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Kidney diet for cats

TooPatient

TooPatient

Super_Ideal_Rock
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Sep 1, 2009
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Just heard from the vet on blood work for our cats. One has stage one kidney disease and another has stage two (almost stage three). Our third has slightly elevated levels, but not kidney disease. The two guys need to go on kidney friendly food. Dr sent a link to their online pharmacy and can send the prescription wherever else we may prefer. So many options of foods! We nearly lost a senior girl who went on one of the kidney diets years ago. I am assured they are better now. Would love to hear recommendations about which brands are high quality and reliable. Don't want to make them sick by feeding a food that tends to have problems! Would also appreciate hearing about where is good to order from as my expectation is that the vet pharmacy is probably not the cost effective provider.

Our cats are canned food only and we add water to each meal for even further hydration.
 
Hey you!

This is a constant concern with ours too - I’m starting to feel like the kidney is the most fragile part of a cat :???:

We’ve always gone with Hill’s k/d. And however much liquid stuff they’ll tolerate - ours were never great about drinking enough water but they’d slurp up all the Fancy Feast broths we gave them.

If you need to separate them for feeding - these SureFeed feeders are sanity SAVERS. Worth every penny. You can train one (or more) cats to one feeder - it opens when it senses those cats’ microchips. Or they give you a tag for a collar if the cat isn’t chipped. Won’t open for anyone else. You might be able to find them cheaper elsewhere -

Chewy.com for prescription meds and food!

One thing that we’ve done with our three kidney risky seniors… It’s a bit macabre, but… Preemptively get them used to being held still on a table in the basement (or somewhere isolated) for a couple minutes at a time. In my experience it’s likely the disease will progress to needing to give subq fluids, which is easy to do at home IF your cat will hold still for it.
 
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@yssie I swear cats have kidneys made of glass! So fragile!
@TooPatient I’m so sorry for your cats! It’s a shock and quite upsetting to have that as a diagnosis.
Our old man was diagnosed with kidney disease at the point that he needed to have sub-Q fluids every other day (I assume that’s stage 3?). He did very well for ~3 years before oral cancer took him out.
He wouldn’t touch the dry kidney food at all. He was picky as hell about the wet food (not as many options in NZ as you have in the US). The vet told us that keeping him eating and weight stable was more important than perfect diet so we settled on a 50:50 mix of whichever fancy feast wet food he liked that week and the renal food. He really disliked the Science Diet renal but was ok with the Royal Canin tuna flavour and sometimes the chicken flavour.
We used mirtazapine every few days to keep his appetite keen which neither he nor I enjoyed but it really did help him keep weight on which I think was key to him staying stable for so long.
When we did the fluids, we would wrap him in a warm towel and use warmed fluids. The vet said that kidney cats tend to feel the cold more so we made sure to keep him toasty. It got to be quite easy and he used to purr quite often when we did his fluids so I’m pretty sure he enjoyed the snuggles and pats even if he never really loved having the needle put in.
 
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yssie said:
Hey you!

This is a constant concern with ours too - I’m starting to feel like the kidney is the most fragile part of a cat :???:

We’ve always gone with Hill’s k/d. And however much liquid stuff they’ll tolerate - ours were never great about drinking enough water but they’d slurp up all the Fancy Feast broths we gave them.

If you need to separate them for feeding - these SureFeed feeders are sanity SAVERS. Worth every penny. You can train one (or more) cats to one feeder - it opens when it senses those cats’ microchips. Or they give you a tag for a collar if the cat isn’t chipped. Won’t open for anyone else. You might be able to find them cheaper elsewhere -

Chewy.com for prescription meds and food!

One thing that we’ve done with our three kidney risky seniors… It’s a bit macabre, but… Preemptively get them used to being held still on a table in the basement (or somewhere isolated) for a couple minutes at a time. In my experience it’s likely the disease will progress to needing to give subq fluids, which is easy to do at home IF your cat will hold still for it.
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Thank you! Our cats are definitely separated for feeding. Two can be stinkers and steal food from other bowls. The third is sensitive to anything while eating and just walks away if they so much as glare at him long enough. It is horrible but almost funny :lol:

Great idea about the holding them that way. The one with the most advanced is mostly mellow and will make halfhearted attempts to bite but mostly just let us do what is needed. He is getting ear drops twice a day right now without issue and is manageable for nail trims. The stage one kitty.... :eek-2::eek-2::eek-2: Yeah.... He is mellowing with age, but was dumped and survived on his own in a heavily wooded area with dogs who killed other cats, coyote, bear, etc. He loves being an indoor kitty but has impressive claws, sharp teeth, and no problem drawing serious blood if he is unhappy. My mom ended up needing stitches one time :oops2:. He is definitely going to take some working with to get ready in case that day comes!
 
foxinsox said:
@yssie I swear cats have kidneys made of glass! So fragile!
@TooPatient I’m so sorry for your cats! It’s a shock and quite upsetting to have that as a diagnosis.
Our old man was diagnosed with kidney disease at the point that he needed to have sub-Q fluids every other day (I assume that’s stage 3?). He did very well for ~3 years before oral cancer took him out.
He wouldn’t touch the dry kidney food at all. He was picky as hell about the wet food (not as many options in NZ as you have in the US). The vet told us that keeping him eating and weight stable was more important than perfect diet so we settled on a 50:50 mix of whichever fancy feast wet food he liked that week and the renal food. He really disliked the Science Diet renal but was ok with the Royal Canin tuna flavour and sometimes the chicken flavour.
We used mirtazapine every few days to keep his appetite keen which neither he nor I enjoyed but it really did help him keep weight on which I think was key to him staying stable for so long.
When we did the fluids, we would wrap him in a warm towel and use warmed fluids. The vet said that kidney cats tend to feel the cold more so we made sure to keep him toasty. It got to be quite easy and he used to purr quite often when we did his fluids so I’m pretty sure he enjoyed the snuggles and pats even if he never really loved having the needle put in.
Click to expand...

We had a kitty many years ago who nearly died on the Science Diet kidney kibble. She ate lots of it, but just kept dropping weight. Took her off and fed what we had been and she lived another few years. (Around 20 when we lost her!) Definitely my worry!

Good to know about the warming fluids and cozy house. Both definitely like to snuggle into fluffy blankets and stuff. The vet has already mentioned some cats needing fluid so this may be coming sooner rather than later for us.

Definitely a shock this week. Had all six in for appointments the last couple of months:

Porter (dog): dental done, all healthy
Barney (dog): dental done, all healthy
Millie (dog): dental done with some extra care needed, mammary gland removed, cancer tumor confirmed (clear margins).
Zia (cat): possible seizure, all lab work normal, needs tooth extracted (dental in January)
Buddy (cat): teeth fine, everything great in lab work except stage 1 kidney disease
Sven (cat): well.... Could be worse. Ear infection (no symptoms so I had no idea), heart murmur worse than last check, stage two (nearly 3) kidney disease. Echocardiogram scheduled for April. Recheck blood work then too. (his breed is prone to heart disease)
 
Ugh. Glad for the healthies but dang it, that’s a lot of “yikes” within a few months :(sad But thank goodness you caught them NOW and not months from now!! Now they’ll get what they need nice and early ❤️
 
I look for low carb, low phosphorus wet diet. So many canned cat food are still high in carbs (peas, chick peas, sweet potato, rice, fruits, etc).
 
The best kidney diet is the one they will eat. :)

The prescription kidney diets are already phosphorus restricted. Personally, I recommend the Big Names because they have board certified veterinary nutritionists on staff that develop the diets and then they do feeding trials to prove the foods are what they claim they are. Canned is better than dry - it has more water / less carbohydrates.

Hills k/d and Royal Canin Renal Support and Purina NF
 
When my old cat (now passed on) developed kidney problems, he hated the special food that we tried for a while. I was also very put off by it being "by prescription only." Food. By prescription only. That seemed to me a BS money grab and decreased my trust in the vet and that whole profession. But I also still wonder if I missed something there?
 
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I was doing script Hills K/D and they tolerated it but didn’t love it. It was so expensive too. So I bought OTC Hills both wet and dry. One of two I give fluids but yikes I hate sticking the needle in. The second could probably use fluids but no way would I be able to hold her. It’s so common for older cats to have kidney issues. My cats drink a ton and if your cats will drink from it I recommend getting a fountain. I tried it but they wouldn’t touch it ha ha. But sometimes cats like it and it gets them to drink more which is a good thing for kidney compromised cats.
 
Kidney disease is extremely common in older cats. For some, it worsens to the point that it becomes their primary problem, and they may eventually pass from it. Most of the time, they sail along with kidneys that don't function optimally but with no serious elevations in bloodwork. Kidneys are remarkably efficient - there needs to be approximately 70-80% of the nephrons not working at all before any changes are seen in bloodwork. The earliest signs of kidney disease can be found by looking at the concentration of their urine.

seaurchin said:
When my old cat (now passed on) developed kidney problems, he hated the special food that we tried for a while. I was also very put off by it being "by prescription only." Food. By prescription only. That seemed to me a BS money grab and decreased my trust in the vet and that whole profession. But I also still wonder if I missed something there?
Click to expand...

@seaurchin - I'm so sad to hear that you are disillusioned with the veterinary profession. At our clinic, we see cats only, we don't even stock prescription diets. It's not a "money grab" for us - at all. Are they expensive? Absolutely. Do they help? Maybe.

I've had several of my own personal cats that have had kidney disease, and I never put them on prescription foods. But I monitored their bloodwork, addressed issues like high blood pressure, elevated phosphorus, anemia, etc that develop secondary to kidney disease. But they ate over-the-counter canned food. It was more important to me that they were eating at all than what they were eating!

There is a need for reduced phosphorus in the diets of renal failure cats, true. That can be done with over the counter foods - but you have to know what to look for. Here is a website (not affiliated) that is a very helpful nutrition info depot. You can search the foods there and look at the phosphorus content, as well as a number of other parameters.

https://catinfo.org/

https://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChart.pdf

Tufts University Veterinary also has a wonderful nutrition site with a plethora of info:

https://vetnutrition.tufts.edu/
 
I have older cats (13 years old and 14 years old with hyperthyroidism) so I try to stick to lower phosphorus foods.
 
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