What would you do?

[Sorienew]

Birdie had high number on her kidney test but after putting her on Hill's k/d diet dry food they have come back to normal.

I'm wondering if I should keep her on this food or go back to her senior I was feeding before. She was doing fine on it.

We think (Vet and I) that the kidney problem was from some bad teeth he pulled.

He says he would keep her on this food. I'm not sure she needs it. wondering if he's not just trying to sell it!! He is a great vet and had no problems with him in the past.

What would you do?? 

Thank you

[D'Elle]

 You need to do what you feel in your gut is the right thing for your dog. The only thing I would offer is that in my opinion the ingredients in those Hills prescription diets are appalling, and I wouldn't feed that stuff to my animals. When I had a companion animal who had chronic kidney disease my approach was to research like crazy and find out just what exactly was not good about a normal diet and what the prescription diet supposedly had that made a difference. Then I found healthy foods that were reduced in the things I did not want and/or increased in the things I did want and I fed that, which sometimes meant cooking the food myself. I made sure there was plenty of water consumed.  Probably in your place I would do some research, make sure I was feeding high quality food and not feeding ingredients that are specifically not recommended for compromised kidneys, get lots of fluids into the dog, and have another blood test run in six months. 

[urge to herd]

I'd go back, slowly, to the regular food, and take in a urine sample in a couple weeks. While you're feeding her regular food, do the research D'Elle did and find out what you'd need to provide her with if she needs to go back on a kidney diet.

Ruth & Gibbs

[Tuxedodog]

My Great Pyr/GSD had a high number, my vet told me that I could switch her to an Rx diet that was quite pricey, but the other option was to feed a high quality protein food.  I was already feeding Canidae,which the vet said was a good choice, so I opted to stick with it.  The only change was we started giving her a low dose of Dermaxx - she was getting UTIs frequently and the vet said she has some arthritis and was unable to "assume the position" long enough to empty her bladder.  Her follow up tests have been normal.

[Sue R]

When Megan was diagnosed with early State 2 kidney failure (and there is always the possibility that your dog's values could have been off due to infection and that things might be back to normal, prescription kidney diet or not), I did a bit of research on the internet and got information as well from some friends. In general, they advised  me to join the Yahoo group K9kidneydiet, which I did. It's not the easiest thing to do as they require quite the background survey filled in from you about your dog, and I don't find navigating around Yahoo to be my cup of tea, but I have to say that using their recommendations for feeding a home-prepared diet (which I developed for my dog using nutritiondata.self.com which provides tons of useful information about foods and ingredients), Megan is still with us four years since she was diagnosed - and she's now 16 1/2 years old. 

Of course, each dog and each owner's circumstances can vary, and so can results, but if I were to have another dog diagnoxed with kidney failure, I would do again what I did with Megan - the people at K9kidneydiet at Yahoo have a lot of experience and offer advice; provide a number of files and articles for you to read; and seem genuinely interested in helping you to help your dog. In fact, I would describe them as pretty hard-core but they are not judgmental and will give you their best advice. 

I take their advice, read their articles, and make my own decisions feeling comfortable that I have good resources to turn to and simply have to tailor my options to my and my dog's situation. 

Very best wishes! 

PS - I really wonder if your dog's blood work values have returned to normal, if it wasn't simply temporary effects of the dental infections that caused the abnormal values. Normally, the way I understand it, once a dog has kidney failure or kidney disease, it is not going to be *reversed* by any medication or diet but the effects can be moderated or controlled by diet in some cases. Of course, since kidney issues can be due to different causes, what works well for one dog might not be beneficial to another, or what one owner can afford to do in terms of time or effort might not be doable by a different owner.