Rx Kidney Diet Benefits vs Carrageenan Risks

[ty3535]

I have to put Enzo on a kidney diet for early CKD (early Stage 2). I’m searching for foods he will eat and I’ve basically tried all of the Rx wet diets that don’t contain carrageenan. He has IBD and in addition to other concerns I’ve read about it, it sounds like carrageenan can aggravate it. I’m trying to weigh the pros of a kidney diet containing carrageenan vs the cons of feeding a diet that contains it. I’d like any and all feedback. Thanks so much!

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi
Try Weruva, they've stopped using carrageenan and have a super low phosphorus variety, Weruva WX (no prescription required). The phos is so low they had to put a disclaimer required by the aafco but all the other nutrients in this line of food meets the regulations.
Also, if you're not familiar this website's page has information and other food brands for you to consider;
https://www.felinecrf.org/canned_food_usa.htm

 

[ty3535]

Hi! Unfortunately the Weruva diets aren’t complete and balanced so they’d have to be fed with another food.

 

[Furballsmom]

Yes, they are complete and balanced. As I mentioned, the only nutrient in the Weruva WX that is below aafco requirements is the phosphorus, all the other nutrients in that line of their food meets the requirements.

 

[ty3535]

I guess I was just confused by the nutrional info on chewy because it says “This food is not complete and balanced and should not be fed as the only meal to cats on an everyday basis”. But if it’s only the phosphorus content that makes them have to say that it makes sense. I haven’t had any luck getting him to eat Weruva in the past but I’ll definitely give it a try.

 

[Furballsmom]

They had to say that otherwise they wouldn't have been able to put it on the market.

There are a couple other brands that have new varieties with low phos, there's Dave's and also Evangers but I don't know if they have carrageenan

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

If he doesn't like any of the low phosphorus foods or they won't work due to his IBD, you can always ask your Vet about using phosphorus binders instead of changing his foods (if necessary). When a cat has IBD, it's about quality of life, as I'm sure you know. Many of us who've had kidney cats have never fed a kidney diet, myself included. I continued to feed a raw diet to my last kidney cat until she started rejecting it, then I fed her anything she wanted, some with very high phos in it and our Vet said that was fine since eating was the main thing. She lived for three years after diagnosis, and she wasn't diagnosed until later in the game.

 

[lisahe]

I so agree with what mrsgreenjeens says! A low phosphorus diet can really help a kidney cat. And changing an IBD cat's diet can also help an IBD cat. Our previous cat most likely had both (she was too old and frail for a real IBD and/or lymphoma diagnosis) and improving her diet in her last months lessened her IBD/digestive symptoms and improved her kidney numbers. We're pretty sure grains and/or fish were her IBD triggers; she did better without those even though many of the foods she'd eat contained carrageenan. (This was about ten years ago, when lots of foods still had carrageenan. And we had no choice, really, but to feed her whatever she'd eat at that point.)

Now, though, after feeding our two current cats and learning a lot more about what's in cat food and what can cause digestive problems for a cat, if I had a cat with both kidney disease and IBD, I'd feed a version of what we currently feed our cats. They eat a combination of homemade cooked food and a variety of canned foods. Some of their current canned foods have higher phosphorus than a kidney cat should have but some are already pretty low. Best of all, none of their commercial foods contain fish, grains, legumes, carrageenan, xanthan gum, agar-agar, potato starch, or high carbs. Every cat is different, of course, and two serious diseases in an aging cat would almost certainly require dietary compromises but that would be my starting point.

Good luck!