Recommendations for dry dog food for kidney disease

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CazD

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One of my dogs has just been diagnosed with stage 3 kidney disease. The vet has recommended the Royal Canin renal diet. I've just checked the dry dog food index on here which doesn't recommend Royal Canin food at all. My vet is obviously highly "sponsored" by Royal Canin as every poster, weighting scales etc has a Royal Canin logo on it! Does anyone have any recommendations for dry dog food she could eat?
 
I would seek a second opinion from another vet. It may be that you need to feed the "not good" food in order to keep your dog healthy. With a serious health problem I would stick with vet advice but if you don't trust your vet because you think he might have an agenda, find a different vet for a second opinion.

I've had to feed one of the medical diets from Hills to one if mine who had bladder crystals... would not be a recommended food but it was what the dog needed to get healthy. We then changed him back onto a "better" food with veterinary guidance and he's been fine ever since. But the "rubbish" food was an important component in getting him well.
 
I’ll be honest, I fed Jack the renal food for 2 weeks then he stopped eating it and he just had whatever he would eat. Towards the end that was cat food and cocktail sausages.
 
Its not that I don't trust the vet, its just that as a Royal Canin "sponsored" practice, they are bound to recommend those products. I wanted to be sure that this was the best kibble for the dog.
 
I think either you trust your vet, or you don't. If you trust him or her and they are recommending RC then use it, if you think he is lying to you go elsewhere. It is important to me that I have a good relationship with my vet.
 
Can you speak to the practice nutritionist, and also call several of the nutritionists from companies you'd be willing to feed from? Often it's not that the vet is lying or that you don't trust them but that nutrition isn't a principal area of study and they're guided by other experts (frank conversation with both my very trustworthy vets brought this up when A was diagnosed with early stage kidney disease). Like so many areas of study knowledge updates very fast and the vets are usually the animal GPS, they can't stay up to date on everything.
 
Hills and purina both do commercial versions too but I suspect they’re much the same. By stage 3 the goal posts really have changed somewhat so I wouldn’t pay too much attention to the index. Yes you can do a raw equivalent but that’s not a dry food.
 
I doubt your vet is sponsored in any way by RC. Vets can't hold much stock, they don't have the spare space - they have to pick one or two brands, and they will get the free advertising material to go with them. That's all. You'll find that they can order in other brands if you prefer (as long as their wholesaler stocks them).
 
Hills or royal canin prescription renal food if the dog will tolerate it(some dont find it palatable)wet ideally if the budget allows as increasing moisture content as that aldo helps in renal disease. I've never seen the purina version so cannot personally recommend it.

Vets aren't sponsored by food companies. They carry certain brands of prescription foods for medical conditions and do make profit from selling food....but there are very few options of formulated medical foods for specific diseases on the market so its either royal canin or hills in most cases. Business' do sell for profit of course....but so does every petshop.
If you carry a certain brand of food they provide matts etc for advertising. Hills do a great non slip easy to disinfect matt so we use them in our consult rooms as well....because they are very practical and were free. Sponsorship implies they pay vets....which isnt true.... unless you think someones loyalty can be bought with a few pens and matts for advertising(which loads of drug companies etc also deliver as it happens)...then no vets aren't not sponsored by hills and royal canin.
It more that vets just like the convenience of having a reputable company that produce nutritionally adequate foods that are tailor made after decades of research and constantly modified and updated acording to latest research for medical conditions... oh and they are good for refunding bags when dogs or cats decide they don't like them as well which is helpful.

The vet practice I work at is based within a petstore so we dont presonally sell any food but do recommended different food for medical conditions where required.Petshop sells everything from raw to premium to grainfree to low grade cheap foods..so everybudget is catered for....and id still recommend hills or royal canin prescription food for this specific problem...or if your anti dry dog food then speak to one of the canine nutritionists and you can pay them to formulate home made diets for specific diseases.Massy uni in new zealand does it I believe..unsure of which uk unis offer the service.

Later stages of kidney disease can causes the appetite to drop so you may need to tempt with other food then....but controlling nutrition by modifying the chemical components within the food to specific levels so that the dogs still thrive and recieve adequate nutrition but also manage to take some of the load of filtration off the kidneys isnt the easiest thing to do without following specific formulas but it does seem to slow the progress of kidney failure in a lot of cases.
 
Thanks for the advice. I'm happy to go with the Royal Canin suggested by the vet as its aimed at her condition and the dog is eating both the dry and the tinned food quite happily. I was just a bit worried as the Dog Food Index on here seemed to suggest that Royal Canin wasn't a particularly good dog food. Thank you to everyone that has clarified things.
 
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