Once diabetic, now CKD/CRF, what should I feed?

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mimi1997

mimi1997

Member Since 2010
With all great helps from this board, my 17 years old male cat Mimi has been on remission since 2010. He stays on wet food only, most of time with Wellness turkey or Merrick's grain free chicken or beef. I check his BG once a while, it remains under 100.

He's doing well, beside taking Miralax for constipation. This year, his litter box issues getting weird, refused to use clay, losing weight.
He is diagnosed with renal failure last week. Creatinine 2.8, Urea Nitrogen 48. BG is 130. (nothing sure if there's something to do with his anger for being in vet's office)
My vet suggests change his diet to prescription diet: Hill's K/D or Royal Canin Rl . All the vets just love Hills so much...

I look at the ingredients, they contain rice, oak, corn starch and flour, things I tried to stay away. Hill's K/D even contains glucose as 8th ingredient... seriously, what for?
I googled about CKD/CRF, pretty much all suggests taking prescription diet.
I checked Tanya's site and tried to find out what to feed a CKD sugar cat. But I was lost...

I really love to hear some advices or experiences from my favorite forum FDMB. Thanks.
 
I asked this a while ago since my vet thinks Hidey is starting to show signs of kidney disease, although I dont see it in his blood work. To be safe I've selected mainly merricks line, most aren't bad in phos but if your already feeding that and blood work shows it then the others suggested to me was the friskies special diet, or the raw food diet with phos blockers. I also looked into Stella & chewys freeze dried its 1% carbs, and 1.49% phos according to the info they sent. The raw diet with the blocker may be your best way to go. I don't know if thats an option or not.
 
Thanks, I will look into your previous posts about this topic.
My cat's phos number is not high (3.8) but I am aware of it as time goes by.
I do consider raw food after I target some canned food on shelf, maybe making my own raw food later.
Is Hidey on raw diet now?

dirtybirdsoaps said:
I asked this a while ago since my vet thinks Hidey is starting to show signs of kidney disease, although I dont see it in his blood work. To be safe I've selected mainly merricks line, most aren't bad in phos but if your already feeding that and blood work shows it then the others suggested to me was the friskies special diet, or the raw food diet with phos blockers. I also looked into Stella & chewys freeze dried its 1% carbs, and 1.49% phos according to the info they sent. The raw diet with the blocker may be your best way to go. I don't know if thats an option or not.
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No, I keep toying with the idea. I have to take him to the vet in a few weeks for his routine exam and I am going to have them do more blood work to see what he looks like. Ive been so confused because when I took Hidey in for his dental a few months ago they told me he was showing signs of kidney disease so I got a print out of his labs to review.

His BUN was high 36 (normal is 10-30)
his PHOS were LOW 3.0 (normal is 3.4-8.5)
his CREA was normal 1.8 (normal is 0.3-2.1)

They also told me I was frying his kidneys with a high protein diet (he was eating mainly Tiki foods-high protein low carb)

His TP was high- 8.8.

When I started to research kidney disease and his numbers it didnt seem like an accurate diagnoisis so Ive cut protei back some, stay low carb, and lower choices for phos. I buy food for months at a time so right now Im set, but when it comes time to buy food im thinking of trying to go raw.
 
I have not seen anything that a high protein food taxes the kidneys.
Your values to not show kidney problems. However, the real indicator of the start of kidney problem is the urine specific gravity. Has that been measured?
 
I agree with Larry. Check urine specific gravity (USG) and switch to a lower phosphorus food. We've been managing Shadow's CRF for almost 4 years now and have seen very little progression of the disease in his case. Mind you, as in FD, every cat is different, but many believe that cats actually require higher protein diets (unlike dogs who benefit from restricted protein diets) to prevent muscle wasting. Right now we are feeding Wellness Core Beef, Vension and Lamb which has pretty reasonable values on all fronts. I also supplement with Renavast, which may or may not have anything to do with his success. (All I know is that I'm not changing a thing!) I give small amounts of watered down Tiki Cat later in his Lantus cycle so as not to bump up his PS, but I try to stick with lower phos varieties of those as well. Here's hoping that you're as successful as we have been!
 
Larry and Kitties said:
I have not seen anything that a high protein food taxes the kidneys.
Your values to not show kidney problems. However, the real indicator of the start of kidney problem is the urine specific gravity. Has that been measured?
Click to expand...


Nope! Thats what really confused me. She did one 3 months prior and it was 1.03, which from my searching online is normal. Is that correct? Hideys labs are on a tab on his spread sheet. There were a few things noted as high, but when I searched a couple said it could be due to dehydration, and infection. When these labs were preformed he was fasting for his dental, and also had to have 2 teeth removed.......Ummmmm infection & dehydration DUH! lol. I also think she was just trying to regain control of Hidey's care.
 
Larry and Kitties said:
A USG of 1.030 shows some kidney degradation but not bad enough to really do anything based on the the blood values.
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Whats interesting about that is, I got that number from his labs in January when he was diagnosed diabetic. In April she didnt do a USG and THATS when she told me he was having kidney issues. Thats when I demanded ALL of his labs from ALL of our visits.
 
Witn (GA) was both a CRF and diabetic cat. I fed her the Friskies Special Diet canned foods. The only flavor I did not give her was the chicken one because of the carbs. She was on this diet for about 3 years and during this time both her glucose and kidney values remained stable. She was 19 when she crossed the bridge.
 
Squeaker is diabetic (non-insulin), food allergies, and CRF. This page will give you some clue as to what you can do to help regulate the toxins, including supplements. http://www.felinecrf.org/treatments_was ... lation.htm
Feed whatever your cat will eat with the lowest phosphorus content. If you are concerned about the phosphorus levels you can purchase a phosphorus binder in powder form to add to food which helps to prevent rising phosphorus. There is also a product that you can get to help lower the BUN and Creatinine levels. I use both products and something is working as BUN dropped from 89 to 54 in one month.

I know the above site contains an overwhelming amount of information but at least read the treatment information.

Anita and Squeaker
 
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