Diet For Cat W/kidney Disease

[three cats]

My boy Hazumi was recently diagnosed w/kidney disease from bloodwork we did. He's 13 years old. The vet gave him a med called Semintra which I give to him every AM. They also suggested their special vet prescribed kidney diet, although that's not essential at this point.

I got a sample bag of the vets' dry food and frankly I don't understand how this is healthy for cats. My other cats have always had grain free food, mostly dry although I've recently begun feeding canned food (also grain free) AM & PM. Hazumi lived outside for about 5 years and ate cheap dry food as there were also several feral barn cats that hung around and joined him for meals. He's now an indoor cat once again since we moved this past summer.

From what I understand cats being obligate carnivores need mostly meat protein. Looking at the first ingredients of the vets' food it states "corn, chicken fat, pork meal, brewers rice, corn gluten meal, fish meal..." and there's no more meat (there's also wheat gluten). By contrast one of the dry foods I feed (there are a few brands and several flavours which I like to rotate) states "whole salmon, whole herring, salmon meal, herring meal, pollock meal, whole flounder, boneless walleye, boneless northern pike, boneless lake whitefish, salmon oil, herring oil..."

So what do I look for in a commercial dry food (from the pet store, not necessarily the supermarket) that might work best for him (and yes all the cats will eat the same food).

 

[LTS3]

This web site has info on diet for CRF cats: Tanya's Comprehensive Guide to Feline Chronic Kidney Disease - Which Foods to Feed, and Which to Avoid

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

As is stated on that website LTS3 provided above, if all of your cats will be eating the same diet, then you definitely do NOT want to be serving them the prescription food! At least not for any length of time. Feeding healthy cats a low protein diet is NOT healthy for them, as you have already deduced. I've had three kidney cats so far in my life, and as time has progressed, Veterinary care has progressed, and the latest thinking is that until the disease is in the latter stages, limiting protein is not really necessary. With our last kidney cat, we never did limit her protein, and she lived three years after diagnosis. She never got as bad as our second kidney cat, not with the vomiting, etc that he had. She DID still get the muscle wasting that he got, but never acted as "sick" as he did. And I think the only difference was in their food. They both still got sub-q fluids when the time came, that sort of thing.

Anyway, glad to see you're on top of nutrition. Hopefully the above website will give you the necessary info to choose a good food. I would stick to as much wet food as possible though, at least for Hazumi, because the more fluids he takes in, the better. I actually added extra water to my girl's food at every meal, and now I do it to my remaining cats' food ALWAYS. I'm trying desperately not to have any more kidney cats. I only feed low carb wet food (often raw) with lots of filtered water added. I'm not even taking any chances by using tap water after having three in a row get kidney disease!

Here are some vibes for your little guy: