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Dog has liver & kidney disease.
I am using this, a renal diet, immunity boosting mushrooms, milk thistle and goats milk w/probiotics.
Day 1 he loved it, will update.
I intend to follow up with this review as time goes on. He has a follow up vet appointment in a few weeks where I will request another blood sample to be taken and I will share the results.
Background:
I have a 14 year old Shih Tzu named Diesel. 14 pounds. He has been my rock and support system for all these years, best believe in his golden years I'm going to give him the best quality of life and love I can afford.
He had been picky about eating, chewing/gnawing on treats, had an occasional cough/hack and random bouts of vomiting.
The vet diagnosed him with a small heart murmur and his lab work showed signs of stage 2 kidney failure and liver disease. The vet recommended I change his food and provide him supplements. Science diet/KD didn't feel like a good choice to me.
I did some research on his lab work (included photo) and scoured all available resources to better understand his complications. I'm NOT a vet and neither is the internet, but after hours of reading research papers and random commercial websites to understand what was going on I found Dogaware.com a thorough and easy to read resource on both kidney and liver disease. I highly recommend you give it a reading if your fur babe has the same issues.
Basically, "the goal is to reduce phosphorus by feeding moderate to high fat, moderate amounts of high quality protein, and low phosphorus carbohydrates to provide calories...fed several small meals throughout the day rather than just one or two large meals."
I looked at all the top rated at-home treatments for his condition and found that certain mushrooms were the main ingredient and milk thistle. I then searched for what foods are recommended for a liver and kidney cleansing/healing diet.
I found this dog food and was impressed with great reviews on both Chewy and Amazon. Many of the reviews spoke of it improving their dogs kidney and liver disease issues, let's give it a shot!
I have paired it with goats milk containing pre&probiotics, an organic mushroom blend (ideally for the turkey tail and cordyceps), milk thistle and bene-bac plus probiotic (for an occasional boost).
This food is meant as a base, meaning YOU HAVE TO ADD PROTEIN!! So on the side I have prepared ground chicken in coconut oil paired with recommended vegetables (i.e. sweet potato, carrots, peas, green beans, kale, pumpkin, asparagus). *note* if you can get green Tripe it's supposed to be really good for them).
BASICALLY MY PRINCE IS EATING BETTER THAN ME LOL
1st review 6/26/2020:
Opening the food I was very impressed, it just looks "healthy." I also like that it has ground egg shell included for calcium and it balances out phosphorus. I added one scoop with hot water and let it soak. After a few minutes I mixed in the ground chicken-veggie mix I had prepared, a tiny bit of mushroom powder, his first 1/2 dose of bene-bac plus and the goats milk. (The milk thistle will be delivered in two days).
Honestly, I wasn't prepared for his reaction. He's usually a bit picky and will stare me down if he doesn't like it. He chowed it down with no hesitation!!!
Only time will tell if this will be a component to his recovery, but I look forward to utilizing this as the foundation to his success.
Please note: I know there's a kidney supplement Dr. Harvey offers, but it had limited reviews and my intuition felt it would be best to stick with the mushrooms and milk thistle which I know are key components to many of the elixirs offered.
July 24th update:
TLDR: Dog is happy, energetic and fur looks great.
I haven't had a chance to go back to my vet yet for lab work, hopefully soon. However, He must have been feeling sick before because within a week of his new diet he was more energetic, playful and would actually go on walks whereas before I practically had to drag him out. Also, his breath smells WAY better, his fur is looking thicker and shinier, he has an appetite now and has gained a 1.5 lbs or so.
I have been meal prepping for the week. I prepare and store the meat cooked in coconut or salmon oil and Dr Harvey's mixed with the mushroom powder separately.
When serving meals I add the meat to a bowl, reheat it in the microwave, take it out and add the pre-prepared dr Harvey's. I Then top it with the Epakitin, milk thistle, goats milk with probiotics and occasionally benebac plus for a boost.
**NOTE: I have since included Epakitin a recommended
chitosan-based phosphate binder to sprinkle on his food. If you read the articles you'll know why its important.
Will update again soon xoxo
