I Kennedy (Usa) on 11/18/2017

https://answers.earthclinic.com/natural-remedies-for-cat-with-polycystic-kidney-disease.html

ANY ONE that has kidney disease should be taking CHARCOAL. My 15 year old kitty (after coming home from the vet) gets a half a capsule of activated charcoal once a day in a spoonful or 2 of NON grain wet cat food (blue or abound for her) with a slippery elm/water mixture in all her food) to put mucus in her bowels, and about an eighth teaspoon of wheatgrass in one of her feedings. You don't want to mix charcoal with medicines or a lot of cat food, as it will be wasted; charcoal is famous for ridding the body of poisons, and along with filtering the toxins the kidneys are unable to handle, it will also "absorb" medicines/nutrition in the cat food. It is well worth sacrificing a spoon or two of cat food to mix the charcoal with, and she doesn't notice the taste AT ALL.

A month or so later she has almost regained her weight, grazes all day long like a pony on her food, eating equal amounts of food, and water and acts like a mere 8 yr. old! Since I am new at this, I don't know if or when I will stop the charcoal. I get the kind in jello caps so I can use half a cap a day and put the cap back on for the next day. Just an opinion from someone who isn't trained in cat medicine, for what it's worth; Cats are true carnivores, who eat only protein (bugs, birds, reptiles, meat, and a little grass) and we wonder why an animal who isn't designed to deal with carbs and grain gets obese! Then were told by the vet to get another grain-gluten dry food with "more fiber".

You can now get at the grocery store ground up chicken/pork/turkey with no antibiotics and serve it raw or cooked. This is how I got her to loose weight 10 yrs. ago when the vet made fun of how fat she was, by giving her real meat, no carbs. If you think gluten and excess carbs are bad for you, what do you think it does to an animal not designed to digest carbs? Anyway with the slippery elm/water in all her food, the charcoal and wheatgrass once a day she is pooping/drinking normally and very happy. I think other remedies are good, and we have to try to see what does or doesn't work, but ANY ONE WITH KIDNEY DISEASE SHOULD BE TAKING CHARCOAL TO TAKE UP THE SLACK OF WEAK KIDNEYS, 101.

Again, I'm not a vet or close to it, but I know what it is to have a sick cat who we almost lost and desperate to find something that works, and charcoal is wonderful for fixing up digestion matters in humans. I'm a private person (no twitter or facebook for me)so I don't even like writing this, except that I think it is so important and got such good results, and I've not heard of adverse effects with small amounts of charcoal, so if other things haven't worked for you, try it.

Replied By Mama To Many (Tn) on 11/19/2017

Dear I Kennedy,

Thank you so much for taking time to share this. I am sure it will be helpful to others. Great job!

You might find this study interesting about the use of charcoal for kidney disease (in humans)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20061701

We have used charcoal for many years. Personally, I think the protocol you have created sounds like one to continue indefinitely.

Again, great job and thanks for posting.

~Mama to Many~

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Replied By I. Kennedy (Usa) on 11/22/2017

P.S.: Since some people are new at this, I should of mentioned that you should mention not drink tap or distilled water, but spring water for you and your beasties. Tap water has bromide/ fluoride/chloride that is largely responsible for the low thyroid epidemic in the U.S., and distilled water, since it has zero minerals, will leech them out of your body over a period of time. My city gets fined every year for poor quality water, and it is easier/cheaper to pay the fine than to fix the problem. Now that my kitty feels like a "thunder kitten"(nick name) I'm considering giving her half a capsule every other day; I haven't decided. Sometimes you have to try different dosages, depending on size of the beastie and severity of the disease. I'm done now.

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Replied By Lila (Greece) on 12/03/2017

Thank you for the useful information. Do you give special k/d food to your cat? Thank you once again.

Lila

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Replied By I. Kennedy (Usa) on 12/07/2017

I don't use k/d food, although I wouldn't tell anyone else not to; I use about anything that doesn't have grain/gluten, which includes the antibiotic/hormone free ground turkey/pork/chicken (the stuff YOU would eat that is readily available now at the grocery store) served raw or cooked as beastie prefers, and blue or abound. I also put in a little wheatgrass (I brush my teeth with it) or spirulina. Also, something to keep kitty from constipation, slippery elm. I'm on maintenance with her now, and have changed the charcoal. Several herbs are good at taking toxins out of the body including Parsley(which I'm using), and Cilantro. Fresh parsley is easy to come by, ( the roots are much stronger, so I wouldn't recommend it, as it would take such a tiny amount that it could overdose.) A handful or more thrown in a pint and a half of boiling spring water, covered and taken off the burner is how a person takes the tea, ) you have to determine how much to put into kitty's water, but is pretty harmless. Apiol in parsley used to be used to induce labor, but would take LARGE DOSES; so maybe not for pregnant cats. Like most things, you start small (a tablespoon or 2 in a cup of water.) If I were starting out with an acute problem I would start with the charcoal. She is doing fine and doesn't seem to mind SOME parsley tea in her water. You can also make cilantro tea, but I would use the leaves, not the seeds, as it might be too strong for a wee beastie. It does remove heavy metals (from tuna, perhaps?) Bit I feel that parsley may be safer, BUT I DON'T KNOW; THIS IS ALL GUESS WORK. I'm sure you can see how to make teas on youtube. I forgot to mention that if your cat took antibiotics (mine did) you should definitely replace them with a quality probiotic for humans; I have no idea how " alive" animal probiotics are on the shelf when you buy then; and don't trust but a few human probiotics to:1 be alive sitting on the shelf :2 still be alive when they pass thru your stomach into your intestine. My cat didn't mind the charcoal, but some might find the parsley tea in the water more palatable, plus that charcoal will absorb anything (nutrition, supplements, drugs) taken with it. I hope this helps.

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Replied By Kennedy (NY) on 02/07/2018

I saw people talking about chia/flax seed for constipation, but were worried about the seed stealing even more fluid out of the gut and making the constipation worse; the solution was simple; I have chia seed and I put it through the coffee grinder. I take a spoonful and stir it up with 3 spoonfuls of spring water and let it sit until it becomes jelly like. then I add wet cat food to it and also add more water to the mix (to absorb even more water, ) but not so much that the food is sitting in a pool of water. Now, the chia has absorbed as much water as it ever will BEFORE the cat eats it, and brings the water INTO the gut instead of absorbing it OUT OF the gut. You must GRIND IT UP FIRST, as you don't know what just raw seed is going to do. I HAVE NOT tried this with ground up flax seed yet. I also changed from parsley to BURDOCK ROOT TEA (I like burdock root better) and these together are working wonderfully well. I feel burdock root tea is very safe and will but a spoonful of it in her food as well as her water, and she doesn't seem to mind the taste of either burdock root tea or the jelly consistency of ground up chia, (I'm all for not having to poke things down cats throats if I don't have to, ) but it looks like she's eating twice as much (half chia/water, half wet food, ) so take that into consideration. She looks wonderful, has gained her weight back, shiny coat, and taken up playing again after about a month. Nothing like a. charcoal to get your beastie out of the woods when they're sick, but shouldn't stay on it long as it absorbs nutrition along with the poisons weak kidneys can't filter. So it's ground up chia/water, burdock root tea, and wheatgrass at least once a day for us. Burdock roots are available at Natural Grocers and I guess about any health food store, and on line.

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Replied By Carrieann (Connecticut) on 03/12/2021

Hi thank you sooo much for the confirmation!!! just gave 2 to my border collie with kidney disease. She was given antibiotics that made her so sick even though no infection was found. Her urine was dilute so she was diagnosed with kidney failure. Now she is afraid to take any food because she has tossed her cookies so much - I happened to have activated charcoal in the house for poisoning, so it dawned on me if it is used to expel toxins it might work to purify the kidneys. I checked - it works in humans so..... Again, thanks for sharing your experience.

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Replied By MollyInTexas (Texas) on 03/21/2021

Carrieann, please keep us updated on your baby collie girl and her reaction to the activated charcoal. Also, it might be better if you open the capsules and add the charcoal to a liquid and then maybe feed it to her with a baby syringe that you could find at a pharmacy. It would help her not to vomit the capsules. I'm praying for everything to work out for her. Please let us know! With blessings, Molly

Replied By Ruth (New Mexico) on 07/28/2023

Just wondering if you have anymore to add as time has passed? One question I do have is do you wait a half an hour of so before and after eating so there is nothing in their stomach? Can anyone advise.

I bought charcoal for my kitty and hoping taking it will aid her. She eats it with some tuna.

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