Kidney Failure in Cats | Part Two

Hey, guys, My name is Dr. Lehrer here at Heron Lakes Animal Hospital today, and what I'm doing is I'm responding to a video or a question rather about a kitty who is now in kidney failure. This video is targeting Marietta, who had a question about her 13 year old cat. And so specifically she was asking about diet. Her veterinarian was recommending using Royal Canaan's diet. Royal Canaan has a, what's called renal support. Renal stands for, is a fancy word for kidneys. And so she also, her vet also recommended that her cat not be on dry food, that he be on wet food. And that's very, very important because we want to try and provide as much hydration as possible to the body, that is the kidneys. Because if we are dehydrated and we have kidney disease, that could definitely cause further damage to the kidneys. Now, there are three normally commercially available prescription diets in the United States. The three brands are typically going to be Purina, their product is called nf. Then you have Hills, which is the prescription line of Science diet, and that's going to be kd. And then Royal Canaan, which has the renal support. Okay? Those Companies are all 100% satisfaction guaranteed, and those are the commercially available products. Okay. Again, the biggest thing is they do have dry and wet typically, but the recommendation is to try to get them on a wet food. Now, if your pet continues to not want to eat wet food, but wants to eat their normal dry food, one of the other things that you can do is you can look at soaking the kibble either in some water or some sort of broth, typically to go ahead and provide more hydration to the dry food to try and provide that hydration to your pet's kidneys. The other thing that you want to take into consideration also is that when you're giving a prescription diet or you're giving a diet for kidney support, a lot of the times we're trying to reduce the amount of protein in the kidneys because. Or in the food, rather, because protein is where the waste products, creatinine and bun, or bun, which stands for blood, urine, nitrogen. These are things that build up in your body when the kidneys aren't working so well. And that's what makes you feel really, really crappy. And so there are sometimes other diets that may be more palatable, like ad, which is what Marietta had asked about. And that diet tastes really good. But the, the protein standpoint or percentage is not going to be ideal for a patient who's in kidney failure. Now, as time goes on with these kidney failure patients, it is going to be important diet wise that they are at least eating something. And so ideally we would get them eating a kidney support diet and then keep them on that. But if all, if we have to choose between them not eating or eating something, obviously we're going to go with eating something. Now if you're looking into more holistic stuff, there are some different companies out there. I personally feed my dogs raw food recently and one of the companies is called Darwin. This is not the only company out there, but there are a number of one and this is just an example they do have. If you come down here, they do have what's called a feline kidney support. And so this is an option. If you're looking for something that is already prepared but there's minimal processing and there aren't a whole lot of fillers, this is definitely a good option. If you are looking to make the food yourself, then what you would do is you would go to a website called Balance It. And so this is a website which is produced by veterinary nutritionists and they will go ahead and help you create a recipe that will be well balanced for your pet and their needs. And it's not only specific to kidney disease, it's for regular diets and a bunch of other different conditions as well. They will sell you a supplement to go ahead and complete the nutrition or the mineral and vitamin requirements that are necessary. The last couple of things, if you want something that is human grade and is cooked because you're not really feeling raw food, the Wynwood dog food company is a perfect example of a company who produces really high quality stuff, but it is cooked. They do work with a veterinary nutritionist so that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. If you're not working with a veterinary nutritionist, it makes me a little worried. Not to say that it's not the end all be all. Last thing really quick this there is a company called Five Leaf Pet Botanicals. This is a company that I was introduced to by one of my clients. They have some supplements which are supposed to help with the kidneys. My client thinks that she was seeing some results. It's something for you guys to check out. If you guys found this video helpful, please give us a thumbs up, share it and subscribe. Thanks for watching and have a great day.