My dog has kidney disease & pancreatitis. What safe foods can I cook?

I'm sorry to hear that Memi has kidney failure. Finding a food that he will eat and enjoys is very important and I applaud you for being willing to make his food. My best recommendation to make sure that the recipe is balanced is to have a board certified veterinary nutritionist create a recipe for Memi. One service that I frequently use is Balance It. https://secure.balanceit.com/ Your veterinarian may also have a recommendation for a nutritionist that they like. It is important to make sure that a recipe is balanced (not just low in phosphorus) to prevent any other problems with the diet. Good luck! I hope that was helpful. Thanks for using PetCoach.

I would be concerned that his diet is lacking in the micro nutrients, minerals and fatty acids. Lean meat, veggies and rice do not contain significant amounts of calcium, fatty acids...etc. This could contribute to his low weight. Dogs who have kidney disease will also commonly lose body condition as well. I would recommend to reach out to a veterinary nutritionist who can formulate a complete and balanced diet for Bingo that will meet his body calorie needs as well as address the vitamins/mineral/other nutrients. The diet will also address his pancreatitis and kidney disease. The kidney disease needs to be controlled by having low Phosphorus and low protein so this can be tricky. You veterinarian may have a recommendation for a nutritionist or you can look online. May nutritionist offer online consultations or phone consultations making the process easy. I hope this helps and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

The problem with home cooked meals is that they are often unbalanced nutritionally. There are two websites that offer recipes for home cooked diets that are made by veterinary nutritionists. I would check out these sites to get recipes to cook for Pali. https://secure.balanceit.com https://www.petdiets.com

I would get recipes from the two sites that I link below. They are run by veterinary nutritionists, and then you won't need to give any extra things to Charlie such as vitamins. Studies have shown multivitamins really don't work anyway. https://secure.balanceit.com https://www.petdiets.com

Schnauzers as a breed can have trouble with pancreatitis. Some times this is linked to hyperlipidemia (elevated fat in the blood). This disease can be diagnosed typically on a blood panel. If so, a different diet may be recommended for this disease along with medications. Options for diet otherwise would typically be a low fat prescription diet or seeing a nutritionist or holistic vet for diet planning. Home cooked diets can be great, you just need to make sure someone plans a balanced diet and a diet that is targeted for that disease process. Otherwise the diet may not be balanced and could cause issues with nutritional deficiencies. I hope this helps and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach!

Hello and welcome to Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. I am sorry about your little girl. Any food is better than no food, so if you can get any food into her, keep going. Low protein diets are best, so see if you can increase the rice portion, and also try to get some fibre (pumpkin/squash) into her. You can talk to your vet about prescription diets, as these are often designed to be yummy, so trial that out. Best of luck with your little girl, I hope she feels better soon!

Thank you for submitting your question regarding Aiko. I recommend having a blood value known as SDMA tested as it is more sensitive in detecting kidney disease that BUN and Creatinine. This value can be combined with a first morning urine sample to check the kidney's concentrating ability. With this information, it can be decided if he has kidney disease and if so, which stage. If his kidneys are functioning well, then I would suggest a prescription low fat diet to be fed to him exclusively to help prevent recurrence of pancreatitis. Royal Canin Veterinary Diets LF or Purina ProPlan Veterinary Diets EN would be appropriate choices. I hope this information helps!