Early Stage Kidney Disease

[RCori]

My 7 year old lab has early stage kidney disease. The Dr. has prescribed Eukanuba Early Kidney, but frankly it's too costly.

Are there similar commercial products? Needs low protein and low phosphorus.

I am considering Hi-Tor Neo Pet or Regal Lean---

[chico2]

RCori,I don't mean to be rude,but you should follow the vets suggestion.
Eukaneba is actually not highpriced,compared to others and paying a little extra for food,will be a lot cheaper than advanced kidney-disease.
As a 7yr old,she/he is senior and probably got kidney disease from crappy food to begin with.Please do what is prescribed,does he/she not deserve better

[RCori]

Chico: The dog has been on ProPlan for 7 years--hardly a cheap dog food---
probably got the kidney disease from Lyme Disease a couple of years ago.

The only thing that holds off more disease is low phosphorus in the food---there has to be a commercial product available-I just haven't found it yet.

[chico2]

RCori,someone else,more knowledgable about dogs will try to help,I am sure,so stick around.
I have 3 cats,but know the seriousness of kidney disease,be it a dog or cat.
I don't know about Pro-Plan,but there are a lot of good people here,so,as I said stick around!

[RCori]

Thanks, Chico---

[Goldenmom]

I always suggest people follow their vets advice. In my opinion, Eukanuba is not a good food for your lab to be on. Maybe you should go to the pet food store and read all the labels etc. Try to do your own research and then ask the vet. There was just a discussion on Eukaneba and you can see where some others feel the same. Definately don't even look at Iams!

If you are in Canada, Go!Natural is a great dog food. Please do some research on your own.

I'm sorry your lab is having problems. I foster labs for Lab Rescue, so have seen many different problems with them.

Good Luck and keep us updated!

Heather and her 3 Golden Girls.

[RCori]

But the vet recommended Euk Early Kidney. Does anyone know anything about Neo-Diet as an alternative?

[buriedinfur]

I would suggest asking your vet for alternatives. The vet techs/AHT's may know alternates as well. But please, please ask them...don't go on a friends suggestion ect. This brings back memories of a cat that we had in the clinic for a week fixing up from FUS, we all got really attached to him - such a nice guy! We sent him home with a prescription diet. The owners well intentioned friend told her the food was a waste of money and refered her to a commercial brand that was "low ash". Needless to say cat was back in a month, and I had to euthanize him (I am an AHT) as the owner could not bear the costs of unblocking him again. If she had fed the cat the proper diet he would probabally have lived a fairly normal life. She was devistated, it was just plain not realizing how important a prescription diet is. Good luck with your pooch, hope that everything goes great!

[wAggie]

ya... i didn't think neither Eukaneba nor ProPlan were good dog foods....


I believe it's wet foods that's actually much lower in ash than dry, am I correct?

[buriedinfur]

excess magnesium is actually the issue for a regular cat, but for a cat that has already been "blocked" you also need to increase the acidity of the urine, which is what these foods are formulated to do (the sandlike struvite crystals that cause a cats urethra to block form in alkaline urine) Ash has been a popular laymans term that isn't totally accurate.
Michelle

[Samantha199]

I just found out that my older dog has kidney disease and my vet says that we caught it early but i am very worried she is a very picky eater so its hard to get her to eat certin types of dog foods. I am just worried and wonder if anyone on here could give me some advice or any stories of what they have been through it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

[hazelrunpack]

Samantha, I have no experience with kidney failure in dogs--but I wanted to suggest that you start a new thread with your situation. This thread is pretty old and a new thread will likely get more attention from the members!

Welcome to the board and good luck with your dog!

[lm9012]

We were diagnosed with early stage kidney disease over a year ago. My dog was 7 as well.

please please please. I cannot urge you how important diet is to halt this disease. Ewwkanuba isn't the answer, neither is Hills'..nothing the vet prescribes nor what is commercialy available will help the disease.

yes, this disease is uncurable, but it is manageable. And your dog can still have an excellent quality of life for years to come.

not to mention, vet rx food is very expensive. and you will find it isn't slowing down the disease. Which is key to helping fight back. You have to take pressure off the kidneys..so less processed food, and high quality stuff is key.

I can go on and on and on. I know hundreds of success stories just like my own.

We have lived with CRF for well over a year, and my dog improves everyday. All I did was switch to home cooking and vitamins..yes, plain ol' drugstore vitamins. My vet is amazed at how great Albert is doing.

I highly suggest you join the K9Kidney and K9KidneyDiet yahoo boards. You will get countless, invaluable information. it seems extremely overwhelming at first..especially to even consider home feeding..how do you know your dog is getting the right nutrition, how much do you feed a day..etc. But it will become second nature.

and don't think you are too busy either. I work 60 hours a week, and I'm able to homefeed my dog.

Also, many vets do not take the disease as serioulsy as they should, and won't provide the best treatment..they will stick you with expensive rx food, and when your dog gets worse, say 'this is the progression of the disease'.

There's another very knowledgable person on here, Growler, whose cat was diagnosed around the same time as my dog. I'm sure they will post here shortly and tell you the same thing!

You are on the right track about keeping the food low phosphorous, but do not limit the protein. You will find that the key is a high, QUALITY protein, low phosphorous diet is best. Unfortunately, this combo isn't available in any commercial diet. You will have to feed raw/homecooked or a mix. THere are some commercial raw foods but you'll need to read the labels and know what's in them. Depending on the blood work, you tailor the diet to the progression of the disease.

Could you post your BUN/Creatinine/Phosphorous values from the blood work? Has your vet talked to you about subcutaneous fluid therapy yet?

There's an amazing site I highly recommend you look at, if nothing else:

www.dogaware.com

If you take charge and are willing to take some time to study treatments and try..even just changing the diet...your dog will highly benefit..and will live much longer. More importantly..their quality of life will be amazing.

I will get off my soapbox..I hope you will try at least a few of these ideas. Please know that you aren't alone...and you can manage this disease.

I know of plenty of people that followed the vet prescription and the dog just got worse. I have yet to hear of one case where they switched the diet to homemade with the supplements and the dog got worse.

[growler~GateKeeper]

Hi Samantha199, how is Sadie feeling? Is she acting sickly or it she doing well?

As lm9012 mentions if you have the numbers from the blood & urine work could you post those to give us a better idea how she is doing?

What are you currently feeding and what kinds of foods will Sadie not eat - is it a certain flavour she doesn't like or is it corn-based foods, or specific brands?

A low protein diet is not necessary as the vet may have suggested, it is actually contradictory to the recent studies done regarding nutrition & kidney failure. What you need is low phosphorus, depending on the blood results low potassium & calcuim.

lm9012 mentions feeding home cooked food, and I am feeding my cat a raw food diet with some whole food supplements from Standard Process. I'm using the feline renal support & the feline whole body support, there is a Canine Renal Support and a Canine Whole Body Support these will give you the Transfer Factors of mothers natural immunity to fight outside threats and give your girl a natural boost in her immunity.

There is some fairly detailed info on kidney disease in dogs as well as cats here: http://www.thepetcenter.com/gen/kf.html

I have so many more links geared specifically towards cats with kidney failure

Let us know how Sadie is doing

[Samantha199]

Thank you all for replying! And i am not sure how to start a new thread yet since i am new to this..... she is doing good she is still having accidents in the house but she only had one today so the antibiotic she is on right now is helping with that, we take a pee sample back to the vet to be tested in 2 weeks (thats when the antibiotic is gone). I think that home cooked meals would be great for her and i am willing to try anything....... I will check out all of the sites that you all listed and if you have any good recipe site for dogs with kidney disease that would be great! Thank you all

[growler~GateKeeper]

What is the antibiotic for? does she have a urinary tract infection as well?



To post a new thread: from the forum index, you clicked on "Pet Health - Dog Health" Forum, that shows all the thread titles and right at the top above all the different thread titles there is a button called New Thread - you click that one to post a new thread in the Pet Health - Dog Health forum

[Samantha199]

Yes it is for a blater infection. But other than that she seems to be acting like she usually does.