A poor or biologically inappropriate diet can worsen several diseases common in cats (and dogs). One of the most notorious is CKD — Chronic Kidney Disease, also known as chronic renal disease or chronic renal failure. All kidneys slowly fail over time. CKD means the kidneys are failing faster than usual, faster than the rest of the body. A carefully managed diet is key to slowing the rate of failure, which is what is explored here.
Because of the tremendous capacity of the kidneys to compensate for loss of tissue, the kidneys can deteriorate to a point where they operate at 30%-40% of capacity while producing very few or no symptoms. Unfortunately once the symptoms appear there is a gradual decline in function that eventually becomes fatal. Currently there is no cure for failing kidneys.
The second leading cause of death for cats, CKD, has several root causes, like genetics, environment, an injury, and perhaps the most preventable is diet. Often a large culprit is a diet too low in moisture, AKA dry and canned food diet. Because cats evolved in dry regions, healthy cats drink little or no water by nature (low thirst drive). Kitties evolved to meet most or all of their body’s daily water requirements through their diet not from a water bowl.
Dry food is nearly void of water, containing only about 10%. Canned is 40%-60%. Compare that to our raw food, which is around 75% water, which is typical for a cat’s natural diet. Cats will drink water when they can’t get enough water from their food. Their evolutionary origins leave them with a low thirst drive, rarely drinking enough even when they do drink. That leaves them in a constant state of chronic mild dehydration which is very difficult on the kidneys (and other organs) causing a slow deterioration over time.
Once a cat is diagnosed with chronic kidney disease your vet may recommend a “prescription renal diet,” which is probably a kibble (dry food). Dr. Lisa Pierson, DVM, a feline-only practitioner and cat nutrition expert, writes,
“I must say that I find it truly amazing when I hear about the very large numbers of cats receiving subcutaneous fluids while being maintained on a diet of dry food. This is an extremely illogical and unhealthy practice and every attempt should be made to get these cats on a diet that contains a higher moisture content.”
https://catinfo.org/
Once CKD has been diagnosed the goal is to avoid further damage and assist, or at the very least, don’t hamper the remaining function. A kidney friendly diet can be carefully formulated using herbals and a nutritional approach, combined with reducing or eliminating the ‘toxic’ load on the kidneys, and increasing the amount of moisture in the diet.
As CKD progresses, your cat’s appetite will fluctuate. Some days she’ll be hungry and other days nothing will tempt her to eat. This can be attributed to how they feel. Like you, when feeling poorly, you’re probably not thinking of eating. Unfortunately for cats this means they are also not hydrating. It’s vital to find a food your cat really enjoys so if there is a period when they’re not too hungry, their favorite food will tempt them. It’s why we recommend starting with the Sampler Pack to see what your cat likes most.
Cats can grow addicted to a low-quality highly processed diet (kibble and canned food) and refuse to eat anything else. If your CKD cat is hooked on a poor-quality food it may indeed be necessary to reduce the amount of the low-quality ‘toxic’ protein in the diet. As an aside, there are many ways to transition your cat off of a food, some tips are here.
Anything that is not usable by the body should be considered toxic and eliminated from the diet. The kidneys are filters afterall. So putting things the body doesn’t use into your kitty will only increase the load on already laboring kidneys, giving them more to filter out. You should actively eliminate preservatives, coloring agents, steroids/hormones, insecticides, and the like from your cat’s diet. This includes carbohydrates (rice, corn, wheat, etc) that are loaded in most pet foods — in the wild cats don’t eat carbs, a type of food their bodies never evolved to effectively process. Getting a diet that meets these requirements can be done easily with human-grade food then formulating it correctly, like what we do at Fetching Foods.
Once that’s done, you’ll want reduce the load of digestive waste on the kidneys. The quality of protein in most dry and wet pet foods is very poor. It’s rendered, feed-grade protein, which is harder for cats to digest and process (read more on that here), putting potential toxins, carbs, difficult to filter elements, into your cat’s blood stream, creating more work for already over-taxed kidneys.
Speaking of protein, your vet may have suggested that you reduce the amount of protein in your cat’s diet. Slight protein reduction can help slowing the progression of kidney disease. Reducing the protein level by too much in the diet may reduce the effectiveness of the kidneys. This is because the amount of blood filtered through the kidneys (GFR) is tied to protein in the diet, and reducing the protein reduces the amount of filtering, thus decreasing the excretion of toxins**.
More important than the total amount of protein is the quality of the protein. When proteins are digested you’ll see urea (BUN) and creatine produced as by-products, which can show in blood work as elevated levels (dehydration further elevates these levels so be sure your cat has fasted and is well hydrated before getting blood work so you have an accurate measure). High quality protein breaks down completely with few byproducts, keeping the BUN and creatine lower than poorer quality foods.
The protein-fat ratio is very important also. The whole caloric intake cannot be just protein. When too high of a protein ratio is used the process the body uses to convert protein to energy calories can create more waste. Without the right amount of quality fat-to-protein-ratio there will be high amounts of byproducts (toxins) produced, increasing the load on the kidneys.
Herbal solutions can help nourish the body and kidneys in a natural way. One solution is based on how the kidneys operate. The kidneys depend on bicarbonate ions. So a little baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) in the food may help replenish the ions lost from excessive urine flow. Other herbs can help, like dandelion greens, nettle, and marshmallow root (creatinine reduction, diuretic, urinary antiseptic) which can improve kidney function.
Calcium is important because the serum phosphorous level tends to be high in CKD cats and calcium binds to some of the phosphorus. Elevated phosphorus can damage the kidneys, so generally you want to keep phosphorus low. Adding calcium decreases the phosphorus levels. If you’re making your own diet, you should always be sure it has adequate calcium, but not too much and not from bone (bone contains phosphorous, what you’re trying to reduce). Consider calcium carbonate instead (eggshell calcium). Boron has also been shown to help lower blood phosphorus levels, which can be added to the food.
The last thing you can do is look at your cat’s environment. Avoid smoking around your CKD kitty, along with avoiding chlorinated water, keeping stress low, avoiding excessive heat, car fumes, and other similar toxins.
Fetching Foods has experience designing life-changing nutritional programs, including ones for CKD kitties. Our food is high-end, human-grade, and designed individually for your kitty, matching her taste, texture, and nutritional needs. Because no two cats are alike, it’s not an off-the-shelf solution, but fully customized with optimized ratios, nutrients, and supplements for your cat’s specifics. Or you can consider the Just Cat product line, made with eggshell calcium, low phosphorus, and high-moisture human-grade ingredients. Contact us about details www.fetchingfoods.com/contact or visit www.fetchingfoods.com
An excellent online reference for more information: https://felinecrf.org/phosphorus.htm
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