Our 20-year-old has CKD and we feed him a prescription food in the morning (Royal Canin Renal Support D) and a non-prescription food in the evening (Forza10 Renal Support paté).
Treats are limited to catnip, cat grass, and the very rare small piece of plain chicken.
What do you feed yours?
Mine mostly eats wet food with „renal” on it. Five or six types so he doesn’t get bored (but he does anyway). The best thing I found was a „renal drink”. Sort of a soup which is mostly water, and that really boosted his liquid intake and how much he urinates. Since then his blood results really improved.
What is this drink? I’m planning to buy a few different things in my next Chewy order.
Its a kattovit product called renal drink. He kinda likes it too. I really think mine’s blood improved because he really started to drink more water. Now he’s peeing twice a day in contrast to once before. He is only 9 though.
Best health to you and your kitty.
I can actually give you some good guidance on this. If you have a more holistic/crunchy pet store in your area, one of the best diets you can give them is Answers frozen raw, with answers raw goats milk, and their fermented fish stock. If the kidney issues are far along, a mixture of 50% goats milk to 50% raw (beef, preferably), and their daily recommended of the fermented fish stock. That’s literally the highest quality diet you can give them.
For a less high quality (and thus cheaper) option, I would still recommend replacing part of their protein intake with answers raw goats milk, and definitely the fish stock if you can swing it. Even in less therapeutic doses, those are two great sources of probiotics to aid in digestion as well as adding more liquid to their diet, which is job #1. Job #2, though it’s really job #1.5, is the quality of the proteins they’re eating.
Weruva steak frites is the best canned food for kidney issues, because while keeping moisture high and protein quality high, it also has low phosphorous. Which is job #3. If steak frites is still out of your budget, their chicken frickazee is the second best option.
These are all canned or raw foods. I guess job #0.5 is to cease any and all dry food. If your cat is on dry food, stop immediately. No cat should be eating kibble, but definitely not a cat with kidney issues. Dry food will actually contribute to kidney issues, if not just straight up cause them. As well as tooth decay, obesity, dehydration, diabetes, and a host of other issues like coat quality. Cats a desert animals by nature, so they’re used to getting their moisture from their food. They also eat until they get the nutrients they need, and kibble is so much filler that they will overeat, their dehydration will get worse, and their kidneys will suffer. Especially the lower quality foods like science diet and royal canin.
So no matter what, no kibble from here on out. Be wary of any of the restricted diet stuff like science diet’s because it’s not a complete meal, it’s for maintenance for a flare up in these issues. I mean, avoid science diet altogether (and royal canin. Just saw the subtext of the post). Dave’s makes a good replacement for this, and it’s cheaper because it’s not “prescription,” you can just get it on chewy (or better yet, your local independent pet food store).
Your comment is super helpful. Thanks so much. I will definitely look into all of this stuff and see what’s available on Chewy. Murphy is already on wet-only, with only dry as a “treat” after giving his meds when unable to give it at mealtime.
Just wanted to give you an update. I tried a couple of things (paste, drops) to see if adding those to his current food would entice him to eat. Nothing worked. But he absolutely loves the Weruva steak frites and scarfs it down every time. He is now back to eating his original prescription food in the morning and the steak frites in the evening. Thanks so much for all your input.
I mean, a 20 year-old cat with kidney failure should be allowed to eat whatever the hell they want, whenever they want. Give them all the love and care you can…
That’s why he gets the occasional chicken, and doesn’t get scolded when he gets into my husband’s unattended cereal bowl. But we’re not going to actively contribute to the decline of his health. :/
Agreed! Hope that didn’t come across badly. I miss my cat and hope you are enjoying your time with yours…
Aww I’m sorry. We have lost a couple other seniors and we miss them, but Murphy just keeps on keeping on. We definitely spoil him whenever possible. Sure, Murphy, chew on my palm plant.
Fucking Murphy… Give him extra pets for me, please!
Haha, will do. His Highness is napping right now.
Yes! The line between adore and hinder is hard to balance.
Royal Canin has some treats too. Our guy is diabetic and does the ultimino food and ultimino treats, I think there are renal support versions as well.
Ours is 19, has gone blind and deaf (at least mostly, we think she still sees bright light and deep dark shadow contrast) but, she still has one hell of a sniffer on her.
We get some feline lysine in a tube to add a little to our girls food in the evening. Our vet said the lysine and taurine are good for her, may want to verify for your situation. We keep some Temptations Purrree tubes around for an in-between meal hearty snack.Then we found a Bonkers hard treat with taurine too.
And of course catnip, cat grass, and little bits of un-seasoned protein treats when we are cooking (bit of chicken, tiny piece of steak). We’ll actually cut a lil pice off and set it aside before we season, then give it to her cooled as we go to eat. High protein is no longer good for her, but she gets so happy for her little nibbles we can’t help it, and it isn’t very often.
I’ll need to check out the Forza, maybe replace some of her temptation snacking with a little of that. She doesn’t eat a whole lot at once, and due to a dog and greedy little brothers, can’t really have food left to reach easy thus the regular snacking.
Sounds like you feed yours the same way we feed Murphy with the restricted diet, catnip and cat grass, and occasional plain meat as a treat.
The Forza has been great. I just found it on Chewy and have been feeding it to Murphy for maybe 3 years now. His blood and kidney levels have been coming back good so the vet said “just keep doing what you’re doing.”
I just feel like he has been eating less lately so just looking for alternatives to maybe entice his appetite. I know he’s old and could just be in decline but we will keep trying until it’s time to say goodbye. He is due for a vet visit though, so we’ll see what they say.
Have you tried warming the wet food a little bit to increase the scent? Worked for mine when she was a little grumpy before she got new better anti-arthritis medication.
The Temptations tubes may help to get more food in? They have a decent amount of nutrient for a treat product (better than the delectibles) and there are some Churu tubes that are pretty good we found on Chewy too. We just squeeze the whole thing into a dish like it was another meal. It’s all liquid so super easy to ingest. Our girl, Dorito, had been loosing weight and now she is maintaining, which has made us feel so much better, hopefully her too!
He is so food motivated that his treats are just more of his usual prescription food, but stored in a different container than his regular food is given from.
