My cat has CKD and won't eat. What food helps lower creatinine?

Find a food with a strong smell/odor. Warm it slightly then offer it to Precious. You can also mix a teaspoon of warmed baby food in with her food. Discuss appetite stimulants, such as mirtazipine, with your veterinarian. The vet may also suggest some kidney friendly diets such as Hill's k/d or Royal Canin Renal Support. Bloodwork should be submitted to check kidney function. Elevated BUN and creatinine levels may cause nausea and inappetance. Hospitalizaton and IV fluids may be necessary to decrease levels.

Royal Canin carries a diet called Senior Consult which has restricted Phos but not as low as the renal diets so it is not appropriate to feed instead of the renal diets. I recommend to discuss this option with your vet before making any diet changes since they are the most familiar with Tony's history. You may ask your vet about an appetite stimulant such as mirtazapine. Many renal cats want variety. Many owners will keep several renal food options and will switch the kibble every week to keep it interesting. Most cats will go back to eating a diet that they had previously stopped eating so you may try circling back. You should also ask about the return policy when purchasing the food in case Tony won't eat the food. I hope this helps and please feel free to post any additional questions.

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. I am so sorry to hear about Anano. Although the royal Canin renal diet is ideal, it’s more important that he eats SOMETHING. So go ahead and feed him the meat. Then contact your vet to see if he or she has any other testing or treatments to try. Best wishes to you and Anano.

I hate to hear that Lily is having an issue eating her food. I would advise too try several renal diets. Royal Canin makes three different formulas. Purina and Science diet also make their own version. The best medicine would be for her to eat only a renal diet but sometimes pets have other ideas. If you cannot find a food that she likes and will readily eat, try mixing in about 25% of the renal diet in with 75% of her normal kibble. Every few days gradually increase the renal food. Even if she never goes on the renal diet fully, it's still better than not eating it at all. Try the canned renal diets as well (once again, all the brands carry this formula). If you want to try making her food at home, you will need to work with a veterinary nutritionist. Renal diets need carefully controlled protein, phosphorus and potassium levels. You can go online and find several who offer both phone and online consultations. I hope this helps to point you in the right direction. Please feel free to post any further questions!

We always say that it doesn't matter how good a food is if the pet won't eat it. This is especially true with cats. Your goal with a diet for a kidney patient is to avoid foods that are too high in protein, so you will want to avoid any kitten foods. Most non-prescription diets are very similar in their protein levels because they are made for the needs of an average adult cat. If Cricket was previously on a dry food, I found the best way to get my cat to eat canned food was to grind up dry food, then sprinkle it on the top of his canned food to get him eating. I am attaching a link to a handout below with tips to transition a cat onto canned food. https://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&S=0&C=0&A=3041 Since Cricket has been a fussy eater, the most important thing will be to find a food that she likes. I have found that cats tend to like Fancy Feast the best, so that might be an option if you can't find something else that she will eat. Good luck! I hope that was helpful. Thanks for using PetCoach.

Renal diets are very effective for cats with kidney disease -by reducing the amount of toxins the kidneys are required to excrete many of the symptoms can be reduced; they are also naturally antiinflammatory and enriched with vitamins etc and are proven both to extend life expectancy and quality of life. The larger proportion of the diet that is made of of kidney food, the more effective it is however calorie intake is very important and tempting or supplementing the diet with easy to digest protein sources such as egg, boiled chicken or fish is ok (for some clinical diets this is not appropriate but for kidney patients it is better than not eating the special diet)

The best diet for a cat with chronic renal failure is a canned-only, low-protein diet - this won't help with the anemia, specifically, but is the best option to help slow the progression of her kidney disease in general. You can try supplementing her with an iron supplement designed for cats such as Pet-Tinic - this can be ordered online without a prescription, and has dosing instructions on the label based on your kitty's weight.