Snuz, having been with me for more than 11 years now, is starting to have her old age problems just like the rest of us. The vet was surprised that she's that young and doesn't act her age (must be some doggie fountain of youth). Anyway, she was placed her on a renal diet and given a pill supplement. This is quite a challenge as it involves teaching an old dog a new trick - eating dog food. To a kid, it was like trying to make them eat veggies (for those who are not veggie eaters without putting up a fight). So, this is going to be quite tricky for A and I to work around.
We told the vet about the potential introduction to a new dog food diet with Snuz, so we were given table food options. Low-no sodium diet. Apparently, oatmeal and brown rice are good contenders. We can give her other steamed or boiled foods. We did get her a bag of dry dog food to attempt to wean her into consuming it. Dry dog food seemed to be a better option vs. wet food in terms of spoilage. If she doesn't like the dog food, with a dry one, we can just give the rest of the pack to someone else. With a wet one, it will just spoil once the pack has been opened.
Royal Canin Renal Diet was the option we have actually. It only came in one big bag which would last Snuz about a month to consume. For Php850, it's actually reasonable. Other pet supplies store are selling it for about Php100 more.
We started incorporating it into Snuz' food by mixing in broiled mashed chicken lungs. Since we made sure that the chicken lungs coated the dog food well, Snuz was forced to eat the dog food along with it. For the first couple of days, she wouldn't finish her meal. Only good side to it is that at least, she was still able to consume some of it. As for the pill, we make a chicken lung meatball of some sort and just insert the pill in the center. No problems with Snuz taking that in.
A week has passed and Snuz is consuming a full meal. I guess this old dog is still open to new tricks. Atta girl!
