BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Dogs Feeding dog with heart and kidney failure?

Hi there - my old Scottie is suffering from both congestive heart failure and kidney failure. The biggest problem we are having at this point is that I can't get her to eat! She HATES all the various renal diets we have tried, and she's stubborn enough that she would rather not eat than eat something she doesn't like. We have been cooking her a home-made diet with rice and a small amount of hamburger, with some chicken broth added, but lately she won't eat that, either. She tries to get at the other dog's food, but if she eats that it puts too much strain on her kidneys and she starts to throw up. Does anyone have any suggestions or recipes for a low-salt, low-protein, low-phosphorous diet?

We're using Royal Canin - its the only prescription diet our mini-schnauzer will eat. We alternate that with a homemade diet (you can find many online - here's a sample -BellaOnline ALERT: Raw URLs are not allowed in these forums for security reasons. Please use UBB code. If you don't know how to do UBB code just post here for help - we will help out!

Thank you, Lynn. Sadly, I had to help my Mollie over the Rainbow Bridge last week, as her systems were all failing and not responding to any supportive measures. She was an old doggie (14 is ancient for a Scottie) and she had had a good life.

My thoughts are with you MaryEllen. It is tough to lose a lifelong friend such as Mollie. My prayers.

I'm sorry Mary Ellen.

I think we will be facing the same situation with our oldest kitty, Shadow (15 yrs) in the not too distant future. She's been my husband's cat the entire time, but mine only since we got married (almost 8 yrs). He is going to be devastated when it is her time.

My biggest concern is I don't want her to suffer for a terribly long time. His parents get so attached to their pets that they do everything they can to prolong their lives, but the last cat they had was blind, mostly deaf, could barely walk due to arthritis, etc. The poor animal was just in terrible pain up until the day she died.

They kept taking her to the vet and doing things to alleviate her pain, but it had gotten to the point where she was using the bathroom where she slept.

I think it would have been better if they had done like you and had her put to sleep painlessly earlier rather than let her go on so long in pain. But it is so hard to let go of these loving animals that are very much a part of the family. It is a lot easier to say it about their cat than to say it about our Shadow.

I was lucky, I think - I knew Mollie like I know my own heart, and she told me when it was time. And I'm glad I had time with her to get used to the idea. and to celebrate her life. On her last day with us, we let her eat all the forbidden foods that she had not been able to eat since she got sick - french fries, corn chips, whatever she wanted - then I drove her to all her favorite parks that had been too far away to visit regularly. And that was the night that the moon was bigger and brighter than it had been all year? so I carried her up the mountain behind our house, so she could see it.