Any suggestions for food for Chronic Kidney Disease?

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Bella & Liz

Bella & Liz

Member Since 2019
Hello,

Just got back from the emergency vet, turns out Bella has a severe UTI with possible kidney infection. The emergency vet says it is likely Bella has chronic kidney disease because her urine is so diluted (basically water). She also said that Bella is no longer diabetic (while her numbers are low that seems like a sudden jump to me)... she also did not seem too up to date on her diabetes information, as she thought her reading of 98 was dangerously low, and that cats can range upwards of 500 when not diabetic, so I took everything she said about the diabetes with a grain of salt.

However I am wondering if there is something I can be feeding her that will be better for her kidneys, as she seems to be having trouble with them. She currently eats 1 and 1/4th can of friskies pate a day. The emergency vet said I need to compare the crude fiber and crude carb values of purina DM and find a food similar to that if I cannot afford purina DM. However I know from reading alot of these forums that purina DM isnt the best.

Because her numbers have been decently regulated should I start being less concerned with her diabetes and more concerned with her kidneys? I am going back to my normal vet in 5 to 7 days to make sure the infection is gone and to get some tests done to see whats going on with her kidneys. Any advice on foods to give for kidney help would be great. Thanks!
 
I had a cat who had chronic kidney disease for 5 years and she did quite well on Royal Canin Renal diet - she wasn't diabetic though and the RC can be a bit on the pricey side. I just took a peek at your spreadsheet and it doesn't look like Bella's numbers would really suggest that she is diabetic? Could it just have been the prednisone that she was on and now that she's off it everything has gone back to normal?? (and Yay!! if that is the case)
 
It would be great if she was no longer diabetic, I just worry about switching her to a higher carb food incase the lower carb food is actually keeping her numbers in check.
 
Cyberlizard said:
It would be great if she was no longer diabetic, I just worry about switching her to a higher carb food incase the lower carb food is actually keeping her numbers in check.
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The RC Renal comes in wet as well as dry food- chicken or tuna. The wet will be less high in carbs and may be worth comparing to what you currently feed. Even if you give what she is now eating in the morning and a renal diet at night - it will still be a lighter load on her kidneys.
 
I very recently found out that my Willow probably has very early CKD, so I have been looking into all of this, too. Low phosphorous and quality protein are the two takeaways I got from my reading on CKD. The Friskies pates are definitely too high in phosphorous. Weruva and Tiki Cat are a couple of brands that have some foods that are low phosphorous, low carb and high-quality protein. They are not cheap but may be cheaper than 'prescription' foods. Water is very important. Adding extra water to the food is a good way to get more in them. You may also want to consider supplements like omega 3 (fish or krill oil) and B vitamins.

Do you know what stage the CKD is? Sounds like you may not find out until you get tests done with your regular vet. That can impact the diet they need. You have probably already been to catinfo.org to read what it says about this. There is also http://felinecrf.org/diet_and_nutrition.htm.
 
I have a cat in the early stages of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), and she's doing amazingly well on low phosphorus canned food and EZComplete Raw. I also feed her low carb because I have a sugar baby who is in remission. However, once a diabetic always a diabetic. He is simply diet controlled, and if he starts eating higher carb food again, his BG will rise again. So even if Bella goes into remission, she will still be a diabetic. It's just as important to keep her numbers controlled as it is to treat her for her kidney disease. And it's no easy task to find food that is both low carb and low phosphorus! But it can be done. As @FurBabiesMama suggested, Weruva and Tiki Cat are good options (although expensive ones). I give my cats (5 of them) Weruva Chicken Frick-a-Zee, and I also use Dave's Beef and Chicken. Dave's is natural, but low in protein. (Unfortunately, it also had carageenan.) I use Dave's to supplement their other food, as I like to keep moist food down most of time. (I also pour some water over it.) I also use Dave's to freeze blobs to keep down at night. As it thaws, they have food to eat. Here is a list of some canned foods with percentages of protein, fat, and calories, and mg of phosphorus. Try to keep the phosphorus as low as possible, no higher than 250 mg, and below that is even better. (The lower, the better) : https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/112NvvzgxEBOtkb42rA0XR8GeShw9xXs9kccf9-olK7I/pubhtml

Celie (my CKD kitty) is doing so well and I believe it is because of her diet and because I make sure she gets a lot of water (via wet food available a lot of the time, and mixing in or poring water over top of it). I also attribute how well she's doing to switching her food to over 50% raw by using a supplement addied to ground or chopped raw meat. It's called EZComplete, and can be found here: https://www.foodfurlife.com/#/ EZComplete is easy to prepare, costs less than the canned foods that are low in carbs and phosphorus, cats seem to love it, and it's great for their health. EZComplete is healthy for kidney cats because it's low in phosphorus. Celie's kidney values went from stage 2 to normal, and I give her food all the credit.

Here is a great thread, here on the message board, about food and CKD.
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/please-help-my-cat-is-diabetes-and-has-ckd.214282/
 
Muffy, who has CKD and was in remission for her diabetes for about 9 months did really well on a combination of homemade food (modified version of Dr. Pierson's published recipe), low carb canned commercial food, and Young Again Zero Mature kibble. My other cats all ate just the wet food, but Muffy was a dry food addict when I adopted her and hasn't completely changed her ways, so she still gets kibble.

Muffy came out of remission for her diabetes after a CKD crash due to a UTI + kidney infection. The main reason she came out of remission is that I had to add some renal kibble to her diet. Her urine was too acidic and her calcium was too high to keep her on YA kibble. She needed to have food with potassium citrate in it to balance the urine pH and prevent calcium oxalate stones. And, because of being hospitalized, she went on a total wet food strike, so I had no choice but to use the Hills KD kibble. It fixed her pH problem, and fast enough that she didn't get any stones. I've been working on weaning her off the renal kibble, but after about 8 weeks of eating it she's just started to need insulin again 2 days ago.

Since I have other CKD and diabetic cats at home my general rule has been to prioritize feeding for diabetes (goal being to get both my diabetics to stay in remission) and then make CKD the secondary feeding priority. My homemade food is zero carb, low phosphorous, and moderate protein, so it's great for both conditions. For commercial canned food I chose low carb first, then moderate protein, then added phosphorous binders as needed if the phosphorous was too high.
 
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Hi

UTI can spike kidney values but if this is the case, they may go back to normal when the UTI and kidney infection clears so I suggest you do a follow up after she clears the infection before considering she has a kidney problem, also if she was getting IV fluids her urine would come out very diluted but it doesn't mean that is because she has kidney problems, did the ER vet mentioned what her creatinine, BUN(urea) and phosphorus values were?
 
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