Author Topic: Naraquin and Arabesp  (Read 1543 times)

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Offline Pet South

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Naraquin and Arabesp
« on: June 17, 2023, 10:15:05 AM »
Anyone have any experience with these two medications for a CKD cat?
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Offline Middle Child

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Re: Naraquin and Arabesp
« Reply #1 on: June 17, 2023, 04:34:38 PM »
I looked them up.  Naraquin is a phosphate binder.  What this means is the cat's phosphorous levels are too high. Vets prescribe medicines or supplements to bind with the phosphorous to reduce the load on the kidneys. Or that is my inexpert understanding.

I don't know anything about the side effects, is your cat experiencing any?  You can talk to your vet about  other ways to reducing phosphorous, if a cat can't tolerate something.

The Arabesp is for anemia, which I know nothing about at all.

I recommend you visit a specific website for cats with kidney disease.  I'm not current on them, but Tanya's site was the one most recommended, and there's another good one too.

Let me see if I can find some links....

Offline Middle Child

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Re: Naraquin and Arabesp
« Reply #2 on: June 17, 2023, 04:36:52 PM »

Offline Pet South

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Re: Naraquin and Arabesp
« Reply #3 on: June 17, 2023, 05:15:07 PM »
Thx, already been on Tanya's. The stuff is expensive and is supposed to help the anemia. Not really able to find anyone talking about it as both is new.
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Offline Pookie

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Re: Naraquin and Arabesp
« Reply #4 on: June 18, 2023, 03:39:55 PM »
Unfortunately, I don't know anything about either of those meds.  :(  In Dr. Hodkins' book, "Your Cat:  Simple New Secrets to a Longer, Stronger Life" she writes that "Another strategy that works well [to effectively remove substantial amounts of the dietary phosphorus from the food] is the addition of chopped, cooked egg white to the patient's wet diet.  Egg white is high in top-quality protein but contains no phosphate, so it effectively "dilutes" the phosphorus in the food.  This strategy allows the cat to have the protein building blocks of repair and energy production available in abundance, while reducing the intake of a nutrient that may be harmful to the patient.  This is truly the best of both worlds."

I don't know if this will help, but Miss Kitty also had anemia due to her chronic diarrhea.  She showed up in my neighborhood one year and a neighbor was feeding her, then I started to feed her, trapped her and brought her home.  I don't know her history but suspect she was abused.  She did NOT do well at the vet's and needed sedation, and I could not hold her to medicate her.  I write all this to explain that giving her medications was a challenge, and neither vet that saw her even suggested doing anything about her anemia.

What I finally did was sprinkle a tiny amount of B-100 complex supplement (for humans) in her food.  While it didn't contain iron, it did have 100mg of each B vitamin to at least help her.  B vitamins are water soluble, meaning your excrete what you don't use, and they work with iron, if I remember correctly.  In fact, I just checked one of my nutritional books and under iron, it mentions "In some cases, a deficiency of vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) or vitamin B12 can be the underlying cause of anemia." [Prescription for Nutritional Healing, 4th Edition, by Phyllis A. Balch, CNC].  So you might want to consider adding a good quality B-100 complex to help your cat.  If you're interested, I'm happy to give you the name of the brand I used.

It took about 3 months of adding it to every meal and Kitty had more energy, so I think it did help her.  I don't think it would cause any harm.  Does the vet know what's causing the anemia?  Is it connected to the CKD?

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Offline Pet South

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Re: Naraquin and Arabesp
« Reply #5 on: July 03, 2023, 04:19:36 PM »
It is the CKD. Unfortunately he also has IBD
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Offline Pookie

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Re: Naraquin and Arabesp
« Reply #6 on: July 04, 2023, 10:08:35 AM »
It is the CKD. Unfortunately he also has IBD

:(

Miss Kitty may have had IBD, and my previous 2 kitties were also IBD.  I just checked Lisa's site, https://www.ibdkitties.net/ and she mentions anemia in several places (https://www.ibdkitties.net/?s=anemia), but not the Aranesp.  Her site reminding me that you might want to give your kitty B12 shots, which would be very helpful in multiple ways, and also bone broth, which is healing for the gut as well as nutritious.  I have a section of my own website that goes into detail on bone broth:  https://www.kittyshark.net/unbalanced-diet.

I also found this article, written by a vet.  It's a bit technical, but you may find some of the information useful:  https://www.mspca.org/angell_services/anemia-of-chronic-kidney-disease-in-cats/  Below is an excerpt:

Quote
Regardless, the most commonly recommended dosing protocol is 1 µg/kg darbepoetin SQ once weekly, along with 50 mg/cat (or 10-20 mg/kg for dogs) iron dextran IM every 1-2 months.8 Iron is recommended because iron deficiency is a known complication of darbepoetin therapy and one of the most common reasons for treatment failure in people.1 PCV and blood pressure should be rechecked weekly until the target PCV is reached. Once this has occurred, dosing can be reduced to every other week, and monitoring should continue to ensure an adequate response is sustained.8

Whatever you decide, I would encourage B12 shots (if he'll allow it - it can be done at home), subq fluids (also can be done at home), bone broth and a good B-100 complex added to each meal for nutritional support.

How's he doing?  How are you doing?
2-4-6-8  Please don't over-vaccinate!
"Pass on what you have learned."  -- Yoda, Star Wars:  Return of the Jedi

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