Ditch the Meow Mix, it’s garbage.
We had a kitty in renal failure, kept her going for six years, and it never did take her. She eventually got lymphoma and passed on last year just after turning nineteen.
Can’t remember when or who but I got this from another Freeper on a doggie ping thread. He had a dog with kidney failure and, instead of the kidney food he went with .... are you ready.....?
Grain free.
I thought, “Can’t be. That stuff’s all high protein.” So I googled around a bit and, sure enough many pets do really well on it.
Her dry food was a challenge but I found two grain frees that were relatively low protein. One was Taste of the Wild Chicken Flavor and I can’t remember the other. Didn’t have the guts to take her off the renal food completely (Hill’s KD) so I blended it with the TOTW.
Canned was much easier, and I set a ceiling of 10% protein. There’s a lot out there for that, much more so now. Good one to start with is Wellness (NOT “Core” though) as they have several flavors and they all top out at 10%. Make sure it says “grain free” on the label, as one or two of their flavors are not.
Did that for two months, then took her in. Lo and behold sure enough her values improved. One of them even bounced back to “normal.”
The speculation as to why is that grains in a cat’s diet are inflammatory, and any inflammation is going to be tougher on the kidneys. Unlike us they’re carnivores in the wild, so their systems aren’t built for carbs anyway.
The vet also said that the super low protein is “controversial” among veterinarians. Not necessarily helpful as long as protein is within reason.
Also, get her a kitty fountain. She needs to be drinking as much as possible, and these really do help.
Same principle as reversal of type 2 diabetes with people on the Atkins plan.
Wellness foods, where do you get that? She mainly goes for the wet foods.
A friend of mine who worked for a vet said that a lot of cats that eat dry food have urinary problems. She said to add vitamin C to their water.