Hello and switching to high-carb veterinary kidney diet

A

Alana & Fatty

Member
Hello everyone,

I've only posted once before but am back to try and get some support with regulating my dear kitty. He was diagnosed with diabetes in September 2017 and went into remission for 2.5 years after 3 months on Prozinc. Fats was diagnosed with kidney disease in September of this year, and was on a Renal Canin prescription kidney diet until last week. We've switched him over to a Hill's prescription kidney diet as he likes it way better, but it is considerably higher carb (40ish% by dry matter, yikes). I've discussed my concerns with the vet but the benefits of the kidney diet seem worth it, as long as I can get Fatty regulated.

He was on 1.0U of Prozinc twice a day and was well-regulated on that. Since Monday (tonight is the third full day), he has been getting 1.5U in the morning and 1.0U at night, but his numbers haven't fallen below the 20s. I have always had a terrible time testing his BG at home but I am recommitted to getting into this habit so I can best take care of my little dude.

My vet recommended switching Fatty from 1.0 twice daily to 2.0 twice daily, but agreed to go slow with his dosing. I plan on increasing his dose tonight and tomorrow morning by 0.5U each and going from there. It's stressful knowing he must be feeling bad with his high BG but I haven't had much practice adjusting his dose on my own, so I'm super nervous.

Just wanted to say hello and ask if anyone has had luck regulating their kitty on a high carb kidney diet -- I'm sure it can be done, it just seems to defy what I thought I knew about diabetes-appropriate food.
 
Hi... Unless your cat is in stage 4 kidney failure, you don't need that prescription food. Can you post her lab reports? What you will be looking for are foods that are both low carb (under 10 percent) and low phosphorus (under 1 percent). My cat had both diabetes and ckd. This is what I feed her. Weruva has more choices than this that are on to feed and have their nutrition information on the weruva website.

Weruva slide and serve pate foods Family Food (.97 phosphorus and 0 carb). Also Jeopurrdy Chicken (0.97 P 6.1 carb)
What a Crock 0.71 phosphorus and 8 carb lots of gravy so she loves it.
Goody stew shoes 0.71 phosphorus, 8.5 carb. This one is a big hit

Weruva Steak Frites (0.57 phosphorus 5.5 carb although I take out any big pieces of potatoes to try to limit the carbs just a bit)

Weruva LA isla Bonita - phosphorus 0.77 carb 4.5 (used to like, not a favorite anymore)
Glam and punk 1% carb, 0.93 phosphorous.

Weruva paw lickin chicken 3.3 carb 0.82 p and
Press your lunch 5.9 carb. 0.82 phosphorous
Bff play Laugh Out Loud chicken and lamb 7.7 carb, 0.82 phosphorous
BFF play destiny (chicken and duck) 0.87 phosphorus 7.7 carb
Bff play chicken cherish 0.71 phosphorus 7.6 carb
Bff play best buds chicken and beef 7.9 carb 0.9 phosphorus
Bff play chicken Checkmate. 7.7 carb 0.7 phos
New favorite On the Cat Wok 3.8 carb 0.74 phos
 
Hi Janet,

Thanks so much for this info. I am trying to navigate CKD + diabetes + newly diagnosed panc, so there are a lot of moving parts, and I'm trying to 1) be patient and 2) get him feeling better as soon as possible, which are maybe confounding desires! He is up to 2.5 and 2.5 now, but I'm thinking maybe he is bouncing -- I will try to do a curve tomorrow, but ... God help me with that.

Happy to post all his labs -- can I just post as images? Sorry if that is discussed somewhere, I just haven't seen it, and I have to email labs to the CKD message board mods for approval.
 
There is a tab on the SS where you can enter the labs. You first have to add a column for the reference ranges, for that lab you vet uses.
Then you add other columns for each of the test dates that you have. You won't have values for everything listed on that Labs tab of the SS, so just enter what you do have.

Once the values are on the SS, anyone can click on the SS link in your signature and view the Labs tab.

Images may be too small for some of us to read. I've had that problem many times in the past.
 
Thank you Deb! I uploaded a few labs last night and will continue to do so -- I admit I have been so preoccupied with his CKD jump (since way back down!) that I am will wondering how the heck to manage both, plus his new pancreatitis diagnosis ...
 
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