need help with crf food

[hangmans joke]

hi my 9 year chihuhua china came up sick all of sudden2 weeks ago ., after blood work and iv fluids she has renal disease .the problem is today vet gave some hills kd , i dont think she will eat it . it took me forever to find a dogfood before to give her. she also has heart murmur and take anapril and lasix daily. i have spent over 16,000 dollars on her over the years including 3 knee surgeries for lux and 2 fho surgeries. she weighs 4 pounds. what other low prtein food can i try ???????? whats weird is 3 weeks before this epsiode here blood work was fine as usual and normal. then 2 weeks alter boom!! . i will do whatever it takes to help her. what other renal disease dog food can i try or does anyone have a good home cook recipe please???

also after a a few days at vet getting iv she is doing better but one level is still high where the other is back to normal. i dunno if its good news or not but i will take what i can get at the momment. today she was seen and i was given fluid to give her at home daily to see how it goes then another test in week. some prayers please. i know its sad for my first post here is needing help but if anyone can we would apprciate it .

ron ,greta ,china

[dragondawg]

Kidney disease can occur any time, and there is evidence that hypertensive dogs have a predisposition to it. The anapril or Enalapril is also commonly used to modulate progression of kidney disease. Presumably your dog has been on this medication for a long period of time? There are some warnings in the literature than a larger than needed dose may have a deleterious effect on the kidneys. So this drug is a double edge sword of sorts. If titrated correctly not only does it have a benefit for the heart, but also in slowing down several forms of kidney disease.

Kidney disease frequently increases gastric irritation by increasing acid secretion. In essense your puppy may be feeling the equivalent of heartburn and nausea at the same time. What you need to ask your Vet is for the appropriate dosage of randitine (Zantac) to give your dog. As an example for a 60-70 lb dog 75-150mg once or twice a day is the dosage. What it would be for a 4 lb dog only a Vet could calculate out. Zantac usually takes up to 2-4 hrs to really start to work and block the acid. If the dog refuses to take the Zantac pill it is available as an IV solution. Also Sucralfate which coats the stomach lining has another beneficial property of being able to bind phosphate which can help kidney function.

As an additional step I would strongly urge you to have the Vet give the dog an IV of Zofran. It is extremely effective in supressing nausea, and of course extremely expensive. Also inquire about getting the appropriate 7 day supply of metoclopromide for days 2-7. The metoclopromide is a less effective 1st generation medication for nausea, and also much cheaper and more widely used in Veterinary medicine. High doses may affect the heart. No known effect of Zofran on the heart.

Once you have the acid blocked with the Zantac, and the nausea relieved with the Zofran, you just might be surprised how hungry your dog becomes for the Hills k/d. But until you get the gastric irritation and nausea under control it's very unlikely your dog will want to eat anything.

The idea of the Hill's K/D is that the protein source although low has been hydrolyzed into simple peptides. This is something the damaged or failing kidney can cope with. If you try to wing it with some home recipie it could be disasterous for your dog.

Currently your Vet has probably been working on getting phosphate levels down in the blood via phosphate binders. Yet another reason for the Hills K/D as it has low phosphate and low salt content. Once you get the kidney function stabilized, and the dog eating, then supplement the diet with fish oil as the Omega-3 fatty acids besides being good for the heart, also helps slow down kidney disease. But use the fish oil and NOT fax seed oil.

Good luck to your puppy.

[lv4dogs]

I am not too much help on this subject, I do not study those brands of diets.
I do want to let you know that there are other brands of prescription diets available now. I don't know anything about them, other than they are for renal disease. Your vet should be able to order them for you, or possibly call in the prescription to another vet office or an online store.

Purina, NF, kidney function

Eukanuba, kidney conditions, (2 kinds): Early stage/canine dry and advanced stage/canine dry.

Royal Canin, modified formual (renal disease) renal 11p (late stages) and renal mp14 (early stage)

[hangmans joke]

thanks for all the info. she just wont eat the hills kd. she is very finicky over the years.so i dunno what else to try , i guess get samples and try them all.shes bee n through so much but shes my angel and everyone says shes a fighter. she will fight til the end.i just can n ot imagine life without her.


one more question i have ,my vet said that kidneys cannot reheal themselves but if you look online long enough you see different products claiming to reverse kidney failure, etc is all this a falicy? or lies to prey on folks looking for help ????

[dragondawg]

usually can not heal themselves. But if you can stop or dramatically slow the progress of the disease, there is excess capacity to draw upon. The equivalent of one kidney works as well as two. The trick is to keep it from getting any worse (e.g. repeated secondary infections).

Get puppy on acid blockers and anti-nausea medication.

[hangmans joke]

yeah she has been on pepcid for about 6 months for acid reflux , which we thought was this case. usually she will not eat suddenly ,give a pepcid and next day fine. but 2 to 3 weeks ago when this started the next day she did not get better, then 2 more days and off to vet for xrays and bloodwork which turned up high creatine and bun. the biggest prboelm is she will not eat hills kd ,or royal renal food, she just wont eat it and she has to eat a low protein diet , vet even gave me some chicken paste no protein to mix in food but no go . today at vets her bun levels were down a bout half what they were 2 days ago ,this after givng sub fluids at home. she just has so many probs, ths acid reflux thing has been going on over a year, today he gave me a liquid called clemasoemthing ,it helps with enzemes and acids. i have to give to her 2 hours before any other meds. she ate alittle tonight no much . we are in a battle but she is a fighter. and hardheaded. the biggest 4 pound fighter anyone would ever see. thank you again for your info . i will update.
ron