Options RX kidney foods?

[syzygycat]

My 13y/o now needs kidney prescription food. She only eats wet food and I've never had any luck with Hills Science Diets.
Besides Hills, what other (easily available) brands of Prescription Renal wet foods are there?
AND do I need a different RX for each brand ?

 

[FeebysOwner]

There are some OTC options too. Use this web site for a listing of them, but other sections of this site are also great resource for information about 'everything CKD in cats'.
Tanya's Comprehensive Guide to Feline Chronic Kidney Disease- Canned Food Data USA (felinecrf.org)

 

[syzygycat]

There are some OTC options too. Use this web site for a listing of them, but other sections of this site are also great resource for information about 'everything CKD in cats'.
Tanya's Comprehensive Guide to Feline Chronic Kidney Disease- Canned Food Data USA (felinecrf.org)

Edited: was wondering if the RX brands were medicated, they aren't.
Now I just need figure out where to start, there are way more options than I realized.

 

[syzygycat]

In the United States. I need an RX to order Kidney/renal cat food on Chewy.
Do I need a separate RX for each brand (Proplan NF, Hills KD, Royal Canine Renal, Blue KM) or does one RX cover all?

 

[fionasmom]

I stand to be corrected, but I believe the prescription food is viewed in the same way as prescription medication by a company such as Chewy. It might be easiest to just give them a call and ask, but I believe that you will need to have a separate scrip for each different brand of food. I have ordered very little prescription food, but the little that I did was always ordered by the exact brand and name, never by a general term such as kidney food for cats.

 

[FeebysOwner]

There is a bit more to what is behind prescription foods - "Compared to adult maintenance diets, diets formulated specifically for dogs and cats with chronic kidney disease typically have reduced protein, phosphorus, and sodium content; increased potassium, B-vitamin content and caloric density; a neutral effect on acid-base balance; and an increased omega-3/omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) ratio." [ Dr Sheri J. Ross, BSc, DVM, PhD, Dipl. ACVIM (Internal Medicine)].
More about CKD nutrition was in a previous section of the web site link I offered - here is the link for that specific section - Tanya's Comprehensive Guide to Feline Chronic Kidney Disease - Which Foods to Feed, and Which to Avoid (felinecrf.org).

Regardless of all that, it seems like a lot of cats don't like the prescription foods - perhaps that is because of what ingredients are reduced - or increased - in those foods. I decided to buy commercial foods vs. script mainly due to my cat refusing to eat the latter for the most part. Eating anything is better than barely - or not - eating because a cat does not really like the food.

And I am not an advocate of reducing the protein for her either. Tanya's web site and other sources discuss the pros/cons of lowering protein, and many state that it is a bit contradictory to give lower protein to CDK cats because most are older, and by very virtue of the aging process, along with the disease, they are prone to muscle mass loss. It is thought that the biggest 'benefit' of lowering the protein level is during the final stages of CKD when a cat's kidneys need all the help they can get. Then, preserving muscle mass becomes a bit less important.

 

[syzygycat]

I stand to be corrected, but I believe the prescription food is viewed in the same way as prescription medication by a company such as Chewy. It might be easiest to just give them a call and ask, but I believe that you will need to have a separate scrip for each different brand of food. I have ordered very little prescription food, but the little that I did was always ordered by the exact brand and name, never by a general term such as kidney food for cats.

Seems like you're right.
I can go through my vet who can order whatever/whenever but costs more and can't return.
Or pick one food, order from chewy, be able to return it if the cat hates it (which is more likely than not), but then have to get vet to write a different RX... then I either get mad that I have to pay for a follow up vist for the RX or feel guilty/embarrassed if she write's it for free

 

[IndyJones]

I know when I order food from www.myvetstore.ca each food is treated as a different perscription. I know this from having to order Kabuto hills c/d when COVID19 was disrupting the supply chains of royal canin including their urinary so formulas. I had to wait for the order to be "approved" by the vet.

I imagine other sites are the same way.

 

[syzygycat]

There is a bit more to what is behind prescription foods - "Compared to adult maintenance diets, diets formulated specifically for dogs and cats with chronic kidney disease typically have reduced protein, phosphorus, and sodium content; increased potassium, B-vitamin content and caloric density; a neutral effect on acid-base balance; and an increased omega-3/omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) ratio." [ Dr Sheri J. Ross, BSc, DVM, PhD, Dipl. ACVIM (Internal Medicine)].
More about CKD nutrition was in a previous section of the web site link I offered - here is the link for that specific section - Tanya's Comprehensive Guide to Feline Chronic Kidney Disease - Which Foods to Feed, and Which to Avoid (felinecrf.org).

Regardless of all that, it seems like a lot of cats don't like the prescription foods - perhaps that is because of what ingredients are reduced - or increased - in those foods. I decided to buy commercial foods vs. script mainly due to my cat refusing to eat the latter for the most part. Eating anything is better than barely - or not - eating because a cat does not really like the food.

And I am not an advocate of reducing the protein for her either. Tanya's web site and other sources discuss the pros/cons of lowering protein, and many state that it is a bit contradictory to give lower protein to CDK cats because most are older, and by very virtue of the aging process, along with the disease, they are prone to muscle mass loss. It is thought that the biggest 'benefit' of lowering the protein level is during the final stages of CKD when a cat's kidneys need all the help they can get. Then, preserving muscle mass becomes a bit less important.

Thanks for writing all this, good info.
This cat's renal #'s were borderline 8mos ago, now creat:2.2, BUN:39, SDMA 17.7
She also lost 20% of her body weight in the last 2½ years, I initially chalked it up to cutting out all dry food in 2019. All cats lost a little weight which was good but this one kept losing weight. She up to 5 wet meals a day.
Keeping her weight up seems as much a priority as keeping her kidneys functioning, she can't eat carrageenan or fish. And if the food isn't pate are really well minced she just likes the sauce, Fancy Feast Classic is 90% of her diet. Lots of the RX foods won't work Hills KD Pate is my best bet if she eats it.
I'm thinking adding 30% finely chopped steamed chicken to the RX food is a good strategy.

Steamed chicken has close to the similar phosphate levels as RX food. Mihj good way to keep her weight up and put reduce stress on her kidneys.
My cat's Renal # have climbed from the high side of normal to a little above normal in the past 7 mos;



Her weight on the other hand is consistently going down over the last 2 years (from 11.2 to 9.3lbs)

I will still get the RX food but seems like it is still manageable with avoiding the high phos. and sod. non-rx foods

 

[FeebysOwner]

Has she been checked for hyperthyroidism? Weight loss is the biggest symptom. And if she is hyperthyroidic, it actually helps keep the kidney numbers down as there is an excess blood flow to the kidneys. Doesn't sound like a bad trade off, but the problem is not treating the thyroid can cause not just weight loss, but high blood pressure/heart issues as well. And, it really isn't curtailing the kidney disease, it is just hiding it.

 

[IndyJones]

Some cats can have the opposite symptoms with hyperthyroid too. Kabuto had reduced appitite and weight loss as his only symptoms. But his t4 was at 5 times what it should have been.

 

[syzygycat]

Has she been checked for hyperthyroidism? Weight loss is the biggest symptom. And if she is hyperthyroidic, it actually helps keep the kidney numbers down as there is an excess blood flow to the kidneys. Doesn't sound like a bad trade off, but the problem is not treating the thyroid can cause not just weight loss, but high blood pressure/heart issues as well. And, it really isn't curtailing the kidney disease, it is just hiding it.

Her T4 is fine. She was getting physicals w/blood panel every 3 years. And then every 8 or 9 months since she turned 10. Ostensibly, the vet would've caught something like that.

There is a bit more to what is behind prescription foods - "Compared to adult maintenance diets, diets formulated specifically for dogs and cats with chronic kidney disease typically have reduced protein, phosphorus, and sodium content; increased potassium, B-vitamin content and caloric density; a neutral effect on acid-base balance; and an increased omega-3/omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) ratio." [ Dr Sheri J. Ross, BSc, DVM, PhD, Dipl. ACVIM (Internal Medicine)].
More about CKD nutrition was in a previous section of the web site link I offered - here is the link for that specific section - Tanya's Comprehensive Guide to Feline Chronic Kidney Disease - Which Foods to Feed, and Which to Avoid (felinecrf.org).

Regardless of all that, it seems like a lot of cats don't like the prescription foods - perhaps that is because of what ingredients are reduced - or increased - in those foods. I decided to buy commercial foods vs. script mainly due to my cat refusing to eat the latter for the most part. Eating anything is better than barely - or not - eating because a cat does not really like the food.

And I am not an advocate of reducing the protein for her either. Tanya's web site and other sources discuss the pros/cons of lowering protein, and many state that it is a bit contradictory to give lower protein to CDK cats because most are older, and by very virtue of the aging process, along with the disease, they are prone to muscle mass loss. It is thought that the biggest 'benefit' of lowering the protein level is during the final stages of CKD when a cat's kidneys need all the help they can get. Then, preserving muscle mass becomes a bit less important.

Out of all my cat's this one gets hungry the most often, starts wailing in my ear and tapping me on the face 4-5 hours after her last meal.
I've been boiling a chicken drumstick or breast once a week, sneaking shreds of meat into their food. I put aside the fatty top layer of the broth, add some to the skinny cats water once a day... an attempt to get more calories in her. Not sure if it's good or bad for her kidneys

All fish (generally) and tuna (most specifically) give her diarrhea. Both her and one of my other cats get bad skin reaction if the eat carrageenan 75%+ of RX foods have one or the other in them. I ordered Hills k/d chicken stew, Hills k/d chicken pate, Weruva WX chicken pate. For now she's eaten 2 of them without mixing other foods in, and the ate the Hills Pate with a tiny but of fancy feast speared on top.