Dog Community

Good food for senior, small breed dogs?

Posted : 6/16/2010 12:37:16 PM

I am trying to find a good food for all of my dogs. I have a 14 year old chihuahua with heart, liver and kidney issues, a 9 year old chihuahua, and a 6 year old shih tzu with immune mediated polyarthritis. I know my older chi should be on something low sodium for her heart, but I don't know if that would also be okay for the other two. I feed mostly dry, but I would like to convert to mostly canned. I talked to the vet about a prescription diet for Gypsy, but he doesn't feel that she needs one yet and said she should be on a good senior food. I was thinking Innova senior, but I don't know how I feel about them being bought by P&G. Now I'm looking into Blue Buffalo because they have a small breed senior formula and from what I've read, they don't outsource. I'm open to all suggestions, except raw. They have never had it and I don't feel comfortable with starting them on it now with their ages. Homecooking is an option, I just want to make sure it's done correctly if I do.

Dawnben

Posted : 6/16/2010 1:26:36 PM

look for a book by Dr Strombeck DMV PhD he has been helping dogs for 40 years,each of the recipes are listed with caloric,protein, and fat content. There are diets in the book formulated to benefit animals with special health considerations. Cooking for your dogs can give you some wonderful results.

Indy05

Posted : 6/16/2010 1:50:14 PM

I have a 12 year old cairn terrier; he's doing well on Blue Buffalo kibble and their canned varieties. I changed from D. Van Patten's Natural Balance kibble and canned which was good for him as well. He seems to enjoy the taste of Blue Buffalo more. IMO either one would be good to try.

Disarray29

Posted : 6/16/2010 1:57:49 PM

Thanks Dawn, I will see if I can find that book :) Indy, thank you for your feedback...I used to feed Natural balance duck and potato kibble, but then one day it started making them sick. I don't know if they changed the recipe or if it was a bad batch or what.

Dawnben

Posted : 6/16/2010 7:40:55 PM

Disarray29
Thanks Dawn, I will see if I can find that book :) Indy, thank you for your feedback...I used to feed Natural balance duck and potato kibble, but then one day it started making them sick. I don't know if they changed the recipe or if it was a bad batch or what.

this is a page giving a little info on who he is and an example of the kidney diet from his book http://www.ehow.com/way_5794137_strombeck-kidney-diet.html

grab01

Posted : 6/16/2010 8:40:54 PM

My senior dog eats an all life stages food (as does Jules, who is going to be 9 this year). However, neither have any health problems.

tokmik

Posted : 6/29/2010 8:18:37 AM

**removed**

spam

shamrockmommy

Posted : 7/4/2010 12:43:10 PM

Hm... I like The Honest Kitchen's foods (dehydrated, you just add water to feed) and for kibble I liked PetGuard Lifespan, plus their canned varieties.

If it were me for the amount of dogs you have to feed, I'd go with HK.

spiritdogs

Posted : 7/4/2010 1:56:05 PM

This lady does consultations long distance and she knows her stuff: http://betterdogcare.com/ She has her own forum now, but was a member here for a long time.