Poor girl. *hugs*

The protein dilemma reminds me of some of the reading i was doing in King's last year. Whether or not the protein issue is real is actually a huge topic online. You might want to try looking into the difference between protein strands. I read something that dogs needing a diet of low protein supposedly actually did well on non-red meat proteins. I couldn't find any studies done using nuts as a substitute. (I can't imagine feeding a dog as a vegetarian, but if it would help a dog with these problems I'd be interested.)