Best food for kidney problems?

[DogDream]

Just had a bit of a sad phone call from our vet pretty much confirming my cat has problems with her kidneys. (Not sure what yet as she’s still going through tests; she’s had bloods and we’re awaiting the urine results. Not sure if there will be any other tests?)

The vet said depending on the results it’s potentially possible to help kidney problems through diet. Which is a prescription diet I presume.

Has anyone’s cat had kidney issues and did diet help? (And if so what food?)

Hi
My last cat had kidney failure, and after tests it was confirmed as stage 3.
The vet prescribed special food. Unfortunately she wouldn't eat any of it.
I tried every one I could find.
She struggled to eat half a pouch a day. It was so sad. Eventually the vet said it was more important to get any food down her so we did.
She had a good 2.5 years after diagnosis before she was put to sleep, and generally seemed ok day to day apart from drinking and weeing a lot.
What did help was finding Tanya's CKD website. It's full of great advice and reassurance.
It's not all doom and gloom.
Hope your girl is ok

Thank you. And thank you for the website link too, it seems to have so much information.

I’m glad to hear you had more years with your cat. That’s what I’d like; to help her stay happy and healthy for as long as we can.

Both Royal Canin and Hill's Science make special renal food, both wet and dry, which you can buy OTC. Royal Canin even make a pate style one, which mixes well with a little hot water to make it even more palatable. They come in different flavours too e.g. the Hill's dry comes in chicken and tuna. But the food is a fair bit more expensive than normal decent quality cat food.

To a large degree it depends on how bad the CKD is, I understand that stage 1 and even stage 2 can sometimes even be reversed with the correct diet. Stage 3 it MAY hold the progression back depending on the cat, but as Clarich007 says above, once they get to a certain stage you end up just feeding them anything they will eat.

The problem can come if you have other cats in the house. When Boycat was diagnosed (stage 3 CKD, and very rapidly progressed)) the food was immediately changed to renal but he and Girlcat would share everything so she was eating it too. She ended up looking ready to pop a large litter of kittens any day in the space of 3 months, though in the same period of time since Boycat was pts she's lost all the excess.

Hello Dogdream, I've had a few kitties with CKD and, to be honest, I've found the best food is the food they'll eat (to state the obvious). Mine became even pickier than normal and I found I was constantly having to change foods even more than usual. I did battle with all the major renal foods, which they'd eat for a short time, but in the end I was finding myself left with cupboards full of expensive branded pouches etc.

What I did find to be a big help was Ipakitine. You simply sprinkle this into their food and it works by binding the phosphates. My last kitty's bloods results remained stable while using this with whatever food he fancied.

Its relatively cheap and lasts for ages

Thanks both. She’s eating at the moment, though is a little fussier than usual, but I’m grateful she’s eating.

@Allergictoironing see I had heard horrible things about Royal Canin and Hills. (Though for dogs) they both get terrible ratings on AllAboutDogFood for example, really really low. But maybe it’s because the protein is low & the carbs are high? Which is not what you usually want in a pet food but I’ve learnt today is apparently great for kidneys, so maybe I’ve just misunderstood it. Thank you.

@AllTheOtherCats I’ll look into ipakitine, thank you, I’m glad to hear it worked for yours.

These are the specific renal ranges, specially made to the high carb/low protein formula needed for CKD. They were recommended to me by my vets.

I've fed the Royal Canin dry (indoor recipe) to mine for years, and they always passed their annual MoTs with flying colours. They were both much more into dry than wet too, so would have 1.5 pouches only between 2 and not even eat all of that (they would lick the jelly or gravy off). Bit different with Tobias - he scoffs 2 pouches wet on his own, sometimes cleans up Girlcat's leftovers, then just tops up on the dry if he's peckish between meals.