I'm Going To Become A Dog Nutritionist

I've been researching like mad all weekend on health care for dogs with kidney problems. Talk about major confusion.

I have always believed that we (people in general) are poisoning and killing ourselves with toxins left and right. The (crap) food we eat, full of preservatives and chemicals that nature never intended us to put in our bodies; the (crap) beverages we drink, same thing; the air and water we've contaminated, and the voluntary poisons like cigarettes and alcohol, just to name a few ways we're killing ourselves.

Do I do it? Oh yeah, in spades. Just because I still do it, doesn't mean I don't understand how bad it is. I'm just stubborn and stupid.

Everyone who knows me knows I worship the ground Tyler walks on, I'm insanely committed to this dog. When he was about 4 years old I began to get the idea that what's good for people might just well be good for dogs. I never considered him "just a dog." In fact, I 'fired' my former vet and started going to a new one because when my former vet was pressuring me to have Tyler neutered, and I was balking, the vet looked at me like I was stupid and said, "He's just a dog." What would possess someone with such an attitude to go into veterinary medicine is beyond me. (No. It's not. It was money).

To be fair, turned out they were right about the neutering - should have done it. But that wasn't why I quit going there. I quit going because I don't want anyone taking care of Tyler who would say "he's just a dog." Those people just don't get it.

To me, any companion pet of this caliber is more than 'just a dog,' but more importantly to me, dogs are entirely dependent upon how we treat them. They can't make their own choices on what they eat or drink, what goes into their system, how their health is maintained. That is why I felt that it was even more important to make sure I was making the best choices for him. I love this dog, and I want to take the best possible care of him that I can. I can abuse my own body all I want - I'm making my own conscious choices, even if they aren't that wise. But since he doesn't have the option, he deserves me to make the best choices for him.

So, when he was 4, I did a ton of research, and began feeding him a home-cooked diet. A decision I still believe was the best one I've made for him to date, and what I believe has kept him healthy and happy for 14 1/2 years already. At least, till now. Why this happened, I don't know, except that no living being, however well maintained, can live forever. Body systems wear down eventually, no matter what you do. (That doesn't mean I'm giving up at this early stage, though).

So anyway, I've been doing a lot of research, and a lot of thinking. I don't yet have the actual numbers from Tyler's test results, because I didn't think to ask for them on the phone (though I'm going to call tomorrow and ask them to fax me a copy). But from what I've been reading, and what the vet told me, it's looking to me like his numbers are really so low that this is in a stage where it might well be imminently treatable. I've been reading stories online about people whose dogs had BUN and creatinine levels that were significantly higher than the normal range, and which responded well to holistic treatments. Tyler's numbers are still in the normal range (albeit the very top end of it), so that encourages me that I'm really on the right track in making the effort to jump on this now with diet and nutrition, with what I figure are two possible results. Either (a) Dr. DQ was doing her usual panic-mongering, and in fact things aren't nearly as dire as she indicated, and I may be able to stabilize this situation for long enough that it will become a moot point (I do recognize that Tyler's 14 1/2 and isn't going to be around forever); or (b) the disease will progress, but holistic treatment will slow it enough to give Tyler more time and -this is vitally important - an increased quality of life during that time. (Because dragging him through life years beyond reasonable but sick and miserable isn't my idea of a good choice for him).

Either option is better than the only alternative I've been offered by Dr. DQ - throw him on this prescription kidney diet (the composition of which has been questioned by recent research) until (as is inevitable on that diet) more things go wrong, then start pumping him full of medications to keep him alive and drugged for his remaining life.

Umm, no.

The problem is, renal diets and management is one of the most complicated things on the planet. I'd rather study physics. My mom was on a renal diet for four years, and I helped her manage it, and I know how complex it is. Greg's mom was here over the weekend, and she's a nurse, and she agreed how difficult they are. Everything is so inter-related, and while one thing is bad for the kidneys, reducing that one thing can present a whole host of other problems in other systems of the body. The kidneys are one of the worst organs for this, as while all the organs are vital and all work together, the kidneys have one of the primary jobs of filtering toxins out of the body - vitally essential for life. So when you start adjusting this nutrient or that mineral, and wreaking havoc on other body systems, you will soon have a body that is shutting down on multiple levels at once. (Something that conventional medicine - whether human or animal - has not normally been trained to deal with; it's all 'treat this symptom only, and wait till something else goes wrong, then treat that).

When it was just a matter of putting together a healthy diet for a young dog, it wasn't that hard. Healthy food (when there's no underlying medical condition) is easy - whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, high quality protein. And to clean up any missed bits, a beautiful supplement called "Missing Link" which is just what it says - all the trace minerals, vitamins, antioxidants, and other obscure things that help make a body healthy which may not be included in a home-cooked diet.

But this is far, far more complex, and my head is swimming with all of the different information I've been reading this weekend.

In Tyler's care, I always wanted to do everything myself. I mean, I would love to have the resource of a holistic vet to turn to, but there aren't any in this area. The closest I've come is Dr. N at the current vet clinic, who at least seems to have some knowledge of these methods, and more importantly, is open to their use. (He was the one who once suggested I try massage and T-touch on Tyler, something I'm sure Ms. DQ would have had to work to not laugh out loud at).

But lacking that, I trusted my own research and knowledge better than just buying something someone else said was good. I took a very hands-on approach.

But this kidney thing feels a bit beyond me. I feel like I'd have to spend 6 months studying dog nutrition, and I don't have that much time. I feel an intuition that I'm very much on the right track, but that it needs addressed right now. That time is very much of the essence, and if I get on this right away, there will be a far better prognosis than if I leave him to deteriorate while I try to figure things out.

I found a website that offers a "kit" of holistic treatments for dogs with kidney problems - several different supplements, and a whole-foods home-cooked kidney diet. I don't usually go much for those types of things (the pre-packaged kits; not the home-cooked diet, which I'm all about), but I'm weighing my options in this case - time and knowledge both being in short stock on my end - of trying out the "pre-designed kidney disease treatment kit" that someone else put the research into, rather than trying to put this together all on my own. I read their website extensively, and they do 'get it.' They talk a lot about how the whole body works together as a system, and while treating the presenting problem (decreased kidney function), you also have to remember to support the rest of the body as well - the liver, heart, and other vital functions.

It sounds promising, but I want to maybe read a little more, think a little more, and weigh this decision carefully. It's a $125 investment - not unaffordable, but not cheap enough (and too important) to just say "Okay, well, I'll try it, and if it doesn't work, no harm, no foul." Because time is one thing I don't have a lot of - I feel this strong intuition that if I jump on this quickly, with the right combination of treatments, there could be a good prognosis; but if I don't, or I screw it up with the wrong stuff and waste too much time, the situation could deteriorate to a point of making it much harder to deal with.

I do want to clarify one point: I know that whatever I do, it could possibly not matter. I mean, things happen, bodies wear out. I'm not trying to make Tyler immortal. I think I sometimes frighten my friends with my over-commitment to 'fixing him.' I think they worry that I'm in denial about his age and the fact that he's not going to be around forever. For the record, that's not true. I'm (painfully) aware of that fact.

The difference is, though, that I don't believe in giving up just because he's "old." I don't believe in the idea that just because a dog is 14 (or 11 or 17 or whatever) that whatever goes wrong, you should just say "Oh well, he's old," and give up. I hate that attitude. I've known people who had dogs ranging from age 9 or 10 to 15 or older, who when their dogs developed health problems, just said "Oh well" and did nothing, and the dog died. While sometimes this was probably inevitable, I would wager that half the time it was not necessary, at least not right then.

To me dogs are angelic beings - they are just the perfect creature. They love you no matter what. They are loyal, loving, kind, playful, intelligent, and beautiful. Letting a dog's life go because one is too lazy to educate oneself to take care of him or her properly is - to me - just a flaming tragedy. The only thing worse is vets - the ones you trust - who have the same damned attitude.

When I'm convinced that I've done everything that can be done, and it's not working, then I'll deal with the rest of it. I'm very much not there yet (especially with the limited and questionable information I have at present). And, when the thing turns up that can't be fixed, I'll cope much better if I know I really did everything I could. That is, after all, all one can ask of oneself. But it's definitely not too much to ask. If I just give up and say "there's nothing I can do" when I believe different, I would not be able to forgive myself. But as I said, we're so not there yet.

Oh, one last thing I want to bore you with, then I'll close this post. There's another reason why I'm skeptical still of Dr. DQs instant diagnosis of "he's old, his kidneys are failing, just give him this food and enjoy your time together." She didn't bother to look into any other possible causes to this whole thing in the first place. For example, I have fed Tyler the home-cooked diet for over 10 years ... until just a few months ago. When we were searching for and then buying a house, I got too overwhelmed to keep up with his food, so I switched him to a high-quality, all natural dry dog food. It's still a processed dry food, but I thought it might be okay for awhile since it was 'all natural' and higher quality. He immediately began drinking a little bit more water, but I knew that was because I switched him to a dry dog food - hello, that's just common sense. There was no reason for me to see that slight increase in water consumption as a 'sign' of anything wrong.

But I do wonder if the abrupt switch to dry food, combined with the intense stress of a move to a new house (especially when he's mostly blind), and a drastic change in his schedule (i.e., me not being able to come home at lunchtime and let him out, together with me just being gone longer every day in general) could have contributed to these elevated levels, without their being any real serious kidney damage. Or, in the alternative, there are other conditions that can cause an elevated BUN and creatinine, besides "old-age kidney failure." What bugs me is Dr. DQ didn't bother to suggest or check anything else. I've read that when elevated BUN and creatinine levels show up, you should always also do urine tests for other enzyme levels needed to properly diagnosis the problem and monitor the kidney function (I'm just not sure yet what other things those tests are for - the information was vague) - but she never even suggested it. Just made the snap diagnosis that "he's old, his kidneys are failing, you'll have that, nothing you can do but try to keep him comfortable."

Well. It's obvious I have issue with anything this doctor says, and with good cause. I was thinking about it again today, and I mentioned it before, but every time I've had Tyler in to see her, she's popped off some horrid diagnosis - brain tumor, cancer - which Tyler never had. I mentioned the brain tumor issue; another time I took him in for a checkup and mentioned a small, flat, squishy lump on his side. Her immediate diagnosis was "it could be cancer," then added it might be nothing. It was nothing, he's had it for years, it never got any bigger or changed in any way.

So, she's kinda like that. And this may very well be another instance of that. And I'll tell you what, if it is, I'm going to seriously consider writing a letter to whoever manages this clinic and complaining about her. If she wants to be so damned panicky and morbid, maybe she should go into another line of work. Perhaps she should work at the pound, since she seems to enjoy morbid diagnoses of imminent death.

Well, this turned into a bit of a rant. Sorry, but there it is. I'm done. My course of action is to (a) get a copy of the blood test results so I know the actual numbers; (b) schedule an appointment with Dr. N, and get a second opinion (one that's not nearly so prone to panic), (c) research this stuff I found online and try to decide whether I want to go with a 'pre-packaged' treatment (where someone else did the research) or want to try to forge ahead on my own in this complicated environment, and (d) spoil Tyler rotten, just because he deserves it.