Hi,

We just rehomed a lovely old lady (16 years old) about 10 days ago from a local cat rescue. She has hyperthyroid condition (she's very skinny) and chronic renal failure and is on meds for both problems. When she came to the rescue she had very bad diarrhoea which the rescue put down to stress, they fed her homemade boiled chicken/fish. Diarrhoea got a bit better but didn't go - they eventually put her on Royal Canin sensitivity control duck and rice and told us that she might have food sensitivity (to fish and chicken). The RC sorted her out and we have been feeding her same ever since.

In the first week she ate very well (in fact she ate loads) but last few days she made it clear she wanted something more tasty (apparently food is bland). We took her back to the vet on Friday to check her thyroid levels (they're stable) and vet said to try her on some new food - no special recommendations. We would like to give her proper "cat nutrition" food ie no nasty fillers, something with good quality meat, so we tried her on chicken Applaws mixed in with the RC. She LOVED it and no diarrhoea. I went to my local vet practice/pet shop this morning to buy some more of it and ran her situation past them. They said she should be on a specialist renal diet (low protein/low phosphorous), told me not to buy Applaws and were rather appalled that the rescue vet hadn't instructed me to put her on a renal diet!

They recommended I try her on all different types of renal food to see which brand she liked the most as they said that lots of cats won't touch them cos they're bland. I left with numerous sachets of RC/Hills/Purina NF/Specific. I gave her some RC and within a couple of hours she had diarrhoea! I've looked at the ingredients online of these products and they seem to be made with "animal derivatives" and high cereal content - the exception being Royal Canin but that also seems to be made with numerous meat sources.

I'm not sure what to do? I know there is a school of thought that says high protein is fine for CRF as long as it's from a high quality meat source (like Applaws I think or Almo?). But I don't know if these are appropriate from a phosphorous content point of view? Any idea? I don't really want to give her these crappy animal derivative renal foods and I also don't want to risk constant bouts of diarrhoea by testing her on numerous brands. I'm not sure she will happily eat the Sensitivity control for any length of time so I need to find a food that she'll eat longterm. Ideally I wanted to feed her wet food morning and evening (to put her meds in) and put dry food down in the day.

She is our first cat so we don't have any experience with this kind of thing - I guess we've taken on quite a project but I just couldn't bear to leave her at the rescue as she was in isolation, very stressed and miserable. I will see if I can leave a message for the Rescue vet re the renal diet and get some feedback from him but would really appreciate any thoughts or suggestions from the forum. Sorry I know this is a long post! Thank you

Sorry I don't have any advice for you but just wanted to say that I hope you find a solution soon and your kitty improves.

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Thank you for your kind words Jaxx. Happy to say diarrhoea is almost gone. Spoke to the rescue this morning who say she's not on any renal diet because she can't tolerate it (as I now know!). They very much support quality of life for an older cat rather than forcing her to eat what she doesn't enjoy and I very much agree!

I suppose my question is really can anyone point me in the direction of brand/brands that offer good quality meat protein (no "meat byproducts" or "animal derivatives") together with low phosphorous levels (less than 1% ideally) that can be tolerated by cats with sensitive digestion? I know there will be an element of trial and error but a pointer in the right direction would be great! Thanks.

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Just wanted to recommend the link Saikou posted as a great place to get information.

I'd also like to point you to the Yahoo group called Rawcat, where you'll find huge amounts of information on why you may want to seriously consider a raw diet for your cat.

Copied a little from a post there (not mine!):

>There is a lot of contradicting information out there about raw diet
for CRF cats.

Only from those who haven't tried it! Those of us who have fed renal
cats will tell you that raw is the only way to go!

Besides there's no conflict on these points -

Cats in all but end stage renal failure benefit from high quality
proteins that are easily digestible (RAW!).

Cats in renal failure do best with high moisture foods (RAW!).

Cats in renal failure should keep their mouths clean and healthy to
avoid putting more stress on already compromised kidneys (and heart
and liver) (RAW!).

Not to mention that raw has the flexibility to adjust to the cat's
needs - need less phosphorus? Reduce organ meats and increase fats (a
wonderful source of low phos calories that will also help soften
stools - constipation is a common problem with renal cats). Reduce
bone if you have to, it's ok to feed 5% edible bone to an adult cat,
no problem. Need to keep kitty interested in food? Rotate meats more
often, dress them up with bribes, whatever you need to do!


>I am
> not sure whether to keep giving her k/d or try raw diet.

Have you read the ingredients in the k/d? Also, it's a reduced
protein diet - why they do this (beside to keep their profit margin),
I'll never know! Cats in end stage renal failure may need reduced
protein, but until then, they do BETTER with plenty of HIGH QUALITY
protein! To feed low protein increases muscle wasting - it's not a
great trade off to save the kidneys at the cost of the rest of the
cat, you know?


I wish you and your cat all the best.

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The advice about having a good quality high meat content you have recieved is a good one.

Personally with any cat with renal problems i wouldnt ever feed dry - no matter how well designed for "kidney problems" it is.

If you can and have the time i would certainly consider a raw diet, however you do need to think about it carefully. Any raw diet will contain bacteria and although cats are designed to deal with it, its worth considering how immuno compromised your cat is. Does she pick up infections easily?, is she regularly poorly and on antibiotics for infections? if yes then i would probably not choose a raw diet. If no then it could be ideal.

I would advise that you speak to someone like food4cats because without experience it is not easy to get a balanced raw diet. food4cats prepare raw diets, and so could help you with getting the right nutritional balance of the right meats for taurine and phosphorous. - it would be a much more bespoke service than buying a tin.

I have successfully made my own raw diet now for a number of years, but it took me a few years research before that before i was comfortable in doing so, its not as simple as finding a recipe online and following it, you need to know it has the right balance.

hope it helps x

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Thank you to everyone for your help and advice I will explore all sites etc.

Because she is a rescue cat I have no idea about her past experience of infections/antibiotics etc but I will look into the raw food diet. RFD makes perfect sense to me but I think I will take a gentle approach so that I can observe her health over the next few weeks/months. When we took her home the rescue said they didn't expect her to have a great deal of time left so I don't want to make her remaining time one big diet trial but of course finding the right diet may give her a new lease of life! My priority right now is finding a complete food that she really enjoys, that doesn't give her diarrhoea, that isn't going to make the kidney problem worse. I have a feeling that raw food would tick all the boxes so in the medium/long term I will aim for that. Thank you again. XX