Dietary management of the cat with chronic kidney disease
Abstract
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is one of the most common diagnoses made in clinical practice. Most affected cats are middle aged or older and one survey estimated that a third of cats over the age of 10 years suffer from this condition. In recent years there have been many advances in treatment options and long-term home care can be very rewarding for all involved. Treatment aims to help the patient to compensate for their renal disease allowing them to live for as long as possible with as good a quality of life as possible. Dietary management of cats with CKD is the most proven treatment for this condition — several studies have now shown emphatically that cats with CKD that will eat prescription renal diets will live much longer, healthier lives. Typical survival times are increased from 7 to 16 months when cats with CKD are fed a renal prescription diet. In those situations where feeding a renal prescription diet is not possible, standard cat food can be modified in some ways to more closely meet the needs of a cat with CKD. Other treatments can be extremely helpful to the individual and should be used where specific indications exist.
Healthy kidneys are required for many vital functions including elimination of nitrogenous waste products, hormones and drugs from the body via the urine. In addition they are involved in:
A range of complications can therefore be seen in patients with reduced kidney function (Table 1).
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is one of the most common diagnoses made in clinical practice — it is estimated to affect at least a third of cats over the age of ten (Lulich et al, 1992; Polzin et al, 1992). Typically this is a condition which affects middle aged and older cats. In many cases, the cause of the renal disease is not known although acknowledged causes include:
Congenital problems such as polycystic kidney disease which is especially common in Persian and related cats. Prevalence rates of up to 50% have been reported for Persian and exotic cats around the world (Barrs et al, 2001; Beck et al, 2001; Cannon et al, 2001; Barthez et al, 2003; Helps et al, 2007; Domanjiko-Petric et al, 2008; Bonazzi et al, 2007; Bonazzi et al, 2009) (Figure 1)
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