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Hi. My dog is 35lbs and probably somewhere around 9-11 years old . He was having some reoccurring bloody urine issues lately so I just had him go through a full ultrasound check. Turns out his bladder is extremely thickened possibly due to chronic inflammation so he's going to be on anti-inflammatory drugs and antibiotics for a while to hopefully get it back to normal.
During the ultrasound, they also discovered that he has some mineral deposits in his kidney. The vet told me that there may be kidney issues eventually down the line but there's not really anything that can be done about the stones. She said it's possible to consider lowering the protein content of his food and mentioned science diet K/D but that's a prescription diet for dogs with kidney failure.
Anyways I want to see what people here think. I'm not really keen on K/D since his kidneys are still working fine and the ingredients for K/D are crap. However I am kind of looking at the nutritional values listed as a comparison for a "kidney friendly" diet.
Currently I feed him ToTW and he gets raw marrow bones as snacks. The vet believes the bones shouldn't be an issues since it's mostly fat.
For ToTW, the protein content actually seems slightly on the lower end for grain free dog foods at >32%. In comparison K/D is listed at 14.3% protein.
The sodium content seems fairly comparable with ToTW at <3% and K/D at 0.23%
I can avoid grain free and get protein levels down in the 20-25% range with foods like chicken soup, natural balance, etc. Sodium content seems about the same for most dog foods.
I'm curious as to where opinions lie regarding protein content and kidney health. I've read studies that say lower protein for kidney health is just a myth and that it's actually better to just feed higher quality protein.
So in the end should I consider changing his diet? If so any recommendations?
Thanks for your time.
During the ultrasound, they also discovered that he has some mineral deposits in his kidney. The vet told me that there may be kidney issues eventually down the line but there's not really anything that can be done about the stones. She said it's possible to consider lowering the protein content of his food and mentioned science diet K/D but that's a prescription diet for dogs with kidney failure.
Anyways I want to see what people here think. I'm not really keen on K/D since his kidneys are still working fine and the ingredients for K/D are crap. However I am kind of looking at the nutritional values listed as a comparison for a "kidney friendly" diet.
Currently I feed him ToTW and he gets raw marrow bones as snacks. The vet believes the bones shouldn't be an issues since it's mostly fat.
For ToTW, the protein content actually seems slightly on the lower end for grain free dog foods at >32%. In comparison K/D is listed at 14.3% protein.
The sodium content seems fairly comparable with ToTW at <3% and K/D at 0.23%
I can avoid grain free and get protein levels down in the 20-25% range with foods like chicken soup, natural balance, etc. Sodium content seems about the same for most dog foods.
I'm curious as to where opinions lie regarding protein content and kidney health. I've read studies that say lower protein for kidney health is just a myth and that it's actually better to just feed higher quality protein.
So in the end should I consider changing his diet? If so any recommendations?
Thanks for your time.