Renal dry food vs Purina Gourmet Gold Wet for CKD Cat?

Hi,

My cat Mırmır has been diagnosed with CKD over a year ago. I was feeding him both dry and wet until a week ago, and found out his Creatinine levels have elevated a lot.  It was 1.60 5 months ago, 1.83 two weeks ago and now 2.55. Normal range is 0,30-0,60. Now I'm giving only wet but he doesn't eat precription wet food, the only thing he eagerly eats is Purina Gourmet Gold can and dry food. And of course I don't want t give him any dry food, even if it's renal diet. I ordered some phosphorus binders but they will not reach me before the one week religious holiday ends  in here (Turkey) because no one works in this holiday. So my question is, should I give him renal dry food until I have the binders or  should I continue giving him Gourmet Gold which has more than %1 phosphorus content? I want to do what's best for him but I really don't know what to do. 

I'm sorry, I really don't know what to suggest for the best here. Have you tried mixing the prescription wet with the Gourmet Gold? Maybe try a very small amount of equal parts of each to see how that goes down? I'm very hesitant to say go for all dry for obvious reasons, but the phosphorus level in the Gourmet is a real concern too :scratch: These thing always happen over holidays don't they :rolleyes2

Mirmir absolutely has to eat something, and in appropriate quantities. I think, if it was me, I'd experiment with mixing the two wet foods together to at least reduce the phosphorus content per meal. Far better for him to get too much phosphorus for a few days than to risk hepatic lipidosis because he won't eat the prescription food on its own.

Sorry I can't be more help :slant: Hopefully someone with experience with CKD cats will be along soon :cross:

 I would definitely avoid any dry food, and I am not that keen on most prescription foods and believe you can do much better searching for appropriate wet foods.  There are lists on www.catinfo.org that give the levels of phosphorus in each food.  You can search by name or by phosophorus amount

I am not an expert on CRF but know of one excellent site that is devoted to that particular problem:  http://www.felinecrf.org/

You can probably find what you need there.

Do you know what the phosphorus level in the Gourmet Gold IS?  Until you get the phos. binders in, maybe you could try adding some egg whites to his food.  Do you think he'd eat it with those blended in.  You could give them either raw or cooked, just don't add in any yolks.  I used to add them to my kidney cat's food to give her extra good protein and cut down on the phosphorus in her favorite foods. 

Also, are you adding in extra water to his wet food.  I would say that's pretty important.  Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate at this point.  I'm sure he's drinking a LOT, but adding more water to his wet food can't hurt.  I used to feed my old girl 7 - 9 meals per day, and added at least 1 tablespoon of water per meal.  This AND sub-q fluids twice a week.

Thank you everyone for your suggestions I started to  mix Purina Kidney diet wet and gourmet gold and give him  that and of course I add water as much as possible. Another concern of mine I noticed he nearly stopped drinking water when I switched him to all wet diet, he used to drink tons of water. But the other day I had to give him some dry food because I was out whole day, and noticed he drank a lot of water again. I guess he doesn't feel the need to drink water ever since he started wet food but of course I don't know if it's really enough, It really bothers me. I also noticed his foul breath got better after started eating wet food, I guess it's a sign of he is doing better right? 

Gourmet Gold's phosphorus content is 1.30 so it's really high and unfortunately Mırmır hates egg whites. I know felinecrf.org, I've been checking the site first whenever I have a question about CKD ever since Mırmır's been diagnosed and I'm also a member of the support group. As for the sub-q fluids, I wish I could do that, unfortunately Mırmır is a very agressive cat and hard  to deal with, it's impossible for me to give him any sub-qs at home, I don't want to create  trust issues between us by clipping clothespin on his nape either. I found an alternative though, there is an oral rehydration fluid called Oralade with chicken flavor, I'm giving him that, and also an liquid prebiotic supplement called Viyo Reinforces. Viyo is daily and Oralade is once or twice a week. If he doesn't want to eat them, I just pour them in my hand and he drinks from my palm I noticed he loves to eat from my hand but it's dangerous if he gets use to it, because I can't always be around to feed him, so I'm trying to keep it minimal. 

Kibble is very drying, and most cats who are fed strictly wet food reduce the amount of water they drink substantially.  I rarely see my cats drink any water, and that's because they eat only wet food, to which I add lots of extra (filtered) water.  I've had three kidney cats, so with my remaining cats I'm taking no chances and changing things up.  NO dry food, and filtered water only.  Hoping that makes a difference

Are you giving us his Creatinine figures in U.S. Values?  I was trying to look them up under International Values and nothing clicked, so then checked U.S. and they fall right into Stage 2.  Hopefully once you  add phosphorus binders that will decrease and things will be good.  Or if he doesn't like his food with the binders in it, maybe just mixing the prescription wet with the Gourmet Gold will help.  Will he eat it that way? 

It's good you are a member of the felinecrf support group.  They know all the latest and greatest treatment options out there.  My Vet told me as Callie's creatinine started spiking (past 5) that the only thing we could do at that point was to increase the frequency of her sub q fluids.  But I've heard there are newer things NOW.  

Yes , fortunately he eats the mix of Purina NF and Gourmet Gold I don't know for how long though he gets bored of every food easily. And I always add filtered water of course. Do you think it's enough for him? He almost never drinks any water. Were your kidney cats like that as well @mrsgreenjeens?

 I'm not sure if it's US values for the creatinine but yes I've also checked before and his values is level 2 in IRIS. He is actually doing very good, he is kind of overweight, have shiny, soft coat and seem energetic, so I'm very hopeful for him. I hope everything will be ok for a long time   

I didn't know better with my first two kidney cats and continued to feed dry food, so they drank water all the time it seemed.  With my last one, she barely ate until she was almost into stage 4, so she did still drink a lot   Once she reached stage 4, she started eating quite a bit, and since I then added a ton of water to her food, I rarely saw her at her fountain. 

I think your boy being a little over weight might help him in the end, since at some point or another he may tend to drop some weight...seems they all do no matter how hard we try to keep weight on them (kidney cats)

Thank you. Yes I believe that he's being overweight is actually a bliss, since he will be losing weight once his ilness starts to worsen. I hope that won't happen for a long time.