Renal Failure

[playfulpiscean]

My 14 yo Mastiff was diagnosed with renal failure last week. We have been advised to start her on Fortiker and the prescription Hills or RC wet food (she will not touch the Hills dry - haven't tried the RC yet).

Aside from the cost being crippling (which we will just have to manage), has anyone had any success with a home cooked renal diet OR able to provide any suggestions to make the canned food more pallatable?

Thanks

H

Edited May 5, 2013 by playfulpiscean

[kayla1]

Sorry to hear about your girl. Renal failure is tough.

Can she keep food down or is she vomiting?

Apart from the Hills dry, there is also the Eukanuba Renal Plus dry. My vet didn't have the Eukanuba in stock but ordered it in for me, and my boy preferred this to the Hills. The RC dry has been discontinued, unless you can find some old stock somewhere. Both RC and Hills make the renal wet foods. I did try the home cooked also - my boy ate it but wasn't too fussed about it. I didn't make enough of the home cooked to work out what the average cost would be, but it would work out cheaper than the cans. My vet said you can mix them too, canned plus dry or home cooked plus wet/dry.

Re making it more palatable - I asked a couple of vets about this, one said no other food can be added to the diet, and the other said small amounts of cheese, yoghurt, vegies are ok (for my boy anyway). So I added small amounts of those things to his meals. Weekly vitamin b injections may help with your girl's appetite too.

Is the fortekor for a heart problem?

[Sheridan]

Fortekor is often prescribed for various renal diseases as it enables water retention and prevents protein loss.

The issue with a home made diet is ensuring the correct balance, particularly the right protein balance and ensuring low phosphorous. There are vets in the US who will do a homemade renal failure diet at a cost. The ongoing issue with these is when the levels change, the diet has to change.

Playful, did the vet say what type of kidney disease it is? This may help when commending a diet.

[kayla1]

Fortekor is often prescribed for various renal diseases as it enables water retention and prevents protein loss.

Ok thanks. It was different with Coco because he had started on it for a heart problem but stopped it, on specialist advice, when he went into kidney failure. Different circumstances though. I hope it helps your girl, playful.

[playfulpiscean]

Hi folks...no he didn't really say what type of kidney disease - but mentioned that everything else was good. I'm to keep her on the RC wet food and give her half a Fortekor tab each day and we will be doing bloods again at the end of this week. She was only vomiting on the day she was diagnosed. He said the Fortekor would increase blood flow to the kidneys which would enable them to function more efficiently.

She has certainly improved in the last 5 days. Initially she was so lethargic she couldn't take more than 7 or 8 steps without having to lie down and we wondered if we were doing the right thing, but she seems more alert and happy now so its encouraging. She doesn't exactly love the food but she will eat it - just not with the usual passion!

I love our vet but he charges $4 a can for the food and at 2 cans a day thats going to be stretching the budget. Anyone know of a vet in the Ringwood/Bayswater area that might be more reasonable? Really stinks when you are trying to keep your dog alive and healthy and the costs of doing so is so debilitating. She is our million dollar girl - cruciate surgery two years ago was $6000 and now this. We'll do anything for her though...would just be nice to not have to worry about the cost of doing it :-(

[kayla1]

I paid roughly the same price for the cans. I don't know the vets in that area but I imagine they would all charge a similar price. Even the online prices are similar.

[Sheridan]

Looks like $4.00 is the general price. It's that at Vet n Pet Direct, too.

Do you have to give her two cans of the wet? Could you give her one and more of the dry?

Very pleased to hear she's doing better. Let us know what the bloods say when she's retested. Are you getting copies of the tests?

[playfulpiscean]

Hi well she refused to eat the dry until last night so I'm going to try half and half today and see how we go. I usually soak kibble so will be doing same and hope it doesn't alter the composition or anything?

More bloods in the next few days to see how she is faring but I have to say she has improved so much - almost back to herself :-)

[Sheridan]

That's good to know. Did you introduce the dry over a little while or change over immediately?

[playfulpiscean]

Hi

I have started with a little and am gradually incresaing the portion size.

That's good to know. Did you introduce the dry over a little while or change over immediately?

[Sheridan]

That's good. How did she go last night with the food? The trick is that you have to keep them eating, which for mine was quite difficult as he was such a fussy eater.

[playfulpiscean]

It was really difficult to keep her eating the fisrt week - she just wasn't interested. I gave her small frequent meals initially until I saw her appetite increasing and now we are back to two meals a day :-)

That's good. How did she go last night with the food? The trick is that you have to keep them eating, which for mine was quite difficult as he was such a fussy eater.

[Sheridan]

Excellent news. Keep us posted.

[CHA]

Hi Playful, just wondering how your dog is going? My dog has just been diagnosed with kidney disease and we have just started him on the Hills Prescription diet. I'm not too sure what to expect. The vet did say without treatment it would be weeks to months before he went into renal failure

[kayla1]

Hi Playful, just wondering how your dog is going? My dog has just been diagnosed with kidney disease and we have just started him on the Hills Prescription diet. I'm not too sure what to expect. The vet did say without treatment it would be weeks to months before he went into renal failure

Sorry to hear about your boy.

It's hard, my boy was in the late stages when diagnosed, but I remember dogmad saying in another thread she had a dog that was given a few weeks to live but actually lived happily for about a year after diagnosis.

Is your boy still happy and eating well? Hopefully the fact that you are aware of it and have changed his diet accordingly will give him the best quality of life, and perhaps delay the onset of symptoms.

[CHA]

Hi Playful, just wondering how your dog is going? My dog has just been diagnosed with kidney disease and we have just started him on the Hills Prescription diet. I'm not too sure what to expect. The vet did say without treatment it would be weeks to months before he went into renal failure

Sorry to hear about your boy.

It's hard, my boy was in the late stages when diagnosed, but I remember dogmad saying in another thread she had a dog that was given a few weeks to live but actually lived happily for about a year after diagnosis.

Is your boy still happy and eating well? Hopefully the fact that you are aware of it and have changed his diet accordingly will give him the best quality of life, and perhaps delay the onset of symptoms.

Thanks kayla,

He has accepted the food very well and has actually perked up a little - seems a little more interested in things now. His wetting inside the house has stopped and he hasn't vomited since being on the new diet. Here's hoping we have a good while left with him now. I just really don't want him to suffer.

[kayla1]

Hi Playful, just wondering how your dog is going? My dog has just been diagnosed with kidney disease and we have just started him on the Hills Prescription diet. I'm not too sure what to expect. The vet did say without treatment it would be weeks to months before he went into renal failure

Sorry to hear about your boy.

It's hard, my boy was in the late stages when diagnosed, but I remember dogmad saying in another thread she had a dog that was given a few weeks to live but actually lived happily for about a year after diagnosis.

Is your boy still happy and eating well? Hopefully the fact that you are aware of it and have changed his diet accordingly will give him the best quality of life, and perhaps delay the onset of symptoms.

Thanks kayla,

He has accepted the food very well and has actually perked up a little - seems a little more interested in things now. His wetting inside the house has stopped and he hasn't vomited since being on the new diet. Here's hoping we have a good while left with him now. I just really don't want him to suffer.

It's great that he's eating the food and the vomiting has stopped. Hopefully he'll stay that way for a good time to come.