[Tibideaux]

My oldest dog (dobe mix)was diagnosed with chronic kidney failure yesterday. I just refuse to go down without a fight and hope he will hang in there with me and do the same. He spent the night at the vet and they ran an IV of fluids to hydrate him. He did eat 1 can of their cheese puff dog food. And charged me a fortune for all my tears. LOL

I have done some research and there do appear to be some things to slow the progression of this process dramatically. Anyone with this knowledge and any positive feedback would be greatly appreciated. I am a firm believer in holistic care. I love my vet, but she has given me no hope where I believe there is some.

I am reading so many positive things about the RAW diet and how it can help with this diagnosis (as well as the overall health of other dogs). I know chicken and seafood are about all the meats he needs. I need a full understanding of which bones he can eat or which need to be ground down. And, which parts of the chicken not to give him. Basically, RAW for dummies would be good. He is 8 years old and this angel deserves as many more as I can give him.
:thanx:

 

[mmctaq]

Raw for Dummies would be Carina MacDonald's Raw Dog Food: Make It Easy For You And Your Dog.

How bad were his numbers? Carina switched to raw with a kidney dog, fed a LOT of tripe, and got several good years with Phoebe before having to euthanize her for not-longer-managable pain from arthritis.

The cool thing about tripe is that it has a decent calcium-to-phosphorus ratio without being overly-loaded-with-phosphorus bone. Bone should be limited (PHOSPHORUS should be limited) for kidney dogs. You will need to limit liver and kidney, also.

Lots of good info regarding management of kidney dogs at DogAware.com: Diet & Health Info for Man's Best Friend. There is also a K9Kidney group on Yahoo that I hear is quite helpful.

Your dog should be able to eat any part of chicken without grinding.

 

[dobebug]

I don't really want to be the bearer (along with your vet) of bad news about chronic kidney failure but in dogs to be very realistic--they don't do well and there is rarely anything "long term" in their future.

Cats do pretty well and can be nursed along as chronic kidney failure patients sometimes for years with kidney sparing diets (I'd go to the Yahoogroups kidney list for the best suggestions) and sub-cutanious fluids on a regular basis (usually one to two times a week) as the disease progresses.

One of the big problems with any kidney failure patient (dog or cat) is getting them to eat at all. When the kidneys aren't doing their job of filtering out toxins they will make the pet feel terrible--when they feel terrible they don't want to eat. So for most kidney patients the whole trick is to get them to eat--in cats this usually means that they will eat one thing for a few meals and then not want that--same thing happens with dogs--that's where the folks on the yahoo kidney list can be helpful.

Feeding kidney patients is always a balancing act--you really want a diet that spare the already failing kidneys and you really want the pet to keep eating--often you aren't really going to be able to both.

I wish you and your dog the very best of luck but if the diagnosis was chronic kidney disease there isn't really much that will slow the progress of the disease for dogs. Make the very best of the time you and he have left.

 

[Tibideaux]

Raw for Dummies would be Carina MacDonald's Raw Dog Food: Make It Easy For You And Your Dog.

How bad were his numbers? Carina switched to raw with a kidney dog, fed a LOT of tripe, and got several good years with Phoebe before having to euthanize her for not-longer-managable pain from arthritis.

The cool thing about tripe is that it has a decent calcium-to-phosphorus ratio without being overly-loaded-with-phosphorus bone. Bone should be limited (PHOSPHORUS should be limited) for kidney dogs. You will need to limit liver and kidney, also.

Lots of good info regarding management of kidney dogs at DogAware.com: Diet & Health Info for Man's Best Friend. There is also a K9Kidney group on Yahoo that I hear is quite helpful.

Your dog should be able to eat any part of chicken without grinding.

I meant to get his numbers, but was again overwhelmed when I picked him up. Tomorrow, I will go by and pick up a copy of his labs.

Thank you both for the info. Unfortunately, right now, I just can't get him to eat. I'm offering him anything just to get his appetite started.

 

[Tibideaux]

Great Update

After having a chance to study raw, then go grocery shopping. Bubby and I woke up this morning and tried his first raw meal. HE LOVES IT! He hasn't eaten in days, not even fresh cooked salmon. But he loves his chicken! Because he hasn't eaten in so long I made him eat in small amounts. I was SO surprised and I think he was too.