CKD Feeding Question

Bella is officially OTJ, but our celebration of that was very short lived. She began peeing blood and was diagnosed with a severe UTI. After some blood work and urinalysis the vet confirmed that her kidneys are declining, they gave me some blood pressure medicine as her blood pressure is quite elevated, and sent me home with some prescription food. Bella absolutely hates this prescription food, and it gives her really loose stool. Before her diagnosis I was feeding her friskies, which she does like alot (successfully went from 5 pounds to 8.5 pounds while eating it). Is there something else any of you guys have successfully used to feed her CKD kitties? I unfortunately dont have a ton of money to keep trying every food the vet has to offer me, and in the end I would much rather she be happy for as long as she can be, rather than having to eat something she hates to increase her lifespan for however long. Any advice would be great, thanks!

 

I had a CKD kitty who did very well on a combination of raw and a little Royal Canin Renal (dry food) (some tinned wet food mainly as a treat) - however she wasn’t diabetic and I didn’t have to factor that in too. She was on blood pressure tablets (fortekor) for about 5 years too and those helped her kidneys too. felinecrf.org has lots of good info and lists of foods to feed too if you haven’t already looked at it.

 

I dealt with almost this exact same situation in 2015 with Rosa - she was diagnosed diabetic, went into remission, but was then diagnosed CKD just a couple of months later. Renal prescription food really isn't the best for a diabetic - it's all pretty high in carbs, and could break a remission. So if Bella doesn't like it, and it's not making her feel good, I wouldn't persevere with it. The main "enemy" for kidneys is phosphorus, which is more important to restrict than protein, especially in the early stages of CKD. There is a list of foods here that are suitable for both diabetes and CKD that give you quite a few options to choose from for her - all are low in both carbs and phosphorus. They're not exactly what I fed Rosa because some formulas have changed, and I updated the list in 2017 when Dr. Lisa's new list came out, but they all have a good profile for handling both diabetes and CKD at the same time https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nMBzt57Zi0PcAJ-gSt0NxrTyc3Twi7A0L8o2H2gGkoM/edit?usp=sharing

 

Thank you for the chart, I will look into it! In general I just want her to be happy for as long as possible, if thats a few months while eating something that isnt completely "prescription perfect" then it is what it is.

 

The only one I had no success with whatsoever was Hi-Tor. All the cats hated it and refused to even consider taking a bite. Everything else that I tried was mostly fairly well tolerated, although our cats tend to prefer food on the cheaper end of the spectrum so that ones that are advertised as human grade (also significantly more expensive) didn't go over as well as things like 9-lives Tuna & Egg!