Hi everyone!
It's been a while since I've posted on here, but I wanted to get some advice about our Bella. She is almost 10 years old and her recent blood tests showed elevated kidney numbers. Our vet didn't really say she is in an advanced stage, but recommended switching her food over to a kidney food. The trouble there is she for the past couple of years has had low protein levels, so she was already on RX food for that - she switched her to a Royal Canin RX food that was kidney friendly and has hydrolyzed proteins.
For the past month, we've been battling with getting her to eat. Up until the past week, adding in RX canned food was doing the trick, but she even has started snubbing that. Now she won't even eat out of the same dish. From what I'm reading, that's pretty normal with kidney pups - her not eating is very abnormal, and of course we have our other Sheltie, Oreo, who will gladly eat her portions and goes crazy over food, so it's a fun experience at feeding time.
Her other thing is that she has bad teeth, and needs some pulled, so it's hard telling if it's that her teeth hurt or if it's the kidneys. She acts hungry and will eat a new food for a few days and then be done with it. She'll chew and drop it and be very tender with it. Trying to get her back into the vet to see if it's worth doing the dental sooner than later (it's scheduled for mid September - we're out of town for a week, and I'm just nervous about leaving her in this condition, though I know our house sitter will keep a good eye on her and work with her).
I just hate her not eating food. I found a chart on another post with foods we can feed her that are good for kidneys so I may try making her some home made meals (the things we do for our babies). Just not sure what's bad for her low proteins. I'm also seriously considering switching vets because ours (who we absolutely love) is only in a few days a week and is super swamped the days she's in (probably because we all love her!). I just need some advice on how to proceed, when to worry. I read on other posts that a meal here or there is okay to miss... it just stresses me out so much, and I worry about our little girl.
Thanks so much for any advice you all can give!
Kerri
It's been a while since I've posted on here, but I wanted to get some advice about our Bella. She is almost 10 years old and her recent blood tests showed elevated kidney numbers. Our vet didn't really say she is in an advanced stage, but recommended switching her food over to a kidney food. The trouble there is she for the past couple of years has had low protein levels, so she was already on RX food for that - she switched her to a Royal Canin RX food that was kidney friendly and has hydrolyzed proteins.
For the past month, we've been battling with getting her to eat. Up until the past week, adding in RX canned food was doing the trick, but she even has started snubbing that. Now she won't even eat out of the same dish. From what I'm reading, that's pretty normal with kidney pups - her not eating is very abnormal, and of course we have our other Sheltie, Oreo, who will gladly eat her portions and goes crazy over food, so it's a fun experience at feeding time.
Her other thing is that she has bad teeth, and needs some pulled, so it's hard telling if it's that her teeth hurt or if it's the kidneys. She acts hungry and will eat a new food for a few days and then be done with it. She'll chew and drop it and be very tender with it. Trying to get her back into the vet to see if it's worth doing the dental sooner than later (it's scheduled for mid September - we're out of town for a week, and I'm just nervous about leaving her in this condition, though I know our house sitter will keep a good eye on her and work with her).
I just hate her not eating food. I found a chart on another post with foods we can feed her that are good for kidneys so I may try making her some home made meals (the things we do for our babies). Just not sure what's bad for her low proteins. I'm also seriously considering switching vets because ours (who we absolutely love) is only in a few days a week and is super swamped the days she's in (probably because we all love her!). I just need some advice on how to proceed, when to worry. I read on other posts that a meal here or there is okay to miss... it just stresses me out so much, and I worry about our little girl.
Thanks so much for any advice you all can give!
Kerri
She's getting fluids and some Pepcid. We have Cerenia at home that we've given her for two days now. Hopefully she feels well enough to eat the RX food, otherwise we are going to have to work on dressing it up or switching to home made. I'll check out the sites you shared as well, and supplements. 