My dog has kidney disease and won't eat. Is homemade food okay?

I hate to hear that Lily is having an issue eating her food. I would advise too try several renal diets. Royal Canin makes three different formulas. Purina and Science diet also make their own version. The best medicine would be for her to eat only a renal diet but sometimes pets have other ideas. If you cannot find a food that she likes and will readily eat, try mixing in about 25% of the renal diet in with 75% of her normal kibble. Every few days gradually increase the renal food. Even if she never goes on the renal diet fully, it's still better than not eating it at all. Try the canned renal diets as well (once again, all the brands carry this formula). If you want to try making her food at home, you will need to work with a veterinary nutritionist. Renal diets need carefully controlled protein, phosphorus and potassium levels. You can go online and find several who offer both phone and online consultations. I hope this helps to point you in the right direction. Please feel free to post any further questions!

Sorry to hear that. Azalea needs to eat as soon as possible. I recommend food especially formulated for kidney problems with low protein; it would be the best choice and you can find a big variety in tastes, different brands, both dry and wet. If Azalea is still refusing food even if you tempt her with home made lamb, she might need to be hospitalized and receive intravenous fluidotherapy and the correct medications. For example anti sickness treatment, as patients with kidney disease, frequently suffer of nausea and sometime won't eat for that reason. Please post again on the forum or request a consultation if you would like to discuss it further. I hope my answer was helpful.

Aghh Poor Chico, sorry to hear about his kidney disease. Homemade diets are notoriously difficult to get right as it is never as simple as just working out calories etc. My general advice would be persevere with different renal brands as these will ultimately have a better balance. However, having said that, if you are sure about going down the root of a homemade diet, you sound like you are taking the right approach. For your dog's stage I would worry you are giving too much protein. The essential pointing this diet is to reduce protein and phosphorus whilst maintaining vitamin and mineral balance. Renal foods typically has a dry protein of about 14% so with you feeding wet meat I would reduce it to around a third of the diet then make up the rest with pasta, rice and range of vegetables. The supplements you are adding will be helpful and the phosphorus binder will help greatly.

Thank you for posting this question. Increasing protein won’t necessarily increase weight , increasing calories in general is the goal. If she will eat more of her food you could increase the amount you are feeding. You could try feeding more times a day. You could also visit www.balanceit.com This website can help you design a home cooked diet safe for kidney disease. This could be given in addition to the commercial food you are feeding. Best of luck and thank you for using Pet Coach.

Renal diets are very effective for cats with kidney disease -by reducing the amount of toxins the kidneys are required to excrete many of the symptoms can be reduced; they are also naturally antiinflammatory and enriched with vitamins etc and are proven both to extend life expectancy and quality of life. The larger proportion of the diet that is made of of kidney food, the more effective it is however calorie intake is very important and tempting or supplementing the diet with easy to digest protein sources such as egg, boiled chicken or fish is ok (for some clinical diets this is not appropriate but for kidney patients it is better than not eating the special diet)

I am so sorry to hear about Lola. It is so hard with senior pets to know when it's time to say goodbye. I know how hard it is as I lost my 15 and a half year old guy last year. The blood work values you report are very concerning. The question is if there is something that has acutely changed to make her become a lot worse, or is this simply progression of underlying chronic kidney disease. There are other disease processes that can complicate chronic kidney disease like infection, pancreatitis, high bood pressure, infectious diseases, etc. Really what your pet needs is to be hospitalized with intravenous fluids, supportive care (anti nausea medications, etc.), and to try to figure out if there's an underlying problem exacerbating the kidney disease. This will require more tests such as an abdominal ultrasound, urine culture, and potentially other things as dictated by the case. I would not give up hope until trying these things because you won't know if this will help her until you try. The opposite would be true if a pet in this situation were hospitalized for two to three days and there was no improvement in the blood work or symptoms. Then, if all the treatment options are exhausted, and the pet has poor quality of life a different decision may be reached. As dogs do not tolerate chronic kidney disease as well as cats being diagnosed for a year without progression is excellent. Sometimes having a consultation with an internal medicine specialist can really help. Your family vet would likely be able to provide a referral if you and he or she thinks this would be a valuable step. I hope this helps and that Lola feels better soon. Thank you for using pet coach.

Hi and thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Sorry to hear about Chico. Chicken broth is typically a very low protein source. I think it's a good idea to add this to try to entice Chico's appetite. Serving the food warmed up may help bring out the aroma and flavor also. There is a new kidney supplement for dogs in kidney failure but I can't think of the name of it. It starts with Nef..... I believe. Might be worth asking your veterinarian about. Good luck with Chico. Another thing you can try is a different carbohydrate such as pasta to entice Chico.