Low Protein diet suggestions?

[Bonnie Barber]

Our 14 year old, 7 lb MaltiPoo had a 38 BUN reading on a blood draw. 31 is the high range. The vet wants her on a kidney diet. I told her I don't want to use Hills or Science Diet, and asked her what the main food element is that we want to consider. She said low protein. So, considering Lucy has been fed Primal Frozen Raw Beef for the past couple years, I would appreciate suggestions for low protein food products. The vet said Purina had one, but our conversation was interrupted as she was driving in poor reception zone. I'm not a fan of Purina either, but perhaps that is not a valid point of view. Anyway, suggestions for a dog low protein kidney diet?
Thanks for your suggestions,
Bonnie

[Bonnie Barber]

I am so sorry to hear of this terrible experience your Lucy had with grain free HK. We have fed our dog Primal Frozen Raw grain free beef with no issues. I have a call in to Primal to find out the real protein content. Once I learn that, I will be able to decide if I have to switch to a lower protein food. Interestingly, I checked out the Hills Science Diet kidney recipes, and they say they have 16% protein. HKs foods don't even come close to that percentage.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

No, because most dogs couldn't live in reasonable health with a diet that low in protein. And especially when the protein is of such poor quality. The higher the quality of the protein, the less work the kidneys have to do.  

[Kamela & Beckett]

Thank you. She is fine now, it was just traumatic for us both (and expensive). I second what Karen says. Lucy has been on the grain free HK food for going on a year now and as I said all the numbers in her blood work were great. It's a quality source of protein vice what you'll find in some of those garbage brands (even the Rx). Personally, I think the lack of preservatives is also a plus, less for the kidneys to have to work to filter.

[Bonnie Barber]

I got this response from my vet regarding switching from Primal Frozen Raw Beef nuggets to Honest Kitchen Healthy Grain Beef Verve product.

"The HK product you sent over has the lower protein content which is great. It does not meet all the requirements for a prescription kidney diet. In addition to low protein, prescription kidney diets also have phosphorus and sodium restrictions, potassium supplementation, and the addition of Omega 3 Fatty acids. I do not have a lot of personal experience with HK but have consulted with a few veterinarians that have positive things to say. If you want to try this food for 4 weeks I think it would be just fine. Then we can reevaluate."

So now I need to look into whether HK Verve comes close to the minerals she mentions above. I had sent her a partial comparison of HK and Hills c/d.

Any thoughts on this? I have some HK Verve coming tomorrow and will try it out. The Primal Raw can't be compared to HK and Hills because i can't find a similar analysis. It's tricky, as one analysis is as a dry content, another is as fed, another is in a whole other ballgame. Confusing.

By the way, by all accounts, Primal wet protein levels must be somewhere over 50% compared to Verve being around 24% as fed.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I would go with this statement by your vet:

"...a few veterinarians that have positive things to say. If you want to try this food for 4 weeks I think it would be just fine. Then we can reevaluate."

I really feel fairly confident that at the end of 4 weeks, there will either be no change or an improvement in your dog's blood values.