? what do I feed my senior (16) cat when he had diabeties & kidney disease low carb and low phosphorus

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Elizabeth and Bertie

Elizabeth and Bertie

Member Since 2010
Copy of message received from dbuddy via PM:

help need the brand of wet and dry with the lowest amount of carbs and lowest amount of phosphorus for diabetic and kidney disease senior male cat..... why is this so difficult to research and find??? anybody help


I have a male senior (16) years of age, cat on lantus 1.5 units am/pm for one year and so far been regulated. He now has Kidney failure. The Vet stated to now put my cat on Hill K/D wet and dry and stated now kidney failure was the priority and his diabetes and low carbs was no longer the priority. Hills K/D wet canned food stated it had something like 35 carbs per can? to me, way to high for my cat. What canned food for kidney failure and diabetes and if any dry food should I feed my cat?
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A lot of people here with "dual diagnosis" kitties feed Friskies Special Diet Turkey and Giblets....it's low carb, low phosphorus and economical too, but if you look at the website www.catinfo.org, there is a chart with nutritional information on pretty much every food available in the US.
 
Also, if the phosphorous content isn't sufficiently low you could consider the option of adding 'phosphorous binders' to the food (ie, aluminium hydroxide for example (there are also other binders)). But in order to do this you do need to know what your kitty's blood phosphorous level is and add the binder accordingly.

For more info do see the wonderful 'Tanya' CRF website here:
http://felinecrf.org/
And I can highly recommend joining their support group; very knowledgeable and kind people. :cat:
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yes...it's great for everyone!! When China was diagnosed, I switched all my cats over to low carb canned food and it's been amazing how well they've done on it (and I've greatly decreased their chances of becoming diabetic too!) They've lost weight (they needed to!) and their coats are softer and in better shape than they've ever been
 
Generally, How many ounces should I feed my diabetic kitty per day. Not being able to find the Friskies special diet turkey and giblets I got some Nutro Max Cat Chicken Supreme Entree in Sauce. Their guideline suggests 3 ounces per 3 pounds per cat. That sounds like a lot.
 
Depending on the cat and the calorie density of the food, something along the lines of 1 ounce per pound of cat, divided up into meals across the day. If giving insulin, it may work best to do about 2/6 at shot time, then 1/6 as a snack around +3 hours post shot, then repeat in the evening.
Adjust the amount up or down as needed to maintain weight.
For a formula to calculate feeding, go to Cat Info.
 
I've consolidated DR. Lisa's list to just foods under 10% carbs and 200mg phos/100kcal or less (equivalent to the 1% dry matter on Tanya's list). It's on a tab os Tess's SS, click on her SS link in our signature and then the LC/low phos tab. Tess has been CRF for 4 years and her kidney numbers haven't gotten any worse, improved a little in fact. On thing, on Tanya's she doesn't recommend raw for CRF cats, but never says why. Tess gets raw and does very well, she's even been gaining some of her weight back. Old school thinking was to reduce protein for CRF, but now they've realized that the quality of the protein is what's important! Raw is often the highest quality protein in cat foods. On the other hand Hills ………
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read the label!

On how much to feed, most cats need 20 to 30 calories per pound per day depending on activity level. Unless you cat is underweight I'd go on the lower end. My Emma is 4 years old and outside and very active. She gets 150 calories a day ( though I suspect she supplements on her own!) and maintains her weight very well. That's not quite 20 calories a pound.
 
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Merlin is 19 years old and is coming up on his 2 year diabetes diagnosis in a couple of months. He has also been in Stage 3 kidney disease since then as well. Anyway, I have given him (along with his other kitty mates) Friskies Special Diet Turkey and Giblet which is 5 carbs and 189 phos. For some reason, I have not been able to find this brand in any of our Petsmart stores in the Phoenix area in the last couple of weeks. One of the Petsmart managers indicated that maybe Friskies is making changes to this product???? Anyway, I have recently (four days ago) changed to Wellness Turkey Grain Free which is 4 carbs and 200 phos. This may be an alternative for you. For some reason and maybe due to the food change, his morning numbers have improved. Is anyone else having difficulty getting Friskies Special Diet T&G food?
 
For all of you who have a cat in renal failure this website is a wealth of information: http://www.felinecrf.org/index.htm

We have been dealing with this for quite a while as well. I have found that there are quite a few commercial foods with both low carbs and low phosphorus but even if you have to feed a food with a higher phosphorus content than you would prefer you can add phosphorus binder to the food to lower the phosphorus absorbed into the system. While they are more expensive, the go to foods that I use a lot are from Weruva: Steak Frites, On The Cat Wok, and Peking Ducken. All low phosphorus and low carb.

Neither I, the gen vet, nor the internist much like the thought of the renal diets as they are too low in protein and do lead to loss of muscle mass. So we have done very well just sticking with commercial foods with phosphorus binder added.

Please check out the above website it is a great resource.

Here is another link to the food list from the above site, a little overwhelming to view but a good cross-reference. http://www.felinecrf.org/canned_food_usa.htm
 
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Here is another link to the food list from the above site, a little overwhelming to view but a good cross-reference. http://www.felinecrf.org/canned_food_usa.htm[/QUOTE]

This says service not available. You have to get to that via the main page (for others reading this the first website that was posted in that message)
 
Merlin said:
Merlin is 19 years old and is coming up on his 2 year diabetes diagnosis in a couple of months. He has also been in Stage 3 kidney disease since then as well. Anyway, I have given him (along with his other kitty mates) Friskies Special Diet Turkey and Giblet which is 5 carbs and 189 phos. For some reason, I have not been able to find this brand in any of our Petsmart stores in the Phoenix area in the last couple of weeks. One of the Petsmart managers indicated that maybe Friskies is making changes to this product???? Anyway, I have recently (four days ago) changed to Wellness Turkey Grain Free which is 4 carbs and 200 phos. This may be an alternative for you. For some reason and maybe due to the food change, his morning numbers have improved. Is anyone else having difficulty getting Friskies Special Diet T&G food?
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That is so weird!!!!! I was feeding friskies special diet too and then my store suddently stopped carrying it. I found it at a walmart nearby but was concerned so I started researching other food. I just started Rudy on wellness chicken and wellness turkey this weekend and he loves it! it costs twice as much, but I like that the first ingredient is acutally chicken or turkey, not meat by-products...
 
Max had CKD and Clyde was the sugarcat. I fed them both Evo 95% Chicken & Turkey.

It was the best balance I could find. It was 2% carbohydrates which was perfect for Clyde and 0.88% phosphorus dry matter, which was fairly low for commercial cat food.

It wasn't as low in phosphorus as something like Weruva: Steak Frites, but was more economical alternative for me and a good balance for each cat's needs.
 
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