Full Diary Part 1

(Continued from Full Diary Intro)

Help my dog has kidney disease and will not eat.  Why I NEVER have to say that again!  Not only was she eating – she was licking the bowl spotless!  And just look at that shiny coat.

Began writing Dec. ’11.

“Help my dog has kidney disease and will not eat!”  Why don’t I say that anymore?  Everything is explained in full and minute detail in this DIARY, 10 more parts which follow, of EVERYTHING I did as Pnut’s Mom, including food choices, vitamins, minerals and herbs, food combining and sequential eating .  I got my dog Pnut to eat when kidney disease dogs DO NOT want to eat then I just fine-tuned it and she responded amazingly and thrived,  returning to a happy normal dog again.  And now after having been so successful, and having kept this diary to monitor her responses, I’m putting it all out there in case my experience and new-found research and knowledge could help anyone else who has a pet diagnosed with kidney failure and if any part of this assists you, I am rewarded.  What I did was NOT difficult and my results are so outstanding, I MUST WRITE THIS in case it does ANYONE else ANY good.  I am so absolutely delirious with joy at my pet’s obvious continued advancement and improved quality of life which I have provided her through my research, education and hands-on experience that I have to share it.

From DOOM to WONDERFUL with diet change & vitamins, minerals and herbs – PNut’s Success story, as a month after diagnosis when she was vomiting everything, even water, and totally weak and lifeless-near death,  after just 30 days she was hungrily eating new food choices and responding amazingly with renewed appetite and energy and I have blood work and urinalysis to prove it!

The home page has a more understandable summary but this is here in its entirety so you can realize the extent of my research and trial and error to find the best course for my pet as she thrived and aged. Also, let me say, I am in NO way trained in nutrition or kidney-related illnesses and everything I write is first-person, provided for the sole purpose of sharing my personal experience and research information about my use of food, vitamins & minerals and herbs to keep the remaining part of her kidneys functioning optimally to help my dog survive kidney disease /renal disease (see TERMS OF USE.)

IMPORTANT:  This information should NOT be followed absolutely or blindly as EVERY pet with kidney disease is different and you especially MUST be sure you are dealing with kidney disease and NOT PANCREATITIS as pancreatitis has very similar symptoms and a high protein diet which is also high fat such as I adopted would be very dangerous and possibly fatal to a pet with pancreatitis.   Be aware when trying anything new like vitamins, minerals, herbs, etc., and you are always advised to ask the advice of your health care professional which is especially important also for those pets on prescription medications as there could be conflict, interference or adverse reactions. My little one is on NO prescriptions except RenaPlus potassium gel.  Keep in mind my methods are for a little lap dog with feeding methods that changed as she aged, but adjustments could be made for larger breeds to work just as well and the closeness and bonding time at feeding is very precious and nurturing.

But I started writing this from the absolute very beginning basically to keep track of what I tried, how much and when, so I could review her blood work and urinalysis to see what affect my choices were having on preserving the remaining portions of her kidneys.  And I am adding this sentence here: Again, this has progressed over almost 4 years– so it has expanded – a LOT, including the ups and downs, and I’ll apologize here for any spelling or grammatical errors – a lot to proofread and hopefully I’ll get to it, but don’t want to hold it up for that.  But MY GOSH, so rewarding and I include it all here, and food and vitamins, minerals or herbs has been tweaked a somewhat from where I started as I learned more and she aged (so thankful for THAT fact!). But I have included it ALL as it transpired so that you can realize I am in no way making this up or sugar-coating anything – it is a testimonial. I’ve made minor mistakes, but not harmful, irreversible or uncorrectable – at least for my pet, and I knew I must include them as well, especially so you can consider avoiding them (make very sure your dog does NOT have pancreatitis!)  I have paid close attention to cause and effect, noticing changes and how else I needed to improve the quality of her life.

I’ll jump ahead so you can know, 6 – 8 months in, she was doing wonderfully and her diet was tweaked to include: 100% raw green tripe twice daily plus 4 vegetables and 4 fruits pureed – finger-fed in these combinations:  10am pumpkin/mango with all vitamins/minerals/herbs; 1pm – 100% raw beef tripe in her bowl; 4pm parsnip/pineapple and sweet potato/raspberry with all vitamins/minerals/herbs – each fruit/veggie combination not mixed together but separate, fed in sequence one after the other; 8pm 100% raw tripe in her bowl; 11:30pm cabbage/blueberry-with only honey added.

[Current Important Note: The combinations changed when I got into food combining/sequential eating and the times of feeding changed.]

Yes, as I have written this, it has grown longer and longer so I can be thorough and include the requisite support links, and although it may appear daunting, don’t let it stop you from considering everything I have written because it has literally turned my little dog’s life around and I only accomplished it a little at a time over several months and it was not hard to do. In fact, after writing this I realized it is really probably better to introduce foods & vitamins, minerals and herbs just a little at time and wait a few days or a week or so to add something else so you can notice any change in behavior and realize how well what you have added is tolerated and be sure you see an improvement, or a least not a set back. I just kept getting things as I researched them. And they have been all REWARDS except for my experience with B-complex vitamins, but that is explained in more detail later. And though it might seem like a lot, once you know what works, it just fits right in to your daily routine, and works like a breeze.

In a nutshell, low protein commercially canned specialty kidney diet foods was not working for her and I feared she would die as she was dropping weight so rapidly and three quick blood panels in a row kept showing deterioration.   But I got online to read about alternatives, and thought, why not – the canned specialty food WAS NOT WORKING she was dying!

You see, I took my 12.5 yr old 2.4 lb Chihuahua Pnut from a very sick lifeless dog to active and feeling good and I did it thru easy but major diet change and vitamins, minerals and herbs added as I learned about them. Really not difficult for anyone to do and it worked so well for her. She was diagnosed with kidney disease early Dec. 2011 and now late-May 2012 she looks and acts like a normal happy dog again, complete with blood work brought into the normal range and she had all of the horrible symptoms I read about online- drinking more water, urinating more including accidents, humped back, pain in the abdomen and no appetite – not wanting to eat at all. Heartbreaking. So, I just started researching what I could do and thought I would just be making her more comfortable as she lived out her last days with me but as I moved forward and as I got the food and vitamins, minerals and herbs in her I saw DRAMATIC improvement in only a few days  so I knew I was on the right track to offering her a LOT MORE than comfortable final days! Here is what I learned and did to return my dog to puppy-like behavior, day-after-day-after-day and a return to a normal creatinine reading! Hooray!! There were only a few setbacks which were just learning experiences and explained fully later on.   I have successful conclusive blood work after 6 weeks of my first diet switch, then even more improved conclusive isolated blood work after 2 months of my final most dramatic diet change. All positive – although I must state her BUN is always in the high range but the vet said not to worry too much. Some dogs just don’t drink a lot of water and I always have her fasting for her morning blood draw and her diet is where she gets a lot of her water so that would add to the high reading.

I’m Sharon Sydnor and I began to read about canine kidney disease when my 12 ½ yr-old (then 3 lb) Chihuahua Pnut was diagnosed with kidney disease. Again, it was heartbreaking, just terrible. She had lost a half pound she couldn’t afford to lose going down to 2.5 lbs and quickly down to 2.4 lbs. I had taken her to the vet originally because she was throwing up water which is bad for any dog but dangerous for such a tiny elderly dog – she just turnred 12. And in hindsight I realized she had been drinking far more water and urinating far more frequently in the weeks before. For the loss of water after a rush visit to the vet, their advice was to administer Pedialyte (from a dropper every hour) while waiting for the CBC ((bloodwork) which when we got it back pointed to kidney failure. The vet said 70% +of her kidney function was probably already gone since it doesn’t show up until almost too late. And PNut had been all hunched up with a big arch in her back which I had mistakenly assumed to be from arthritis since she was getting old.  But that hunched back was one of the signs of kidney disease I had read about where it was said: Signs of possible kidney or bladder ailment may be any of the following: excessive drinking; excessive urination; blood in the urine; stiff legged gait and a hunched back. A dog that has a stiff legged walk, hunched back and seems to be carrying himself gingerly may well be expressing to the owner their discomfort from diseased kidneys.

Then came the explicit instruction from the vet to change her diet and greatly reduce protein by switching to commercially available canned kidney foods such as Hills Prescription K/D and Purina’s NF. She hated both. HATED them! Ate one time which thrilled me, then wouldn’t touch them. Cut pieces into different sizes, mashed it, warmed it, tried different bowls – nothing worked.

Read on to find out how I got my dog to eat.

I read online that you have to get them to eat something so tried many advised foods such as junior baby turkey links which she liked but it made her hurt inside and she would be all hunched up and cry in pain if you touched her. Wouldn’t eat baby food or cream of wheat or sticky rice. It was exactly like I read in online stories: the horrible every day stress of: Will she eat, won’t she eat today? Will she, won’t she? Will she, won’t she? The feeling of helplessness, the feeling of failing a beloved pet as a parent and caregiver was overwhelming and the stress was taking a toll on me just seeming to watch her die a slow painful death. Hard to enjoy life when a favorite pet is declining and feeling so poorly.     [Continued on Full Diary Part 2]