Diagnosed with Kidney Disease -- Help!

Background: I haven't been on this website in a long time because of the great advice I got from this forum when my SugarLou was first diagnosed. He's been so stable and done so well, since 2019 diagnosis, because of the things I've learned here. (I haven't updated his chart because of this...)

Current Situation: Vet has diagnosed Louis with "moderate" kidney disease after annual bloodwork. He said that only a biopsy he could define a "stage". I go to this Vet because he's close by and reasonable.

My Question: Is there anybody out there that can give me advice for additional treatments or help for my Lou? I just started giving him something called "Pet Wellbeing Kidney Support". It has really good reviews on Amazon. It's somewhat difficult to administer (drops). They say to put on or mix with food, but my Lou is somewhat fussy. So I'm struggling a bit. Combined with the limitation on foods for him (He's been exclusively on Fancy Feast Pate's, and grilled flavors); no dry food. And like I said, he's fussy, so options are limited.

Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated!!
PS: Louis is 10 years young

 

My cat Bobo has CKD stage 2. The main thing is finding foods that are low in phosphorus. I feel like @Diane Tyler's Mom knows some? I tried everything under the rainbow and Bobo won’t eat any of them. So the other option is to add a phosphorus binder to his food. Most vets won’t prescribe that until he’s at stage 2 or 3 but it’s worth asking your vet about it

 

I'm so sorry that you received this news about Louis. Another member here shared this link with me a while ago - it's a list of foods that are appropriate for cats with both diabetes and CKD, hope it helps in your search for a diet that Louis will eat and that will help preserve his kidney function and keep his blood glucose in check!

ETA: I also use a Pet Wellbeing liquid supplement for constipation on one of my cats, and he hates the taste. I don't think adding it to his food would ever work! I give it directly in his mouth, and reward him with a treat or a lick of Churu.

 

Have you looked at the Weruva Pates
One of our members put this together low carb and low phosphorous which is good for the kidneys
weruva has low carb and low phospherous wet food
With weruva foods
You want the metabolizable energy profile percentage of carbs to be less than 10%, and the phosphorus which Weruva lists in Minerals to be less than 250 mg per 100 cals. So you have to look at two different places in the Weruva charts.
https://weruva.com
Will also give the protein and fat %


For diabetic cats and cats that have elevated kidney values
You want to feed low phosphorous wet food

When you go to the weruva site and click on one of the pics of the food , click on Detailed Nutrition information that is under guaranteed analysis to the left
YOU WANT CARBS UNDER 10% AND PHOSPHORUS IDEALLY LOW 200's OR LESS

Here is a list that one of our members posted ,if Bear likes pates

I don't know if the BFF play weruva pate is on the list your looking at or not. I wrote down the protein carbs & phosphorus #s in a notebook.
BFF play chicken Checkmate
Protein 31%
Carbs 5%
Phosphorus 129%
BFF play chicken & turkey topsy turvy
Protein 32%
Carbs 5%
Phosphorus 129%
BFF play chicken cherish
Protein 31%
Carbs 5%
Phosphorus 135%
BFF chicken & turkey tiptoe
Protein 31%
Carbs 5%
Phosphorus 136%
BFF chicken duck & turkey take a chance
Protein 32%
Carbs 5%
Phosphorus 149%
BFF play chicken & lamb laugh out loud
Protein 31%
Carbs 5%
Phosphorus 154%
BFF play chicken & duck destiny
Protein 32%
Carbs 5%
Phosphorus 165%
BFF play chicken & beef best buds
Protein 33%
Carbs 5%
Phosphorus 171%
Don't know if your kitty likes pate but here is the list of the BFF line.

You can also check out weruva cats in the kitchen pates
https://weruva.com/nutrition-landing/pates-ni/

 

I have never heard of this in my life to do a biopsy
Do you have the blood work report?
You can take a pic of it and post it here, the upload option isn't working
I can then tag Suzanne
@Suzanne & Darcy to take a look at it

 

Tanya’s comprehensive guide to chronic feline kidney disease is a wonderful resource. It has a support group as well
https://www.felinecrf.org/

 

I’ve also never heard of a biopsy needed for diagnosis. Bobo was diagnosed with an ultrasound and blood work.

 

There are three ways to support cats with kidney disease: diet changes (low phosphorus foods), supplements, and fluids. The third is, in my experience, the most effective way to manage kidney disease. If you can learn to give subcutaneous fluids at home, it can make your cat infinitely more comfortable and help them deal with the dehydration that kidney disease can cause. Aside from taxing the body and the kidneys, dehydration feels absolutely terrible.

I have two cats with CKD. Both were diagnosed about five years ago and have been on daily fluids since then. For one, the fluid therapy improved his kidney numbers significantly, lowering him a stage. For the other, it stabilized him and he has only now begun to move to the next stage.

(Edit: Both of my cats were diagnosed with bloodwork alone and you can use the blood creatinine and SDMA values to determine stage by checking the IRIS staging chart, which can be found online.)

 

Typically fluids are not started until the blood work kidney values get to a certain level. And then only after the vet has checked out heart function. My girl Neko went into heart failure from fluids for her kidney disease. Thankfully she recovered the first time. We tried introducing a much smaller level of fluids later on, and she went into failure again. Hydration is important. If you are not already, make his food as soupy as he will eat it.

The website that Bron linked in post #6 is a good one. It has the tables showing you the CKD stage/level, based on the blood work values.