Food question

[Alicia & JoJo]

hello all! I’m hoping to get some advice here. My JoJo was diagnosed diabetic back in July and after very strict regulation of Lantus and a change to low carb wet fancy feast; he has been OTJ since mid-August. Since then I found Dr Elseys clean Protein and switched him over to that due to the low phosphorus levels and quality ingredients. Just a few weeks ago, I took JoJo into the vet for a checkup; things on the diabetes side look great, however he is now having kidney issues; vet is thinking stage 2 based on 1 blood draw (no other tests were run). My vet is really pushing hills K/D and didn’t seem happy when I brought up the fact that most prescription foods are too high in carbs; she wants to severely restrict his protein; but I know there is sooooo much controversy over a protein restricted diet. I’m also being told that his diabetes “should” be fine when putting him on the prescription food.

My question is....what is the best food to feed a diabetic cat (to hopefully keep him OTJ) but is also good for a kitty with worsening kidneys? Also, should more than just 1 blood test be ran to determine the severity of the disease? Again, only a blood test has been ran, no urinalysis or anything else. Any advice welcome!

 

[Idjit's mom]

Alicia, I am responding to bump your question up so that you can get some answers from people who have dealt with the same issue.
There is a very good site by Dr. Lisa Pierson who created the food chart that is available here on the board, www.catinfo.org. There is a section on kidney disease that you might find useful.
I copied and saved this from another thread: Dr Pierson recommends " start with protein minimum of 40, fat maximum of 50, carb max of 10, and for cats with kidney issues....phos less than 300."
I hope this helps a little, until more experienced members can read and respond.

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

Hi,
Are you able to get hold of Jo-Jo’s blood results and post them? If the vet has them, ask him to email them to you. You paid for them and are entitled to have them.
The vet should have also done a urine test before diagnosing kidney failure and checked for protein in the urine and the specific gravity.

I would definitely not feed the K/D. It is very high in carbs and is not necessary at this point.
My Sheba was a diabetic and had early CRD. I fed her a home made diet and her kidney numbers remained stable until her death from an unrelated cause more than two years later.
You don’t need any prescription foods at all. Also Fancy feast is too high in phosphorus. I will post a link in a seperate link below. I am on my phone at the moment and can’t do it in this post. Look for foods that have phosphorus less than 250 if you can. Weruva cats in the kitchen canned have several different cans which are less than 250.
Bron

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

Here I see the link to the suitable foods by Lisa Pierson
https://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChart.pdf

Also here is a link to a post I started about home prepared feeding a suitable diet for a CRD kitty. You may not want to do this but may find some good tips
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/home-prepared-diet-of-crd-cats.150441/

Also here is the Weruva site for cats in the kitchen.scroll down to the Mineral/Kcal and look for the phosphorus levels under 250

ETA I forgot to add the Weruva site
https://weruva.com/nutrition-landing/citk-ni/
Also this one
https://weruva.com/nutrition-landing/citk-pate-ni/

Bron

 

[Vtambo & Rex]

I had the same happen to my kitty. I finally got his blood sugar regulated and then the vet said his kidney numbers were starting to go up. I wonder if that may have been because of the amount of time his diabetes was not regulated. at any rate - they also pushed the kidney diet foot, which I tried because I panicked. within ONE day his numbers went from the mid-100s to almost 500! I would not do it. I never gave him that food again. I just did the research and asked people from this site for recommendations and Dr. Lisa's food chart has been invaluable! Right now I am feeding Whole Earth Farms Duck Pate and Whole Earth Farms Chicken Pate. I was also feeding Organix Turkey Pate and Organix Chicken Pate which all fall under the restrictions of both conditions. he has been doing wonderfully. I am starting to be able to tell though that he is getting sick of those foods, so I am on the hunt for more options. I am finding that there are many Weruva flavors and that Wysong has many options that seem like they would be a good fit.

I do wonder however why I am seeing differences in numbers on Dr. Lisa's chart when comparing to Tanya's (CDK chart)?

 

[Veronica & Babu-chiri]

Sorry to hear about the new diagnose, the same thing happened to Babu we were still celebrating OTJ when the vet told me about his kidneys, actually the labs were made because the vet couldn't believe he was in remission.

It would be good if you could post the labs, but in any case if he's stage 2 of CKD he does not need the special kidney diets yet, those are very high in carbs and will affect his blood glucose ( I used to give Babu hills k/d instead of honey if he was going too low), in the long run if his diabetes gets out of control it will affect his kidneys even more so you will end not solving anything any way.

You do need to start taking care of his kidneys and that means giving him a low phosphorus diet , I see Bron has already give you the links so you can find some food under 10% carbs and as low as possible in phosphorus under 250 if possible and he would also benefit if you add some omegas to his diet, you could also take a look at Tanya's page (http://www.felinecrf.org/how_bad_is_it.htm) there's a lot of good information there

I couldn't find any appropriate food where I live so I ended home cooking him a special diet that Dr. Lisa designed for him and two of my civies (they are stage 2 and stage 3 CKD) and that was the best thing I could have ever done ( after getting to this forum) his kidney numbers haven't advanced since then he was stage 1-2 when diagnosed and still is, we are still on remission and the diet has probably been what's been keeping one my civies still going ( long story not related to diabetes )