Elevated Kidney Levels...4 Yr Old Galgo, Need Food Ideas...

[Guest CaityRose]

Hi,

So I thought Zoey may have had a UTI but unfortunately we were not that lucky. My vet ordered a blood test and from the results she says it's a problem with her kidney. Protein was a bit high as well as the creatine. I can't remember exactly everything. Anyway, she's on medication now to lower her blood pressure to help her kidneys work less hard, and a natural supplement that's supposed to boost kidney health. The vet suggested I lower her protein intake by adding starches to her food and cutting her other food in half. My question is what is considered a low protein dog food? Her food now is 24% but I'm finding some senior food as low as 18% or 20%. Would that make much of a difference? I'd prefer not to switch to the foods specifically for renal conditions since we are at such beginning stages. So i've started adding sweet potato and giving her less dry food, but having lower protein dry food to begin with would probably help more or at least put me at ease since her protein levels were high. Thanks for any advice. :/

[MaryJane]

Sorry to hear this news but Larry has been on a special home-made kidney diet for about 7+ years now and he is 12 1/2 years old now. You probably want to look at the foods that are about 20% or lower in protein or you could consider doing a home-made diet. IMO, the key is to getting less protein (and phosphorous) but, to making the protein a good-quality one. You could also use the diet you are on now but, add white rice & veggies to it but, I think that will be harder to determine exactly how much protein you are giving. Another option is to give a vegetarian dog food and supplement with the protein (meat, fish, pork) yourself so you know exactly how much you are giving and you can guarantee the quality".

 

edited to add .. you might also want to post the blood and urine values.

 

Also, there could be an acute rather than chronic condition going on and with proper care, it could resolve.

Edited April 19, 2014 by MaryJane

[Guest CaityRose]

Yeah, I have to get a copy of the papers. She didn't offer a copy and I was so flustered at that point I forgot to ask. So a senior dog food with lower protein and phosperous might work for her for now? I switched her off of grains which helped her coat get shiny and have better poo so I was thinking she might also have a slight grain allergy so that makes it difficult to add the starches.

 

I'm hoping by her follow up blood test in 6/7 weeks she's improved or resolved the issue. Her levels were just barely over the marks, but she had a few random accidents which was what alerted me to an issue.

Edited April 19, 2014 by CaityRose

[macoduck]

You can review the greyhound lab values here. www.greythealth.com You will see that some normal for greyhounds are abnormal in other dogs. Check to see if your vet is using the correct reference range.

[Guest CaityRose]

okay, I will check that. I'm not sure if that will also vary between greyhound and galgo. I mean she is peeing more though so it seems like there has to be a reason though :/

[MaryJane]

I might suggest that you do a urine culture and see if any bacteria grows out.

[tbhounds]

Sounds like your hound has glomerunephritis -protein loss through the kidneys into the urine. Lucky for us it's seems to be a rather slowly progressing disease with our hounds versus other breeds like wheaten terriers...... I believe the medication your vet has placed your pet on is a blood pressure medication enalapril or benzepril. That will reduce the blood pressure going to the kidney.

Did your vet happen to run a UPC (urine protein creatinine ration)??? When looking for an appropriate diet you really neeed to find a food that is lower in phosphorus not nec just lower protein (it's hard because the two run hand and hand---meat proteins =phosphorus). There are some wonderful home cook received available if you choose to cook for your hound.

Love to see the lab results :-)

[Guest CaityRose]

It is something similar to the benzipril. It's German. I noticed that sometimes they came hand in hand. Like the senior food had both lower protein and phosphorous but it's hard to find things available to ship here and I'm not sure what a low percentage of phosphorous would be exactly compared to what's normal. And no she didn't have a UPC. I wouldn't mind doing half and half but I think she'll need some kibble.

[EllenEveBaz]

Here's a site with a ton of info on kidney diets, both kibble and regular food. Some of the info is research, some is opinion. http://www.dogaware.com/health/kidney.html

 

Sending best wishes to Fraulein Zoey.

[Guest CaityRose]

So I got her papers and well stuff's in German so hopefully some of you may still be able to help. I'm between two foods. Either putting her on the kidney diet food from Purina or trying Blue Buffalo Basics salmon and potato which has lower protein and phosphorus than her current food. (20% protein min and .7% phosphorus min)

So her levels aren't terrible, I'm not sure if I should try the kidney food until we get them lower, and then just continue on the other lower protein/phospherus food... or just go with the blue buffalo basics and supplement some of the food with white rice. She's taking a medicine to lower her blood pressure and a natural supplement to boost kidney health, so changing her food isn't the only plan of attack here. The vet liked Royal Canin but Ive been reading that dog's like the taste of Purina NF. She also told me not to worry about the food too much and just add starch but when I told her that her current food was 24% protein she thought that was high...

 

Thanks for any help!

[tbhounds]

If I'm reading this correctly it looks like you hound has "normal" sighthound renal values. I don't see the u/a showing the proteinuria.

[Guest CaityRose]

hmm interesting. I guess I'd still like to see the creatine go down so it's not at the cusp, but which thing would show the proteinuria? She said that was fine although she had high protein levels in her urine so I thought that's what that meant.. so confused lol

[Guest LindsaySF]

That creatinine looks fine to me for a Greyhound. How much protein was in the urine? Greyhounds can have some protein in the urine (especially in concentrated samples) and it's normal. I would run a UPC before diagnosing a kidney issue.

[Guest CaityRose]

well it was at the highest level on the ph stick. I'm sorry I don't know more. I'm not very good at science and it's hard for the vet to explain everything to me because she is German. We are doing our best. I guess we will see how she does at the next bloodiest and i will suggest and encourage her to try the UPC, and to research sighthound level normals.

 

Thanks! I can stress a little bit less. Thank you.

[greyhead]

I'd worry about lowering her blood pressure unnecessarily using that medicine. Her kidney values are normal for a greyhound. Creatinine runs higher in greyhounds because of the high ratio of muscle to fat in their bodies. We have a greyhound with kidney issues at our house, which developed after an extended UTI. If the urine specific gravity is normal, there's probably not any problem. But I don't see that test listed on your printout.