alternative to Purina NF

[Loria]

I've been feeding my 13 year old boxer Raw all her life, but now she is starting to have kidney issues and vet sold me some Purina NF food that she has been on a week now and is doing well on it. (at first I just tried cutting out the bone in her diet and that didn't help).
But the first ingredient listed is corn, and I hate paying a premium price for corn.
Is there a premium food that will be good/safe for her kidneys?

Thank you,
Lori

[whiteleo]

Can you tell us what you were feeding your dog on a regular basis for her raw meals?

[RawFedDogs]

There is no commercial dog food that willl be nearly as good for your dog as a raw diet. Exactly what were you feeding when you were feeding raw? Everything, including supplements. We can tweak the raw diet if necessary. I have a strong feeling that diet is not a causitive factor with your dog's kidney problems. I suspect it is just old age. Changing to a commercial diet, I don't care what kind it is, will not have a positive effect on his problem.

To answer your question ... "NO"

[Loria]

one chicken leg quarter in am
some kind of red meat off the bone in pm with either a raw egg or fish oil pill, or some liver or kidney alternating.
I totally agree this is just old age, but she was going down rapidly, I tried cutting out the bone for a few weeks but that didn't help and gave her diarrhea.
She has always had a sensitive stomach to organs (chicken livers are fine) (have to be very carefull with how much cow kidney I give her at a time)and doesn't tolerate fish at all even the fish oil started to cause her to vomit now.
She started just drinking more water than normal, then peeing in the bed, then wasting away and very weak and falling over.
Finally, I gave up and went with the vet food (which was very hard for me, believe me) and she is defiantly improving, putting on weight, not peeing in bed, not falling over more energy.
But I think Purina NF uses the cheapest ingredients possible for better kidney function, and if I'm going to pay a high price I want quality ingredients.
Because I don't know what this will do to her in the long run.
Lori

[whiteleo]

Could the chicken quarters possibly been enhanced with the sodium mixture that they so often add now? My thinking is that if they were this would definitely be harder on the kidneys.

[Loria]

That did enter my mind, when she started drinking more water.
But I don't think they were, I had once bought enhanced chicken at walmart
by accident and you could tell it was enhanced because when you thawed it the juices where more than normal and gooey.
Plus when I stopped giving her bone for a few weeks she wasn't getting much chicken, and still drinking more water than normal and acting weak.
Lori

[DaneMama]

Is she on any kind of medication other than the food?

[sassymaxmom]

Join K9KidneyDiet, a yahoo group, for advice on feeding a kidney dog. Get a copy of all the lab work done as the moderators can give you pointers on what might help depending on the numbers.

You probably won't be able to feed much bone but you can feed raw meat and a limited amount of organ. The nasty prescription kibble has much less protein which all dogs need, it is dry - bad for kidney dogs - and it is high in sodium to get the dog to drink water. See
DogAware.com Health: Kidney Disease in Dogs

I had to feed Sassy low fat boiled chicken along with a small amount of beef/pork/lamb and add in high calorie low phosphorus glutinous rice but she mostly loved her food and kept up her muscle mass. I snuck her a chicken foot and beef rib every so often too.

You can formulate a diet with the same levels of minerals and use high quality fresh foods.

[RawFedDogs]

She started just drinking more water than normal, then peeing in the bed, then wasting away and very weak and falling over.

This sounds a lot like my Abby (10 1/2yo Great Dane). She has been drinking A LOT of water for about the last year. She is also leaking pee when she sleeps sometimes. I have her on Premarin that pretty well controls that. She is definately loosing muscle mass around her hips. She has only stumbled a couple of times.

You are feeding your dog a good raw diet. I'm impressed with it. There is no kibble that I would change Abby to. I hope you can work out a raw diet that you are comfortable with.

[sassymaxmom]

Kidney dogs drink and drink as blood phosphorus is high and they are trying like mad to dilute it so they are actually dehydrated. When Sassy got subcutaneous fluids her accidents decreased. Some vets are resistant to giving fluids to good sized dogs. Sassy was only 44 pounds but the 500-1000 ml of fluid a day really made a difference in her quality of life.

Get the testing done. Sassy lived 3.5 years after diagnosis, mostly feeling pretty good even though the DM, bad eyes, heart murmur got bothersome as well. When I increased her protein her muscle mass and strength increased tremendously, you have that covered already!