VetriScience Kidney Health Chews, Renal Essentials Supplement for Cats, Kidney Care and Support with Mushroom, Astragalus Root, Nettle Seed and Herbs, Chicken, 120 Count

Sometime around August 2021 Gus, my 16-year old 15-lb dachshund, started guzzling water, peeing all the time and becoming increasingly picky with food. I was filled with dread because in 2018 I lost a pup (Oscar) to renal failure that, at the time, seemed all of a sudden, but after talking to the emergency room vet I realized his symptoms (decreased appetite and increased water consumption/urination) had actually been happening over time. I thought this was “natural, with age” because he was 16. Gus could no longer sleep through the night without having to get up for water/to pee. Also he all but completely stopped eating (first) dog food (then) people food. I must have bought 500 worth of food trying to find something he would eat. The only thing I could get him to eat was dog treats and only certain kinds. I decided to take him ti the vet. I drove 1000 miles to go to my old vet because, thanks to the pandemic?, I couldn’t find a local vet who would see him any time soon and I hadn’t needed to take him to the vet the first 6 months we had been in our new town. I began putting Gus on kidney supplements thinking he was in early renal failure even before we got to the vet. The drops seemed to improve the frequency of his urination slightly. My vet agreed it was likely renal failure or something worse, given my history with Oscar. I let him know that, according to his doggy DNA report, Gus has this health condition that may show liver levels as lower than they really are. So if his liver levels are low, it’s likely they are actually normal. To great relief, Gus’s bloodwork came back “normal.” Confusingly, nothing explained his symptoms. This made me wonder if he was having a liver issue not showing on his blood panel. I quickly researched liver supplements for dogs and I believe this was the first product I found. I read the reviews and ordered it immediately. Since Gus is so small, he only needs half a “treat.” At first I was encouraged because I put it in front of his mouth and he licked it. Then he tried to eat it but it was CRAZY hard. Like crack a tooth hard. Which bored him and he refused to try to eat it. I almost panicked because this supplement seems rather expensive. Then I remembered one reviewer suggesting to grind it down. I did that and put it in liver sausage and he happily ate the liver sausage treat. Then we went to bed. And he slept through the night. For the first night in WEEKS. Literally this supplement cured his increased urination and drinking after one treatment. Or it was fluke, the skeptic in me thought the next morning. I had to continue the treatment to see if it really worked so I made sure to feed him his liver sausage “treat” every night before we went to bed and it seemed that his water issue really was immediately cured. However, he still wasn’t really eating. At this point he was downright refusing dog food and would only sometimes eat people food. Shortly after starting this supplement my mom flew in for a visit. Between my sister and I, she is used to us having old dogs who are picky eaters. So she whipped up some chicken and rice and pumpkin for Gus. I rolled my eyes because I knew he wouldn’t eat it. He doesn’t really like vegetables. Surprisingly, he lapped up a small amount. For about a week my mom made him several very small meals of chicken, rice and pumpkin and I fed Gus with a fork. I was terrified when my mom left that Gus would stop eating because I wasn’t sure I would get the ratios correctly but he kept eating. Then I got him to eat turkey and mashed potatoes (it was Thanksgiving). I was rotating him between turkey and mashed potatoes with a small amount of gravy and turkey and mashed potatoes with pumpkin and he was getting “fatter” (ie normal weight). Then my sister put some dog food out for him and I chastised her because he wasn’t eating dog food. A few hours later, he trundled over to the dog food and ate it! Around this time, Gus began to get resistant to his nightly liver sausage “treat.” He didn’t like that he could taste the supplement in the sausage. I had to grind it up really fine to hide it (I just used a knife to “chop” really finely). Eventually he downright refused the liver sausage “treats” and I had nothing else to hide the supplement in so I stopped them. Miraculously, he didn’t seem to need the supplements anymore. He was back to normal. Normal weight. Eating dog food again in normal amounts. Drinking normal amounts of water. Peeing normally. I stopped the kidney supplement shortly after stopping the liver supplement but I believe the liver supplement cured Gus. So what was wrong with him in the first place? I’m assuming liver toxicity or over-stressed liver. In July he ate an entire NY strip steak and got diarrhea the next day. I thought perhaps too much protein (he loves meat!) taxed his liver. Disclaimer: Obviously there is nothing scientific about my account and I have no idea what was actually wrong with my dog. I was comfortable trying a natural supplement out on Gus because I was willing to try anything to make him feel better. I’m thankful I found this supplement. To me, it was a miracle!

****************************************************************************************************************** UPDATE: BELOW ***************************************************************************************************************** NO ONE SEEMS TO KNOW! There are a lot of kidney support products out there (quite a few just on Amazon) and they answer the question differently; some uniquely and others with some commonalities. I detect two major groups of products: 1) SUPPORT for healthy kidneys up to early stage disease and 2) TREATMENT for early to late stage disease. And no big distinction is drawn between products for humans and those for pets; vets seem to be prescribing or recommending products without much regard for the species of the patient. This product falls under the first category (SUPPORT) and relies mainly on a slew of herbs, Omega-3 fatty acids, and the B-vitamins. Other brands may rely principally on amino acids, probiotics, bovine kidney extracts, different specific herbs, vitamins, or an array of various (sometimes only partially disclosed) ingredients. Which ones are ESSENTIAL? Your guess is as good (no, better) than mine. I have no clue. My rating of this product is not based on its nutritional or clinical value. I am just taking a long shot. Only time, if any thing, will tell whether our currently healthy pets will avoid kidney disease. Our pets accept the product with meals, even lick their food bowl clean, and this particular product is reasonably priced. I combine the reviewed product with a human-grade (& more expensive) formula by Standard Process called RENAFOOD, which relies on amino acids, bovine kidney extracts, one herb (tillandsia), and vitamin A (separate, mirror-image review). As for the second (TREATMENT) category of renal products, there does not seem to be any less variety of (disagreement over) ingredients. For one of our cats (the mom-cat & genetic contributor to our other three) that has failing kidneys our vet prescribed Rx Vitamins' Amino B-Plex, which relies mainly on about a dozen amino acids, potassium, the B-vitamins, and one herb (spirulina) and, of course she prescribed a low protein/low phosphorus renal diet (Royal Canin and Purina). Doesn't sound much different from the "support" formulas, does it? A couple of the more prominent treatment products on Amazon (Azodyl and Epakitin) have their own (mostly undisclosed & expensive) formulations. The prices tend to go up as the condition worsens--huh! Some others I plan to check out with our vet are: Standard Process' Renatrophin PMG, Candioli's RENAL and RENAL ADVANCED powders, and CLINICARE RF liquid. In summary: the reviewed product looked like a good bet and seemed to matchup with Renafood without much duplication. Our non-renal patient cats like the taste of both products and the averaged nominal cost is mid-range (circa $15; less with the human-grade Renafood dosage reduced to 1/20th and the RENAL ESSENTIALS cat tabs dosage by 1/2 for our 10-pound felines). SPECIAL NOTE ON DOSAGES: (Nothing new here, just thought it could benefit repeating). Recommended dosages by supplement marketers are not, with any general assurance, science-based or even regulated. Each marketer is free to specify dosages; an obvious potential conflict of interest situation. One suspects that the marketer sets the dosage as high as the market will bear in order to sell more product. At best, one suspects that the dosages are inflated to cover the extreme end of the useful (and safe?) spectrum (user's condition, sensitivity, body mass, environment, etc.). Sometimes the dosage instructions are incomplete or vague; one suspects for the same profit motive. Occasionally the marketer will provide dosage ranges (body weight ranges, for example) and one is left to infer (or, preferably, not) that the dosage recommended is for the highest weight in the range and also left to do the match for the lower weights in the ranges. Even here one suspects that the dosage still will be inflated after making the inference and doing the math. Marketers could make it easier by giving dosages per smaller units of body weight (say @ 5 or 10 pounds, especially with pet products). This also would make it easier for the buyer to adjust the dosage down further to match the need in less extreme circumstances and make comparisons with other products, but that consumer-friendly ease would conflict, again, with the marketer's profit motive. So, the more specific the dosage the better but even here there probably is a "fudge-factor" and room for experimentation. If the supplement has an equivalent prescription version I use the Rx dosage for the supplement; otherwise, I reduce the supplement dosage down to 1/4 or 1/2 until I get better dosage information. And this reminder about dosages does not even touch the larger question of supplement RELIABILITY (sources, ingredients, additives, contaminants, toxicity, consistency, labeling, procedures, oversight, etc.) which some medical professionals estimate to be less than 30%. Some medical professionals avoid off-the-shelf and online supplements entirely on the basis that reliability cannot be purchased at retail pricepoints. Even with fuller (FDA) regulated drugs, reliability is problematic. This note was not prompted by or directed at the particular product reviewed here. I have reviewed several products where the issue of dosages was encountered and this seemed to be as good a place as any to insert this general cautionary note. I have no reason to suspect that this product is not within the 30% group of superior supplement products. If I get any better data on SUPPORT or TREATMENT options I will edit this review to further refine what is, for kidney health, ESSENTIAL. ****************************************************************************************************************** UPDATE: !!! I HAVE BECOME A DOUBTER !!! Unless a kidney health product (and website/ad) meets the following requirements I have no confidence in its effectiveness: 1) Acknowledge the main nutritional elements for kidneys, namely WATER, EXERCISE, VET-DIET (and, of course, keeping the pets off smoking); 2) Relies on scientific studies (independent, double blind, control group, peer reviewed, replicated--those kinds of things) of exotic foods/ingredients that only small, scattered populations would (if ever) in evolutionary history have access to; 3) omits reference to practices of ancient civilizations; 4) refuses to base conclusions about the effectiveness of the product/ingredients on deductive reasoning (non-inductive reasoning only works with disciplines that have "rules", such as law and theology). I WILL NOT BE PURCHASING THIS PRODUCT AGAIN and will obtain omegas and B-vites in a product without the other unproven ingredients. This review was updated on March 15, 2012, to add more dosage details and on July 1, 2012, to reflect my personal conclusions and evaluative criteria. A side note: I am up to 6 oz of water for our non-CRF cats and up to 4 oz. for our CRF mom-cat (and the vets say give them all they can handle). Hope all this is helpful to others concerned about pet kidney health. ******************************************************************************************************************

Will update review with results, TLDR at bottom: Began with vetriscience renal support treats 8/10. My cat refused to eat them, so I crushed the treats and mixed them into her wet food- and she effectively avoided the treats and became less interested in the food that contained them. So I opted for this product instead. Began use 8/16 by crushing one tablet and mixing into wet food with each meal. My cat absolutely refused to eat any food that this was mixed into and decided to eat my other cats food instead. Tonight 8/18 I decided to crush up the pill and mix it with water, load it into a syringe and administer orally. This she tolerated just fine, with treats of course. Too soon to notice results but I will update this within a month to share. TLDR: In my opinion this supplement smells bitter and unappetizing. My cat avoided any food it was crushed and mixed into at all costs. I found that crushing the supplement and mixing it with water then administering via syringe was well tolerated. If you are not willing to do that I would not recommend this product. Have not been using it long enough to be sure of results but I will update this review within a month. 8/24: i have stopped using this for my cat. astragalus can show some dangerous side effects in other supplements. the syringe administration was far too tedious. i have opted for other supplements- specifically BioRen kidney health, COQ10, and healthy kidney kidney restore probiotics. these seem to make a significant difference!

I really want everyone to know that this product works wonders for my dog, the down side is that the pill is very difficult for my small dog to swallow, I've tried every thing, from coating the pill with butter, peanut butter. It's very difficult. After about 3 to 4 trys we finally manage to get the pill swallowed. The food coloring of the pill is all over my hands, Yuck. I can't imagine trying this with a cat. Unfortunately I will be purchasing another brand that I can crush and put in his food, so he won't be terrified any more.

My cat is fine with these, I put it into her food and she's good eating them. I crumble them up its really not that difficult. They pretty much smell like vitamins. Im really sensitive to smell its not that bad.

***edit - we recently started giving my cat a home-made diet and she is now much more accepting of supplements in her food. I have been cautiously adding a little of this product into her food as crushed powder and as long as I don't overdo it so far she is eating it - which is good since her kidney disease is advancing and she needs all the help she can get. Like I said in the review below, the ingredients are excellent but the smell is distinct and luckily she likes her new food so much she still eats. I have noticed some reviewers say they have better luck with this same product that comes in a soft "treat" form but I haven't tried it. I'm glad I can finally get her to take this now hope it helps with her condition!***** This product has a very strong smell, hard to describe but turns out to be very offensive to my cat. I don't know if it's just this batch but I missed the window for return and the seller won't send a replacement. I had to crush the pills as they are very hard. I made the error of mixing a small amount of crushed pills in with her other powdered supplements to try to disguise the taste which she then refused to eat unless I doused her food with water from (no-salt) canned tuna or salmon - and even then if she detects it she won't eat the food. I had to order all new supplements as she really needs the support being an older kitty with kidney disease. Lesson learned - if you have a supplement mix that works for your pet, don't taint it with something new that may "spoil" the batch if your cat doesn't like it. This product has great ingredients but something in the mix is a real turn-off for my cat. I'm hoping to find someone local to give the rest of the bottle to since it would be great medicine if a cat would take it!!! On the other hand I did get Standard Process Renafood and she does like the taste, I crush the pills and sprinkle on top of one meal a day and that seems to help. She also doesn't mind the taste of NuviFlex Cat and Small Dog Hip and Joint Formula and Missing Link for cats (carefully mix a small quantity at a time of that one b/c of the fiber). I'm hoping to find something specific for kidney balance that isn't too expensive that my cat will eat, so the search continues.

Vetri-Liver and Denamarin is working!!! My story: Our dog is a 12ish Jack Russell mix. In August 2017, he was off. Not himself. Bloodwork and ultrasound showed he likely had Chronic Hepatitis. Put him on Denamarin. Bloodwork improved, but still not perfect. Had the vet do a dental thinking that the liver issues could be from bad teeth. They put him on a preventative antibiotic. 1 week after the Dental he spiked a 106 fever. He was ultimately put on IVs with a different antibiotic. Fever came down, felt better. Noticed that he had developed a licking issue after eating which was new. Fever slowly started to climb back upward. At 104 he was put back on IVs, taken off of all antibiotics in an attempt to get the bacteria to flourish and to isolate it. The only problem was that once he was off of the antibiotics his temperature went normal never to return. Eating throughout this has been difficult. Turning down filet mignon or whatever concoction I could come up with to tempt him to eat. I had pointed out to the vets (lots of them) that the antibiotics warned against liver and kidney issues. Everyone poo poo'd that. Well, it turns out that his liver couldn't process them. I took him home on Christmas Day from the vet hospital. They wanted to do a liver biopsy, but I rejected it. He already looked like warmed over death. Wasn't eating a thing in the hospital. They would have had to put him back on antibiotics. - And there was no clear indication that the liver was the origin of the problem, and could just be a secondary to another issue like heart disease (he does have a small heart murmur, but his heart is working sufficiently), cancer, etc. Even if we knew exactly what the liver diagnosis was, the treatment wouldn't be much different: Diet, supplements and potentially prednisone (which is hard on the liver as well - catch 22) At home, he was a new dog. He started eating. I researched every liver diet, and started with a very bland, home-cooked meal. I noticed that if I added a hi-end kibble to his diet, there would be more licking (licking surfaces like the carpeting). I read where compulsive licking is often intestinal distress. I'm not convinced that he also didn't have some kind of gastric issue, like gastric ulcers, or other intestinal issue, perhaps because of the liver or maybe even driving the liver problem. It is the end of April 2018, and he is doing well. I started him on Vetri-liver in the AM a couple of months ago with a breakfast of eggs, cottage cheese, oatmeal, rice, and chicken/turkey or beef). The Vetri-liver isn't extremely palatable, but I just cut it in pieces and put it in meat or cheese, and it will go down. Since I don't have a firm diagnosis for the liver problem, I looked for zinc and anti-oxidants to help the liver even if he had a copper retention problem. Zinc is supposed to offset copper in your diet. It also has some other supplements that he may need. Afternoon, he gets his Denamarin tablet (2 hours after the last meal) and 1 hour before dinner. Supposedly vegetable protein is better for dogs with liver disease. So I came up with some treats that also helped, especially in the beginning when getting him to eat was hard. I fill a turkey pan with: eggs, meat, carrots, sweet potatoes, tofu, wheat germ, peanut butter, coconut oil, and enough oats and a little bit of flour to make a cookie dough. The secret ingredient is a little bacon grease and bacon for palatability. Yes, bad, but makes the difference between this going down the hatch. These can be a mid-day snack, or actually a small meal if we are out hiking, etc. I bake them on cookie tins like brownies, cut them into squares, put them in baggies, and throw them in the freezer. This way they stay fresh. Dinner is rice/oatmeal/sweet potatoes/pumpkin or yams mixed with eggs/chicken/turkey/beef along with some well-processed veggies. I'm not convinced that I'm feeding a balanced diet, so I bought some senior dog vitamins that he gets periodically. Slowly the weight is coming back on. Exercise is important, because he is hungry after exercise. So a small walk in the morning before breakfast and walk before dinner really makes a difference with the pills and food going down. As long as he is eating soft, smaller meals, the compulsive licking has stopped. He is energetic, playing with toys, bright on his walks and back among the living. His liver enzymes are not perfect: ALT started at 275 (August 2017), went to 1,800 during the antibiotic reaction and spiked fever, back to 275 and now down to 253 most recently. ALP started at 263, 656 at its worst, and now at 167. I don't know if I will be successful in getting them to normal ranges, but if I look at his quality of life, it looks pretty good now. I wanted to share my story, because you don't hear often that antibiotics could almost kill your dog. And.....your dog can come back after refusing to eat anything after dire illness. Considering a backpack Trip!!

I have been giving my small dog one of these in a pill pocket for a little over a month. I then wait one hour before feeding him since this supplement works best on an empty stomach or with a small bite of food just to get the pill in him. After a few weeks he was drinking less water and didn't seem as bloated. He started waging his tail more and seemed more alert. And it just keeps getting better. I do not give him any drugs since those made him worse. I also give him 3 mg of melatonin at night. The SAM-e does take a few weeks to start to work, but then it just keeps on getting better. I have tried so many supplements for him, but this one is the best. If your vet says your dog has an enlarged liver this is what will help. Humans and animals can heal when given the right nutrients. Good luck!