Question
Lucky
My male Chihuahua is only 10 months old and he was diagnosed with MVD - Microvasular Dysplasia after a series of blood tests and an ultrasound. This was discovered before his neuter and they were not able to neuter him since his liver enzymes were abnormal. My vet encouraged me to purchase the low protein dog food right away from them. Unfortunately, my dog does not want to eat it.
I am so confused about the SAFE amount of protein I can feed him daily. He weighs 4 lbs. He is underweight by the way as well.
He is also very picky and prefers human grade food. I have looked for recipes but none of them really explain the safe protein to carb/veggie ratio for a dog with this disease.
Can you help? I feel as though I am harming my dog every day with everything I feed him.
AnswerWith a little discipline on the part of the owner, most dogs can be trained to eat kibble. It is far easier to assure a dog of a proper diet by feeding a commercial food than homemade. None of the recipes you will find have been tested. They are backed by guess work. If he has been eating very much human food, he may not have been getting a good diet.
Warming the food may help, increasing its smell. You should be able to add a little chicken broth too without increasing the protein content. You could ask the vet if there is a canned version of it too. If fat isn't a problem too, you could add a little of it. What you were sold is dry?
The food you were sold should give a protein level which should be OK for him. The tricky thing is the balance of amino acids. Some high protein foods only have the minimum of some of the amino acids and excesses of others. So you need to be careful of just going by the protein level of a diet. With liver problems too, you might call the vet before adding fat. If OK, it could both encourage him to eat the food and give him more calories to build weight.
Does the vet agree he is underweight or is he just leaner than other dogs? Here is a good link to judge his body condition, http://www.longliveyourdog.com/twoplus/RateYourDog.aspx Very few dogs need to be encouraged to eat more.
I am glad you mentioned he is underweight. Many picky eaters are overfed and feeding them less is often the key. That tool is the wrong one in this case.
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