cat food for renal failure patients

[Annette]

I am a dog owner.  A friend of the family has a cat in severe renal failure.  The cat was eating Fancy Feast.  I believe I have read complaints about this to date unrecalled food but I cannot find a source.  Any suggestions?  Also, what are folks with renal failure cats feeding now?  It seems to be difficult to balance high quality protein with low phosphorous for these patients.  TIA. 

[TAZ]

There are discussions on this topic here http://itchmoforums.com/index.php?topic=411.0

There have also been posts on Itchmo about Fancy Feast...there are people who have been "bashing" FF for some time...IMO without justification, but citing rumour and blog gossip. One individual is blaming FF for renal failure, while ignoring that they also fed the cat with an Iams weight control  food - which HAS been linked to this condition. I'm no promoter of FF but, since the recall I have become educated about cat foods and, while I used FF for the past 3 years, I am now changing to a food with better quality ingredients. FF is widely used, is affordable and is extremely popular among cats.

In the thread I referenced for you, people have suggested that this site http://felinecrf.org/ is of great help in dealing with renal failure cats. I would strongly agree. Now, the people who run that site also run an on-line support group for pet parents deling with a sick cat - that is truly amazing, and the people in that discussion/support group often know more than many Vets! Those people frequently recommend Fancy Feast for cats who can't/won't eat other foods. Surely, if there were a problem with FF, it would NOT be RECOMMENDED by them!!!!!!!

[mel_t]

I belong to another forum for treatment of diabetic cats.  www.yourdiabeticcat.com   Many of those on that site feed Fancy Feast and I have not heard of one problem with it so far.  Of course, they are all feeding low carb varieties of it, and many of the problems were with varieties of food with "gravy"  which tend to be high carb.  Still, I haven't heard of any issues with FF at all.

You can check these links...the first gives nutrient breakdown of canned foods (lots of FF on there) along with carb % (cats should have <10%) and the 2nd is for wheat gluten free varieties of Fancy Feast

http://www.geocities.com/jmpeerson/canfood.html

http://www.felinediabetes.com/glutenfree.htm

[Annette]

Thank you for your responses!

[KimS]

I have 2 cats both approx age 10. They were both fed the same Fancy Feast Salmon, Fancy Feast Ocean Fish, and some other one (I don't think have gluten). Gracie ate mostly the wet and some dry and Ruby ate mostly the dry (Purina Urinary Tract Formula, doesn't that sound delicious!) and a little wet.

Gracie was diagnosed with CRF last November and Ruby is just a little chubby with no CRF.
Basically they ate the same food but had different amounts (by their choice).

If people eat all carbs they get fat, if they eat all meat (according to the Adkins diet anyhoo) they get thin.

I have no idea what caused the CRF unless it was a pet food poisoning, but Gracie is the only one who got that.

Who really knows. Not me.

[jenny]

But I think you feed them Wellness now?