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Picture this: a 13-year-old cat with chronic kidney disease. 🐱
If this cat is a patient at practice A, it goes home after diagnosis with the renal diet that practice uses as standard. But if the same cat is a patient at clinic B on the other side of the village, it may well be sent home with a different standard brand of renal diet.

In both cases the owner is told:
“We are prescribing a renal diet for your cat.”
And that is correct.

Nutritionally, however, the difference can be substantial.
Take phosphorus alone. In renal diets for cats, levels can vary considerably, from 0.3 to 0.55% in dry food. That may look like a minor difference, but do the maths and it translates into ➡️ 83% more phosphorus intake at the same food intake. And in chronic kidney disease, phosphorus is precisely one of the most important nutrients to control.

So the difference between two renal diets is no mere detail. It can mean that the same cat, with the same diagnosis, receives a completely different nutritional treatment simply by walking into a different practice.

Not because practice A gets it right and practice B gets it wrong.
And not because one brand is inherently better than the other.
But because “a renal diet” has no uniform composition.

Which diet fits best depends on the whole picture: the stage of the kidney disease, current blood values, the cat’s appetite and preferences, body weight and muscle mass, activity level — and whether the diet is actually eaten well at home. Because that remains essential too: a perfectly matched renal diet that isn’t eaten offers no protection at all.

A “standard choice” per indication is therefore not so standard after all.
Your patient doesn’t deserve a standard choice, but well-founded, tailored advice.

Do you routinely look at the differences between renal diets in your kidney patients?