Meet LuLu!
- Name: LuLu
- Birth: Jan. 11, 2017 (Age: 8)
- Breed: Scottish Fold
- Sex: Male (Neutered)
- Likes: Food, grooming other cats, food, chewing on toys, and food.
- Dislikes: Baths, not having 24/7 access to food, rabbits.
- Favorite Food: Everything and anything!
- Diagnosis: Diagnosed with stage 2 CKD in 2020.
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Treatment: AIM Dr. Toru Protocol, Intensive Protocol, Probiotics Protocol, Omega- 3.
There are many words you could use to describe my cat LuLu.
Loud. Unruly. Determined. Fierce. Eager. Friendly. Happy. Affectionate. But more than anything, I would say he’s hungry.
LuLu’s always been defined by his hunger, and not just for food. He’s a small and fluffy bundle of desires, always craving something, whether it be snacks, companionship, toys, or something else entirely. Though I can’t deny that food is still his number one vice.
That’s why I was so concerned when he began to turn down food after he turned 3.
As long as I’ve known LuLu, he’s always been the first among my cats to come running at even the slightest mention of food. You couldn’t shake a bag of snacks from half a house away without LuLu strolling over to loudly demand his fair share.
Yet, at some point, he stopped running with all his might, and instead began walking slowly, as if reluctant to come over for snacks. At other times, he wouldn’t even eat snacks, no matter how often I offered them to him. While he’d still dig into his regular meals with gusto, it was painfully clear to me that he was eating less and sleeping more.
Soon afterward, in 2020, LuLu was diagnosed with stage 2 CKD.
Please Eat Something, Kitty!
A CKD diagnosis is a life-changing experience for cats around the world, and not in a good way. It means having to live with a permanent affliction that never really gets better - you can delay and stall the progress of CKD, but you can’t make it go away. It means having to deal with all sorts of stressful changes, both small and large. More than anything, it means nothing will ever be the same again.
Small wonder so many cats with CKD end up losing their appetites.
A loss of appetite is one of the most common symptoms of CKD, but what makes it truly difficult is the fact that the measures you take to treat your cat’s CKD can actually make this symptom worse.
Cats with CKD often require specific diets to manage their conditions. This means less snacks, and switching to cat food with lower levels of protein, phosphorus, and sodium, which their kidneys can’t handle or process as efficiently as they could before. But while renal food is great for the kidneys, it’s not really that great for the taste buds. Most cats don’t really like the taste of renal food, and will refuse to eat it.
A Meeting with Dr. Toru Miyazaki
Ever since my cats TT and LuLu were first diagnosed with CKD, I’ve constantly thrown myself into looking up information on CKD treatment for cats. I’ve consulted experts, spoken to my cats’ veterinarians, looked up news articles, and browsed academic journals for anything that could bring me closer to finding a solution for my cats.
In 2022, I came across articles about the research of a professor in Japan who seemed to have uncovered the cause of CKD in cats, and was working on a cure for the condition based on a substance he had discovered known as AIM. Figuring I had nothing to lose, I reached out to the man, Dr. Toru Miyazaki, to ask him about his research and if it could help TT and LuLu.
Amazingly enough, Dr. Toru consented, and even agreed to an interview to help raise awareness on feline CKD. In addition, he even shared his personal formula for feline CKD treatment, allowing me to create AIM-based supplements that would be the prototype for AIM Dr. Toru Protocol to feed my cats.
You can learn more about my first meeting and interview with Dr. Toru here!
With the help of his supplements and advice, all of my cats improved greatly, especially LuLu. LuLu’s creatinine levels had been rising constantly despite all my efforts, but the supplements finally helped me take them down to safer levels. In fact, while LuLu’s kidney functions are still equivalent to that of a cat with stage 2 CKD, his kidney levels (creatinine, BUN, etc.) are now actually equivalent to that of a healthy cat’s!
Furthermore, the data I obtained from caring for my cats with the early AIM Dr. Toru Protocol supplements helped me better understand their effects, and this data helped me complete not just the AIM Dr. Toru Protocol supplements, but also the Intensive Protocol and Probiotics Protocol supplements released after them.
Among the 3 supplements offered by Greycoat Research, AIM Dr. Toru Protocol and Probiotics Protocol can be fed as-is or taken apart to be mixed in with cat food, whereas Intensive Protocol contains ingredients that may be unappealing to cats and should only be fed as-is.
While the capsules used for these supplements are on the smaller size to make it easy for small cats like LuLu to eat, some cats are still resistant to the idea of swallowing them, and must be fed with the help of a tool, like a pill gun. Luckily for me, LuLu is not one of those cats. He’s more of an eat first, think later (or never) type of cat, which makes giving him his supplements incredibly easy.
LuLu, the Hungriest Cat Alive
It’s been 5 years since LuLu was first diagnosed with stage 2 CKD, and he still remains at the same stage to this day, a testament to what proper kidney care can do for cats with CKD. His creatinine levels have gone down noticeably, and LuLu remains as hungry as he was the day I first met him.
In fact, I sometimes worry that time and good health have only made him hungrier than ever.
LuLu is living proof that having CKD doesn’t have to mean everything’s over for a cat. Sure, things have changed in his life. He’s not allowed to eat as many snacks as he wants to anymore. I make sure he drinks more water than he did before he got CKD. But he’s still LuLu. Just because his life has changed doesn’t mean his essence has.
I believe LuLu’s early diagnosis helped me take the steps to give LuLu the care he needed. Rather than rush him from one thing to another, I was able to make slow changes in LuLu’s life at a pace that he was comfortable with. If I’d rushed him, the stress could have prevented him from making the improvements that he did.
Knowing what was wrong with him also played a major role in my ability to give him proper care. Thanks to Dr. Toru’s research and guidance, I had a better understanding of how CKD worked, and how it affected LuLu, giving me the knowledge I needed to fight back against the disease. And at this point, I think I can safely say that it’s done wonders for LuLu’s renal health.
LuLu the cat has stage 2 CKD.
But even now, he’s still hungry!
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My concern for LuLu’s appetite was also fueled by my experiences caring for TT, another cat of mine with stage 2 CKD. TT was an incredibly picky eater and set in her ways, and I had to make long-term, gradual changes in the way I fed my cats to ensure TT could get the food she needed. You can read more about my struggles managing TT’s CKD here!
