[Hercules and Coco]

I just wanted to update on Hercules and Coco. On my previous post "puppy poop problems" I was trying to figure out what was causing my new puppy to have such loose stools. I guess I finally did. I switched food again and he is now normal for the first time since we bought him. Yay

On my other post "bad news from the vet" I told ya'll about Coco (13 yr old chihuahua) being diagnosed with early kidney failure. After the first blood test her BUN was 56. She was put on Hill's k/d and we retested. Her BUN was down to 29. 27 would have put her within normal range. So we were able to get her horrible teeth cleaned which I figure will help out even more. Now, the problem is that my vet wants me to keep her on the k/d for the rest of her life. I'm not happy about that. I don't mind using it but I don't want that to be the only thing she gets. So I'm considering doing some homeade food. BUT I'm scared to death of doing it wrong since she has special needs. I've poured over the internet trying to figure out what would we be best. Someone on here gave me the website dogaware.com/kidney and that's helped tremendously.
This is what I'm considering: Green tripe, eggs, sweet potato, maybe some white rice, and fish oil supplement. Maybe some butter for extra fat? See, I'm just not sure. I've never done homeade and don't even know where to begin even after I figure what is the best ingredients to go with. Help please.
Camille

[ntrep]

Hi there. I have a 15 year old English Setter who is in the later stages of renal failure. He was diagnosed in early January. We did the KD diet until Patch had a stroke/seizure last Feb., the result of the Proin for incontinence. Since the time of the stroke, he has refused to eat the KD. If you haven't discovered already, renal dogs get extremely picky about what they will eat. What Patch will eat today he will totally ignore tomorrow. We are actually at a point with him that he gets to eat what ever we can get down him. Currently it is babyfood meat with some babyfood vegetables and cooked noodles stirred in. Although, he turned his nose up at that this morning. There are 2 yahoo groups that have a ton of info about kidney dogs and their diets.
K9Kidneys@yahoogroups.com
K9Kidneysdiet@yahoogroups.com
I would highly suggest that you join up with these 2 groups. They have diets and supplement guidelines and information about all the medications that kidney dogs eventually use. They'll ask for your bloodwork results and give specific recommendations. I have found them to be a godsend. However, I will warn you that after a while, it gets very depressing to go on these sites. I can't even get into them these days. We have discontinued getting Patch's blood drawn as I was living and dying by his numbers. Now I can just treat Patch and not his renal numbers. I can tell by how he acts if he is feeling ok. He had a super day yesterday, ate tons so of course, he doesn't want to eat today.
Again, I'd check into those yahoo groups. Go into the "Lists" part. That's where you'll find a lot of the info.
Get ready for one of the most frustrating times of your life. Good Luck

Nancy and Patch

[Hercules and Coco]

thanks. I'll check into those groups.

I went to allexperts.com yesterday and asked about a homeade diet there. They replied with this recipe: Drained HB meat, boiled eggs (no yolks), brown or white rice, cottage cheese or yogurt, a cranberry supplement (great idea, I didn't think of that), and NuVET powder. I don't know what NuVET is and will have to check in on that a little more.
I'd still like to add a fish oil supplement as well.

[Hercules and Coco]

Wow, I haven't gotten nearly as many replies as I was hoping for. Where are you Corky/Max and Lara's Mom?
So I went doggie grocery shopping today. I bought a package of chicken legs and thighs with skin. Thighs is dark meat right? I also got sweet potato and various supplements (cranberry, Super B complex, glucosamine, Omega-3). I'm boiling the chicken, s.potato, and some eggs now. I'm planning on adding some crushed egg shell, cottage cheese, white rice, and maybe some butter.
My plans are to just throw it in the blender (hopefully in premeasured and correct ratios) and then freeze in a muffin tin. Hopefully this will last awhile. (She's only 5 lbs.)

[CorkyMax]

Originally Posted by Hercules and Coco

Wow, I haven't gotten nearly as many replies as I was hoping for. Where are you Corky/Max and Lara's Mom?
So I went doggie grocery shopping today. I bought a package of chicken legs and thighs with skin. Thighs is dark meat right? I also got sweet potato and various supplements (cranberry, Super B complex, glucosamine, Omega-3). I'm boiling the chicken, s.potato, and some eggs now. I'm planning on adding some crushed egg shell, cottage cheese, white rice, and maybe some butter.
My plans are to just throw it in the blender (hopefully in premeasured and correct ratios) and then freeze in a muffin tin. Hopefully this will last awhile. (She's only 5 lbs.)

Wow, I must of somehow missed this last post--1st time reading it, sorry! I did see the 1st post in this thread you sent. Actually I got in contact with Ntrep and asked her if she would reply to you as her dog had kidney failure and figured at the time she could give you more info than I could. How are things going now? Good I hope! Fill us in!

[Lunareclipse]

What about me? Nobody loves me!

[Lara's mom]

From what I've been able to gather, what you're suggesting sounds pretty good. Regular ground beef, ground lamb, dark chicken meat and green tripe are all recommended for kidney diets as well as full fat cottage cheese and the white part of hard boiled eggs.

Most kidney diets contain little in the way of vegetables which isn't particularly healthy. What you're really trying to cut down on is phosphorous. Sweet potatoes and squash of all kinds are about the lowest but, you can reduce the amount in other vegetables by cooking them separately and discarding the water. Calcium carbonate binds to phosphorous and helps prevent its absorption so, some dried and finely crushed egg shell could be added to the food.

Just to start you off:

Boil 2-3 chicken legs, skin on. Retain the stock. Cool the chicken, remove the meat from the bones and chop. Use the retained stock to cook one cup of white rice. Peel and cut some sweet potato and boil it separately. Discard this liquid. When you combine it, you want about 25% meat, 25% sweet potato and 50% rice. Most dogs love all three of these ingredients so, hopefully you won't have a problem getting your dog to eat it.

If your dog likes it, you can cook large batches and freeze it in meal sized portions. You will want to supplement the diet with omega 3 fatty acids, B complex vitamins and a little calcium.

Let me know how this works and I'll try and come up with some others. Good luck!!!

[cherylmartin]

Yet another stroke victim from the use of ProIn! What is is going to take to have victims let FDA know there is a problem! Would like suggstions on this please.

[CorkyMax]

Originally Posted by cherylmartin

Yet another stroke victim from the use of ProIn! What is is going to take to have victims let FDA know there is a problem! Would like suggstions on this please.

I am not too informed on this kind of thing, but get some kind of petition going!? I'll bet Kris L. Christine would be a good person/member to give info on what to do! Cheryl--Think you would be an excellent person to look into this!
Go to Kris's profile page ---She gave her email address in the Contact section.
To find her name easily to click on to get there--Go to this Dog Health and Nutrition forum by clicking on forums in the blue strip across the page--See her name to click on in the thread titled to do with Rabies--about the 5th thread down on the 1st page. I am sure she can tell you something and may even have some other ideas as well!! I have emailed her before and she is easy to talk to and offers good advice!

[CorkyMax]

Originally Posted by cherylmartin

Yet another stroke victim from the use of ProIn! What is is going to take to have victims let FDA know there is a problem! Would like suggstions on this please.

You can reach Kris Christine at this email address:
ledgespring@lincoln.midcoast.com I don't know if it is the same address she uses on her profile page or not but should not matter!! If you could just find her name---It is in the Dog Health and Nutrition listing--and not very far down on the list!