Thank you all for your support, help and sharing your knowledge and experiences! It's feels better to know there are options that I can explore. Her quality of life is of utmost priority for me and want her to be comfortable and happy. She's curled up beside me right now on the sofa and snoring as I'm writing this.
(oh, her phosphorus level is 5.7 and last year, it was 5.0)
@tanza Thanks! When searching, I think those paid ADs are skewing the correct results when googling for holistic vets. So I dug in a little deeper and found the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association and they have a VetFinder (yeahhh!). It turns out there's a Vet (in the same clinic as my Vet, but in a different location). This Vet has a "Whole Food Formulator" certification. I think I'll contact that Vet but hoping it won't be awkward. And will catch up with Tayda_Lenny and check on the posts.
@tanza Yeah, Cosmo sniffs the kidney diet food first and whatever smell it is, she just walks away (and then looks at me with disappointment). Any suggestions on holistic Vets?
Thanks for the feedback and ideas! This morning, I just decided to give her a small amount of the regular canned and she ate it (all of it). I'll slowly introduce any new food and see if that works. @elbrant - I enjoy cooking so home-cooked meals is an easy thing for me to do. I'll check with my Vet on the recipe you kindly shared! We're doing another blood panel/urinalysis next week to check the values so keeping my fingers crossed.
My Cosmo is 14 yrs. old and recently diagnosed with early stage kidney disease. I have always done the full senior blood panel the past few years in her annual and all was okay. Until this June. The creatinine level is 1.8 (last year was 1.1), BUN is 35 (last year was 20), urinalysis had no red flags though she's drinking a lot more water.
For the past few years, I've been feeding her Merrick's Grain Free Real Chicken Dry mixed with the Merrick's Canned (there are 7 recipes of the canned that I rotate and she really loves them). Last year, I switched to Orijen Senior Dry (and kept rotating the 7 flavors) and she loves this, too. So far at this point, all seems fine.
Then last month, because of the bloodwork results in her annual check-up, I switched her food to Purina NF canned - she ate it for about 3 weeks then just outright refuse to eat it now. So I tried mixing it with the Merrick canned. For about 2-3 days, she ate some then just a little and now she doesn't want to touch it.
So then I tried the Purina NF Dry kibble with the Merrick canned. I can't believe she actually pick every dry kibble and removed it from the bowl! But only ate a little of the canned then walked away.
This week, I asked my Vet for a medication and she prescribed Azodyl (she said it will bring down the metabolites in the blood but this won't slow progression). I started giving it to Cosmo yesterday but I don't know when I'll see any improvement.
The Vet also suggested JustFoodForDogs and BalanceIt food. So I gave her some JustFoodForDogs (Beef and Potato). She seems to like for a day but now she's only eating a little bit of it. It actually tastes good (and definitely tons more flavor than the Purina NF). I'm also waiting for the prescription for the JustFoodForDogs "Renal Support Medium Protein" so I can get it and see if my senior pup will eat it. I may boil a whole chicken with carrots (with the fat removed) for soup/liquid.
I used to feed her twice daily but am now trying to get her to eat litte amounts 4-5 times daily. She's 14 so I feel I just need for her to eat. Other than eating less, she acts normal and is not lethargic. We walk every morning and we both enjoy it. She jumps on the highest part of the couch. She does her zoomies once in a while (though a little shorter time). She is alert and still full of life.
I don't think she's lost appetite because she seems to want some food - maybe just not the ones I've been giving her (she eats the treats).
Not sure if her health is deteriorating faster (even if she's just in the early stages of the kidney disease). Or did I just change/switch her food too quickly?
Does anyone have a similar experience and have some ideas or insights to share?
I'm really worried and it's just stressing me out. She's definitely eating less. Not sure what I can do to get her to eat more and enjoy the food.