Link between dry food and kidney disease?

A friend just told me that a veterinarian she knows said that the reason
domestic cats so often get kidney disease is because they're fed dry food,
and their bodies didn't evolve to deal with so much non-meat in their
diet.

I can understand that dry food can bring on diabetes, because the cat
is eating a lot more carbohydrate than their body needs or is built for
metabolizing. But kidney disease? I always thought that too much *protein*
was the cause (or one of the causes) of kidney failure. Or can cats ever
have too much protein?

Any of the medically savvy want to take a stab at this? Howard? Phil,
if you're reading?

Joyce

wrote in message
...
A friend just told me that a veterinarian she knows said that the reason
domestic cats so often get kidney disease is because they're fed dry food,
and their bodies didn't evolve to deal with so much non-meat in their
diet.

I can understand that dry food can bring on diabetes, because the cat
is eating a lot more carbohydrate than their body needs or is built for
metabolizing. But kidney disease? I always thought that too much *protein*
was the cause (or one of the causes) of kidney failure. Or can cats ever
have too much protein?

Any of the medically savvy want to take a stab at this? Howard? Phil,
if you're reading?

I would have thought it was due to the lack of water content in it. In its
natural environment - deserts - a cat would live off eating other animals,
which would contain approximatley 70% water because drinking water in
deserts is rare. Dry food does't have the water content, so a cat's kidneys
have to work harder to extract the toxins from the blood stream and
therefore make a much more highly concentrated uring than they would in the
wild. The harder the kidneys have to work, the mor elikely it is that
they'll begin to fail early, so *flesh* was preferrable to dry food.

Yowie
(well, thats how my vet explained it to me. Of course, in its natural
evironment, the cat also doesn't have bathroom faucets and trained slaves
either)

wrote in message
...
A friend just told me that a veterinarian she knows said that the reason
domestic cats so often get kidney disease is because they're fed dry food,
and their bodies didn't evolve to deal with so much non-meat in their
diet.

I can understand that dry food can bring on diabetes, because the cat
is eating a lot more carbohydrate than their body needs or is built for
metabolizing. But kidney disease? I always thought that too much *protein*
was the cause (or one of the causes) of kidney failure. Or can cats ever
have too much protein?

Any of the medically savvy want to take a stab at this? Howard? Phil,
if you're reading?

Joyce

Just my two cents. Our first dog nearly died of kidney failure at eight
years old. And the vet blamed it on her getting into the cats food with its
high protein level. This was for the most part dry cat food as that's
mostly what we've always fed. She recovered, restricted to K/D for the
rest of her 18 year life.

None of our cats have had kidney or diabetes problems. But that's only
seven cats over forty years.

I have a question though. I get the impression that we've agreed that all
moist cat food is very low in carbs and that all dry cat food is high in
carbs. Isn't there a range of carb vs protein in both of them? I can
understand that a cat might not drink enough water to handle an all dry food
diet, though that has never been a problem with ours. But is there always
that large a difference in the composition of the two?

Our cats are healthy, slim, and have lovely coats. And for the most part
live on Nutro dry cat food.
Jo

wrote:
A friend just told me that a veterinarian she knows said that the
reason domestic cats so often get kidney disease is because they're
fed dry food, and their bodies didn't evolve to deal with so much
non-meat in their diet.

I can understand that dry food can bring on diabetes, because the cat
is eating a lot more carbohydrate than their body needs or is built
for metabolizing. But kidney disease? I always thought that too much
*protein* was the cause (or one of the causes) of kidney failure. Or
can cats ever have too much protein?

Any of the medically savvy want to take a stab at this? Howard? Phil,
if you're reading?

Joyce

Beats me. Persia's vet doesn't seem overly concerned that she's eating only
dry food (Hill's x/d). Her checkup came out just fine except she's still a
little "fluffy" She's (we guess) about 8 years old.

I got her some of the gooshy x/d but she didn't care for it. And since this
is the only food she's supposed to eat since her bladder surgery a couple of
years ago, I have to think the vet knows what he's talking about. She has
not had a recurrence of UTI since, whereas before the surgery and this
Hill's x/d diet, she was experiencing them every few months.

Persia's kidney enzymes checked out just fine. Does your friend have a
citation for her information or is she just passing along something she
heard from someone who heard from someone who heard...?

Jill

jmcquown wrote:

Persia's kidney enzymes checked out just fine. Does your friend have a
citation for her information or is she just passing along something she
heard from someone who heard from someone who heard...?

She heard it from a veterinarian. As she put it, a "newly minted"
veterinarian. Which could translate to "inexperienced", but can also
translate to "up on the latest info."

I'd never heard that before myself, so I was just curious if anyone
here ever has.

Joyce

On 2006-07-02 17:01:39 -0500, said:

A friend just told me that a veterinarian she knows said that the reason
domestic cats so often get kidney disease is because they're fed dry food,
and their bodies didn't evolve to deal with so much non-meat in their
diet.

I can understand that dry food can bring on diabetes, because the cat
is eating a lot more carbohydrate than their body needs or is built for
metabolizing. But kidney disease? I always thought that too much *protein*
was the cause (or one of the causes) of kidney failure. Or can cats ever
have too much protein?

Any of the medically savvy want to take a stab at this? Howard? Phil,
if you're reading?

Joyce

I know my vet said there was a raging debate over the thought that too
much protein caused it. They are beginning to believe that is not true.
Doesn't make sense to me since cats are obligate carnivores. I just
know there are some big debates going on about things that have been
though previously on CRF.

On 2006-07-02, wrote:

I can understand that dry food can bring on diabetes, because the cat
is eating a lot more carbohydrate than their body needs or is built for
metabolizing. But kidney disease? I always thought that too much *protein*
was the cause (or one of the causes) of kidney failure. Or can cats ever
have too much protein?

Renal failure can mean the need to restrict protein because the
kidneys no longer eliminate the nitrogen from the protein as
well as they used to.

wrote:
A friend just told me that a veterinarian she knows said that the reason
domestic cats so often get kidney disease is because they're fed dry food,
and their bodies didn't evolve to deal with so much non-meat in their
diet.

I can understand that dry food can bring on diabetes, because the cat
is eating a lot more carbohydrate than their body needs or is built for
metabolizing. But kidney disease? I always thought that too much *protein*
was the cause (or one of the causes) of kidney failure. Or can cats ever
have too much protein?

I don't remember the reasons, but I do remember reading that
dry food is not terribly good for cats who are prone to UTI's.

wrote:
jmcquown wrote:

Persia's kidney enzymes checked out just fine. Does your friend
have a citation for her information or is she just passing along
something she heard from someone who heard from someone who
heard...?

She heard it from a veterinarian. As she put it, a "newly minted"
veterinarian. Which could translate to "inexperienced", but can also
translate to "up on the latest info."

I'd never heard that before myself, so I was just curious if anyone
here ever has.

Joyce

I read the package of the Hill's x/d that Persia eats (dry food). Protein
tops the list.

Jill

Christina Websell wrote:

My vet told me to take Boyfriend off dry food (which he loved, maybe he was
reared on it) to prevent kidney disease and urinary blockage and put him on
wet food. Boyfie went on hunger strike, so I rang the vet and he told me to
persist as it was in his own best interest. He did eventually eat it and he
is okay with it now, he just gets a tablespoonful of dry as a treat a few
times a week.
KFC will eat absolutely anything, presumably because she was feral and ate
anything she could get. She can't eat dry now because she doesn't have many
teeth left. I took a funny photo of her last week climbing into the chicken
bucket because I'd put some leftover dinner in there without offering it to
her first! I'll try and upload it somewhere soon. It's still in my camera
and I'm a bit pushed for time. When you see her climbing into a 2 gallon
bucket you'll realise how really tiny she is.

Tweed

After Rusty's second urinary blockage, the vet said no more dry food,
not even prescription
dry food for urinary blockages. He has been eating only can food since
then. He did have
crystals a few times, but he was not blocked. Not that I can remember
anyway. Memory of all those mad dashes to the vet are kind of mixed up
now. I add water to the can
food to make sure Rusty get plenty of water. I adjust the amount of
water added depending on the output in the litter box.

Winnie