Kidney issues - advice on which specialised food to try

[smurfmonkey]

My lovely, nearly 18 year old, boy has just been diagnosed with early stage kidney failure and we've been advised to get him onto a renal friendly diet. I've been given a few different foods to try by the vet, does anyone have any experience of any and any suggestions on where to buy from so it doesn't break the bank (too much!).

The ones suggested were:
Purina NF
Hill's k/d
Royal Canin Renal
Virbac Kidney

Picture hopefully attached to entice replies

Hello Smurf,

My 15-year-old is on Royal Canin wet renal. He loves the chicken but hates the fish (expensive mistake!). He also has some of the Royal Canin Renal Select biscuits too. I currently buy it from Animed in batches of 48 pouches. It's the cheapest I've found. He does have good quality 'normal' food too to which I add Ipakitine which is a phosphate binder. You can get a largish tub fairly cheaply from online retailers like Animed and PetDrugsOnline etc

Beautiful kitty by the way!

Thank you, he's a gorgeous boy, although clearly I'm biased!

Thanks for the tip, I've not heard of the phosphate binder before so will look into that as well.

He's pretty fussy with regular food sometimes so I wanted to try a few different ones to see what I can entice him with so, didn't fancy getting a 48 pack straight off if he's going to look in disgust at me

Have a look at the site felinecrf.org. (don't know how to do link sorry). Absolute mine of information about Chronic Kidney Disease by a lady called Helen and a good section on what to look for when choosing a suitable food. Very interesting

Thank you so much, I'll have a look

No experience with this sorry. But just wanted to say I love cats in boxes, always makes me smile, your boy has done a top job there taking the shape of his container. Great pic!

Hope he gets sorted with something he enjoys.

Thank you

Got to love a cat in a box picture!

This one is even better

@smurfmonkey

Thank you

Got to love a cat in a box picture!

This one is even better

How can it be comfy yet they love doing it! He's a master at being liquid.

Hey! Beautiful boy! My boy is in stage 3 kidney failure caused by amyloidosis, but he's doing really well on the meds (ipakitine, nelio and amodip) and Royal Canin renal wet food and biscuits. He was diagnosed nearly 2 years ago, and everything I read at the time said that he wouldn't survive more than a year.
Obviously it depends on what is causing your boys kidneys to fail but hopefully you can find a combination of food/drugs that works. Our vet was brilliant at giving us a bunch of samples of renal foods to try, although obviously the one he liked best then became intolerable as soon as we ordered a multipack!

Oh wow, that's amazing, it's reassuring to hear a positive story My first cat also had kidney failure but she went pretty quickly after being diagnosed so you fear the worst...

He's not been prescribed any medication yet, the vet has just suggested a change of diet so we'll see what happens. He's also notorious for going off food and liking a variety so he will not be happy!

Yes, we're very lucky. I think having a brilliant vet with both professional and personal experience of kidney issues in cats has helped us very much. Our boy is spoilt rotten and loved like a child so hopefully that helps in some way too!

Ah, yes, luckily there are lots of foods to try and several online retailers that are a bit cheaper than buying from high street or vet. I wish you all the luck in the world and hope that the renal diet works well for your boy 😻

Hi - ours (20) has been on Hills KD+mobility crunchies and various wet foods. The wet food is very much hit and miss because it’s all low protein and therefore has texture like cardboard. Hi licks the gravy off the Royal Canin one. Given his age and the fact he eats the crunchies, I do occasionally give him applaws senior or similar just to get him to eat - there’s a quality of life issue as well.

(This regime has been going on for 2 years and no meds yet by the way)

@PangoPurrl thank you! My boy is also spoilt rotten and treated like a child

@AtillatheHun 20 is amazing! Quality of life is what I'm most worried about, I don't want him to suffer but not having the occasional bit of tuna or a sneaky bit of cheese (shhhh!) is not going to make him happy.

My old boy started off eating the products we tried, but quickly went off them within a week. I didn't drench his food, but I started adding a little water (if your cat only eats dry, it won't make much difference but you can still add a small amount of water). Also, I placed three water bowls around the house and started to give him watered down cat milk as he got worse. It was just a case of keeping his liquids up, as he he just wouldn't eat the renal food.