Renal food - help!

[HollyWreath]

Hiya

Nearly 17 year old boy has been diagnosed with stage 2 kidney disease - but he’s only just over ”normal” levels on his blood test.

The vet has recommended a renal diet, but of course, he’s not having any of it. I’ve spent a fortune on Royal Canin, Hills, Purina Pro and he’s licking the gravy off all of them but leaving the meat.

Prior to this he was on Whiskas 11+ and loved it, he’s never had an issue with eating (in fact I mentioned to the vet that I was concerned he’d get overweight on renal food as a lot seem to have appetite stimulants, and he doesn’t need that!).

I’ve bought one today called More Kidney support but that seems to have higher levels of phosphorus than Whiskas -and I thought it was phosphorus that was the problem?

Any suggestions? What should I be looking for in renal food ( apart from being fish flavoured and as stinky as possible!)

Thank you

Hello! After months of battling my cat Elton around Renal food I feel your pain! Unfortunately they just aren't very palatable due to the lack of protein, although I found dry food more acceptable than wet. Elton liked Concept for Life renal dry and would sometimes accept Royal Canin renal loaf as a wet food. Ultimately your best bet might be adding a phosphate binder such as Ipakentin to a wet food your cat does like to try and mitigate the damage. I haven't heard of More Kidney but looking at it on line I don't think it's actually a renal food - it just has additives to promote kidney health in healthy cats. It's worth persevering with a renal diet as it's really the only thing we can do to try and keep the kidney disease under control - good luck!

Does he like dry food? The hills k/d dry goes down very well with my fussy cat. It's meant to be very palatable.

Thank you - yes actually the Hills dry is the only thing he will eat! I just worry as he doesn’t have many teeth left!

Thats interesting about the powder, that might be a good alternative, I’ll mention it to the vet, thank you.