Percy was very young when we discovered that his kidney functions were dramatically abnormal. Though his nutritional needs were still in many ways that of a less-than-four-month old pup, to ease the strain on his kidneys he would need a special diet low in protein and phosphorus. On the vet’s recommendation I started with Purina KD kibble and added some canned food from the same line or from Royal Canin. Percy loved it all, so that was no problem. I had concerns about this kind of diet for such a young, growing pup. However, it was simply a question of picking the lesser of evils.
Over the next two months I gradually transitioned him to an all homemade diet. I did this because I felt it would be better for Percy– the special kidney diets from Purina, Royal Canin and the others contain a lot of fillers– but I took that long to do it because I was worried about getting the right balance of nutrients for him– his body was still trying to grow– and about unwittingly doing more harm than good if I got it wrong.
The two central issues were protein and phosphorus: both had to be very low, especially low given Percy’s age. A pup of his age normally would have a diet where protein constitutes close to 30% of total intake, but I whittled that down to 10% and less as his numbers– BUN, creatinine, phosphorus– continued to remain high.
For phosphorus, I used the tables on the aforementioned site about kidney disease, Dog Aware (& see Links page), as a guide to know what foods contained phosphorus and in what quantities.
So about once a week I would bake up pans of winter squashes and sweet potatoes, mash them up and add the most highly usable, lower phosphorus protein with some variation. There was always some egg, egg being about the most perfectly usable protein source there is– but the yolk is high in phosphorus, so needed to be used judiciously. I often poached chicken thighs with skin and then removed from bones and shredded. I used the poaching liquid as broth that I would warm to moisten the food at mealtime. Fatty fish would have been a great protein source but many fish are high in phosphorus, so were added sparingly. Beef, pork, lamb were all in the mix at times depending on and in relation to what else was appearing that week. I would add some grain, like barley– not very much rice as it didn’t seem so digestible for Percy after his long bout of loose stools– and vegetables such as sauteed kale or another dark green; applesauce if I’d made some; bits of butter for additional fat and energy were mixed in as well. All of this was weighed individually to get the correct proportions– so say there was 100 oz. total food mix, the protein could only constitute 8-10 oz. of that total. This was then mixed in giant bowls and put in large tupperwares in the frig.
At mealtime I heated chicken or beef broth, homemade or good-quality bought, to pour over the food for warming, and mixed in his medicines and supplements, and usually once a day added a little dairy for deliciousness, because Percy was crazy for it– a small spoon of yogurt or quark. He was known to lunge into the open frig if there happened to be a pitcher of milk resting there, and in a split second would begin lapping it up. Rather than weaning him to two meals/day as I normally would have when he reached five or six months, he remained on three meals a day to to not overwhelm his body processes. He got a heaping cup of the homemade mix per meal, plus the following:
breakfast
- probiotic from Nature’s Farmacy
- ground flaxseed
- colostrum powder
- Alternagel
- milk thistle
- slippery elm
- multivitamin
- Gastrodia 9
- Azodyl cap
- Epakitin powder
lunch
- Alternagel
- colostrum
- slippery elm
supper
- cod liver oil
- colostrum
- slippery elm
- milk thistle
- multivitamin
- Gastrodia 9
- Antler 8
- Alternagel
- Azodyl cap
- Epakitin powder
- Cholodin chewable
The slippery elm and colostrum varied depending on how Percy was doing: when his stools were fine, I reduced the amounts.
The Alternagel served as an additional phosphorus binder.
Our regular vet prescribed the Epakitin and Azodyl, while the other supplements were on the recommendation of our holistic vet.
I also used two flower essences for Percy, from Green Hope Farm’s Animal Collection: Kidney Vetch and Flow Free. http://www.greenhopeessences.com/
As you can see, this bordered on a full-time job at times, but with some organization it was manageable. Oftentimes I would simply cook larger amounts of whatever vegetable or grain I was otherwise preparing, for example. Percy was so sweet and deserving; preparing his food allowed me a sense of helping him, though I had no proof that a homemade diet made a difference. It just seemed and felt better.
If I had to be away for a long day I had a wonderful person to come in. I was loathe to leave Percy alone for any length of time because of the seizures.
Though his diet had to be carefully controlled in many regards I also let him have normal treats, like the occasional marrow bone that he and Nocci could go off and chew outside. I wanted him to enjoy his life as a dog as much as possible.
