You can buy simithicone drops at most pharmacies. Not sure the dosage per lb though. I had a female GSD who was 9 that was really gassy after eating some sweet potatoes in her raw and we used this on her with no issues. No more sweet potatoes though!!

Edited by Lorelei Sims (03/04/2013 12:08 AM)
Edit reason: spelling

 Quote: Connie Sutherland

 Quote: Betty Landercasp

Sounds like this is a fabulous old dog. Some of those big old labs are just great.

And I can't say enough about this:

"When we first got him, he smelled bad and his eyes were kind of glassy. We suspect he was fed low-quality kibble for a long time and that's why his digestive system is so weak and prone to diharrea now. My parents started feeding him raw and over the course of the next few months, his stinkiness and glassy eyes went away. He recently had a full blood workup and they said he's very healthy - blood panels looked like a young dog."

Just to follow up on this thought - my parents' cat was born in the Summer of '94, and not knowing any better at the time, she was fed Science Diet kibble for most of her life. A couple of years ago (I don't know exactly when without checking back in my old emails), she was diagnosed with renal failure due to being dehydrated her whole life from eating nothing but kibble. The vet gave her a couple of months to live and recommended a special diet (probably Science Diet) which was lower in protein (and therefore higher in carbs) to avoid taxing the kidneys any more. By this time, I was up on my raw food info and did some research. I found a website about cats and that talked specifically about this problem. The author said to disregard the vets' advise and instead feed the cat massive amounts of protein, which is really what an obligate carnivore needs. He said that the cat will do ok with minimal kidney function as long as they get lots of high-quality proteins, and to not feed them per the vets' recommendation as though they were humans with human kidney issues. He also said that the biggest risk for the cat is weight loss so to feed them as much as they want to eat.

That was several years ago and their cat is doing fine. She is very thin but she eats tons of food and has been known to snatch pork riblets out of Shiloh's bowl. Her recent blood work showed that her kidneys aren't doing much but that she is otherwise in good health. She's also fairly active for a cat of her age. She now eats a large variety of raw foods: game hen, chicken, pork, beef, canned mackerel, quality canned cat food, and I'm not sure what all else - lots of variety.

The bottom line is: don't treat a cat with kidney failure the way you'd treat a human with kidney failure! (and don't feed them dry kibble since cats don't really drink much water and end up dehydrated as a result)

As for Shiloh, he seems to be doing much better. His neurologist didn't find anything obvious wrong with him and w/o observing him for a few more weeks or months and discovering an odd *pattern* of behavior, it's not worth doing a brain MRI right now. They did ultrasound his belly and everything looked normal, so that's that.

My personal hunch is that they've been lax about getting him the organ meats when they've been feeding him so he's been a bit nutrient deficient and more prone to stress. We had a talk about that and I think I've got them back on the right track now.

 Quote: Matt Lang

.... The vet gave her a couple of months to live and recommended a special diet (probably Science Diet) which was lower in protein (and therefore higher in carbs) to avoid taxing the kidneys any more. .... )

Same with dogs.

http://leerburg.com/webboard/thread.php?topic_id=14439&page=2#134996

Sixteen authoritative excerpts debunking that myth, in a post from 2007 (and yet it persists even today, in 2013).

I'm glad you bring it up again. It's amazing to me how often I still hear and read that old myth.


http://dogaware.com/health/kidneyprotein.html
Scroll down to "Articles and Studies."