

like, if you're okay, I can just keep equating it to human medicine. So when you go into a doctor and they put on the stethoscope and put the stethoscope on your arm and they pump, pump, pump, pump the little cuff on your arm, that's adopt like that's what Dr. Angie appreciates. First is when you go in and they they roll in the machine and just

Dr. Angie Krause (16:47)
Yes.

JoJo (16:56)
put the cuff on you and push a button. Yeah.

Dr. Angie Krause (16:56)
Yeah, and it goes ring. Yeah,

and you like feel like your arm is gonna fall off because it's so tight.

JoJo (17:01)
Yeah, the one at Walgreens always says I'm dying from hypertension. I'm like,

because it like pretty much, yeah, the arm's gonna fall off. That's the difference between the two in terms of function. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, but I would imagine a lot of listeners don't have access to in-home blood pressures.

Dr. Angie Krause (17:10)
Yeah, so painful. Yes, I like that. I like that. Yes. So it's like the technology is way easier, but...

I know, I wish I could change that. I wish we could be part of the movement to change that. But that's okay. Today is t-

JoJo (17:28)
Well, and if you get to see

it, ⁓ my gosh, the cuffs, the little blood pressure cuffs for kitties are just so stinking cute because they're so tiny.

Dr. Angie Krause (17:33)
You

They're cute! Yeah, and so we just

shave like usually the back leg. I don't know why I'm holding up my hand like it looks like a paw. So imagine my hand is, this is the big paw pad. We just shave like right behind it, like to these vessels, like literally to these vessels, except this is a foot. ⁓ And what we do is we shave the hair off.

JoJo (17:42)
because you're not gonna put your foot up on the screen.

Dr. Angie Krause (17:58)
And then we put some goo, like some ultrasound goo, and then we put our little Doppler crystal. We put our headphones on and then we're hearing your kitty's pulse and then we use a cuff to occlude the vessel. And then that's how we check your kitty's systolic blood pressure. So that's what's gonna happen.

JoJo (18:18)
Okay, it's so fun. I don't know why I love this, but it's cute.

And most cats just lie there, maybe a little stunned at like what is happening, but it's a pretty, yeah, they don't seem to really care. I think the shaving piece is probably the worst of it.

Dr. Angie Krause (18:25)
Yeah.

Yes. It's pretty easy on them.

Right, the sound of the clippers. And sometimes we'll do that on a different visit. don't hesitate to ask your, ⁓ if you are going to see in an in clinic brick and mortar place, you could be like, hey, will you shave a little bit of my cat's hair there so that we can do a Doppler at home. I'm now micromanaging things way too much. Okay, okay.

JoJo (18:55)
Well, and if they, if, well, I'm gonna micromanage one more step. Okay,

so if they have to go into a clinic and they're giving like a gabapentin to help your kitty feel calm on the car ride and such, is that going to impact the accuracy of their blood pressure reading?

Dr. Angie Krause (19:10)
Okay, so I just read something conflicting to what I thought. So we used to think, no, but now someone said, well, maybe yes. And so we don't know, but it's still worth doing. So if your cat can only go to the clinic with gabapentin, I would still do the gabapentin because some cats like literally just cannot be handled without a little, you know, feeling a little high. And so I would still do it. But we think that maybe it does affect it.

JoJo (19:18)
Mmm.

Dr. Angie Krause (19:40)
course like everything else with cats we don't have enough studies. Yeah. We're in the land of baby now. It used to be no. And I bet someone would still tell us no. But I read something on VIN saying, well, maybe it does. Maybe we were wrong.

JoJo (19:43)
Okay, fair. So we're in the land of maybe.

Okay.

Okay,

well, I guess we will know or we won't know, but keep getting the blood pressure. Okay, so we've talked about staging, we've talked about blood work, we talked about blood pressure. ⁓ Let's talk about how long do kitties with kidney disease live?

Dr. Angie Krause (20:00)
Yes.

Yes.

you diagnose them at stage one to two, we're talking years. And we're going to do a follow-up episode because there's so much to talk about in kidney disease. Then we're going to do a part two and in the part two we're going to talk about diet. And it's important to know

that your cat's probably gonna live for years because it really does affect the choice of diet, in my opinion. So I'll tell you all about that in the next episode. But expect your cat to live for a long time. Now, if your cat is in stage three or four, it's harder to say, especially like stage four, like in stage kidney disease. I some cats can look pretty poorly on paper and be doing pretty well, but that's variable.

JoJo (20:39)
Mm-hmm.

Mm hmm.

So when we do the next episode, we'll talk about diet like supportive care diet and ⁓ medications.

Dr. Angie Krause (21:06)
Yes.

But there are some things you can do. when your cat gets diagnosed, the reason we want to diagnose early is because we want to change some things. And I always like adding a few supplements on. And there's three, four, if I can be greedy, supplements I like to add on. The first thing I like to add on is a fish oil. Yes, this is what we use.

JoJo (21:31)
I'm in a model. I have them all here.

Dr. Angie Krause (21:36)
Ultra EFA, RX vitamins. Now,

if you don't have access to this, I also really like Nordic Naturals, some kind of Omega because it's anti-inflammatory. kidney disease is caused by inflammation in the kidneys. We won't get into all the pathophysiology, but so anything we can do to decrease inflammation. Now also this fish oil is going to help your cat's hair coat. It's going to help your cat's joints, like heart. I mean, fish oil is good for everyone.

be taking omegas. So that's an easy win except if your cat doesn't like fish. It's not an easy win. And I am not a fan of fighting cats for supplements. It's not going to be easy and sustainable. Just don't do it. So if your cat's like, I'm not doing fish oil, that is their choice. And I think we should respect that.

JoJo (22:13)
Hahaha

And our other recommendation with fish oil is start slow. because, yeah, I mean, it is, some people just, I would be this person who's like, I'm gonna do the full dose right to get, right from the get. And some kitties need less for their therapeutic dose.

Dr. Angie Krause (22:31)
Yes, that's a good point, thank you.

because at high enough doses fish oil is going to give any cat dog or person diarrhea. so yeah, I know I'm just going to say it. So if you go too high, you're going to give your cat diarrhea, which is fine. You can just back off. Sometimes that's how we figure out the highest dose your cat can handle. But just turn it off. Yeah, like don't be a hero. Don't start off with heroic doses.

JoJo (22:54)
I was trying to be kind, I don't know. But yeah, that's true. Yeah.

Like I'm gonna fix this kidney disease and we're gonna

do all two tablespoons. Yeah.

Dr. Angie Krause (23:18)
So, don't do that. Work up.

The other supplement I like are the RX vitamins, the Beeblitz. Do you have those?

JoJo (23:27)
Too happy! These are the peanuts!

Dr. Angie Krause (23:30)
Yeah, they are called RX renal feline bublets. And basically, yes, they're tasteless, which is like such a win for cats, like getting supplements into cats is so hard. And they have like some herbs and supplements and basically a mixture of

JoJo (23:35)
Can you hear them?

Dr. Angie Krause (23:50)
things that are going to help decrease inflammation, promote blood flow to the kidneys. So I really like those. Now, if you put these bee blitz on your cat's food and your cat's like, I'm not eating them. There's one other thing you can try. You can try like putting them in like a churu stick. So churu sticks are like those long tube pouches that kind of squeeze out. You cut off the top and they squeeze out. The other thing you could do is put them in like a tuna fish or some kind

of special treat away from the meal. And if they won't eat them there, then give up because I don't want you. It's okay to admit defeat and say my cat's not going to eat these. Because like I said earlier, your cat's likely going to live for years with this. so whatever you're doing has to be sustainable every day and not affect your cat's quality of life or affect your relationship with your cat.

JoJo (24:47)
⁓ But I will say that ours vitamins has done a fantastic job in formulating this for cats because it's also nearly odorless so you can't smell it. It looks like it should be a really smelly product but

Dr. Angie Krause (25:00)
I

know. So how many times do we have people return these because their cats won't? Yeah.

JoJo (25:05)
I was just going to say that I think we've only

had two or three returns over the years.

Dr. Angie Krause (25:10)
Yeah. It's just not something that happens. Knock on wood.

JoJo (25:13)
And we're very generous

with our return policy so people are free to reach out if their cat's not taking it. ⁓

Dr. Angie Krause (25:20)
Yeah, yeah, if you buy this

and it doesn't work, then we'll take it back because you shouldn't be stuck with that. The third supplement I like is the CBD. I like, which is really hemp. We need a whole episode on the CBD and hemp, but yeah. I don't know, we'll put it on the list. So much to talk about. ⁓

JoJo (25:26)
Okay, what's next?

⁓ 100%. Why have we not done that? Yeah. So much to talk about.

Dr. Angie Krause (25:44)
So I like RX Vitamins Hemp RX Feline because out of all the CBD formulas, which are just hemp extracts, I have tried. This is the most tasteless. It's near tasteless. You know, like CBD hemp, can have like that skunky marijuana smell, taste, and cats don't appreciate that. But this I feel like is the best out of all of them. You can either put it on your cat's food or you can put it on a freeze dried treat and give it to your cat.

JoJo (26:04)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Angie Krause (26:13)
But what this does is it helps modulate inflammation. But if your cat has kidney disease, there's also a really good chance they have arthritis or maybe some anxiety. And so I feel like this is the age group where I feel like they all need CBD because it's so helpful for so many reasons. think cats, they start to become less mobile and we don't notice they just hang out more and sleep more. But we think, they're cats, but maybe they're going up and down the stairs less. They're jumping up on the

less and so I really like using HempRx to help promote good kidney function and for all the other side benefits.

JoJo (26:52)
And I would say when you go to the site, boulderholisticvet.com and you're looking, we have different CBD options, but for your cat, choose the feline drops because they are made slightly different from the other CBDs that we carry to be more palatable to cats. So it's really, again, pretty tasteless and odorless and it's so concentrated. So what you might've bought in the store is right here, is my cat won't take it, but you're having to give up an entire dropper to get.

therapeutic dose and this one it's for a lot of cats it's one drop not one dropper one single drop twice a day it's a it's it's a little bit to get in

Dr. Angie Krause (27:28)
Yes.

Yes,

it's so easy to dose compared to...

other formulations and we do carry it in the tree and I don't want to discourage people from getting the treat But I feel like you can almost make a better treat. I guess I'm just gonna do this I'm just gonna discourage the purchase of the treats, but you can even make yourself a better treat With something your cat would like by putting the drop on some you know on a cookie or I mean cats don't really eat cookies but like on ⁓

like a temptations treat.

JoJo (28:06)
Like the freeze dried, yeah, temptations or like a freeze dried food.

You could probably put it on like one of the little morsels.

Dr. Angie Krause (28:12)
Yes. Yeah, you can do that. And

you're going to get more milligrams of CBD. Although we have plenty of people, plenty of the cats do like the chews and people feel like, this is easy. I'm giving my cat a treat. so, mean, would you say that we sell more of the oil or more of the chews? Yeah, it's better. Yes.

JoJo (28:29)
far more of the oil. Well, it's just more cost effective. I

think and it has I mean, it's pure. So I if somebody's looking at an ingredient deck, ⁓ the CBD oil is simply it's MCT oil and hemp. it. So

Dr. Angie Krause (28:39)
Yeah, like if their cat's sensitive.

Yeah.

And then if I could be like really greedy with supplements, I would put your cat on a probiotic because I put everybody on a probiotic. So like the RX biotic, there are a lot of good probiotics out there. ⁓ that's what I use and we've bundled all these products together to save you money. And so if you want to go to boulderholisticvet.com forward slash shop, you can go to our bundles. And so you don't have to remember anything I just said, just go to the bundle and you can buy them all together. And that's what I.

JoJo (28:52)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Angie Krause (29:17)
usually recommend people do when their cat has been diagnosed with kidney disease.

JoJo (29:22)
Great, and if they had to prioritize one product, one or two, it wouldn't be the RX biotic because that was your greedy choice.

Dr. Angie Krause (29:31)
That's my greedy choice. ⁓ Definitely the fish oil and then the... ⁓ that's tough. Fish oil... ⁓ Maybe the beadlets.

JoJo (29:37)
Hahaha

I was

gonna say the beadlets have science behind them in terms of the ⁓ blood work that they actually see improvement on blood work in cats with kidney disease.

Dr. Angie Krause (29:52)
⁓ okay. Okay.

I don't think I've looked at their studies, but I know individually a lot. What I really like about the RX-B-LITs is they have some of the Chinese medicine I use. And so it's like, I'm like, I'm getting my, you know, Chinese formula in there with a bunch of other stuff, and then my patient will actually eat it. So that's what gets me most excited. Yes. Yeah, I like that. So yeah.

JoJo (30:14)
Yeah, I think it has like the Romania 8 in it, the Romania 8 and yeah. okay, so beadlets.

Well, really you want beadlets, oil, CBD, ideally.

Dr. Angie Krause (30:25)
Yes, yes.

But you know what I mean, like beggars can't be choosers. And if your cat will only eat one of them, like that's still a win. You're still winning. I'm still proud of you.

JoJo (30:34)
totally. Yeah. And also

you have, so we're going to do a part two, which will come out, you know, a week or so after this. Yeah. And you also have a kidney disease course.

Dr. Angie Krause (30:42)
I'm gonna part two.

Hopefully soon. Yeah.

Yeah, so if you want to learn about my kind of holistic approach, we're talking about everything in this course. I, yeah, I'm trying to think of anything we don't talk about, but you can go to boulderholisticvet.com. You can go to our courses tab, and then you can use, the code truth tales? Truth tales.

JoJo (31:13)
Yes, it is.

Dr. Angie Krause (31:16)
U-T-H-T-A-I-L-S and you can get that course for free. Which is very exciting. Yeah, that's like all the stuff. So it was a pre-recorded live class. You can hear people's questions which are probably similar to questions you would have. ⁓ And I just go through it all. I think it's about an hour and a half. So we talked about kidney disease for a long time.

JoJo (31:24)
That's a super bonus. Yeah.

Yeah, somewhere around there.

Fantastic.

Dr. Angie Krause (31:46)
So

in part two, what are we going to talk about? We're going to talk about diet, which is so...

JoJo (31:53)
diet.

treatment.

Dr. Angie Krause (31:57)
Yes, we're gonna talk about other treatments. An end of life, yes, which is years away, hopefully. If your kitty just got diagnosed, ⁓ we can use these. Okay, I think that wraps it up for today. We would love to hear from you. Please comment.

JoJo (31:59)
and end of life.

Mm-hmm.

Alright.

Dr. Angie Krause (32:16)
Wherever you're listening to this podcast, let us know about your kitty with kidney disease or anything you'd like to hear about or that you love or hate us. Whatever. Just tell us, tell us whatever. ⁓

JoJo (32:29)
Every veterinarian

that you said, nudge your veterinarian again and again and again for in-home blood pressure. Yes, nasty comments. Here we go.

Dr. Angie Krause (32:33)
Ha ha.

Leave me a nasty comment here.

Okay, we'll see you next time. Bye.

JoJo (32:43)
Bye.