Remission from kidney failure, now rejecting KD diet hills science, what to feed?

Bensi1 · Sep 12, 2016

Hello everyone,

My frenchie bensi is 1 year and 3 months. After feeding merrick limited ingredient diet since he was a pup, we took him to get neutered and blood work showed all high buns and creatinine etc. He was in 3rd stage kidney failure. After ruling out all infectious diseases, we had x-rays and ultra sound performed to rule out anything congenital. We then realized merrick pet foods had thousands of similar cases to ours. Thankfully we caught it in time. My little guy went on fluid treatment and hills science KD diet. He is in full remission and doing well! BUNS dropped from 64 to 22 along with other levels. As of yesterday, he now is beginning to reject the KD diet. I want to put him back on a regular diet or home cooked. I'm very nervous as to what to try as I do not want his levels to raise. I give him coconut oil, pieces of fish (trout and Sardines) mixed in his food. I'm slowly introducing apples and bananas in between meals etc. If he is rejecting the diet, should I try a home cooked fish diet? Has anyone experienced this issue before? Anything I do I'll have to monitor blood work, hopefully someone can help.

Thanks

Squishy Walnuts · Sep 13, 2016

I have no experience with this but I wanted to wish you and Bensi well! How about a raw diet? There are a ton of posts about them if you want to do a search and read up on it.

Cbrugs · Sep 13, 2016

Hills Science Diet is not a high quality food. I feed Jax raw and it really does work wonders. If you are wanting to stick to kibble, check out dogfoodadvisor.com and you can see all of the different brands and their ratings. A lot of people on here that do feed kibble like Fromm. Orijen is another good one.

Bensi1 · Sep 13, 2016

Thanks all. Yes, I've looked into fromm and see that they also have had issues etc. In regards to the raw diet, I've also looked into that. May ask what you're feeding your dog raw?

Cbrugs · Sep 13, 2016

Bensi1 said:
Thanks all. Yes, I've looked into fromm and see that they also have had issues etc. In regards to the raw diet, I've also looked into that. May ask what you're feeding your dog raw?

I use a brand called Vital Essentials, they come in patties. It has no veggies or fruits, just meat, organ and bones and is already the proper 80/10/10 ratio.

Bensi1 · Sep 13, 2016

this is so helpful. thank you so much. I am going to our local feed place and I am going to try this diet. my vet is not helpful, hes pushing the brand weruva and that is extremely low protein about 8%. I feel so alone in this adventure and all I want to do is make my dog happy and healthy.

Cbrugs · Sep 13, 2016

Bensi1 said:
this is so helpful. thank you so much. I am going to our local feed place and I am going to try this diet. my vet is not helpful, hes pushing the brand weruva and that is extremely low protein about 8%. I feel so alone in this adventure and all I want to do is make my dog happy and healthy.

There are many commercially prepared raw foods out there. There are also places online where you can order grinds in bulk if you have freezer space for it. I would try and get him off of the Science Diet as soon as possible. Some people do a slow transition from kibble to raw but I went straight to it with Jax and he did fine.

Bensi1 · Sep 13, 2016

I went to Thomaston feed here in Cheshire CT. They gave me 2 days of Canis raw chicken patties to trial. Bensi eats it but he doesn't seem to be running to it like usual with his food. I heated it up (not sure if that's ok or not) then he seemed to like it more.

Cbrugs · Sep 14, 2016

Bensi1 said:
I went to Thomaston feed here in Cheshire CT. They gave me 2 days of Canis raw chicken patties to trial. Bensi eats it but he doesn't seem to be running to it like usual with his food. I heated it up (not sure if that's ok or not) then he seemed to like it more.

How's he doing today? You might have to play around with different proteins and brands.

Bensi1 · Sep 14, 2016

So far so good!

Cbrugs · Sep 14, 2016

Bensi1 said:
So far so good!

Excellent!

2bullymama · Sep 14, 2016

Bensi1 said:
I went to Thomaston feed here in Cheshire CT. They gave me 2 days of Canis raw chicken patties to trial. Bensi eats it but he doesn't seem to be running to it like usual with his food. I heated it up (not sure if that's ok or not) then he seemed to like it more.

great to hear he is doing better on the patties.... Hills is good for a short term issue, but not long term or for life.

Sending strong positive thoughts for you and your baby!