CRF Cat. Why do they need food to made their urine ALKALINE?

[Z]

My 7 year old kitty was just diagnosed w/ CRF. I am giving currently:
Giving him fluids daily, force feeding Eukanuba Renal Wet Food, giving appetite stimulent (which so far had not worked) & potassium supplement orally. Also giving fiber, acidolphilus and b12 orally. However... because i have other cats it is hard to keep him separate & he misses them. and he likes to nibble on dry food when he was healthier.

I am trying to find a non-prescription diet that has values like a prescription diet so I can just feed it to all the cats. I have found Science Diet Mature Adult Dry is close as i can get w/ protein, phosphorus & sodium. However.. the targer urine for this food says ph will be moderately acidic (6.4-6.6). However the actual prescription diet says urine ph will be more alkaline (6.6-6.9).

Why does an alkaline diet help a CRF cat?

Thanks!
If you know of any other supplements i can give my CRF cat let me know. I am into holistic/herbal stuff.

[Barbara Boehmer]

There is a Yahoo CRF group that has a lot of good advice:

http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/Feline-CRF-Support/

The following site has a lot of good information:

http://www.felinecrf.org/

Here are some lists of cat foods that compare the phosphorus, sodium, and protein levels, that are important to reduce in CRF cats:

http://webpages.charter.net/katkarma/dry.htm
http://webpages.charter.net/katkarma/dryfood.htm
http://webpages.charter.net/katkarma/canned.htm
http://webpages.charter.net/katkarma/canfood.htm

Your kitty may not feel like eating because of stomach acidity that is common in CRF cats and might benefit from some antacid like Pepcid A/C or Tagamet or Zantec. Ask you vet.

[Z]

Thank you for your reply. I have been to all those websites before. Although helpful, they all don't answer the question about the urine PH.

I did forget to mention that i am giving Pepcid as perscribed by the vet.

thank you for the response.


z