kidney diet?

My two cents......

Do what works for you and what you can afford.

I decided not to go with the Rx diet and tried raw. But then, I started having other issues, so I went with cooked. Then finally, after seeing an Internist, we agreed to get a recipe made up for Miko (professionally, not me doing it on my own). So, every week, I cook up Miko's homemade food. I can feed him a variety of carbs, protein, and fiber. But he's been super picky, so he's getting white/russet potatoes (peeled, diced, boiled), dark meat chicken (the fat is great for them), and peas. It's not cheap and it's definitely more expensive than the Rx diet. But, I feel better giving him good stuff.

I honestly can't afford it, but I am choosing to eat less and cheaper foods so Miko can get his special diet. I also hate cooking, but choose to do this for him, to sustain his life as long as possible and keep his numbers down and stable.

I will do this route as long as I can. If I have to go back to Rx food, I will.

There's a lot of "myths" out there regarding kidney disease and what to feed, what not to feed. BTW, my protein comes out to about 20% in the recipe.

Definitely go to the Yahoo Boards. But I'll be honest. Because Miko was also in the early stages, they weren't very helpful. Unfortunately, most people on the board are in the later stages, so I basically quit going once I got a lot of information.

You can do everything on your own. Or you can go to a nutritionist.
Definitely keep your vet informed with your decision. It's also your choice if you want to find a specialist (I decided to and I take Miko in quarterly).

Hugs to you. If you have questions, feel free to PM me. Miko was diagnosed in Aug 2011 when he was 13. He's still stable and in stage 1-2.
 
Kidney Diet

I’m so sorry to hear about your baby. Unfortunately I have lost several cats to KD and my 2 1/2 year old Sheltie - Piper was born with Chronic Kidney Disease. Piper is currently stable and we take one day at a time.

I must stress that I am not a vet. Piper has been to see a specialist and this is her current treatment protocol. The only kidney food she will eat in the canned Royal Canine LP (low protein). The specialist put her on 10 mg of omeprazole per day (digestive distress is common with KD and often leads to a decrease in appetite). She takes 3 Azodyl per day (kidney supplement), 1 crananidin per day (urinary tract supplement), Pet Tinic twice a day (to replace vitamins and minerals lost to sub-Q fluid), and 100 ml of Lactated Ringer’s solution per day. The protocol is expensive but she was on death’s door when I got her after her first birthday and now she is a stable happy girl.

There are many on line support groups and alternative kidney diets available (although I would clear the diet with a trusted vet first). I wish you and your girl well and I will put you both in my prayers.

Kimberly
 
I would suggest getting them off the kibble right away. There's a reason so many pets are dying from liver/kidney disease compared to years in the past. The foods on the market are killing our pets. Their bodies are having to work so hard to digest all the carbs and unnatural ingredients in most foods on the market these days and those organs can't hold up for very long. No living thing is meant to go through life without ever having fresh enzymes. Your robbing your animals body of enzymes every time you feed it kibble. It has to pull and work from all their other organs to get those enzymes that would normally be there with each meal when fed correctly. That after so many years kills the organs in one way or another. Kibble is systemically dehydrating to dogs, as their bodies are designed to absorb water from their prey. To compensate, they must drink large amounts of water to stay hydrated. This puts an extra strain on the kidneys. Also the Acidification that's been done for several years by pet food manufacturers to help control struvite crystal formation in the urine that becomes too alkaline when dogs and cats are fed high cereal diets and the artificial alteration of the acidity/alkalinity of the animals’ food can cause metabolic acidosis and kidney failure. '

This dog needs either a raw diet or a home cooked diet.

Best of luck..
 
Ouch.

To the OP - though these things are always controversial, certainly there is a consensus that a dog with suspect kidneys should be fed a lower protein, high quality protein diet - as many here have said.
How you choose to do that - commercial food or home feeding, is up to you.
But remember - for nutrition there are only limited choices-

1)Protein
2) Carbohydrates (sugar and starch)
3) Fat
4) Indigestible fiber.

Feeding protein to avoid carbs is simply not logical. Beyond what is needed for protein synthesis, when used as an energy source the body simply takes the protein, tears off the nitrogen and sends it to the kidney to be gotten rid of, and creates a carbohydrate. So you end up feeding carbs anyway, while needlessly taxing the problem kidneys.

I had always assumed raw diets were high in protein, but could be wrong. If there is such a thing as a low protein raw diet, then hopefully the other nutrition comes from carbs, as fat and fiber would not be good choices.
As all here, we wish you well whichever path you choose.
-Dr. Mac
 
I'm re-educating myself on home cooked and raw diets now, given Bacca's latest prognosis. But I tend to agree with you that raw would imply high protein....too high for a dog withkidney disease.
 
BarbV said:
I'm re-educating myself on home cooked and raw diets now, given Bacca's latest prognosis. But I tend to agree with you that raw would imply high protein....too high for a dog withkidney disease.
Click to expand...

You have to be smart and educated about the foods you feed, but visit some raw forums and you'll find people who have switched over to raw once they've received word their animal has kidney issues.

You would want to feed a lot of green tripe calcium:phosphorus ratio is 1:1, meaning 1 calcium grabs 1 phosphorus and takes it out of the body so that it's not hanging around in the kidney creating more work.

I'd probably feed that 5 times a week as my guy eats it three times a week now. You'd be best off staying away from chicken/turkey (higher in phosphorus) fatty beef, fatty lamb, or fatty pork would be good options (more fat, less phosphorus). Feed minimal organs and minimal bone (very high in phosphorus). Maybe even eggs shells to make up for the bones. You would want to go to a good holistic vet that understands this kind of diet.

Again, check out forums out there where people feed raw, forums dedicated more so to diet. This forum is very limited in terms of having knowledgeable raw feeders.

Either way, cook or raw, just get him off ANY processed food. Also, look into the myth of protein and kidney issues. You trust Orijen, right?

http://www.orijen.ca/orijen/myths_of_high_protein.pdf

"Results of the 10 experimental studies on dogs have failed to provide evidence of the benefit of reduced dietary protein to influence the course of renal failure." Please read it if your animal has kidney issues.
 
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Unfortunately, for most people, trying to figure out the optimum levels to feed their dog is beyond them.....as they are trying to go to work, feed and raise their families, pay their bills, etc. This is a level of complexity that would overwhelm even the most devoted of pet parents.

Feeding raw or home cooked is just not for most people, unfortunately. They just don't have the time to cook from scratch for their human kids, nevermind their furkids.

I agree that vet food is crap, mostly, but it does deal with the condition under treatment. It may be that you need to supplement with out foods to provide the full nutrition, yet the difficulty is ensure that what you supplement with will not aggravate the condition further.

I wish I had better advice to offer.
 
BarbV said:
Unfortunately, for most people, trying to figure out the optimum levels to feed their dog is beyond them.....as they are trying to go to work, feed and raise their families, pay their bills, etc. This is a level of complexity that would overwhelm even the most devoted of pet parents.
Click to expand...

I go through a co-op in my area, which the majority of bigger cities have, I order 5 months at a time. I get e-mail alerts about what orders can be placed/when, I put my order into a spreadsheet, they email me a date/location (same location each time) to pick up said meat in, throw in my freezer and I'm good for five months. I do have to spend time sectioning it out, but there's been times where I just pulled out the beef hearts and feed them for a few days and cycled through they way. This doesn't take much more time than going to the store, scooping, and whatnot.

My pup will be dining on 2 meals of deer trim a week, two meals of green tripe a week , one meal of deer heart a week, a whole prey quail or bunny, and he will cycle through beef heart once a week for a month, sardines once a week for a month, ground goat once a week for a month, ground lamb once a week for a month, and lung/trachea once a week for a month. This costs about $100 a month. He hasn't been to the vet in over four years for any medical issues and he's close to ten years old.

Either you put in a little effort, or your pocketbook suffers greatly because you can't get around health issues when you feed a premade food day after day after day. People who eat processed foods daily suffer greatly as well. There's a reason this generation is the first to not live as long as the previous. Even feeding a couple meals a night of non-processed food can benefit the animal. No living thing should ever be deprived of live enzymes it's whole life...it's not how they're meant to operate. You end up depleting your enzyme storage and suffer greatly.

Also, this excuse isn't really valid for people who don't need a special food because you can purchase things like Primal and Vital Essentials where are raw made easy. Primal's white meats are heat processed so you'd want to make note of that, but Vital Essentials is all raw, in kibble size, and there's no difference in that and a bag of kibble in terms of energy. You have to remember there's a good chance diet helped get your dog into the mess they're in, so it's definitely one angle that has to be tackled and if not improved, health won't improve. You can't just use medicines (that just cause other issues) and not switch to a healthy diet... it doesn't work that... to be "healthy" all avenues have to be fulfilled. Possibly prescription medicine and diet both are needed, but no, you can't improve health without improving diet. The last thing a dog with kidney issue needs is processed food -- think about how hard it is on good kidneys to flush out the preservatives, antibiotics, steroids, and who knows what else in the kibble -- and yes those do come into the kibble through the proteins, those antibiotics/steroids don't just go away. Fresh, as little chemicals as possible is a must for any living thing that is having kidney issues. They need as little strain as possible. I'd think long and hard about any toxins either like flea control/heart worms... definitely weigh that in your mind.
 
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I have to say that I feed kibble and the average age of my dog's passing is 16 years with a few at 18 and a few at 12. The average age of my clients dogs are 15. I usually spend very little time at the vet's office for other than routine things. After the number of dogs that have lived with me of various breeds and backgrounds I can't believe that it is just luck. I take exception to people being guilted into feeling that they are bad caretakers if they don't feed raw and the fear mongering that goes along with it.
 
Consider This

When our Maddy girl was diagnosed with early stage kidney disease I started reading everything I could find. We end up putting her on a natural herbal dietary supplement called Tripsy. It is liquid and the amount you give is dependent on the weight of your dog. It is not inexpensive but I truly believe it helps. The following is a list of ingredients:

Stone Root – Acts as a tonic for the capillaries and prevents the formation of kidney calculi.

Echinacea Purpurea – Contains strong immune-stimulating properties.

Gravel Root – Restores and cleanses the genitourinary (reproductive and urinary) organs.

Hydrangea – A pain reliever that increases the flow of urine and eliminates swelling and fluid retention.

Marshmallow – An anti-inflammatory that controls bacterial infections and soothes and softens irritated tissues.

Oregon Grape – Helps relieve indigestion and malabsorption. Also has antibiotic and immunostimulatory properties.

Parsley Piert – Recognized for its ability to aid digestion in pets.

We know it prolonged Maddy's life but the years and the problems were finally too much for her and we lost her in December at the ripe old age of 15. I can't recommend Tripsy enough. Consider it....you might find that it is the one thing that will help your dog.
 
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