Diabetic CKD Cat foods. Beef?

[Jbiz]

Hello, I'm new here. I recently adopted a 12 year old sugar cat Fritz from a shelter. I'll spare most of the details but will say his blood sugar is often in the 20's (mmol) and I'm working with my vet to adjust the dose (Humulin N insulin, just moved up to 4 units twice a day). Vet doesn't think I should change insulin as the bg curve seems typical, no big dips.

After researching feline diabetes I suspected Fritz's kidneys were not doing well, sure enough yesterday Fritz had a pre-surgery blood test done and the vet detected loss of kidney function. I do not know the degree of failure at this time but regardless I need to find a low phos/carb food.

After some searching, I found two that appear very good. Both beef based:
Nature's Logic Beef
Weruva Steak Frites

My question is, can a CKD diabetic cat process beef efficiently compared to poultry, etc? Secondary question, I know veg is bad but is it acceptable when it means phosphorus levels are very low? Or is the plant protein out of the question for a CKD. It seems I have to give and take something, no product seems perfect.

 

[Sharon14]

Welcome! I’ve not heard of CKD cats not being able to process beef vs poultry, but others may have. Here is a great site for more CKD info. https://www.felinecrf.org/ One of the best things you can do to help protect Fritz’s kidneys is to get his blood sugar under better control. We can definitely help you with that if you’d like. A great start would be to set up the spreadsheet we use. It will help you, your vet and us see what’s going on. Here are the instructions, but if you need help, just ask and we’ll do it for you. http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/
If you have a copy of the blood work, post it here and maybe we can better help you.

 

[Veronica & Babu-chiri]

Welcome!!

As Sharon said I've not heard CKD cats not being able to process beef but beef does usually have more phosphorus than poultry and also in some cases more toxins so usually chicken or turkey are prefered but not because they can't have beef is just poultry is better and actually the best parts for CKD are the legs and the thighs, that being said with CKD cats usually the food they eat is the good food because you do not want them getting weak so if it is a bit high in phosphorus you can work your way around and give phosphorus binders

In my opinion since cats are obligate carnivores veg is not a good idea because cats need the animal protein the lack of it can cause many problems from malnutrition to even heart problems so I think going veg is not good for any cat with or without CKD even if veg has less phosphorus

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

If you look at the Weruva website, they have a list of all the foods and the amount of carbs, phosphorus etc. a lot of the cats in the kitchen cans are suitable.
Sheba had early CRD and I fed her a raw diet. Cooked egg WHITE is full of protein and has little phosphorus so you can mash up a half or a whole egg white in food each day for added protein. A high protein diet is what they need in the earlier stages to prevent muscle loss. I would not feed any plant food. Cats don't need any plant foods at all.
Here is a link to a thread I started on a home made diet suitable for a CFD cat
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/home-prepared-diet-of-crd-cats.150441/

4 units of insulin for a newly diagnosed cat is a lot. Too much insulin can look like too little.
Are you hometesting the blood sugar levels?
I would advise you to ask the vet to change the insulin over to a longer acting one such as Lantus, Levemir or Prozinc. Your cat will have much better duration on one of these and they are much gentler insulins for cats.
I think it is wonderful you adopted a diabetic cat.