What is a Low Phosphorus Level?
Phosphorus is in virtually every food. Healthy kidneys excrete excess phosphorus from the body, but CRF kidneys cannot do this effectively, so eventually most CRF cats develop high phosphorus levels (this will show in their blood tests). This can make them feel ill and make the CRF progress faster. Controlling phosphorus levels in food i.e. reducing your cat’s phosphorus intake so there is less excess phosphorus for the kidneys to excrete, is an important way to help keep your cat doing well, or to get him/her on the road to recovery. What is a low phosphorus level in food? Ideally, as mentioned by Dr Scott Brown in Management of feline chronic renal failure (1998) Waltham Focus 8 (3), you want your cat to eat food with less than 0.5% on a dry matter analysis (DMA) basis. Of course, you also need your cat to eat. Therefore you may need to have a less ambitious goal initially of feeding a food containing less than 1% phosphorus. And if your cat’s phosphorus levels (as shown in blood tes
