Polzin D.
Conference Proceedings, (2016). American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine, Denver:
INTRODUCTION
“Renal diets” have been considered to be “standard therapy” for managing cats with chronic kidney disease (CKD) for many years.1 These diets continue to be recommended by the IRIS Board for therapy of cats with IRIS CKD Stages 2– 4.2 However, recently some feline practitioners have begun recommending feeding diets containing higher levels of dietary protein; in some instances, clearly excessive levels of dietary protein. While the focus of recommendations proposed by feline practitioners is intended to specifically increase dietary protein intake, in reality, most, if not all, aspects of the “renal diet” have been altered because specific dietary modifications other than protein are not defined. As a consequence, a recommendation to feed “high(er?) protein diets” to cats with IRIS CKD Stages 2–4 fails to achieve many of the basic metabolic intentions on which the medical considerations of feline renal diets are formulated and recommended.3