CKF Creatinine levels 1.9 - 2

Hello,

I recently had a check up for my cat, Agnes', including urine and blood panel, after she had a nasty stomach virus. Agnes is 7 years old, she'll be 8 in January... At the time of illness (vomiting and diarrhea) everything looked normal for her except her creatinine level was at 2 (ref 0.3-1.6). She recovered from her stomach virus and has been back to normal ever since, but I got follow up blood and urine panel and her creatinine level is now at 1.9, which my vet says is still abnormal. Everything else for Agnes looks normal besides her creatinine level... indicating the beginning stages of chronic kidney failure. My vet suggested modifying her diet and I wanted to check here to see if anyone has any insight. 

Right now Agnes gets wood food: Weruva/BFF brand pouches twice a day (with a bit of filter water mixed in) and free dry food: Call of the wild or Nature's Variety Grain free turkey/duck flavor.

My vet suggested cutting back on protein a bit, with lowered phosphorus... maybe switching to a senior food or kidney specific food. Agnes currently loves the foods she eats so I'm sad to upset her and take those away... I also have 4 other cats so I'll have to find a way to give Agnes a different food than them, unless there are foods that would be healthy for everyone to eat??

What are your thoughts? Could you recommend any brands of healthy-kidney foods? Should I switch the foods I'm currently feeding Agnes? I read that Halo Spot's Stew could be a good food for CKD cats.... should I switch her dry food to that? 

Thanks in advance! 

I would cut back on her dry food intake. Switch to scheduled feedings and controlled portions of dry.  Then I'd re-check in 3 - 6 months.  You could also ask your vet about supplements that might help.

Reducing the protein intake for cats with kidney disease/insufficiency is very old fashioned and was debunked a long time ago.

CKD is a wasting disease. Good nutrition, including ample amounts of protein is a must.

It is a bit concerning your vet recommends cutting the protein intake...

This is a site with excellent information about kidney disease in cats.

http://www.felinecrf.org/nutritional_requirements.htm

I had a kidney kitty and fed her Innova EVO canned food (Venison) and a mix of Taste of the Wild and SD k/D dry until her dying day.  We used a phosphorus binder as well. 

I agree that increasing the wet food and decreasing the dry is the best thing to do. High quality protein from meat, and plenty of moisture, are the best things for keeping a cat's kidneys working well. Wet food tends to be a better source of both of those things (especially moisture, obviously).

I have an older cat in advanced kidney disease, and she eats primarily wet foods - not kidney diets, but regular good quality food. She gets a phosphorus binder as well, but it sounds like your cat is nowhere near the stage where that might be needed.

I also have a senior with advanced kidney disease.  I feed her wet food too, with added water.  I give her filtered water rather than tap  water, because where we live our water is very hard and I've read where that can contribute to kidney disease,and I'm about convinced of that since she is our THIRD kidney cat   All of the cat bowls, including their fountain now have filtered water in them as well.  (and now I have taken all cats completely off kibble) 

As for food, even our Vet agrees that high quality (high) protein is better, but to try to keep the phosphorus as low as possible.  I TRY to get our old girl to eat foods based on this chart, but she isn't always agreeable , so we just do the best we can.  http://www.felinecrf.org/canned_food_usa.htm#canned_usa  (note this is from the same website as posted above, just a different section)  Since we serve a smorgasbord to our girl everyday, I figure maybe the phos. level works out ok.  .  We do NOT use a phosphorus binder as our Callie is such a picky eater, and our Vet figures if we put it on her food, she will probably reject it, PLUS our Vet really doesn't like to use them if at all possible.  But mainly we know our girl, and so far have not be able to get away with hiding anything in her food

The only "dry" food our girl gets is actually freeze dried raw food, which is very high protein, and she gets this as her overnight treats.  I keep this under my pillow and give her some small bits all throughout the night when she comes for them.  Yes, the other cats want them too, but I have trained them to wait until she is finished, and then they each get a piece, then I get some peace and get to back to sleep for a couple of hours .  These are the only treats allowed in our house now. 

BTW, MOST of the Weruvas (canned), except Outback Grill, are already low in phosphorus (under 1%, which is what I look for).  Outback Grill is 2.15%.  Cats in the Kitchen (which I think are the pouches) are also ALMOST all low in Phosphorus, except for Kitty Gone Wild.  It's around 1.5%, which if this is just PART of your rotation isn't too bad.   Same with the few BFF pouches that I could find.  Low in phos .  AND all of this food is already high in protein for good muscle mass. 

Thank you for your response! I'll definitely ask the vet about supplements. I've been upping her wet food intake lately, which has resulted in her decreasing dry on her own, but maybe I'll phase out the dry all together if I can

Thanks again! 

Thanks for your response @Furmummy    I've definitely been reading a lot of conflicting info in regards to protein for kidney cats so it's really nice to hear from experienced kitty lovers w/ more insight. 

@stephanietx   That's a great idea to mix in a kidney specific food to regular food... I might try that!   @momto3cats   Thanks for your response. I definitely plan to phase out dry and add more wet... Agnes (and the rest of my cats) have only had the best quality food their whole lives, with lots of wet food, so it's a bit upsetting she's already exhibiting kidney issues at age 7... maybe it's just genetic but i'm scrambling to figure out how to prevent this from getting worse. @mrsgreenjeens   Thanks so much for your insight. I also add filtered water to my kitties food, just to be sure they're hydrated, but I haven't always done that their whole lives. I'll be sure to continue and also add more wet food to their diets, especially Agnes. They all really like the weruva and BFF pouches, which seem to be a lower phosphorus amount, so hopefully that's good for Agnes. 

Thanks again everyone! 

I have had two cats with (severe) kidney failure. One of the cats had this incredibly high creatinine value. She was only six years old. The vet actually gave up on her but I tried to do everything I could, just to help her to live longer, although I didn't want her to suffer any longer than necessary. But that wasn't the case in my opinion. I read a lot about kidney failure in cats and got a lot of tips and advice on the internet.
My vet only talked about the kidney diet.

I asked my vet for some medication. Though there is no cure for kidney failure in cats, there are some methods that can be helpful. I don't know what it is called over there but here it is called Fortekor. And Ipakitine. She got infusion for moisture regularly and I was trying to stimulate her drinking and eating more.

Of course I tried several diets and the kidney diet that she most liked was this brand called Happy Cat and then the special dry food for cats with kidney failure. It seems to be good food , better than RC and Hills.. Both of my cats with kidney failure didn't really like Hills kidney diet. Royal Canin was fine..but Happy Cat was their favorite dry food.

Kidney food is important when a cat has kidney failure. Although, if your cat really doesn't like any of the kidney diets, it is better to eat any other brand than eating less because this would cause even more damage to the kidneys. If you choose for not giving the cat kidney diet, I'd recommend giving senior food, whether she is young or old. 

Thanks for your insight @Anne3007    It does seem strange there aren't more kidney-friendly foods on the market, but I'll definitely look into Happy Cat. Besides her creatinine wavering between 1.9-2, the vet said everything else for Agnes looks good and healthy, even the concentration of her urine, so I hope that means she's being hydrated sufficiently. I wish the labeling on food was more clear, but I totally relate to you feeling like you din't want to give up. My Aggie is only 7, and the vet seems pretty unfazed by the potential of kidney issues, but it's definitely something I want to at the very least take seriously and address the best I can, despite there being no "cure" per say. Sorry to hear about your young cat  

Unfortunately, it's a very common disease in cats - mainly in older cats.

7 years is young too Well, there are some more brands. Trovet is a good brand too and my cats liked it too, though happy cat was their favorite. Unfortunately, they did not have wet food at the time, perhaps they do have now.

I think your vet used another test or so, because Nina's creatine value was about 850 (!) which should be 200 or so maximum in cats. But there are different tests so I don't know what the maximum value should be in cats at your veterinary clinic?

Thanks for your responses everyone! I bought an array of foods to try at the local holistic pet food store. One brand in particular I found is called Dave's and it is specifically low-protein, low-phosphorus. Agnes ate a bit of it, but only after I added some filtered water and smooshed in a teaspoon of her beloved weruva pouch. 




I also bought weruva's fancy/expensive truluxe "steak frites" - which is 0.57% phosphorus     I guess it's trial and error from here   Going to wean her away from dry food but might buy a bag of spot's stew online during the process. Unfortunately I have one cat in my house (one of my prior bottle-babies, no less...) who refuses to eat wet food, so I'll have to keep dry in the house regardless. 

 

The MOST important thing for kidney kitties is for them to eat.  If she'll eat it, feed that to her. 

@stephanietx  Yea, she's been eating it, as long as I add filtered water to it and smooth it w/ a teaspoon from the BFF duck/tuna pouch... otherwise this food is a solid brick. More solid than any pate I've ever seen... I can't imagine any cat who'd eat it unaltered lol