Diabetes and poor kidney function

[Gracie's Mom]

Hello. Gracie has had a rough year with a range of severe digestive issues, surgery, and as of summer, diabetes. She's almost 11, a Russian Blue rescue. She's been on and off various meds and since the onset of diabetes, takes only insulin - 1 unit twice daily. I've been trying to regulate the other concerns with homeopathics, etc. Now she's lost weight and blood serum tests show kidney issue again. We'll rule out infection with urine test today. How do we balance her need for protein/no carb with the typical kidney diet? This feels like an enormous challenge and am reaching out for support. Thank you.

 

[Anitafrnhamer]

Could you define what you mean by "kidney Issue". Is the BUN and Creatinine elevated? If so what are the levels and test ranges? Has a urinalysis or urine culture been done?

My boy, Squeaker, is in renal failure and he is not on a renal diet. I'm not so sure that I agree with the low protein approach to treatment. Without higher protein they begin to lose muscle mass. So I'm not sure I would go with a renal diet.

With a little clarification maybe we can help steer you toward more helpful information.

Anita and Squeaker

 

[Melanie and Smokey]

If you mean "typical kidney diet" as the vet trying to reduce protein and fat, it hasn't been proven in any studies that that actually helps cats in any stage but the final stage of renal failure. It actually may hurt them because muscle wasting is very hard to combat in kidney disease and cutting protein encourages muscle wasting. I've kept all 3 of my kidney cats on the same diabetic friendly foods. I've even feed Taz kitten foods a lot for the extra protein in it trying to combat the muscle wasting. Wellness is my preferred food, Taz get Friskies special diet too as she doesn't eat Wellness enough. You want to look for lower phosphorus foods and consider getting a phosphorus binder because that is just so hard on the kidneys to process.
For non-diabetic cats, I do mix in the prescription kidney diet food with the high protein foods. There are studies out there that show longer life-span in cats that were on them. They couldn't pinpoint what it was in the food, it wasn't believed to be the lower protein and fat, possibly the supplements added.

 

[BJM]

Feline CRF has all kinds of info on care of a cat with CRF.