Kidney Issues and Food questions

Cocoa was spending a lot of time by the water bowl again. His BG was always in the 90's when I checked him, so we went to the vet.
His blood test results showed a slightly increased BUN reading of 39. Everything else was normal, his BG was 123 at the vets.
The vet said this isn't really anything to be too concerned of "at this time", but I would like to try to prevent it from progressing for as long as I can. Also a UA showed an infection in the bladder, so he is currently on Amoxitabs.

Cocoa eats Wellness grain free canned foods. This is what got him OTJ over two years ago when he was first DX'd with diabetes. I also sprinkle one capsule of Cosequin on his food daily to help with his arthritis. He still limps and cannot jump on anything. He is almost 13 years old and weighs 19 lbs. When he was first DX'd he was 28lbs. so we have made a bit of progress and he is a big cat anyway.

What I am wondering is if Wellness is also appropriate for a cat with developing kidney issues to keep eating. I can't remember if I once read that maybe too much protein or fats could be a problem? I feed my other civies FF low carb varities and Cocoa will occasionally get some of it, but if he eats it too often, I notice he's at the water bowl again. FF does list salt as one of the ingredients, so maybe that's why?

Are there any other good quality foods that are good for cats with kidney issues? Anything else I could/should be doing?

TIA
Janet

 

Actually, for early kidney disease, I think it is phosphorus you should try to limit. You can use Janet & Binky's food charts and check the phosphorus column. You should choose something below 250 (some limit it to 200, but there are not many low carb foods that low). Wellness Turkey, Chicken, and Beef & Chicken are all good choices. Most of the FF flavors are much higher in phos. than Wellness.

Besides that, encourage him to drink a lot of water.

 

BUN (Blood Urea Nitrogen) is a byproduct of digesting protein. It is used as an indicator for renal disease because meat protein is usually high in phosphorus. Cats eating a high protein diet will have higher BUN levels. Did you get phosphorus and Creatinine levels as well? BUN alone is not enough to dx kidney issues, just an indicator to look further. If Phosphorus is higher you can add cooked egg whites to his diet (high protein/low phosphorus) that will in effect dilute the amount of phosphorus or try a phosphorus binder.

 

As mentioned, low phosphorus is most important in the early stages, and if BUN was the only thing out of wack, then hes very very early. INdicators of kidney insufficiency are USG via urinalysis, and creatinine, but some cats need attention paid to phosphorus and potassium. One word about phosphorus, on the reference range for Antech, the high is 8.0, but really you want to keep it below 6.0.

Merlyn ate canned wellness til he passed over the Bridge from his heart, but he was also a kidney cat for years.

There are periodic posts from Melissa and Popcorn, and Holly and Spader, with links to info about kidney disease...but this one web site is amazing and will give you lots of info.
http://www.felinecrf.org

 

I know the Creatinine levels were checked, but I don't recall what the number was, only that it was in the normal range. I didn't get a copy of the test results to bring home with me. I just remember the BUN number, because that was the one that was out of range. The vet did say that an elevated BUN reading could be caused by any number of things and that we would just watch things for now.
I have to admit that I just don't understand all the chemistry of foods and the effects that different ingredients have, such as phosphorus and binders and all that. It was much easier choosing a low carb food to lower Cocoa's BG levels and Wellness has been wonderful in that respect and he eats it and has tolerated it well. I really hate to think of trying to find another new food.
I have two other cats in the house and it's very hard to keep each of them out of the others bowl. I only started adding FF for the other two to help stretch the budget and they have had no issues from eating the FF. Only with Cocoa did I notice that his water consumption increases when he eats more FF, so I try to limit him on that and give him Wellness.

I will check out the link you provided for more info on CRF. Thanks Lisa.

 

Hi there. I can only pop on for a second as I have to one of my cats who is still loopy from a dental this afternoon....

Here are my CRF links that I put together when my cat Spader was diagnosed with FD and CRF within a few months of each other.

Spader was diagnosed with early CRF on New Year's Eve '04. He was also a diet controlled diabetic, until a dental at the end of December of '06 put him
back on the juice. I went out with Janet's food charts in hand and bought various low carb, low phos, medium protein foods and did a hit or miss approach until I came up with the magic mix he now eats. The other cans stayed in the pantry just in case he got picky. I bought various flavors of Wellness, Merrick, Nature's Variety, Hi-Tor Neo, PetGuard, Pinnacle, Iams, Newman’s Own, etc.

I had been doing fluids on my own with a lot of success. The vets matched the internet prices, so that helped out a lot.
Also, I put several cups of purified water around the house and purchased a cat fountain (The Cat-It). I also added water to his canned food.

He ate mostly the low phos Friskies Special Diet flavors and FF Chicken and Tuna. Sometimes he got picky and ate all meat baby food.

I ended up adding a phosphorus binder during the last year and a half.
Here are some links:
Feline CRF Information Center
Tanya's Feline CRF Information Center
I think I memorized and printed out every page!
FelineCRF-FD Yahoo Group
FelineCRF Support Yahoo Group
These groups are awesome. Saved my butt!

Mail Order CRF Supplies
I printed out the Brico prices and brought them into the vets.

How to give subQ fluids
Feline CRF hints
Foods list by Phos
http://webpages.charter.net/katkarma/canfood.htm
Feline CRF Documents


A wonderful section of info from Feline Outreach.
Feline Outreach