My 12 year old female Lurcher has just been diagnosed with proteinuria (Proteinuria is something that happens when there is too much protein present in your dog’s urine. In ordinary urine, there is only a small amount of protein present, but when proteinuria forms, the protein becomes too large and too much in quantity to be able to pass through the filters of the kidneys)
My vet has prescribed medication and has suggested we change her diet to 50% normal dog food and 50% Renal diet. I would be interested to know what renal foods people recommend. I have tried Royal Canin Renal as this is what the vet recommended but it does not agree with my girl as she also suffers with pancreatitis.
Hello and welcome to the forum. This is a difficult issue because your dog has two problems. First of all, David has a resource article on pancreatitis here. He has written another one on renal disease here.
We have a few threads on both of these conditions and they can be found easily by typing ‘renal’, kidney and pancreatitis into the search box. Here are some: Feeding dogs with kidney disease. Renal problems.
As your dog is losing protein I would think that he needs good quality, digestible meat sources. Presumably protein content needs to be higher to compensate. The challenge is to provide this but to keep the fat down because of the pancreatitis. A lot of commercial foods that are high protein also have higher fat levels. However, some protein sources are lower in fat eg fish, turkey.
You don’t say what type of food you prefer to give (dry, wet etc) but I would probably avoid dry food as it dehydrates the dog. However, if you wish to feed dry food you could soak it before serving. Would you be interested in home cooking for your dog? I mention this because you can provide him with good quality, digestible low fat protein and make up the rest with cooked, mashed vegetables, fruit, carbs. If his appetite is not so good home cooked food can be appetising. If this is something you can cope with, I would suggest that you contact a canine nutritionist and ask for some recipes. There will probably be an initial payment but once you have the recipes you could batch cook and freeze. We have some information on veterinary nutritionists here. Your vet may know of someone who is a veterinary nutritionist.
If you prefer commercial food, let us know the type you prefer and we will have a look in the Dog Food Directory. One option is to try one of the cold pressed foods which tend to be low in fat. The protein tends to be circa 28% but this can easily be boosted by adding something home cooked eg white fish, chicken. They are easier to digest than some other dog foods and they soak very easily.
Thank you very much for your reply and for the links to the article and threads, I will take a look at these.
I don’t really have a preference when it comes to what type of food to feed, happy to go with whatever will suit her best. I have mostly fed a dry food diet in the past but for the last couple of weeks have been doing home cooked whilst the vet was investigating the problem. My dog really likes chicken and pasta but not so keen on fruit and veg.
I will look at the cold pressed foods too, have never fed these before but it might be a good option for her.
Home cooked food as you describe is ok short term but long term it’s advisable to obtain the correct, balanced recipes to ensure that the dog doesn’t have any deficiencies.
On the subject of cold pressed foods, because I am familiar with them, I would advise the Markus Muhle ones ie Gentle and Guru. There are more on the market now though. Our thread on this type of food is here. The fat is low in the aforementioned types and protein is circa 28%. As I mentioned, because your dog is losing protein it might help to hike this up with cooked low fat protein.
Because your dog has renal problems if you choose cold pressed or any other dry food I would advise that you soak it in warm (not boiling) water to prevent dehydration. Cold pressed food soaks easily and quickly to your desired consistency and can be similar to wet food.
Your vet might want to check the ingredient list of any food changes that you make.