Drooler Question: Kidneys

Hi Everyone,

I'm wondering if anyone has any thoughts, ideas or inspiration about this:

Emmett is our 11 year old Italian Greyhound. We have had him just short of 4 years and got him through Rescue. (Note he is an ITALIAN Greyhound, not a greyhound. He is big for the breed at nearly 16 pounds and he ix very tall.)

We brought him to the vet yesterday because he has been acting a little funny about food on and off. He has slowly begin to lose his enthusiasm for his morning food. A few times, he;s refused to eat it. Once we get him eating, he is normal for the day and eats every time food is offered, which is 5 times a day.

His blood work was all very good, but his BUN, which should be between 7 and 27 was 28, and his creatinine, which should be between 0.4 and 1.8 is 1.8.

The vet says he's not too concerned and that the levels can be high after eating. He thinks a little pepcid at night might help his morning appetite. And says if Emmett begins to drink or pee a lot, then he would want to retest him.

I am wondering if anyone has any experience with this, and what if anything I should do diet wise just to help out. The vet, when asked, said lower levels of high quality protein would represent a diet to support kidney function. That's pretty much what he has now, I think. His foods have protein levels of about 23%. I may be worrying about nothing, but that's my specialty!

Thanks!

 

Guinness had a blip in his kidney values a few years ago.
At the time I was feeding him Solid Gold Bark at the Moon Dog food. It's a grain free/high protein/low carb food.
The protein content (according to their website) is like 42%.
I took him off of that and switched to Wellness Chicken Supermix 5-according to their website, not less than 22%.
He had blood work done a few months ago, and the vet said all numbers look great.

 

Hi Lydia

I would take a pee sample (first pee of the morning) to your vet for a urinalysis before you worry about the kidneys. I'd worry more abuot GI issues or perhaps pain, if he is creaky/slow in the morning (he is old enough to have joint issues); pain would def. put him off his morning appetite.

 

Jennifer--That's encouraging. We do feed grain-free, or at least certain grains because he has seizures, but use two foods that are about 23% protein. One is Honest Kitchen Force (dehydrated raw) and the other is California Natural Lamb and Rice Small Bites.

Jess- He had a urinalysis along with the blood work and the specific gravity was normal. Good suggestion, though!