Dietary Needs for Cat with CKD
Dietary Needs for Cat with CKD
Hello everyone! New here, and my poor little BeeBee cat who is about 13 years old was recently diagnosed with early stages of kidney disease. I haven't had much luck yet with the prescription cat foods, so have been trying to experiment with what she will (and will not) eat. I would prefer to be more holistic if possible and just make her my meals myself, but having hard time trying to find RELIABLE recipes online for elderly cats with kidney issues. Has anyone here had any luck with making meals for their elderly kitty with kidney issues??? Any advice appreciated. This has been very emotionally challenging for me to see my little cat age whom has been with me for nearly half my life. Recently started giving her fluids as well, but fortunately she at least takes them like a champ. Honestly think harder for me than her haha.
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Mollycat
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Re: Dietary Needs for Cat with CKD
Hello and welcome!
There are people here who will be able to offer the diet help you want, I haven't had too much trouble with prescription foods and my two recent and current haven't gone beyond very early stage. Current isn't even on special food.
Don't be too obsessed with fluid intake, it will be higher anyway but that isn't necessarily a good thing. Too much fluids can flush away good nutrients as well as toxins and a cat's system is a little different to ours. Their urine needs to be quite strongly acidic to keep the urinary system bacteria under control and avert UTIs. As with many things, balance is the key.
Also, don't panic. We all do the first time we get a verdict of CKD but it's a progression and although we can do what we can to slow it down, it's not usually a fast downhill and cats have lived a normal happy life with CKD for 5 years or more - my own first girl 20 years ago was diagnosed at 8 and died at well over 16 after a very short illness.
You're very likely right that this is harder for you than it is for your cat at this stage,, but you will come around to her way of thinking soon enough! To help you, there's Helen with Tanya's Pages http://www.felinecrf.org/index.htm, still the best, most detailed and kindest information you will find anywhere about what this diagnosis actually means in real terms. I just looked and I'm a bit disappointed, she has edited the website but chosen not to add mine to the success stories
There are people here who will be able to offer the diet help you want, I haven't had too much trouble with prescription foods and my two recent and current haven't gone beyond very early stage. Current isn't even on special food.
Don't be too obsessed with fluid intake, it will be higher anyway but that isn't necessarily a good thing. Too much fluids can flush away good nutrients as well as toxins and a cat's system is a little different to ours. Their urine needs to be quite strongly acidic to keep the urinary system bacteria under control and avert UTIs. As with many things, balance is the key.
Also, don't panic. We all do the first time we get a verdict of CKD but it's a progression and although we can do what we can to slow it down, it's not usually a fast downhill and cats have lived a normal happy life with CKD for 5 years or more - my own first girl 20 years ago was diagnosed at 8 and died at well over 16 after a very short illness.
You're very likely right that this is harder for you than it is for your cat at this stage,, but you will come around to her way of thinking soon enough! To help you, there's Helen with Tanya's Pages http://www.felinecrf.org/index.htm, still the best, most detailed and kindest information you will find anywhere about what this diagnosis actually means in real terms. I just looked and I'm a bit disappointed, she has edited the website but chosen not to add mine to the success stories
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fjm
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Re: Dietary Needs for Cat with CKD
I have cooked for my cats for years; one (Tilly) has confirmed early CKD and I strongly suspect the other (Pippin) has as well. Tilly stopped wanting to eat her usual food and was losing weight and condition, which is what led to the diagnosis.
I ordered a range of different renal foods online to find one she would eat. It was hard work - I eventually found that she preferred chunks in gravy, mashed so that she didn't just lick the gravy off, served at room temperature in very small portions in a shallow saucer. At the same time I adapted the home cooked food to lower the phosphorus level, mostly by choosing meats that are slightly higher in fat and using ground eggshell rather than bone as the calcium source. I buy from Durham Animal Feeds in the UK, and they do bone-free minced chicken etc as well as the complete versions. I add a very little liver, not more than 5% by weight, and one teaspoonful of ground eggshell per kilo of food. It took a while to get Tilly eating well - we went through a lot of Lick-e-Lix and other treats in desperation - but she is now eating around a sachet a day of Pro Plan renal chicken, a small portion of renal biscuits, a reasonable amount of the cooked meat, and the occasional mouse and vole. That fits pretty closely the optimal nutrition for her I worked out on a spreadsheet. Pippin more or less eats whatever he can find, so is less of a worry.
I have bowls of water all over the house, but Tilly mostly drinks outside or from the tap in the bathroom hand basin - visitors soon get used to being asked to turn it on when they make a loo trip in the early hours!
When I have used supermarket meat the basic recipe would be 1.5 kilo/3lbs chicken thighs; 250g/8oz minced beef, 15-20% fat; 75g/2.5oz liver. Simmer the thighs until well cooked and remove all bones. Cook the beef and liver in some of the chicken water, and chop the liver finely, or put through a food processor. Mix it all well, and freeze in 200g/8oz portions - enough for around 2-3 days for one cat depending on what else they are eating. I ring the changes on the meats to cover all the nutritional bases, but am less scrupulous than I was when they were not eating any commercial food. In the past I have included very small quantities of vegetables, and the water that the veg for the dogs was cooked in, plus taurine just in case, but I stopped adding veg when Tilly got so picky. I don't include rice or other carbs as there is more than enough of that in the commercial foods, and my aim with the homemade is to up the protein level without adding excessive phosphorus.
When she really refused to eat I found a very tiny piece of raw liver would often get her started. It is very high in phosphorus, so to be used with care, but also high in the B vitamins that tend to get depleted in CKD - B vitamins can often kick start a fading appetite.
I ordered a range of different renal foods online to find one she would eat. It was hard work - I eventually found that she preferred chunks in gravy, mashed so that she didn't just lick the gravy off, served at room temperature in very small portions in a shallow saucer. At the same time I adapted the home cooked food to lower the phosphorus level, mostly by choosing meats that are slightly higher in fat and using ground eggshell rather than bone as the calcium source. I buy from Durham Animal Feeds in the UK, and they do bone-free minced chicken etc as well as the complete versions. I add a very little liver, not more than 5% by weight, and one teaspoonful of ground eggshell per kilo of food. It took a while to get Tilly eating well - we went through a lot of Lick-e-Lix and other treats in desperation - but she is now eating around a sachet a day of Pro Plan renal chicken, a small portion of renal biscuits, a reasonable amount of the cooked meat, and the occasional mouse and vole. That fits pretty closely the optimal nutrition for her I worked out on a spreadsheet. Pippin more or less eats whatever he can find, so is less of a worry.
I have bowls of water all over the house, but Tilly mostly drinks outside or from the tap in the bathroom hand basin - visitors soon get used to being asked to turn it on when they make a loo trip in the early hours!
When I have used supermarket meat the basic recipe would be 1.5 kilo/3lbs chicken thighs; 250g/8oz minced beef, 15-20% fat; 75g/2.5oz liver. Simmer the thighs until well cooked and remove all bones. Cook the beef and liver in some of the chicken water, and chop the liver finely, or put through a food processor. Mix it all well, and freeze in 200g/8oz portions - enough for around 2-3 days for one cat depending on what else they are eating. I ring the changes on the meats to cover all the nutritional bases, but am less scrupulous than I was when they were not eating any commercial food. In the past I have included very small quantities of vegetables, and the water that the veg for the dogs was cooked in, plus taurine just in case, but I stopped adding veg when Tilly got so picky. I don't include rice or other carbs as there is more than enough of that in the commercial foods, and my aim with the homemade is to up the protein level without adding excessive phosphorus.
When she really refused to eat I found a very tiny piece of raw liver would often get her started. It is very high in phosphorus, so to be used with care, but also high in the B vitamins that tend to get depleted in CKD - B vitamins can often kick start a fading appetite.
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Mollycat
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Re: Dietary Needs for Cat with CKD
Just to add to fjm you have to watch beef liver as it's especially rich in vitamin A which can overdose, it takes a lot but pays to be aware.
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fjm
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Re: Dietary Needs for Cat with CKD
Absolutely - don't be tempted to overdo any liver, but especially beef. It is extremely rich in lots of vitamins and nutrients that are muscle meat does not provide enough of, so a little is helpful, but think of it as a supplement rather than a main ingredient! The treat size pieces I gave Tilly were about a quarter teaspoonful, and then not every day. I cook the liver separately and freeze it in ice cube trays - that way I can add just one or two small ice cubes to the meat when it is cooking.
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karenburton1305
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Re: Dietary Needs for Cat with CKD
Oh gosh bless you this sounds so difficult! Hard enough to deal with their illness without worrying about changing their diet.
It's not recipes, but our cat got incredibly fussy over the last year so we've tried a bit of everything - I found prepping his meals was just taking me too long and was getting so expensive that I went back to the premade stuff. We've found one that is all about limited ingridients which I love because I'm always uncertain about what's in normal cat food!! https://revealpetfood.com/cat/wet-food/ ... broth-pot/ is our cat's favourite at the moment but I love the ingridient cards and stuff so I can check what might be causing a nose upturn or an allergy!!
Might be worth a look/try if you're struggling with home made stuff??
Hope the cat is okay
It's not recipes, but our cat got incredibly fussy over the last year so we've tried a bit of everything - I found prepping his meals was just taking me too long and was getting so expensive that I went back to the premade stuff. We've found one that is all about limited ingridients which I love because I'm always uncertain about what's in normal cat food!! https://revealpetfood.com/cat/wet-food/ ... broth-pot/ is our cat's favourite at the moment but I love the ingridient cards and stuff so I can check what might be causing a nose upturn or an allergy!!
Might be worth a look/try if you're struggling with home made stuff??
Hope the cat is okay