VETRISCIENCEKidney Health Chewable Tablets, Renal Essentials Supplement for Cats, Kidney Care and Support with Mushroom, Astragalus Root, Nettle Seed and Herbs, Chicken and Fish, 60 Count

******************************************************************************************************************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.******************************************************************************************************************

This product comes in both tablets and chews. This particular bottle is tablets. I have a motar and pestle that I crushed this in. I then scoop it into a shot glass, wet it and suck it up in a medicine syringe, and then squirt it into the side of their mouth, which is very easy compared to some of the ways I hear people are trying to get their pet to take this. Shoving this down a pet's throat is not recommended. It can cause esophageal irritation. Even with the chews that may be hard, you can still put it in a shot glass and break it up into a powder, wet it and redispense. You have to be smarter than your pet. Meaning if there's something that they do need for overall health, you can't depend on them to like it or to take it. I get it's absolutely amazing when they willingly take it but you can't count on that!! That's just absolutely ridiculous. You have to put it into a form that they're able to handle and get it in their system in an easy form. My suggestion is to break it down and add a little bit of moisture and administer as follows; smear it on their paws where they lick it off or use medicine syringes from pharmacies to redispense it in their mouth. This has been a beneficial supplement that I've added to my cat's diet for overall renal health. It contains astragalus and as well as nettle which are both wonderful tonics for the kidneys and other nutrients and vitamins. I do recommend this product as I've also noticed an increase in appetite.

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!