Chronic Renal Failure (Kidney Disease) in cats

[redgrandam]

I know there is some heavy reading on the web for this, and as always a lot of conflicting information, primarily around the 'protein myth'...

Our vet has recommended a low protein diet for one cat who has the health issue, but recently we are reviewing our pet food quality selections, so we are digging a little more into this. The vet has us using Royal Canin, low protein wet food. They suggested to use the Royal Canin Low protein dry as well from them, but due to pricing we were getting Royal Canin Indoor Mature 27. Wet food one meal, and dry the other. Last vet visit his numbers in the blood test had stabilized, which is very good. However, we are kind of wanting to get away from Royal Canin, due to their ingredients. When you really look into it, their ingredients aren't exactly the best in what is available, and especially for their price, they are one of the higher prices for a regular food.

So we are trying 'Oven Baked Tradition' cat food. Protein levels were the same on that as the Royal Canin mature food, so we are hoping it will be just as good for him, and the rest of the ingredients are 'cleaner', and more real meat etc, so we are hoping it will be better all around (just as we have switched our dog to Acana, hoping it will be better all around for her too).

however, we don't have a substitute in wet food for our cat, since a lot of the wet foods are higher in protein (again, I don't know who to believe in the protein myth information). Does anyone have any recommendations or input in this? We can continue the Royal Canin Reduced Protein direct from the vet, but I can't help to think that there isn't a better all around solution (and more economical option) out there.

We go to Global Pet Foods, and they are quite helpful and knowledgeable, but they were hesitant to suggest a good wet food, as it depends on our comfort levels, and what we want to try etc. Possible solution is to wet the dry food down to increase water intake..

Anyone with some helpful comments or information would be greatly appreciated.. Thanks!

[Shaner]

Any animal with renal failure should be on a strictly wet food diet, or wet the dry food before feeding it and let the kibble soak up all the water. Kibble can be hard on the kidneys if the animal doesn't drink lots of water, and animals don't know that they need to drink extra water. They only drink when they're thirsty.

Have you considered a raw diet? If so, I would talk to your vet about it first, even though I don't think vets are a good source of diet information. Many vets only know what the food companies tell them, which is clearly not an
Unbiased source of information. Still, it's worth discussing with your vet.

I've read a lot of studies that very clearly state very high levels of protein are not harmful provided its high quality protein, whereas even moderate levels of low quality protein could be harmful. The studies I've read have mentioned horses and dogs. I haven't seen cats mentioned in any of the studies. I can't imagine it would be any different for cats, but I just don't want to give you potentially misleading information.

I would talk to your vet about the protein myth and see what they have to say about that.

With that said, if your cat appears to be doing really well on its current diet, I would consider sticking with what you're doing.

[cheaper_than_cheap]

I used Hills k/d (both wet and dry) for a cat with kidney issues. It seemed to work well.

[Cheap Cat]

My cat is diabetic (so eats low carb wet food only) and she is showing signs of kidney problems. I have a lousy vet and honestly don't have a clear answer on the state of her kidneys. Last time I asked for blood work to be done specifically for her kidneys, he didn't do all the rights tests. As with the diabetes, his only recommendation was to put her on a prescription diet. I refused to buy the dry and looked at the canned food but didn't buy it because it contained by-products. These prescriptions diets are crap. Most vets have little training in nutrition which is why they dispense this crap. I read and do believe that cats need high quality product. If anything, my cat's diabetes has proved that. Cats are obligate carnivores. They get their energy from protein from meat sources. They have short digestive tracts which cannot utilize the nutrients from plant materials. They need very little carbs. Kidney disease or not doesn't change their physiology. So to me, it makes sense to provide high quality proteins to avoid straining the kidneys. I have specifically removed fish from my cat's diet and she appears to be doing better. Her coat looks better, she is not drooling any more and not drinking as much water. Of course, only blood tests will tell for sure.

I can't recommend what to feed because I don't always feed the best food, but what my cat will eat. When she got sick last year, she stopped eating and needed to be force fed. Not eating can cause liver problems in no time and she was jaundiced and was hospitalized and on an IV for 5 days. I tried better foods but she wouldn't eat them. I still sneak them in but mixed with her favourite Friskies cat food. If I don't mix it just right, she won't eat. So I am really stuck between a rock and a hard place.

As for which information to rely on, I recommend sticking to the sites run by pet owners who have been through this. They do know best as they have the best interests of their pet in mind and can recommend what worked for them. I know that if I had followed my vets advice on my cat's diabetes, she would have been dead 6 years ago. It was the cat owner's online who had been through it that provided the advice to get her off insulin in short time and her blood sugar under control. I stopped being as vigilant last year which is how she got sick again.

[redgrandam]

Thanks a lot for the information guys. We are going to start wetting his dry food (was the plan to do so down the road, but didn't realize it's importance). No fish already. And I'm seeing more and more about the low phosphorous not low protein. The royal canin stuff said 0.6-1.0%, and the new food that we are switching to says min 8%. Any idea what it means by min, likely contains a lot more or should be close to that number?

I've found a few pet sites with forums, anyone have any to recommend specifically for health issues (especially if there is a Canadian based one) that is super helpful?

Also, for high quality food, that would be from a quality food right? Or what is meant by quality? The oven baked tradition has chicken and chicken meal at the top of the list, and is supposed to be easily digestible. It was recommend des by a knowledgeable rep at the pet food store, and it's quite reasonably priced. And they say this:


We put our efforts into providing quality proteins. We prefer to supply your dog and cat with highly digestible sources of meat. Your pet benefits from the full potential of the quality ingredients which are in our products. Certain foods offer higher percentages of proteins, but they are not all available and digestible for your pet.

[RemedialChaosTheory]

I've found a few pet sites with forums, anyone have any to recommend specifically for health issues (especially if there is a Canadian based one) that is super helpful?



http://www.pets.ca/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=75 There are really helpful and knowledgeable people on this Canadian forum, and many who deal with CRF cats and know which foods you should be feeding that aren't the crap the vets get paid to shill (RC, Hill's, Iams).

I can guarantee they'll tell you to bail on the dry completely, let alone not adding water to it so it can exponentially grow bacteria (as kibble does when wet, unless your cat is gobbling it up immediately).