Renal food - royal canin - help!

Sparrow09

Hi all,

Our dog was in vets today to get teeth cleaned (under GA) and they noted her bloods were elevated and issue with kidneys. They assured us it’s nothing to worry about, but need to keep an eye on it, and she’s due back for a check up in 8 weeks.

They advised to change her food, and gave us 2KG of royal canin “renal special”. She’s currently on Burns and always been on Burns. Am doing a little research and I see there are several (all similar) foods from royal canin: “early renal”, “renal”, “renal special” and “renal select”.

I’m just wondering does anyone have any experience with these foods? From googling, it seems the only difference is some of the range are more palatable for dogs who have food aversion. Looking at ingredients, they all look very similar. Renal special is quite expensive! I want to make sure we are giving the correct one. I am also a little sceptical about vets when it comes to dog food.

Our dog is a 9 year old (saluki) lurcher - loves food and no issues with eating.

cocker5

Sparrow09 wrote: »

Hi all,

Our dog was in vets today to get teeth cleaned (under GA) and they noted her bloods were elevated and issue with kidneys. They assured us it’s nothing to worry about, but need to keep an eye on it, and she’s due back for a check up in 8 weeks.

They advised to change her food, and gave us 2KG of royal canin “renal special”. She’s currently on Burns and always been on Burns. Am doing a little research and I see there are several (all similar) foods from royal canin: “early renal”, “renal”, “renal special” and “renal select”.

I’m just wondering does anyone have any experience with these foods? From googling, it seems the only difference is some of the range are more palatable for dogs who have food aversion. Looking at ingredients, they all look very similar. Renal special is quite expensive! I want to make sure we are giving the correct one. I am also a little sceptical about vets when it comes to dog food.

Our dog is a 9 year old (saluki) lurcher - loves food and no issues with eating.

Sorry to hear about your dog OP - unfortunately (and thankfully) I’ve no experience in kidney issues but I believe you should be looking for what they call a low purine diet ..

Have a read here:

https://dogsfirst.ie/health-issues/kidney-failure-in-dogs/

https://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/canine-diets-for-kidney-failure/

The very best of luck

tk123

The renal foods are lower in phosphate and protein. Low purine diets are for reducing crystals eg like rich foods causing gout in humans. There's a popular raw brand of food that does a low purine variety - everyone thinks it's ok for kidney dogs but it actually has a higher level of phosphates than recommend so it's ok for early stages but not later stages. (Their kidney support food is higher than recommend too)

I lost my girl to kidney disease at 6 What I would suggest is taking your dog off dry food completely as it's extra work for their kidneys. You don't have to switch to raw as it's not for everyone and every dog - but I'd suggest either wet food or home cooked instead. Zooplus do a few renal wet foods - Integra/Rocco/Rinti/Concept for Life - Rinti was the favourite here and I ended up getting their gastro diet instead as it's only 0.03 higher in phosphates than the renal one and meant that I could use it for my boy if/when my girl went off it. For home cooked - I used to make up batches at a time - chicken thigh or mince /sweet potato/sushi rice and she loved it. Dogaware's site is very good too and they have sample diets/tables of foods and their values. A lot of newer articles have gotten their inspiration from it - http://www.dogaware.com/health/kidneysamplediet.html

Don't join any FB groups on kidney disease as they're just too upsetting and try not to get too hung up on bloods and test results - treat your individual dog and their symptoms - which seem to be zero for your dog which is fantastic and long may it continue

Sparrow09

tk123 wrote: »

The renal foods are lower in phosphate and protein. Low purine diets are for reducing crystals eg like rich foods causing gout in humans. There's a popular raw brand of food that does a low purine variety - everyone thinks it's ok for kidney dogs but it actually has a higher level of phosphates than recommend so it's ok for early stages but not later stages. (Their kidney support food is higher than recommend too)

I lost my girl to kidney disease at 6 What I would suggest is taking your dog off dry food completely as it's extra work for their kidneys. You don't have to switch to raw as it's not for everyone and every dog - but I'd suggest either wet food or home cooked instead. Zooplus do a few renal wet foods - Integra/Rocco/Rinti/Concept for Life - Rinti was the favourite here and I ended up getting their gastro diet instead as it's only 0.03 higher in phosphates than the renal one and meant that I could use it for my boy if/when my girl went off it. For home cooked - I used to make up batches at a time - chicken thigh or mince /sweet potato/sushi rice and she loved it. Dogaware's site is very good too and they have sample diets/tables of foods and their values. A lot of newer articles have gotten their inspiration from it - http://www.dogaware.com/health/kidneysamplediet.html

Don't join any FB groups on kidney disease as they're just too upsetting and try not to get too hung up on bloods and test results - treat your individual dog and their symptoms - which seem to be zero for your dog which is fantastic and long may it continue

Sorry to hear about your dog 😕 and thank you for the advice. We were actually told that dry food would be better for teeth, is this true? She is susceptible to tooth decay unfortunately and hence the dental visit in the first place. She has been on burns dry food since puppyhood. Do you think there would be any problem switching to wet food at this point? Would you go solely to a wet food? I did see renal wet foods by royal canin..

Raw feeding not really an option, as although I refer to her my dog, it’s actually our family dog that lives with my parents and 1. Raw feeding too much hassle for them 2. Freezer space an issue. But thanks for the suggestion.

tk123

I think it's widely accepted now that dry food doesn't do that much for keeping teeth clean. I know with my guy his teeth improved taking him off it. I didn't have any issues with wet - if you're worried about her tummy than I'd go with the gastro rinti.