I learned something new yesterday…in spite of the many years on a raw, wet diet, Tabasco (now 14) is experiencing slightly elevated creatinine levels, which indicates early stages of kidney disease. My vet has been monitoring his CREA and BUN levels every six months for the past 18 months, and they are trending down slightly. The vet recommended a RX kidney diet and Tabasco just wouldn’t eat it – most of the prescription kidney diets are reduced in protein levels, which unfortunately lessens the flavor appeal for cats.
Dietary management is important for cats with kidney disease, and catching the very early stages, as we have, is important to preventing further problems. There are three aspects to watch” hydration (cats with chronic renal disease should be fed mostly we foods, rather than dry), highly digestible, bio-appropriate protein content (such as rabbit or poultry) and low phosphorous content (because the kidneys slow down on their ability to excrete excess phosphorus when a cat has kidney disease.)
Restricting the phosphate content in your cats diet appears to be beneficial in protecting the kidneys from further damage in cats with chronic renal failure.
Yesterday, my vet was recommending a new prescription diet called “Restore – Kidney Support Diet for Cats” (interestingly only comes in dry kibble), which touts low phosphorus levels between .04-.06%.
This spurred me to research the phosphorus levels in the Primal freeze-dried Rabbit I’ve been feeding Tabasco, and I found it to contain 2.09% - Primal’s Turkey is their lowest at .94%. I also feed Stella & Chewy’s and found theirs to be much lower:
I currently feed the Chick Chick Chicken but will be switching to the Yummy Lickin’ Salmon & Chicken formula now!
I also augment my raw feeding with wet food and I use Nutro pate Chicken and Turkey, with phosphorus levels of .34%
Most pet food manufacturers don't publicize the phosphorus levels and you'll need to contact them to find out. I found both Stella & Chewy's and Nutro to respond very quickly.