Full Diary Part 3

[Continued from Full Diary Part 2]

OK, so my dog will not eat special kidney disease diet food either but ground raw green beef tripe was a godsend for my little dog Pnut as she LOVED IT!  At one year after diagnosis, she cleans her bowl in 19 seconds!

Here’s a  video that is so amazing showing just how she laps it up!  A  year after she was diagnosed when she wouldn’t eat ANYTHING!)

I too lamented to my vet that my dog won’t eat special kidney disease diet food but she just said I had to get her to eat it and as I wrote earlier she might eat a little one time but then wouldn’t touch them even though I cut pieces into different sizes, mashed it, warmed it, tried different bowls – nothing worked.  She hated them.  Both.  I mean hated it!

But thanks to raw green tripe, that is behind us.  Again, as mentioned in Part 2, the calcium:phosphorous ratio of green tripe is near perfect (1:1) where as in raw muscle meat it is 1:6.

The first time I fed the raw tripe she went CRAZY for it and she has turned down very few meals since – and only because of a problem I allowed to develop – again explained later. Although she did pick the tripe out from the vegetables, until I pureed the veggies. For my tiny dog, I bought a Baby Bullet baby food maker [24] as my small food chopper won’t cut the steamed carrots, squash and beans into small enough pieces to attract her to eat mixed with the tripe – they were big enough for her to pick out . The Baby Bullet is really good for making a smooth baby-food style veggie puree that she can’t separate from the tripe and the six little containers that came with the kit are perfect for freezing.  If you have a larger dog, a blender or food processor would work.

And let me state here you will read all sorts of comments about how smelly and stinky green tripe is, but I did not find that to be the case at all. But I grew up in rural Indiana and a good friend lived on a dairy farm so I would liken the smell to walking into a barn full of cows – a mix of cowhide, straw/hay and manure. It wasn’t strong to me at all and again she adored it!  If I don’t put my nose to it, I don’t smell anything.  I did try to offer a variety of protein as I had ordered other for my 2^nd Chihuahua wanting him on raw as well, so I tried the whole prey rabbit but after a few days she would be sore so I went back to tripe which has the balanced calcium to phosphorus ratio so important. Then I went online to read if tripe was OK to feed solely, every day and found out it was.   I have since read that rabbit bones are very high in phosphorus so that might explain why the fine ground whole prey rabbit was hard on her. But since tripe is OK solely, I’m just feeding raw tripe as her source of high quality protein.

In the research I did I also found an impressive scientific study on CoQ10 that cited a small pilot study where those receiving CoQ10 had significant decreases in serum creat- inine and urea with the conclusion being that treatment with coenzymeQ10 reduces serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen and increases creatinine clearance and urine output in patients with chronic renal failure.   However, I had also read that a newer, advanced CoQ10 exists, in that for CoQ10 to be used by the body, it starts out as Ubiquinone and then becomes Ubiquinol, and now you can purchase Ubiquinol directly which is suggested for older dogs that can no longer effectively do the changeover in their own body. I researched for trusted brands and purchased Liquid QH Liposomal Advanced Ubiquinol CoQ10 from epic4health [28] It was very expensive but I have witnessed such glowing positive results, I’m glad I purchased it.

Other supplements recommended [29] that I give are pharmaceutical grade Wild Sock Eye salmon Oil  Vit. E – necessary to get the benefits of the salmon oil, and Rehmannia Six  (Liu Wei Di Huang Wan – Rehmannia Six Formula) [32]begun 3/30/12 pm meal (supposed to help vision/hearing too).  And I am happy to say after just a week I have seen even greater improvement in her agility and flexibility in that she is running more and I have seen her lay flat on her stomach with her back legs splayed out in back which she hadn’t done for over a year.

I had been giving her a very TINY amount of Calcium with Vit D3 but in preparing this writing of my story I became concerned about that because I read it is dangerous to give additional vitamin D and that commercial pet foods may contain excess vitamin D that can be responsible for chronic renal disease. (Right now let me say in my continuing statement I point out there is a difference in Vitamin D and Vitamin D3.) The article goes on to mention that it had explained earlier that vitamin D promotes calcium absorption and high intracellular calcium damages renal cells.  And again, protection of the remaining nephrons in the kidney against further damage which is paramount is aided by minimizing dietary vitamin D. But although it might appear there is conflicting information because other articles say you must supplement with Vitamin D3, they are clear to say it must be D3 and not D because a function of a healthy kidney is to convert Vitamin D INTO Vitamin D3 and since kidney disease means the kidneys are NOT healthy you must avoid Vitamin D especially when feeding commercial kidney food because it is already high in Vitamin D.   But if you are NOT feeding commercially canned kidney food, which of course I am not and this whole experience is around the fact that I feed raw green tripe, then to supplement with the converted kind already which is D3  is OK.  You may see many articles that mention avoiding Cod Liver Oil just because it is high in Vitamin D just for this reason.   I have also read that Philadelphia cream cheese which I also put on her treats is OK because I read it does not have a significant amount of Vit. D  and my last batch of treats was made with pumpkin for variety instead of sweet potato (just substitute canned 100% pumpkin – NOT pie filling) [36] which I topped with a smudge of cream cheese rather than brie cheese which I put on the sweet potato treats, again which creates variety. And I believe the article I read about cream cheese or brie cheese did state low fat cream cheese and I didn’t know why that was important and my husband had brought home the regular kind but I like the higher fat content so she’ll gain weight and her amylase numbers are down so no irritated pancreas so I won’t worry about fat content [talk with your veterinarian for a better explanation], but just watch it. And the low fat kind is much higher in sodium which should be avoided.  I just went and clicked on that link (10 at the end) and it did state LOW FAT cream cheese. I read other mention of Vitamin D3 in another article saying a dog with kidney disease needs more  but it too is clear to indicate it should be Vitamin D3.

I also started adding Taurine  & B complex vitamins (the latter of which had an ill-effect, described later.) The raw green tripe contains taurine but I’m unsure how much as it comes from the methionine and cysteine which I am trying to minimize with the absorbic acid (bakiing soda) so I’ll supplement with a tiny amount and see how she reacts because I did read how beneficial Taurine as an antioxidant can be. I started her on it and there have been no ill-effects and she seems to do even better every day. And her last blood work although wonderful shows a hint of anemia-related issues so Taurine is also indicated in that same link in that it says it corrects iron-deficiency in anemia. [Note: I have since cut way back on adding Taurine thinking she has enough from the Tripe, and I saw no ill-effects after that now giving her a just TINY amount but if her next bloodwork shows signs of anemia I may increase it again.]

Then I further read another benefit of the Rehmannia Six (Liu Wei Di Huang Wan – Rehmannia Six Formula) I wrote about previously states it also is particularly helpful for dogs with anemia related to kidney disease. So in addition to those I just needed to add B complex as I kept reading how important it is to supplement with B-complex that the B vitamins relieve stress and anemia. [39]  Plus, I had read that B vitamins are an appetite stimulant which is SO important too. [40] I had known I needed to get some started for quite awhile, but you just can do only so much at a time and I like to research everything thoroughly to be sure I have the correct information. I ending up buying the liquid sublingual [41] because she is so small and I smeared a drop on her gums which means very little should have been swallowed with most being absorbed by the tissues of the mouth (which is how it works) because if it is swallowed it allows stomach acid to attack it and reduce its effectiveness plus it goes on to the liver which is where they are extensively altered. [42] BUT… the first time I tried it I just put a drop on her lower gum area again thinking this may be the best I can do as it is supposed to go under the tongue but that’s not going to happen, and I did it after she had eaten her noon meal (she gets a mid-morning snack of 12 pumpkin or sweet potato treats with cream cheese, lunch is Noon to 1pm, afternoon snack of 10 treats at 4pm, dinner at 6 – 7pm and bedtime snack of 6 treats 11 – Midnight – which of course I will point out here was all proof of her improved appetite, as I used to be able to get her to eat treats maybe only 3 to 6 at a time just twice a day and they were much smaller treats at the beginning, so she was now eating a total of 28 a day instead of maybe 6 to 12 when I started and they are twice the size. And also, in her last blood work and visit to the vet she was up to 2.6 lb from 2.4 – that’s the equivalent of a 185 lb man gaining 15 lbs, going to 200 lb. BUT back to the sublingual B-6 results… that first night after I had given her the sublingual B-complex earlier in the day, around 9:30 pm she threw up a little watery bile, first time that had happened in over 90 days and then she remained unsettled when she is usually comfy napping soundly with me on the couch while I watch some TV and then at 11pm when we got up to go “pee and poop” and go on to the “big bed” she vomited. Yes, vomited! She threw-up a really large volume that looked like all of her two meals that day with some totally undigested treats in it! So I stopped the sublingual B6 immediately as that was the only thing new I had introduced.  She remained punky the next 3 to 4 days although getting a little better each day and finally returned to normal with her great appetite and being very active again. Result: no more sublingual B-complex!

Now as I am finishing this article, which I have been working on for well over two months, I have made two discoveries. I wrote how I had bought sublingual B-Complex and that was horrible on her and since the sublingual didn’t work, I ordered a B-Complex Vitamin capsule that I could sprinkle a tiny amount on her food to hopefully aid in digestion and appetite although you have to look closely at the amounts of each B-vitamin concentration or it could be an appetite depressant.  If it contains high amounts of B2 riboflavin, Niacin B-3 or Pantothenic Acid B-5 it can decrease the appetite so be sure your complex vitamin supplement is equally balanced or has a greater concentration with those that might increase the appetite like B-1 and B-6. I looked at the B-complex vitamin I got and the vitamin concentrations that increase the appetite outweigh those that decrease the appetite so I decided to try it with just a skant amount but I want to give her some, as it seems it is often mentioned to give for canine kidney diseased patients. But again bad results!   After a few meals with it on it, she seemed uncomfortable again further refusing treats and meals! So no dried B-Complex either. She just doesn’t seem able to tolerate it.   And since then I tried just B-6 but the new P-5-P which is a coenzyme derived form of B6 and is touted to have very beneficial effects against kidney disease, lowering protein in the urine and lowering creatinine. [44]  But I gave it at every meal and she turned punky again so I stopped that too. I have since read that you only need some maybe two times a week and should even go off of it every so often it is so potent. So I am trying Monday’s and Thursday’ am meal only and a REALLY TINY amount. But to follow up, that started to make her feel bad too, so stopped it as well.

After trying the dried capsule B-complex where she remained a bit off her appetite for the next couple of days and I wasn’t absolutely certain that was it as I had also been putting Brie cheese on her treats rather than cream cheese which I mentioned earlier that I was doing for variety, since she wasn’t grabbing them like she did with the cream cheese a few days earlier and Brie has a lot more salt in it I thought if this added to the problem, I went back to cream cheese just to be safe.  [Continued Full Diary part 4]