Recipes for Pooh
Sunday, May 19, 2013
My dear friends's dog, Pooh, is 15 and has kidney disease. She doesn't like prescription kibble very much at all, so I've been looking up various recipes for home cooking for dogs with kidney disease. I'll continue to post new recipes to this column as I find them.
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I found a recipe online from Dr Donald Strombeck's book "Home-prepared Dog and Cat Diets, The Healthful Alternative" when I was looking for a recipe for my ESS who has kidney failure. This recipe was in the section on Chronic Renal Failure and is for dogs:
Chicken and Potato diet (low protein low phosphorus, high potassium, low sodium)
1/4 cup cooked chicken breast
3 cups potato, boiled with skin
2 tablespoons chicken fat
1 1/2 calcium carbonate tablets (600 milligrams calcium)
1/2 multiple vitamin-mineral tablet
Provides 689 kilocalories, 18.9 grams protein, 26.8 grams fat.
Supports caloric needs of a 21-22 pound dog
Provides phosphorus at 45 percent, potassium at 301 percent, sodium at 54
percent of a dog's daily needs. To feed this diet with a normal amount of
phosphorus, substitute 4 bonemeal tablets for the 1 1/2 calcium carbonate
tablets.
The important thing to remember when choosing a diet for your dog is to check with your Veterinarian to make sure the diet contains all ingredients needed to keep your dog healthy.
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Serve food twice daily, and feed at approximately 2% to3% of the dog’s body weight daily in food. For example, a 100 pound dog would get two to three pounds of food (one cup is approximately 8 ounces, or pound). A 50 pound dog would get one to one and a half pounds of food daily. A 25 pound dog would get eight to twelve ounces daily. A ten pound dog would get three to seven ounces daily. Dogs can vary on these amounts, depending on their metabolism and activity levels.
Recipe #1
Mix 1/2 cooked sticky rice (sushi rice) cooked in unsalted butter with 1/2 HIGH fat hamburger or dark meat chicken (lower in phosphorus than white meat). Add two cooked egg whites (no yolk) per cup. You can make as large a batch as needed and freeze for daily portions. Save the egg shells, and add back one teaspoon of egg shell (dry overnight, grind in a coffee bean grinder) per two pounds of food. The egg shell is good for calcium and also acts as a phosphorus binder.
Recipe #2
Cook Malt o Meal and add one tablespoon of unsalted butter per cup. Cool, and add two tablespoons of heavy whipping cream (don’t need to whip it!). You may add a bit of meat (hamburger, ground chicken) and some gravy for flavor. I have also added chicken skin or beef fat for variety.
Recipe #3
Cook sticky rice (sushi rice) and add unsalted butter. Mix at 1/3 sticky rice, to 1/3 boiled sweet potatoes, and add 1/3 either ground pork, lamb or fatty hamburger. Add one egg white per cup. (You can substitute boiled potatoes for sweet potatoes).
Green tripe is also a pretty good food lower in phosphorus than other foods. You can buy this frozen at outlets that sell frozen raw diets for dogs, or buy it in cans called Tripett.
It is also good to occasionally add beef kidney, a bit of liver and egg yolks. While these are high in phosphorus, they do provide needed nutrients. . You can also mix either the rice or the vegetable mix with drained mackerel or salmon for variety and the fish already has bone steamed with it, so it is balanced properly for calcium. Because of the bone, fish is high in phosphorus and so should be used in very limited amounts. Do not feed tuna, as it is high in mercury.
Again, save your eggshells, and dry them overnight. Then grind them in a coffee bean grinder and add to the food served at 1/2 teaspoon per pound.
It is important to select fatty meat. So pork and lamb are also good choices to mix with the rice and they add a nice variety. Fat offers calories for energy and weight gain, and fattier cuts of meat are lower in phosphorus. Do offer a variety to keep your dog's interest and appetite hearty. More severe kidney problems can lend to loss of appetite and at these times, offering almost any type of food may be necessary.
Fish or salmon oil (NOT COD LIVER OIL!) needs to be 1,000 mg per ten pounds of body weight to be renal protective. Brown, S. A., C. A. Brown, W. A. Crowell, J. A. Barsanti, T. Allen, C. Cowell, and D. R. Finco. “Beneficial effects of chronic administration of dietary omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in dogs with renal insufficiency.” J Clin Lab Med 131:447-455 (1998).
In two studies, one from 2000 and the other from 1998, dogs with induced kidney disease showed improvement when they were fed omega-3-rich fish oil supplements, compared to omega-6-rich safflower oil supplements. Results from this model of renal insufficiency in dogs suggest a beneficial effect of fish oil in protecting the kidney, whereas safflower oil hastened the decline of kidney function.
I would also give one milligram of COQ10 daily per pound of body weight. There is good research behind this that shows it can help bring down the creatinine levels.
CoQ10 was studied in a small pilot study involving 21 patients with chronic renal failure. Researchers administered CoQ10 to 11 of the subjects while 10 received a placebo capsule. To be included in the study patients had to have a creatinine level of 5 mg/dl or above. After 4 weeks, the subjects receiving CoQ10 had significant decreases in serum creatinine and urea while creatinine clearance significantly increased. At the end of the 4 week study the number of patients on dialysis was significantly less in the CoQ10 group. 36.2% of the patients in the CoQ10 group were on dialysis at the end of the study while 90.0% of the placebo group was on dialysis at the end of the study.
Conclusions: Treatment with coenzyme Q10 reduces serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen and increases creatinine clearance and urine output in patients with chronic renal failure.
I would also include a B vitamin in the dog’s diet, as well as vitamin E. Both of these are helpful for support of the kidneys.
I hope you find this information and these recipes helpful, please email me if you have further questions.
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