bluiegurl33
New member
my fury child is a chihuahua mix, ~9-11 pounds and is currently 13 years old. In Sept 2020, we had to get 9 of her teeth removed and during her recovery process, I started waking up in a wet bed due to her pee. I was so shocked at her wetting the bed because she is potty trained and anytime she needs to go outside and pee, she alerts me. I also noticed she was drinking LOTS of water than she normally does which I heard having renal cancer does that to dogs. Then the next few days it kept happening when I woke up while also happening during the day time. As it progressed for another week, I went to the vet and asked if the dental surgery had anything to do with it. Maybe her immune system was a lot weaker and she might have caught something in the process of teeth extraction? who knows? But eventually, our vet did some urine samples/blood work, and said they noticed that my dog was in the early stages of renal cancer. She said it was most likely due to my dog eating lots of protein and to lean away from it. For context, while my dog was in the recovery process from her teeth extraction, I gave her wet food (I forgot the brand but it's those meat logs that are located in the fridge section in Petco) for a week until she recovered to move her back onto her dry food. So maybe being on that food triggered it or maybe she was more prone to it because she is an older dog?? Also, before her dental surgery, she was eating this brand: https://www.petco.com/shop/en/petco...eed-chicken-and-pea-recipe-adult-dry-dog-food
My vet suggested for us to try an adult diet dry food from Hills and that hopefully it will improve her bladder in 2-3 weeks. I started this diet in early October. Unfortunately, after a month, there were no improvements. she was still wetting the bed. My dog is super attached/clingy, so when she doesn't get to sleep with me in bed, she's crying all night. I had to sleep with a pee pee pad and got so annoyed of changing my sheets everyday. I tried out 6 different diaper brands both re-useable and disposable ones until I found a method that kept the diapers from not slipping down (aka leaving her body harness on while using a safety pin to hold up the diaper. lmk if you need photos). HOLY SHIT. changing my sheets almost everyday was so painful. When a f months passed with her on the Hills dry food, I wanted to try a homemade recipe. I went down the youtube rabbit hole and found "great" recipes, until I scrolled down into the comments and some ingredients the Youtuber were using I discovered were harmful. I didn't know what or who to trust. (not saying there aren't any good recipes out on Youtube). I wanted to hire a dog nutritionist but holy shit, those are quite expensive.
Eventually, I saw the Just For Dogs brand and noticed there was a low-protein renal diet recipe and that it was backed by dog nutritionist. I didn't realize you need to get a prescription from your vet. Once I got a prescription from my vet, I had my dog on this diet from November 2020 until now Feb 2020. The first time she tried it, I had my dog on this for a whole week. Once I realized how expensive this diet was, I tried to do a half ratio of the Hills dry food and half of the Just for Dogs low-protein renal diet to save some money and make it last a bit longer. Mind you, my dog didn't really like the just for dogs brand at first. It's a very airy meat loaf texture type food. What I eventually did was heat it up for 10-20 seconds in the microwave then mixed it up with the Hills dry food and my dog eventually ate it. When she didn't improve a month later, I just gave up and accepted this doom of pee pee diaper pants.
Fortunately, in early January 2021, I woke up and noticed she didn't pee in her diapers. I noticed this for a week straight and now that it's mid of Feb 2021, she still has yet to pee on the bed without any diapers!
So I wanted to share a success story out there for you for folks who have fury kids who have early stages of renal cancer that maybe this might help? Please of course, talk to your vet to see if this is the right route for you. Anyways, I have all this diaper now but its better than continually buying all the dam time.
My vet suggested for us to try an adult diet dry food from Hills and that hopefully it will improve her bladder in 2-3 weeks. I started this diet in early October. Unfortunately, after a month, there were no improvements. she was still wetting the bed. My dog is super attached/clingy, so when she doesn't get to sleep with me in bed, she's crying all night. I had to sleep with a pee pee pad and got so annoyed of changing my sheets everyday. I tried out 6 different diaper brands both re-useable and disposable ones until I found a method that kept the diapers from not slipping down (aka leaving her body harness on while using a safety pin to hold up the diaper. lmk if you need photos). HOLY SHIT. changing my sheets almost everyday was so painful. When a f months passed with her on the Hills dry food, I wanted to try a homemade recipe. I went down the youtube rabbit hole and found "great" recipes, until I scrolled down into the comments and some ingredients the Youtuber were using I discovered were harmful. I didn't know what or who to trust. (not saying there aren't any good recipes out on Youtube). I wanted to hire a dog nutritionist but holy shit, those are quite expensive.
Eventually, I saw the Just For Dogs brand and noticed there was a low-protein renal diet recipe and that it was backed by dog nutritionist. I didn't realize you need to get a prescription from your vet. Once I got a prescription from my vet, I had my dog on this diet from November 2020 until now Feb 2020. The first time she tried it, I had my dog on this for a whole week. Once I realized how expensive this diet was, I tried to do a half ratio of the Hills dry food and half of the Just for Dogs low-protein renal diet to save some money and make it last a bit longer. Mind you, my dog didn't really like the just for dogs brand at first. It's a very airy meat loaf texture type food. What I eventually did was heat it up for 10-20 seconds in the microwave then mixed it up with the Hills dry food and my dog eventually ate it. When she didn't improve a month later, I just gave up and accepted this doom of pee pee diaper pants.
Fortunately, in early January 2021, I woke up and noticed she didn't pee in her diapers. I noticed this for a week straight and now that it's mid of Feb 2021, she still has yet to pee on the bed without any diapers!
So I wanted to share a success story out there for you for folks who have fury kids who have early stages of renal cancer that maybe this might help? Please of course, talk to your vet to see if this is the right route for you. Anyways, I have all this diaper now but its better than continually buying all the dam time.