What diet for my picky cat with elevated creatinine and BUN levels?

In looking over Weruva's website, I see that they claim their food to be very low in phosphorous level. That's good, as phosphorous levels in the food should be low in cats with kidney problems. The problem that I see with the food is that is does not state if it is high in protein or not. The website says it has high quality protein, but does not provide if there is a restricted protein or not in the food. In cats with high renal numbers, it is recommended to have restricted protein levels in the food. That's because many of the toxic products that accumulated in the blood due to kidney problems are due to protein breakdown, so it's important to have reduced levels of protein in the diet. Because cats are obligate carnivores, however, this protein restriction has to be done with care. Given I cannot find any information about this food being low in protein, I would not recommend feeding it to Twitchy. It would be better to feed her a kidney formulated diet, such as Hill k/d or Royal Canin renal. I would feed her a wet food instead of a dry kibble.

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.

Unfortunately kidney values can not be interpreted without a urinalysis and specific gravity. Elevated BUN is not always CKD but this would be more likely in the face of poorly concentrated urine ( pred will also effect this). CKD is staged via what is called IRIS. This takes in to account creatinine, protein in the urine, and blood prressure. SDMA is newer and thought to be an earlier indicator then BUN/creatinine as these as insensitive markers of kidney function. This has now been incorporated in to the new IRIS scheme. What i would recommend for your kitty is a urinalysis and blood pressure to better stage. For early stage CKD kitties a renal diet is recommended. It is also important to treat any high blood preesure or significant protein in the urine as these can worsen kidney function. I hope this helps and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach!

If he won't eat the Royal Canin renal diet then you should try a different brand like Hill's k/d. The Hill's diet has an appetite stimulant in it which helps with palatability. If he won't eat that either then all you can do is feed him what he will eat. It may shorten his life span but you cannot let him starve to death. If he is anemic that is called anemia of chronic disease. The only thing to help that is injections of EPO (erythropoeitin). Feeding organ meet is not going to help. ( https://www.petmd.com/cat/conditions/cardiovascular/c_ct_anemia_chronic_kidney_disease )

Many cats with renal disease get picky with food so you may end up trying all the brands at some point or alternating between them. You need to feed Mercy a prescription diet for the renal disease. The brand Royal Canin tends to be the most palatable. They make 3 varieties of kibble and 3 varieties of canned food that are all for renal disease. They have different smells/textures...etc so just pick a bag (or all 3) and try it. You will need to ask your normal veterinarian about continuing the milk thistle. The renal diets are lower in protein, higher in fat and higher in fatty acids/antioxidants and this can be beneficial for the liver depending on the cause of liver elevations. Your normal vet will best advise you. I hope this helps and please feel free to post any additional questions.

John, I'm sorry to hear of the mild kidney problem with Dusty and Stitch. There are several excellent prescription cat foods that are for kidney support. I would start with the brand your veterinarian recommends. If they don't like it try another until you find what they like. Your veterinarian will recommend periodic blood tests to monitor their kidney function and will add medication or fluids if that becomes necessary. Many cats live long active lives even with some kidney issues so with good care they should be fine for several years or more.

There are many options, the one change which is proven to extend life expectancy and quality is to convert to a specialist kidney diet, preferably wet kidney food. These are enriched with antioxidants and b vitamins, contain highly digestible protein to reduce the amount of work the kidneys need to do and are high in antiinflammatory omega fatty acids. A kidney tonic such as pronefra can also help. Regular blood and urine testing to track progress is important as additional measures to treat high phosphorous, urine protein loss and high blood pressure may need to be added over time