Harry died of kidney failure at age 12

I adopted Harry 5 years ago from a rescue shelter. He was a healthy, playful, adorable cat…an “indoor cat” with a sweet personality. He’d been vaccinated at the shelter, tested negative for HIV and Leukemia….ate only cat food….he seemed healthy for 5 years.

I never imagined that he had Chronic Renal Disease (kidney disease) and it was silently progressing as the days passed.  Almost 80% of cats die of this disease which, if detected early is not cureable, but adjustments in diet and fluids can prolong the cats life and keep it comfortable.

By the time symptoms show themselves (like vomiting, excessive thirst, no appetite and weight loss) it is often too late to save the kidneys and the cat is doomed.

I learned the hard way to be diligent about taking your pet to a vet to get examined annually.

Oprah’s website has some good information on Compounding Pharmacies and Bio-Identicals.

from Oprah.com:

Still confused about compounding pharmacies? Dr. Oz travels to Central Pharmacy in Santa Monica, California, to see how they differ from traditional pharmacies. For the past 15 years, Sharon Steen, the owner, has been in the business of bioidenticals, her pharmacy’s specialty.

“We do regular, prescription-type medicine, but what we do mostly now is prescription compounding, which is making our own prescription into different forms such as creams, capsules, suppositories and the like,” Sharon says. “We do that here in our compounding lab.

Read the full article here: Oprah.com

Watch clips from Sharon’s appearance on Oprah on our Media page