Prescription Diet For Dogs With Kidney Disease

The food your dog eats plays an important role in his overall health and well being.

Prescription diet for dogs with kidney disease.

There are dog food brands on store shelves that are formulated for dogs with kidney disease and dog brands that are available by prescription so you don t have to set up a corner of your kitchen for food prep where you ll be making special doggie meals. Hypokalemia is a well recognized consequence of renal disease in dogs and most prescription renal diets have moderately high levels of potassium. This evidence based guide explains how to feed dogs with kidney problems what foods to include and. Feeding less protein will keep the kidneys from working so hard.

A proper dog kidney disease diet is the most effective treatment for dogs with kidney failure. Providing an appropriate diet designed specifically for renal disease sufferers is arguably the simplest way for you as an owner to positively impact on your dog s quality of life. Although it is more common in cases of acute kidney injury some dogs with ckd can become hyperkalemic and may need a potassium restricted homemade kidney diet formulated by a board certified. Hill s nutritionists and veterinarians developed prescription diet k d clinical nutrition to support your dog s kidney function and help sustain muscle mass.

How nutrition can help in treatment. Because diseased kidneys must work much harder to filter out toxins and this throws off their normal hormone balance dogs can get high blood pressure phosphorus buildup in the blood and or b vitamin deficiency. Once your dog s fasted blood phosphorus levels rise above 5 0 you will need a prescription kidney diet as the amount of phosphorus you should feed to your dog. Restricting protein is key to feeding an older dog with kidney disease.

You can do that of course but you and your veterinarian may decide that you don t need to. Look for diets that have a high quality protein source such as chicken. If your dog is diagnosed with kidney or renal disease modifying his food can help manage the disease by reducing the amounts of protein phosphorus and salt in this food. Low protein diets tend to be less flavorful and more expensive than.

Dogs with kidney disease require a special diet to slow the progression of the disease and to prevent other health problems associated with kidney disease. Kidney diets usually have about 1 3 to 1 2 less protein than normal dog diets. As kidney disease progresses you might be able to combine the lower phosphorus commercial foods listed below with a prescription kidney diet to improve the overall quality of the diet. Dogs with decreased kidney function may experience loss of appetite and their food intake might decline which may lead to loss of muscle mass.