<p>I know there are a lot of dog owners here, so I thought I’d see if anyone is having the same problem as us. </p>
<p>Our 15-year old miniature schnauzer was on the early stage renal food that we bought through our vets office. It ended up being one of the recalled foods back in late July. I had a portion of a large bag left that did not fall under the recall dates, but the vet encouraged us to start transitioning her to another food as Iams was not committing to when it would be back in production. The vet recommended a Hills Science diet food, and I tried slowly over two weeks to transition her, but the further we got into it, she began to throw up about every other day. The vet said that the Hills food is higher in fat to make up for less protein, and she obviously couldn’t handle the richness of it.</p>
<p>So just over a week ago, I started making her food with a recipe I got at the vet’s office for dogs with her needs (it contains ground beef, white rice, hard-boiled egg, white bread crumbs and some ground up egg shells). </p>
<p>I emailed Iams a few days ago, trying to get a feel for how long I’d have to make this food, or when their products would be back in stock. Just got an email back that they don’t expect the food to be in stock for several weeks. Because of the ground beef, I don’t make more than 3-4 days of food at a time so that it doesn’t spoil. But this is going to get old really quickly. Yes, we’ve been spoiled by readily available dry dog food. Some have also suggested to me that the longer she is on the stuff I’m making, the higher risk she will refuse the old stuff when we are able to get it again.</p>
<p>Has anyone else been affected by the recall, and how are you handling it with your pet?</p>
<p>So sorry about your dog. Aren’t there any other foods from other manufacturers that would meet his needs? Science Diet doesn’t agree with a lot of dogs. But there are so many different foods out there. If you can make his food from scratch, it’s hard to believe there isn’t a canned food that would work. Some of them are basically meat and rice with vitamins. Even if you had to supplement one of those, it might be easier.
If it’s just a low protein food that’s needed, there have to be others out there.
If you’re not familiar with this site, it might be helpful.</p>
<p>moonchild, the Science Diet was the only one we tried as the vet thought it was closest thing to the early stage renal she’s been on for years. I did not know that the Science Diet had a reputation for not agreeing with a lot of dogs. Maybe I’ll call the vet tomorrow and ask for some other choices. At the time when I decided to make the food we only thought it would be for a week or two as Iams was telling the vet they expected the food to be available with a week. I know someone at the vet’s office is calling Iams every week for an update, and the last I heard mid-week last week was maybe this week. But I emailed the company myself and the response I got was not as favorable. P&G is not on my high list right now!</p>
<p>If you look at the ingredients to Science Diet, you’ll see that it has very little in common with the homemade food that the vet recommended you make (and is quite healthy, btw.). If I were you, I would look for a food that is close to the homemade diet, not Science, and not Iams. The ingredients in the Iams food, if you look at the ingredients list, are also very far from fresh meat, rice and egg, which is a basic, healthy, canine diet.
Many of the cannned foods on that you’ll find on the website I mention above, if they are 4 stars or above, will be similar to the homemade diet. I would probably try the canned “California Natural,” or something like it, if I had a dog in your position. It is low protein, and is basically meat, rice and vitamins. You could even throw in a raw egg if you wanted, but the food is balanced and complete as is. I’ve always wondered why vets prescribe a wholesome homemade diet like meat and rice, but then recommend something like Science Diet, which has a lot of corn and fillers, (depending on the variety) if you’d rather not cook.</p>
<p>In general, dry foods are harder on kidneys than wet ones. They’re a bit more expensive, but then your dog is 15, and doesn’t have too many more years, unfortunately.</p>
<p>What are you looking for in the renal diet?</p>
<p>The problem is that an AAFCO dog food has to meet certain levels of protein and other nutrients to be called “dog food” but the prescription diets don’t … so there are constantly customers wandering around aimlessly looking for an equivalent diet that doesn’t exist. </p>
<p>Assuming that you are looking for a low protein food … take a look at Solid Gold’s Holistique – essentially fish and barley, with about 18% protein. If you want a canned food … and I agree that might be a good way to go … Dave’s Delicate Dinners are a good choice, along with the Cal Nat.</p>
<p>My dogs food was recalled and we got a check in the mail. We feed him a compatable canned food, from Iams. It smeels yuck and he put on weight so we had to cut it down. His was for sensitive coat. he has allergies. I was thinking of transitioning him to /science diet, as my mom had luck with her dogs on that. My sister’s dog is on a renal diet I will ask her what they use.</p>
<p>Our dog went over to a vet recommended natural diet - probably not that different that what you are making from scratch. Comes frozen in patties - which makes it a heck of a lot easier to deal with </p>
<p>Any good suggestions for dry dog food for young adult large-breed dog, preferably not as pricey as some of the premium holistic ones? (Did I read on another thread here that the Costco/Triumph line is very good??) Thanks…</p>
<p>I know people who use Kirkland (Costco) and are very happy with it. Their dogs seem healthy and happy. </p>
<p>I feed Evo by Natura, which is grain free. My lab does much better with food that doesn’t have wheat or gluten. I also like the fact that Natura products (Evo, California Natural and Innova) are manufactured in the US, as well as all ingredients being from the US. Some of the ingredients from the recalled brands of dog and cat foods in the past have been from China. It’s very hard to know whose ingredients are all from the US, as they aren’t required to state one way or another, but some manufacturers make a point of saying they are all US sourced, though, so I tend to trust that.</p>
<p>we feed our young adult active large breed dog Innova. Same company as Moonchild uses. It was the brand that the people we got him from were using. With our other dogs we had settled into one of the Nutro brand foods. I think the quality of that food has gone downhill. Innova is expensive but our dog looks great.</p>
<p>cnp55 - She was started on the early renal diet when, during her young/middle ages, she had to have surgery twice for kidney stones. This food is what the vet suggested and what we’ve had her on, basically since then. She has not had another episode of stones or infections since we’ve had her on it.</p>
<p>Called the vet again today. They recommended another food by Royal Canin, a renal formula. Interestingly, the food that I’m making is from a recipe page of several canine recipes… canine highly digestible diet, canine low sodium diet, canine reducing diet, canine hypoallergenic diet, etc. But the sheet is published by Hill’s. At the bottom there’s a disclosure: Prescription Diet* products are available in canned and dry forms and are convenient, quality assured alternatives to the recipes above. Kind of reminds me of the disclosures you find on baby formulas in case you choose to use them instead of breastfeeding… it’s not as good as the real thing, but convenient and ‘quality’ assured. </p>
<p>The two recipes that the vet checked off for me were the canine restricted protein diet, and the canine ultra low protein diet. The analysis on the canine restricted diet states it supplies 17% protein calories, 30% fat calories, and 53% carbohydrate calories. The analysis on the canine ultra low protein diet states it supplies 8% protein calories, 39% fat calories and 53% carbohydrate calories. </p>
<p>The canine ultra low protein diet is white rice, vegetable oil, hard-cooked egg, calcium carbonate (I use egg shells) and potassium chloride. I have not made this recipe and now that I’m looking at it, it would be easier to make since it does not include meat. I also have to wonder if I could make a larger batch and it would stay good longer in the refrigerator because there is no meat. Heck, I hadn’t even thought about freezing it until now.</p>
<p>teriwtt
I have a 13-yr old mini schnauzer, also feeding him homemade diet similar to yours, after years on dry. He’s doing really well on it, and once I got into a routine, found it really not hard to plan/home-cook. We also have had no success getting him interested in ANYTHING storebought after this. We tried Evo, Royal Canin, Wellness, Innova, Blue Buffalo…Oh, well, I figure he’s in his golden years and has earned some pampering…</p>
<p>Thanks all for the dry food suggestions. Will look into them and price them in our area. teriwtt, sorry to have briefly diverted the thread. good luck with your dog.</p>
<p>So, an observation I’ve made in the last few days. Last July our dog developed vestibular syndrome. It took a while for her to recover, but she did. However, since having it, she had stopped jumping up on anything that she had been jumping up on (recliner, ottoman, couch, etc.). It was as if the vestibular syndrome caused her to age more years than she already was.</p>
<p>She’s now been on the homemade food exclusively for almost two weeks and in the last five days, she’s jumped up on all of the above mentioned pieces of furniture. I have to wonder if the new diet is just making her feel better all around.</p>
<p>That being said, she did throw up last night around 12:15 AM. Am wondering, though, if we’re giving her too much food. I also need to get into the habit of rinsing out her food dish after she eats each time now that there’s cooked meat being placed in it.</p>
<p>That’s wonderful that she seems to be feeling so much better on the new diet! It might make it worth your effort to continue when you see such good results.<br>
How many meals does she get? I give my Lab three smaller meals rather than two larger ones, and he seems to do better with that- not so much in the tummy at once.</p>
<p>Our previous dog suffered from vestibular syndrome, but unfortunately did not recover. We kept thinking he would because he’d get better, and then decline. It was so sad and scary. He was 12, though, and probably would have developed other issues soon, in any case. Our dogs’ lives are just too short.</p>
<p>moonchild, I’m so sorry to hear that. When our dog got it, I thought for sure it was the end. The vet actually told us most dogs recover but I couldn’t believe it. She started to show slight improvement within a week (we had to give her fluids under the skin every day so she wouldn’t get dehydrated, and I basically hand fed her a chicken/rice mixture… it was our first foray into homemade dog food and it did the trick… she ate it when she wouldn’t eat the Iams), then it took many more weeks of gradual improvement before I would say she recovered. That’s why the jumping is such a surprise to us. We just thought it was something she’d never get back.</p>
<p>Considering the ingredients being used I think you could make the recipe in bulk and freeze in single serving portions. It’s still a chore but much less of a hassle than making it up every three to four days.</p>