Help, raw diet and kidney issues?

[hihifufu]

Got a blood test done for my 2-year old British shorthair as a pre-checkup for dental cleaning since he's been having some dental issues. The result shows that there is some indication of kidney deficiencies. The vet suggests putting my cat on a Hill's Science C/D diet but I have concerns about switching to this diet as it contains starch and grains that my cat is not used to. He's been on a completely grain-free diet for over a year. He eats mostly raw food with some canned food occasionally.
Here are some numbers from the report:

• IDEXX SDMA: 15ug/dL (normal range: 0-14ug/dL)
• Creatinine: 214umol/L which converts to 2.42mg/dL (normal range is 80-203umol/L)
• BUN: 10.7mmol/L which is right in the normal range

I've read that cats who are on a raw diet tend to get higher creatinine levels, and SDMA is a new test so there isn't a lot of information to read up on this other than some studies and their official website.

Does anyone have a similar experience with feeding a raw diet and abnormal blood test result? Should I be concerned about switching my cat's diet as my vet suggests?

 

[hihifufu]

Thought I'd mention that this cat pees a lot more volume than my other cat ever since he was a kitten, but the frequency is normal.

 

[LTS3]

It's normal for raw fed cats to have slightly elevated blood levels, typically the kidney values and protein. Blood work baseline levels are established on commercial dry food decades ago. Raw has only been popular in the past decade or so and has yet to be taken into account by vets when reading blood work results.

These two threads may be helpful:

Looking for the links with info about elevated BUN/crea in raw fed cats

I know there are threads on this, but I cannot find them. I swear I remember reading and even participating in a thread where some of our most generous and helpful members posted links (studies?) that discuss these numbers being elevated in raw fed cats and why. I just am useless at searching...

thecatsite.com

Too Much Protein?

Hello, my cat Florine has a UTI and I am concerned about something the vet said. My cat has protein in her urine, apparently, and my vet said it could be caused by the UTI she currently has, or it could be caused by her diet, or a problem with her kidneys. Obviously I'm hoping it's related to...

thecatsite.com

IMO, you don't need to feed any prescription diet the vet recommends. It's ok to disagree with the vet about food. Why does the vet recommend C/D? That's for urinary issues like crystals

Urine volume varies daily for cats. Sometimes a cat will pee a lot, sometimes not. As long as the urine output is consistent, I wouldn't worry about it. If the cat starts peeing puddles that are like 3+ times larger than usual and diet hasn't changed, then I would worry.

Use this current blood work results as a baseline to compare future results to. Any big differences may indicate a possible issue that needs more looking into.

My raw fed cats have slightly elevated BUN levels and the vet always says that they are in the very early stages of potentially developing kidney issues. I disagree. One of my cats had follow up blood work once and BUN levels had decreased to the within the normal range.

 

[hihifufu]

Thanks for your response LTS! I think the vet suggests C/D because in his experience some cats don't like the taste of K/D and I think his goal is to put my cat on a lower-protein diet to see if the numbers would come down within the normal range before proceeding with any dental treatment that would require anesthesia.