Hunter was recently diagnosed with restrictive cardiomyopathy (a heart condition that led to fluid accumulating in his heart and lungs). Part of the treatment/management of his condition includes switching him to a low sodium diet.
We've decided to feed commercial wet food, but select brand/flavors that are low in sodium. Is there any problem in feeding food with low sodium to our other three cats?
I spoke to my vet this morning.
He said the answer depends on if we're feeding a regular commercial diet or a prescription for low sodium, and on the health problems that we may have with the other cats.
A commercial diet for the other cats should be fine. If we switch Hunter to a prescription (which will lower the sodium even further), then we should consider the effects of low sodium on the other cats.
Higher levels of sodium encourage cats to drink more water. One of our other cats has bladder issues, so we need to make sure that she has enough water in her system (we feed wet food for this reason). My vet would not recommend feeding a prescription low sodium diet to my cat with bladder problems and a normal heart.