Haven't been here in years but have a question....

[Marie and Monty]

Hello all. I haven't been on this board in many years. I even had to re-register. Briefly, my cat Monty was diagnosed with diabetes about 3.5 years ago and was on Lantus for four months before he went OTJ and he has been OTJ since then, strictly diet controlled by my feeding him the low carb/high protein versions of Fancy Feast that I learned about on this web site. Recently he started losing weight and drinking lots and lots of water. His BG stayed quite normal all this time (and still is). He had blood work for thyroid and kidney function which were all within normal limits and he was concentrating his urine well. But he continued to lose weight and drink water. He was approximately 17 pounds when he was diagnosed with diabetes and he's around 12 pounds now. Anyway, his blood work was repeated a month later and was still normal, so today he had an abdominal ultrasound where the vet found very early degenerative kidney disease. So now comes the dilemma - he needs a lower protein diet for his kidney disease, yet the high protein diet is what is keeping his blood sugar low. I'm sure there are many of you out there who have had to face this before so I'm looking for suggestions about what to feed him. The vet has a call in to the vet school nearby to discuss it with someone there, but I know what a great resource this is so I'm asking here as well. I did check the FAQ but it seems to deal mostly with severe type kidney disease. I want to head this off at the pass.

 

[Julia & Bandit (GA)]

If he has early stage kidney disease then you really don't need low protein. You need food with a low phosphorus content. My 16 year old cat Gabby had early stage and she was on a low phosphorus, low carb diet and her kidney disease did not worsen in the two and a half years I had left with her (she passed recently from an unrelated stomach tumor). Because my diabetic cat is like a raccoon and will get into her food, I looked for foods they could both eat so it wasn't a big deal if he got into trouble, or if I had to leave food out for them while I was away for the day. Here's what I fed her:

Friskie's Special Diet Turkey and Giblets
Friskie's Special Diet Salmon
Wellness Turkey
PetGuard Fish Chicken and Liver
EVO 95% Beef
EVO 95% Venison

The higher quality the protein, the less waste your cat's kidneys will have to filter. So if you can afford it, the EVO and the PetGuard are better choices because of the better quality protein. I also filled her water dish from the Brita so that her kidneys didn't have to filter any junk from tap water. I can't prove that last thing helped at all because I didn't read about it anywhere--just seemed like it might be a good idea.

This link is great if you haven't already been there: http://www.felinecrf.com/managd.htm

Edit: I just realized that I listed the wrong PetGuard Flavor. I called the company and got the as-fed values and did the math myself (It's not on Janet and Binky), and the chicken & beef was really low in Phosphorus but a little too high in carbs for a diabetic. Here's the values for the Fish, Chicken and Liver:
Fish, Cx, Liver:
Prot.: 35%
Fat: 57%
Carbs: 7%
Fiber: 1g/100kcal
Phos: 195g/100ckal

 

[Lisa and Witn (GA)]

Witn also had kidney issues and I fed her the Friskies Special Diet canned foods. The only flavor I did not feed her was the Chicken and Gravy because of the carbs. During the years she was on this food, both her BG levels and kidney values remained stable.

 

[Maggies Mom Debby]

Maggie was rx with early kidney disease. One of the things my vet suggested was to get a water fountain to encourage extra water intake. That was a while ago and I don't know if that is still considered a good idea, but you can ask your vet.

Check Janet and Binky's food charts for low phosphorus/low carb food.

 

[Hillary & Maui (GA)]

in addition to what's been suggested, adding water to the wet food will also help ensure that he keep the kidneys functioning and flushing out the impurities.

 

[Marie and Monty]

Thank you all so much for your replies. I'm relieved that there are foods out there that let me keep Monty's diabetes under control while still taking care of his kidney issues!