Special Diet Dog Food - Do You Make Your Own?
Our three-year old, 20 pound mini Schnauzer goes in for surgery to remove kidney/bladder stones tomorrow. She has passed dozens and dozens of these in past 2 weeks, with one almost as big as a pencil ...
Forum Discussion
JRS & B wrote:
The thing I cannot figure out is why we cannot also make our own special diet food, especially since she can no longer have any dog treats of any kind, and she really does not like the special diet dog food.
You can, but the thing is making a diet that works on this type of problem is NOT easy. It's not just putting the proper ingredients together. It's very careful measurements of items and proportions. No substitutions or mistakes or it defeats the whole purpose.
Even dogs I put on a special diet are retested periodically to make sure the diet it working in that individual. This usually consists of a UA, checking for specific gravity, crystals, pH and bacteria. Sometimes we do follow up radiographs or ultrasound to check for stones.
Even with the costs, most of my clients elect to use one of the special diets made by purina, Hill's or Royal Canin.
Doug, DVM
