Kidney failure dog food?

[mooseracer]

Our 15 yr old Collie has been under the weather recently and a trip to the vets with subsequent blood tests showed he is suffering from "stage 2" kidney failure and he should be moved onto appropriate dog food.

Has anyone had experience of this and can recommend a brand that might actually be appetisting for dogs? I gather they should be lower in protein which can often make them unappealing.

[yellowbentines]

Really sorry to hear this. We lost our Westie a few years back to kidney failure so have experience of this.

We tried various options and the one we had most success with was the Royal Canin dried kibble, mixed with little of the 'wet meat' from the pouches in the same range. The dried food is better for them and more nutritious but we couldn't get him to eat it without something wet and meaty mixed in. Bought it online, it was very expensive from the vets.

As it got tougher and his appetite reduced we stuck with the above kibble but resorted to doing things like making up a little stock or gravy, and drizzling as little as we could get away with over the kibble to get him interested in the aroma and additional moisture.

We also struggled getting him to drink, I believe this is a common symptom. We bought extra water bowls and dotted them around the house and figured if he had a little each time he passed a bowl it all added up. It worked to a degree.

Best of luck.

Edited by yellowbentines on Wednesday 7th December 21:18

[mooseracer]

Thanks - I'll check out the Royal Canim. He had always been on dried food but recently refused to eat it and we'd changed to wet.

He's feeling very sorry for himself at the moment, but hopefully will pick back up a bit.

[SlimJim16v]

You can also add this to normal food.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Itine-Phosphate-Reduc...

fking stupid censorship. The product is called Ipak-itine, without the hyphen.