Doggy Diet

[teutonic terror]

My old dog Teanie has taken to drinking a lot in the last week. Well, you know what happens when you start drinking more, you start whizzing more.
She's having accidents at least once a day, so we are now making more trips outside.
Took her to the vet this morning and she has the beginnings of kidney disease. Vet put her on a protein restricted diet. Fine except the bag of food was $40 for 18 lbs.
Not acceptable.
Has any of the BORG faced this problem?
Is there any possibility that we could make food for her that is low in protein, on our own?
Any recommendations?

[mtsoxfan]

I hope Teanie pulls through. It's gotta be tough on both of you..

[philm00x]

Awww dang that's awful, TT. Hope Teanie gets better. I don't have any experience in this so I couldn't offer any advice.

[Yankeedag]

The only thing I do is make the biskies from the grains. But I use two eggs... I don't know how much grain you have on hand to make them, but if you made some "cakes", that could be used as a filler for Teanie. oh, wait, it also has peanutbutter.. I guess that's protein...

wish I could help...sorry

[Gymrat]

Cut back some on that expensive food and make it up with canned pumpkin. That is what my vet recommended for Ralph for weight loss. Since then I have read all kinds of good things about canned pumpkin for dogs.

[Connie]

My dog has that same problem but she has Cushings disease. I make a mixure of veggies and it to jet dry food.

[teutonic terror]

Wow, that was strange!
I've been trying to sign with my phone on all night with no luck and I don't know what happened to my post from yesterday afternoon!

Anyway, Dag you're right about the biskies, but I'm looking at a way I can make them with vegetables and I've also learned that eggs are one of the easier proteins for them to get rid of!

Gymrat, I have heard of using pumpkin to replace food portions for dogs and it is high on the list now!
Thanks!
Also, you might consider giving Ralph bananas too! The vet said they were great for them and our fur balls love 'em. They know where they are on the counter and in the afternoon while we cook dinner, they sit and stare at them!

Connie, I'm sorry to hear that about your pup. I will also look at replacing some her food with home cooked veggies too!

[Tabasco]

Whatever you do, don't let your dog get to any of your hops. Hops are lethal to dogs.

[Yankeedag]

Biskie cassaroles

[DirtRacer]

+1 to the canned pumpkin. Another thing is green beans and carrots just plain from the can/bag. In some cases I've had to top the carrots or green beans with ketchup to get the dogs to eat them. Also avoid corn. I've heard it's hard for dogs to digest and due to some dog foods from the petstore which contain corn products, one of our dogs had a skin allergy flare up from the corn product in the food.

[teutonic terror]

Thanks DirtRacer and Tabasco!

I'm looking to stay away from corn as much as possible for her. I believe alot of the commercial food is loaded with corn and with most of it being GMO, I believe it's causing some these animal health problems too!

[Yankeedag]

You can still use the spent grains as a base. I don't see why you couldn't put in pumpkin and other veggie stuff. Just mix and bake. But then, what the hell do I know?

[Brewbirds]

You might try frozen vegies sans corn with cooked rice and some saw meal if you can get a meat market to save you some. Saw meal is great for dogs and they love it.

While I do not feed table scraps most of my dogs would eat fresh apples, carrots, green beans, cantelope and watermelon. The two I have now no what a bag of carrots sounds like even when they are outside. Freaky that I have to sneak vegies for us to eat.

[DirtRacer]

You can still use the spent grains as a base. I don't see why you couldn't put in pumpkin and other veggie stuff. Just mix and bake. But then, what the hell do I know?

That's an idea. If you make some biscuits using spent grains, you could try switching peanut butter for pumpkin. Even through in some rice krispies cereal if you have some on hand.

[JimH]

Sorry to hear that TT. Hope everything gets better. Not had a high protein issue, but when our dog is sick or having issues, we make up chicken and rice. Leave out the chicken for the protein and mix in the vegetables and pumpkin. Eggs could be an idea.