Kidney failure - any food suggestions please?

[HuntingoftheSnark]

My extremely loved cat will be 19 next week and has been remarkably trouble free all her life. However, her recent decline - drinking more, loss of appetite, losing weight - is due to her kidneys starting to fail.

Can anyone suggest anything, diet or otherwise, which will help? I'm realistic and I know that she's elderly and don't want her to be in pain. She seems pretty content. The vet recommended a low protein diet and specific types of food and I am happy to buy it if it will help.

Has anyone taken a holistic approach to this?

I am probably clutching at straws but wanting to try anything.

We found our girl wouldn’t eat any of the specialised kidney food , however we ended up using ipakitine powder which was just added to her usual food instead which worked well for her . She was an older girl too , and I think it was better for her to balance her being happy with her food v trying to do the right thing medically. https://www.petdrugsonline.co.uk/ipakitine-powder?gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIxLGOsbDzhQMVn5JQBh1ICQ2hEAAYASAAEgKPJvD_BwE#646=37017

@Theraffarian thank you - this is exactly the kind of advice I was hoping for. She's had the same food for ages and I am not convinced that she'd happily switch. I shall order some of that now. Many thanks.

Our Daisy-cat was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease at a relatively young age - we moved her onto Virbac K1 food which she ate quite happily (and so did her brother who loved it, even though he has no kidney problems) and she survived for many years (I think beyond what the vet initially predicted), sadly gone now. It's not cheap though!

Hope you can manage her condition and keep her happy for a long time yet.

This site and the forum is absolutely brilliant, I was given invaluable advice on there https://www.felinecrf.org/

Tanya's guide to renal food is really helpful. Even better is her page on how to get your cat to eat.

My renal cat preferred to starve than eat any renal cat food. And she didn't eat much of any food.

Following Tanya's advice on getting your cat to eat we fed her food she liked (mainly Sheba cat soup) and got her to eat more of it. Small steps like raising her bowl and moving the bowl to where we were made a lot of difference.

Would agree with all the above excellent advice. Our cat also has kidney problems and it's been a bit of a rollercoaster. Currently he's on Royal Canin Renal loaf and Concept for Life dry, which he is reasonably happy with. As he's young and was skinny to start with, we are also feeding him a little bit of Cosma wet to try and get some more protein into him and using Ipakatine powder to try and help balance things out. So far Elton is happy and seems healthy - he's even filled out a little bit! Can recommend Zoo plus for renal foods, they are cheaper and have a range of weird and wonderful brands you can try. The best advice I had on here and on Tanya's website, is to treat the cat you have and try not to worry too much. If your cat is generally happy and content, then she's doing ok and there's a lot you can do to keep her that way.

Thank you so much for all your comments and advice. Hugely appreciated.

Our 16 year old was diagnosed with kidney disease 4 months ago, after losing a bit of weight and seeming generally run down. We now have him on Hill's kidney prescription food and ipakitine powder. He loves the food and has put weight back on and he doesn't seem to notice the powder sprinkled on and eats it absolutely fine. We have started bringing him his water bowl as he spends quite a bit of time sleeping and seems to forget to go for a drink as often as we'd like. Other than that he is doing well for now and still enjoys sitting out in the sun and curling up with his brother and sister on the sofa.

@southchinasea that's so good to hear and really happy for you! I've ordered the powder as advised upthread and hope for the same outcome. She's 19 next week so I know she's elderly but want her last years to be happy ones.

Cordelia this morning

She's beautiful and doing amazingly to have reached 19! Exactly - I just want mine to be happy and comfortable, and so far he's doing well thankfully. The kidney diet plus powder made a big difference.

@southchinasea thank you - huge comfort hearing that.

My old girl wouldn’t touch any of the special diets and I tried every make and flavour known to woman and cat kind.
The most important thing is to keep them eating and drinking well so I gave my girl whatever she wanted and I got a cat fountain to encourage her drinking. Sheba cat soups helped get more fluid into her too.
Raised bowls are helpful for a better eating position.
Her kidney disease was stage 2 and never progressed and she was finally pts for triaditis which turned out to be the reason for her nausea and not eating towards the end.
Still miss her muchly.

@Blackcats7 thank you. I'm hearing and understanding that now. On Friday afternoon, at work, I was overtaken with fear and dread. I'm going to do everything I can to prolong her life but also accepting that she's had a great life and is, I suppose, elderly in cat terms.

@Blackcats7 we went for the Sheba cat soup too! Only thing she would eat in the end and at least it got fluid into her.

Also meant to add if you cook fish for her in water then give your cat the fishy water to drink when cool. My girl liked this a lot.

This is a good option to try various brands, flavours and textures before committing https://www.vetsend.co.uk/kidney-diet-taster-pack-cats?sku=MP19946&gadsource=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw3NyxBhBmEiwAyofDYYL-f5uh3XOiTJS0jBBvbbk3a55xI3ymXI9aAIohA5SB1NCsBxD4NhoCXoQAvDDBwE

Our 18 years olds have done much better since moving to kidney support food. I re-bought their favourites from the mixed pack. If they will eat dry food and are happy with Hills Science, Royal Canine or Purina Pro, you can get renal versions of those too

Sorry, keep remembering other things.
It is vital to get any nausea under control. The vets first suggestion is likely to be cerenia which can be good and she may well need famotidine antacid too.
Once the nausea is managed mirtazepine is a great appetite stimulant and helps enomously. Never give an appetite stimulant if your cat is still nauseous as you can cause food aversion.
My girl was much better on ondansetron instead of cerenia. It's a human anti emetic so much cheaper to buy at a chemist with vets prescription. I had to suggest it to my vet as it is not as commonly used as cerenia. Downside is that you have to be very cautious (and some vets advise not to mix the two at all ) in conjunction with mirtazepine because there us a risk of serotonin syndrome. But these are things to
discuss with your vet of course.
Greenies feline pill pockets from amazon were a huge help in getting her to accept pills.
If she had low pottasium and needs a supplement vet will recommend kaminox liquid. My girl loathed it and started hiding if she knew it was coming. I researched and found chemeyes k which is a tastless powder instead to add to food and this worked really well.

@Blackcats7 thank you so much for typing all this ❤️