Thanks for your support. I am still in shock. I took the dog in for his HEARTWORM and of course they did blood work. The dog looks great. I never for an instant thought there was anything wrong with him.  I came home with EUKANUBA Early Stage Kidney Diet.It is Chronic ----I asked the VET if he thought it was food related, he said NO, but still I wonder. Does anyone know if there is a site for cooking your own food for dogs with this problem?
                         
                    Kathleen

Kathleen,

I would purchase Dr. Pitcairn's book (Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs & Cats) there is a recipe (and info) on Kidney Diet for Dogs.  That is what I have been using for my 12 year old Vizsla and I must say I feel it's the best choice.  He is well hydrated, he is playful now and is really almost back to his old self (if it wasn't for the additional problem of him having Cushing's). 

The only other option was Purina Rx diet for Kidney and with BHT and corn on the ingredient panel I decided to cook my own food.  He weighs 55 lbs so this is a huge task for that reason and also i'm a vegetarian so cooking beef has been quite the experience! haha But I would do anything for my dog so I have learned to deal with it quite easily, actually.  Handling 2lbs of ground up beef at each cooking session has become routine.

Definitely cook for your dog.  Get the book.

I have been using Dr. Pitcairn's recipe for Kidney Diet for Canines for my 12 year old Vizsla, Max, who has developed Kidney problems in January of this year.  I am looking for other Kidney friendly recipes so that I can vary his diet or just cook up some snacks.

Most of this is new to me but following Pitrairn's book closely and my dog is doing good on the kidney diet in that book.  He does have Cushing's on top of the Kidney problems but I am not treating him for that other than a liver enzyme binding medicine called Denosyl and Milk Thistle, human grade capsules.

Besides Denosyl & Milk Thistle for the liver, Max is only on the following for his kidneys:

Sprinkled on each home cooked meal:

Animal Essentials Sea Calcium
Sodium Ascorbate (Vitamin C powder)
B-Complex Powder
EPAKITIN - a phosphorous binder (if anyone has experience with this please let me know, i'm not sure I will continue this as I read somewhere that a good Calcium supplement and Antacid (I use Alternagel) is enough.. but please let me know if you have experience with this).

Any suggestions, recommendations, your own experience with dogs and kidney problems then please share here.  Recipes, medicines (natural and otherwise) all and any information is appreciated.

I'm a little worried that my cats might like Kumpikat too much or that
there is something else wrong.  I thought with this food they were supposed
to eat less of it because they get full faster!

I free feed both of them and have been for the last 7 years (sicne they were
kittens) but with Kumpikat I find myself filling up the dish constantly and in
a week and a half I am down to half a 4lb bag.  I know I shouldn't be feeding
them freely like this but I haven't been able to get them into a routine of once
or twice a day.  I try but I know I haven't tried hard enough.  The vet told me the male, Bix, should weigh about 18 lbs and the female 16lbs or so.  They're large cats.. tall and long.. probably a mix of Norwegian Forest Cat or Maine Coon with the DSH thrown in for the shorter fur.  But as of right now the male weighs 21 lbs and the female 19lbs.  So they are about 3 lbs over their weight and I recall someone said that the Kumpikat is high in carbs so i'm not sure what I should do.

Any tips on how to stop/ween off free feeding?  I know i'll have a problem because
i've tried it in the past and they were not happy - but they'll be less happy with diabetes so I need some tips/help.

This is great news for Kumpi customers.  Thank you! 

On a seperate note, you mentioned in another post of a combined
website where one can purchase for the dog and cat food.  Please
update on that as I couldn't find anything online.

Also, some people on the itchmo forum are asking more about the
testing for melamine on your products.  Perhaps you should
list that on your website, if you haven't already.

Thanks again!

You can't run and pick up the food.  It's online only so you'll always need to have it delivered (but hey, I don't see that as a bad thing - that's what I'll be doing with Kumpikat) thing about the Amway approach - what I meant was it seems the reps are working to draw you in and get clients and then you can be a rep so the whole selling pitch to me is undermined by that.  If you look at their website you'll see what I mean - no other pet food company that I know has this approach.  Look here and explore such things as "selling methods", "products", "selling system", "your compensation", etc....  http://tinyurl.com/yrqrwb


[/quote]
Bixlo, I'm a little confused about their "Amway" approach    Do you just mean having to get it directly shipped from them or is there something I missed on the website.  I do prefer to be able to run and pick it up when I need it and not be at the mercy of deliveries.
[/quote]

I'm waiting for Toni to reply to my comment about the rendering plant and the facilities being in the same area.  Regardless though, I trust what's in there.  The dogs and cats love the food and it doesn't look like what I would think dead and diseased looks like.  It's entire chicken thighs in there.  And like someone pointed out earlier -  because of the entire clipped wings and clips being found in the food recall they had in 2005 - only kosher chickens get their wings clipped.  So I don't buy that dead and diseased animals are going into the food.  I'm continuing to feed the cats the wet food and the dogs are getting Merrick and Evangers wet.

Daisy,

Please don't take this the wrong way, and this is not to say that premium is the only way to go, but everything that has happened with this recall would you trust dog food from Wal-mart? No matter how 'premium' they call it?  Look at their track record?  I'm sorry, but if a bag of 20lb food is $12 you knowyou're not getting the maximum (pun intended!) out of that food.  (btw, I found that price on a diff'rent blog so trust that it's correct because when I googled walmart maximum nutrition dog food the actual dog food didn't come up. couldn't find list of ingredients. but does it matter?  if most of the walmart pet foods have been recalled there's no way to guarantee this one is safe. just like what i believe about purina - how come they're relatively unscathed by this recall.. makes ya go hmmmm.)

ok. my rant is done. i'm sorry daisy.  but i feel strongly against walmart (not just for pet food reasons but also for industry reasons) and i can't help that coming across in my opinion)

The canned (Instinctive Choice) is made a Menu (not sure which plant at Menu, though) and the dry (Life's Abundance) is made by Ohio Pet Foods (here's a link to their website: http://www.ohiopetfoods.com/Recall.htm).

I tried the samples and my cat's like the wet, the dry and the treats.  The dogs liked their samples as well.  Thing is, I'm not sure I like the whole Amway approach.  Although I have no complaints about the way the operate (one of the reps called me and emailed me the day the Natural Balance recall happened because she remembered from my sample order that I was feeding that food.  Of course, I already knew about it because of Itchmo but still - that was very very good of them to do that.  I might, if I ever need a backup food, definitely try their food.

You're on the right track.  The canned (Instinctive Choice) is made a Menu (not sure which plant at Menu, though) and the dry (Life's Abundance) is made by Ohio Pet Foods (here's a link to their website: http://www.ohiopetfoods.com/Recall.htm).

I tried the samples and my cat's like the wet, the dry and the treats.  The dogs liked their samples as well.  Thing is, I'm not sure I like the whole Amway approach.  Although I have no complaints about the way the operate (one of the reps called me and emailed me the day the Natural Balance recall happened because she remembered from my sample order that I was feeding that food.  Of course, I already knew about it because of Itchmo but still - that was very very good of them to do that.  I might, if I ever need a backup food, definitely try their food.

http://www.castorpolluxpet.com/your_questions/canned_food_recall
www.itchmo.com

Okay, I thought it was just a fluke.  Well, one day later and it's unanimous, the Kumpikat
wins over the Felidae dry.  The female, Lola, will nibble a little of the Felidae but both cats go
back to the Kumpikat.  And as much as they like it they aren't spending as long as they used to
at the feeding bowl (I free feed).

Thanks Evy!

So did I read in this post that their meats come from china. Does that mean the Duck meat and Turkey Liver in the Dry duck cat formula? I would like to sample this for my kitties.

No no no.  If you go back and read the letter from Evangers that a poster included above
it's very specific that the dry kibble is made using North American ingredients.  So don't worry
about the dry - it's all U.S made.  The letter goes on to say that even the China plant that
produces the wet uses pharmaceutical grade supplements from the U.S.  I'm still iffy on the
China canned goods so i'll stick to canned from Merrick and maybe Evangers if they ever get
tired of Merrick (which doesn't look like they will).

Sounds great.  Backs up my cats being completely happy and healthy while eating a small bag of the dry the last 3 weeks.  I will keep Fromm's around as a back up food, no doubt.  As to wet, for now I am sticking to Merrick's although I really like the can design of the Fromm's.. ha ha.. It's different than all the other cans sold (being made in China probably accounts for that).

Thanks for sharing the information!

Great point, Garypen.

As soon as I get a follow up about the rendering plant location I will post.

For now, my Merrick cans are going nowhere but my babies stomachs.  If you look at the stuff you know it can't be junk.  I mean, the dogfood has entire chicken thighs in it.

My only concern is....those 3 million chickens that were fed the tainted food - could they be ending up in pet food as well?  They say it's low risk to humans (BS if you ask me.. they just don't know!) but we DO KNOW the effect it has on cats and dogs.  So that would be my only concern at this point.