Stage 1 Kidney Disease Food And Treat Search

[Cmdm828]

We just found out that our cat is in the very early stages of kidney disease. She has 0 symptons and is an amazingly happy and active cat....but, It was a major freak out because she has been with us our entire marriage of 14 years. Shes almost 16 and the vet gave us samples of Hills KD formula. She lives the soft food and will not eat the dry food. So...this is what I'd like some help with. Her regular food that she's had for yes is IAMS ProAc Health Adult Healthy Digestion Dry Cat Food. We are giving that to her still until we find an alternative. We give her the Hills KD at night for dinner. We know of Hills and a company called Royal that has KD food that's dry but it feels even with a Google search...this stuff is a needle in a haystack. I typed in IAMS cat food kidney diseade and the food we currently give her pops up in the pink bag. Any help and options would be great for dry foods. We are looking for treats as well. The meow mix treats arentt gonna cut it in the long haul we assume. Please...help. We are verymscared for our little girl and want her to live many more years.

 

[duckpond]

If she likes the wet food can you just feed her that? I feed both wet and dry, but with kidney cats all wet would i think be best. If you are wanting to feed dry, i would check with the vet about a different dry, Royal canin and i think purina both have some prescription dry that might be worth a try. I think Chewy carries all of these, but you will need a prescription from the vet, and his advice on which one.

For treats i would keep it very simple, and use something like freeze dried chicken, which my guys like a lot. Pure bites is popular with a lot of cats. chewy carries that as well. or you can pick it up at pet smart, and maybe petco.

Best of luck to you guys! Hoping she does great for many many years to come!

 

[lisahe]

If she likes the wet food can you just feed her that? I feed both wet and dry, but with kidney cats all wet would i think be best.

I agree! Water is very important for kidney cats at all stages and the more they can get from their food, the better. Wet food is great for keeping a cat hydrated so it's excellent that your cat prefers the wet food. For any senior cat -- but particularly cats with kidney disease -- one of the most important aspects of feeding is to keep the cat happy and eating, to avoid weight loss and wasting. The Pure Bite treats that duckpond mentioned are great to feed both as treats and crumbled on wet foods a cat might not exactly feel like eating.

I've noticed that a lot of Cat Site members have said their early-stage kidney cats do very well on regular canned commercial cat foods. Weruva in particular makes foods that tend to be fairly low in phosphorus -- they were very helpful when we had a cat with early kidney disease; her kidney numbers even improved a bit. You can find a listing of phosphorus levels in canned foods on this site, Tanya's Comprehensive Guide to Feline Chronic Kidney Disease. I used Tanya's site and the chart on Catinfo.org when we had a very sick cat who had mild kidney disease and mild thyroid disease, though it was very bad digestive disorders that were her downfall. I limited most of Brooksie's foods to 1% phosphorus, dry matter, when possible. It looks like there are more choices in that range now then there were five years ago. In any case, Tanya's site also discusses various approaches to treating kidney disease; it's a bit overwhelming at first but it's a great site and well worth reading to get a sense of options.

Good luck, C Cmdm828 -- the big thing is to keep your cat happy, active, and eating!

 

[Cmdm828]

Well...we feed her the wet food but also like to keep the dry food out to be eaten throughout the day. She's always had it that way and the vet told us it's good for her to keep the weight up.

 

[Cmdm828]

We just found out that our cat is in the very early stages of kidney disease. She has 0 symptons and is an amazingly happy and active cat....but, It was a major freak out because she has been with us our entire marriage of 14 years. Shes almost 16 and the vet gave us samples of Hills KD formula. She lives the soft food and will not eat the dry food. So...this is what I'd like some help with. Her regular food that she's had for yes is IAMS ProAc Health Adult Healthy Digestion Dry Cat Food. We are giving that to her still until we find an alternative. We give her the Hills KD at night for dinner. We know of Hills and a company called Royal that has KD food that's dry but it feels even with a Google search...this stuff is a needle in a haystack. I typed in IAMS cat food kidney diseade and the food we currently give her pops up in the pink bag. Any help and options would be great for dry foods. We are looking for treats as well. The meow mix treats arentt gonna cut it in the long haul we assume. Please...help. We are verymscared for our little girl and want her to live many more years.

Are the freeze dried treats ok for her to eat wuth KD?

 

[Furballsmom]

I think that freeze dried treats, (Orijen, Purebites) since they're typically single source protein and with a short list of ingredients, probably they're fine.

Definitely take a look at the two sites that lisahe mentions. Tanya's kidney cats website is a little out of date but still valid.

 

[happilyretired]

I've lost two cats to kidney disease and would advise you to become familiar with Tanya's site--invaluable info.

It's harder to lower phosphorus in dry food--unless you're feeding a prescription dry food.

The key (as your vet indicates) is to keep the cat eating, and neither of my guys would touch any of the low phosphorus wet food, so I added a phosphorus binder to the food (totally tasteless, and they accepted it). In fact, the thinking now is that many of the prescription foods are too low in protein for a cat, and they do better with just lowering phosphorus.

 

[Azazel]

Well...we feed her the wet food but also like to keep the dry food out to be eaten throughout the day. She's always had it that way and the vet told us it's good for her to keep the weight up.

I know vets often justify feeding dry food to keep weight up and to clean teeth, but I really have to say that these are both horrible reasons to feed dry food, especially for kidney cats. Yes, dry food is more calorie dense, but it's loaded with bad calories, namely carbs. Cats need high meat-based protein, especially kidney cats. Also, kidney cats do better with lower phosphorus foods and they really need water.

I highly suggest you feed all wet. If you're worried about maintaining weight just feed more of the wet food. You can look up the amount of calories in the cans directly on the label or on the can website. Just feed as much calories as you are already feeding but feed more wet. Water is the most important thing for kidney cats. Some low phosphorus healthy wet foods I would recommend are Weruva (I feed the Cats in the Kitchen Fowl Ball and Chicken-Frick-A-Zee varieties, both low in PH), Ziwipeak canned venison and lamb flavors are not as low as Weruva, but somewhat low, and if you're willing to feed raw, Rad Cat is very very good food and very low in phosphorus.

Weruva and Rad Cat are also especially good because they are low in phosphorus but still high in meat-based protein.