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Westie_N
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18-09-2013, 05:49 PM

Diets for dogs with chronic kidney failure

Just wondering if anyone has had any experiences with prescription renal diets, if so, how did the dogs get on with them? Did they help a dog with chronic kidney disease? There are several different brands, which did you try?

What about home cooking - has anyone done this for a dog wil CKF?

Any info would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
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Mattie
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18-09-2013, 06:05 PM
I home cooked for one of my dogs, I got a lot of help from a Yahoo group and also the diet. She was in the late stages when she was diagnosed and then because I refused to give her Remaldyl without a blood test, if I hadn't done this the Remaldyl would have killed her. She only lasted 6 weeks but they were a good 6 weeks and pain free for her.

My Greyhound, Merlin, was diagnosed in the very early stages and didn't go on a special diet but stayed with Burgess Sensitive as it ticked all the boxes. I contacted Burgess to ask what the potassium level was and that was well within what was needed.

Merlin went from being in the very early stages to the final stages in less than 24 hours, his pal who he relied on had to be pts, if I hadn't let him go he would have gone anyway but it would have taken longer and he may have suffered. Merlin couldn't live without Joe.

My Gre
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Roger Biduk
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21-09-2013, 01:32 PM
Originally Posted by Westie_N View Post
Just wondering if anyone has had any experiences with prescription renal diets, if so, how did the dogs get on with them? Did they help a dog with chronic kidney disease? There are several different brands, which did you try?

What about home cooking - has anyone done this for a dog wil CKF?

Any info would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
None of the renal or “Prescription Diets” sold by vets are any good and neither are the vets who sell them.
Kibble must be avoided as the low moisture content of only around 10% is a major cause of CRF (Chronic Renal Failure) in the first place.

A balanced, raw meat diet or a good grain-free canned with moisture of 75%-78% must be given.
Nutriment makes a decent product for the price in the U.K.

What’s very, very important is to work with a vet that practices integrative medicine which is allopathic veterinary and is also qualified to practice holistic veterinary.
I know of 10 vets in the U.K, listed on my webpage located in Bath, Shropshire, Winchester, Herts, East Sussex, Oxfordshire and St. John’s Wood.
Roger Biduk
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Velvetboxers
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21-09-2013, 11:14 PM
Originally Posted by Roger Biduk View Post
None of the renal or “Prescription Diets” sold by vets are any good and neither are the vets who sell them.
Kibble must be avoided as the low moisture content of only around 10% is a major cause of CRF (Chronic Renal Failure) in the first place.

A balanced, raw meat diet or a good grain-free canned with moisture of 75%-78% must be given.
Nutriment makes a decent product for the price in the U.K.

What’s very, very important is to work with a vet that practices integrative medicine which is allopathic veterinary and is also qualified to practice holistic veterinary.
I know of 10 vets in the U.K, listed on my webpage located in Bath, Shropshire, Winchester, Herts, East Sussex, Oxfordshire and St. John’s Wood.
Roger Biduk

I have a dog in renal failure and she is kept alive by her prescription diet on its own supplemented by a low dose phosphate binder. How do I know? Her blood results were sky high, they have come down significantly whilst on the diet.

She eats Hills k/d - wet food variety /tinned food. This is her choice, she does not like dry kibble.

I think it is very unfair to suggest that a vet who sells prescription diet as being no good. My vet has kept my dog alive since being diagnosed, he monitors her closely and regularly and as I said previously, blood results are the proof.

With a condition as serious as kidney failure the client needs to follow their vets advice
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Mattie
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22-09-2013, 06:44 AM
Originally Posted by Velvetboxers View Post
I have a dog in renal failure and she is kept alive by her prescription diet on its own supplemented by a low dose phosphate binder. How do I know? Her blood results were sky high, they have come down significantly whilst on the diet.

She eats Hills k/d - wet food variety /tinned food. This is her choice, she does not like dry kibble.

I think it is very unfair to suggest that a vet who sells prescription diet as being no good. My vet has kept my dog alive since being diagnosed, he monitors her closely and regularly and as I said previously, blood results are the proof.

With a condition as serious as kidney failure the client needs to follow their vets advice
I agree with Velvetboxes, the kidney diets are not good for healthy dogs but do make a big difference to a dog with kidney failure.

I have had 2 dogs with this, the first I home cooked for because I knew she was in the final stages. My other dog was on Burgess Sensitive to the end. I contacted Burgess to find out what the phosphorous was, I also soaked his food so he NEVER got dehydrated.

At the end dogs stop eating, at that stage it is more important that they eat, what they eat doesn't matter.

To say any vet who sells this food is not a good vet is wrong, mine are wonderful, they are more concerned with healing the animals if they can, if they can't then to keep them pain free and a decent quality of life
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Tang
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22-09-2013, 06:50 AM
With ref to the two posts above. I agree. If I had a dog with a serious problem like this I would be guided by a trusted VET (if I had doubts I would take a second opinion from another qualified veterinary professional) rather than take advice from a total stranger on a website in cyber space.

And would place great importance on whether the recommended course of action was having the desired result.

As for raw feeding (which appears to creep in as the answer to all ills to the extent it makes me wonder how some dogs lived to a ripe old age before it became 'fashionable') - there are some that would find it difficult to implement at the best of times - I'd have thought the worse time to start on a totally DIFFERENT feeding regime would be when your dog is suffering from a SERIOUS gastric related illness. And also the worst time for you to try to get your head round it to make sure you are 'doing it right'.
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Mattie
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22-09-2013, 07:41 AM
A raw diet doesn't suit every dog, I had a dog that was allergic to raw meat and I know of one who was weaned on a raw meat diet by the breeder who developed an allergic to it when he was an adult. My uncle had a dog that wouldn't eat any food that was given to her, she would hunt and kill her own food daily. When I saw her in going off to feed herself I knew what time it was, she always went at the same time every day.
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Tang
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22-09-2013, 08:57 AM
Originally Posted by Mattie View Post
A raw diet doesn't suit every dog, I had a dog that was allergic to raw meat and I know of one who was weaned on a raw meat diet by the breeder who developed an allergic to it when he was an adult. My uncle had a dog that wouldn't eat any food that was given to her, she would hunt and kill her own food daily. When I saw her in going off to feed herself I knew what time it was, she always went at the same time every day.
My pal down in West Cornwall who had a small holding, had a cat who caught and ate nothing but rabbits - baby ones and only the heads. Dick, the cat died last year aged 21.

I had a cat who lived to be 19 and who ate nothing but dried kibble all its life and was in tip top condition and never ill at all. I had another cat at the same time for whom dry kibble was a definite no no. He'd wolf it down whole and throw it up again. Greedy all his life he had to be fed separately - he lived to be 16.

I've had dogs who ate dog food plus ANYTHING! Dog that only liked those little terrine packs or chicken (but too much chicken upset her) and chew treats. Now I've got a dog who eats about half a frozen raw chicken wing as her first meal after our long walk (but occasionally she turns her nose up and will have summat else instead) and later she has kibble - We don't have every variety here to choose from - the one she likes best and always eats up is the Bento Kronen very small size kibble for small adult dogs - chicken flavour. She also likes all sorts of dog treat bites and if I let her have it she would eat everything I eat! But I'm trying to watch her weight.

After a very bad start in life from around 6wks old she has never been ill. She's only been to the vet for stuff like ingrown hair, broken nail and more recently she had a weepy eye but it cleared up with salt water bathing. She looks a shiny picture of health. I have her boarded at least twice a year and/or travel with her. I would find it impossible to keep her on some tricky diet that needs preparing and all that. She wouldn't get it in boarding and I'd not be able to do it when whizzing round the home counties with her for weeks on end.
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Velvetboxers
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22-09-2013, 09:00 AM
Originally Posted by Mattie View Post
A raw diet doesn't suit every dog, I had a dog that was allergic to raw meat and I know of one who was weaned on a raw meat diet by the breeder who developed an allergic to it when he was an adult. My uncle had a dog that wouldn't eat any food that was given to her, she would hunt and kill her own food daily. When I saw her in going off to feed herself I knew what time it was, she always went at the same time every day.
I fed ours raw for a year when i had three Boxers & had to come off it. All three developed awful hot spots which kept repeating, their overall condition deteriorated. The only thing 'raw' they still get are large raw meaty bones like knuckle or shin bones - for their teeth

Our younger dog is also on a perscription diet for his skin, it was the only food that helped control his intense itching. He does have kibble but it is always soaked. I believe it is easier to digest soaked. Twice he has had dry food fed dry & twice he has bloated. (He was not on the perscription diet at the times he bloated). He is on Hills d/d. He is in fab condition.
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Westie_N
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22-09-2013, 09:48 AM
Originally Posted by Roger Biduk View Post
None of the renal or “Prescription Diets” sold by vets are any good and neither are the vets who sell them.
Kibble must be avoided as the low moisture content of only around 10% is a major cause of CRF (Chronic Renal Failure) in the first place.

A balanced, raw meat diet or a good grain-free canned with moisture of 75%-78% must be given.
Nutriment makes a decent product for the price in the U.K.

What’s very, very important is to work with a vet that practices integrative medicine which is allopathic veterinary and is also qualified to practice holistic veterinary.
I know of 10 vets in the U.K, listed on my webpage located in Bath, Shropshire, Winchester, Herts, East Sussex, Oxfordshire and St. John’s Wood.
Roger Biduk
I made an error in my original post - she has the early stages of Chronic Kidney Disease, not Failure. I'm aware that it's not reversable, however, and will eventually lead to kidney failure.

However, as said, she in the early stages of it most likely (waiting on a couple of results that I'll get next week). She's fit and still extremely full of life at almost 13 years old and, being a rescue, I have no idea of her breeding, weaning or her history before the first 5 years of her life.

I'm most certainly not going to put her condition down to being fed a dry food diet instead of a complete raw diet.
She actually used to get raw in the mornings, every morning, but went off it a couple of months ago.

She gets a varied diet, not just kibble - kibble is actually just a small part of her diet. Her current kibble is salmon and potato and I always mix it with moist food - so about 40% dry and 60% moist.

She gets a variety of home cooked foods as well such as fish, chicken, lamb etc, plus good quality wet foods. She gets various treats from fish skins to dried meats to biscuits.

I have no idea what has caused her issues, it could be genetic, it could be environmental, it could be both. I have absolutely no idea and I'm not going to dwell on it as I cannot change what has happened/is happening.

I also don't agree with the statement that "renal diets are not any good and neither are the vets who sell them". I have a great team of vets and vet nurses, they have been excellent and if I thought otherwise, I would seek second opinions. The team at the Glasgow Vet School Small Animal Hospital are also specialists and experts in their field and have saved Roxy's life twice. I certainly will not have anyone call them "not any good". I cannot thank them enough for how well they've looked after my girls in the past 18 months.

I do thank you for taking the time to post a reply to my thread though, but it seems your answer to everything is a raw diet when that's simply not always the case. Not all diets suit all dogs, afterall.

The holistic vets you've suggested are around 500 miles from me or I would look in to them, however I have e-mailed a holistic vet who was recommended to me about various diets for Roxy, including home cooked. I'm still waiting to to hear back so will see what she says.

However, if a renal prescription diet is what it takes to keep Roxy happy and as healthy as can be for a long time and help keep her with a good quality of life, then that is what she will have.

I'm still doing my research though so haven't decided, plus I need to have another chat with the vet next week when the results come back.
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