"possible kidney disease- any food ideas?"

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darcylynn

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Hello,
I have a 14 year old male cat (seymore) He was diagnosed diabetic about 5 months ago, started him on prozinc BID, had a hard time regulating. Now he is completely on fancy feast classics and have him off insulin!! He has been off for about 5/6 days! BG numbers are wonderful 70-110!! Anyways, thought it was time again to bring him in for full blood work, everything was in great ranges except kidney functions were a little high. My vet said to re-check in 3 weeks. The vet said that the low carb/ high protein diet may not work and if kidney function is not better in 3 weeks we may have to change seymores food again and he could possibly end up insulin dependant again!!
WOW!! how can I prevent going back on insulin but still make sure his kidneys stay good???
Help!! anyone with advice, or knowledge of this...please write back. It doesnt seem right to have to start insulin again to take care of kidneys, there has to be something I can do to keep him healthy.
Seymore and I just lost his brother of 14 years a couple weeks ago....finally things started looking up again, now there is more worry again!!
 
Unfortunately FF is too high in phosphorous. If you are looking for a food change, try Friskies Special Diet, any of the pates are low carb and special diets are lower in phosphorus. I used to use turkey & giblets and the beef one.

The idea is to stay under 250 phosphorous. Binky's chart lists this.
 
There are commercial foods that are good to feed for both conditions. You simply need a low carb, low phosphorus canned food, preferably without byproducts (higher quality protein sources cause less protein metabolism residue, which are easier on the kidneys). Keeping your cat as hydrated as possible is key to managing the disease, along with low phosphorus foods, so definitely no dry food at all. Mixing water in with the canned food is one good way to help with hydration. Many people also find that cat drinking fountains also encourage cats to drink more. Anything you can do to get moisture in your cat is important. The low-protein prescription kidney diets have only been shown to be beneficial in end stage renal failure and should not be fed long term. In fact, they can cause muscle wasting when fed in early stage CKD.

Here's an updated food list with the values for several premium foods: https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B8...MzhkYTkxOGM4NThk&sort=name&layout=list&num=50. You're looking for something with less than 10% carbs and less than 250 mg/kcal of phosphorus. The foods I would suggest are Merrick's Before Grain Beef, Merrick's Before Grain Turkey, Merricks' Cowboy Cookout, Merrick's Surf & Turf, Wellness Turkey, EVO 95% Chicken & Turkey, and Blue Wilderness Duck.

If those are out of your price range the next best thing to feed are the low carb Friskie's Special Diet Turkey & Giblets and Salmon flavors. However, I would strongly urge a food without byproducts, and keep in mind that they're still cheaper than the prescription foods and usually about the same as many grocery store brands if bought in bulk. Studies have shown that the quality of the protein source does make a difference in controlling the disease, and that needs to be considered along side phosphorus content. Here is an updated list of just the phosphorus values for many commercial foods. They can be cross referenced with Binky's chart for carb values if there's something on there that you want to feed. On this chart, you're looking for something that is less than 1% phosphorus (these values are on a dry matter basis, not mg/kcal): http://www.felinecrf.org/canned_food_usa.htm

Do NOT use Binky's list for phosphorus values--the carb values are still ok to use but the phosphorus values are really out of date, and some things that were low on that list are now ridiculously high in phosphorus. You can cross reference the carb content from foods on Binky's list with the phosphorus values on Tanya's canned food list, however.
 
Where do you buy Merricks cat food, evo and blue wilderness duck? And if I read this right, you are saying that merricks etc is better to feed than Friskie's Special Diet Turkey & Giblets and Salmon flavors?
I want to make sure he is on the good stuff before his next vet check, to see if we can have a good test result. I am not worried about the price of food at this point, it will still be cheaper than going back to insulin!
I was so confused for a while with seymores diabetes, now Im confused with food! LOL
So I would like to know where to buy, I live in a town of 13,000, not much in the stores...so let me know who carries these foods?? Thank you so much!
 
Yes, because muscle meat is a higher quality protein source than byproducts. Higher quality protein sources produce less protein metabolism residue, which in means there is less waste for the kidneys to filter.

Wellness store locator: http://www.wellnesspetfood.com/store-locator.aspx

Merricks store locator: http://www.merrickpetcare.com/locator/

EVO store locator: http://wtb.naturapet.com/?new=true

Blue Buffalo store locator: http://bluebuffalo.com/retailers/search

If there is a Petco or a Petsmart near you, Petco sells Wellness and Merricks, and Petsmart sells Blue Buffalo and Wellness. If you have a feed & grain supply store near you, they usually have the best prices and will sometimes order cases of food for you even if they don't have that specific flavor.
 
You can also order online from http://www.petfooddirect.com/. It's cheaper if you can find a store near you that sells it, though, so you don't have shipping costs.

I would also call your local feed store--with only 13000 people I'm assuming you live in a farming area? They will often order it for you by the case as long as their supplier carries it.
 
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