High fat grain free and CRF

My 16 year old was diagnosed with CRF a few months ago, and of course the vet prescribed Science Diet .

Copper has been on either Evo or Core for a number of years and and was doing excellently on it. She free feeds and has always been slim and a good weight. Against my wishes, my mom (who Copper lives with) wanted to give the Science Diet a try. Now, as I predicted, a few months later, Copper is wasting away. At this point, I don't feel that the CRF is as much as an issue as being half starved looking.

I'm investigating putting her back on one of the high quality grain free foods, but many of the CRF food lists i've seen don't have the newer foods listed. The only one i've seen is Evo.

From a quick glance over, it would appear that Orijen is lowest in phosphorous, then Core, then Evo is the highest. I haven't had a lot of time to check on other foods.

Can anyone point me to a more up to date source?

Is you cat refusing the Science Diet? My cat is only 6 and has CRF. She is very skinny and won't eat any of the prescription stuff. One wise person told me that no food = no cat. So I am continuing to give her the Fancy Feast she loves along with Blue Organics (dry) which is also lower in protein. She is on Calcatriol. I believe that quality of life is more important than quantity. I realize we may not have our Dusty for 20 years, but the time we have will be as comfortable for her as possible.

Apparently, she is scarfing up the SD, so it's not for lack of eating that she's losing weight.

We're still trying tons of wet foods in an attempt to find something she won't turn her nose up at.

Anyone have any ideas?

This thread would prolly be better on in the nutrition forum, since you are asking about food recommendations.....that way our resident nutrition expert can put her opinion in.

I'm sorry, I don't know much on CRF but I did find this food list, that has the phos, protein and fats listed: http://www.felinecrf.org/dry_food.htm#usa_food_data

I hope someone is able to answer your questions.

It is common for CRF cat s to loose wt ... My RB Kandie was 14-15lbs went down to 9 then with good diet and care up to a comfortable 11ish...

I did raw with her ... started with a solid senior premium and qualtiy canned at diagnosis and learned and learned thus the raw and canned ...


There are MANY Rx diets for crf ... GRAINFREE drys are a NO go , the wets are often very good for crf cats... PM me if you want

Has she been tested for metabolic acidosis? Metabolic acdosis is a condition that can be the result of long term and/or advanced CRF, which can cause muscle wasting. It can be treated with sodium bicarbonate, but I no longer remember the dosage since Samson passed.