We are writing this review on behalf of the best dog in the whole
world. 😊 On July of 2022, Buddy went in for his annual senior exam.
He was 13.3 years old at the time. Everything seemed normal to us and
nothing odd about his condition or behavior. We were expecting a
typical clean bill of health. The Dr reported back that his creatine
levels were up and that we should watch them.
We are writing this review on behalf of the best dog in the whole
world. 😊 On July of 2022, Buddy went in for his annual senior exam.
He was 13.3 years old at the time. Everything seemed normal to us and
nothing odd about his condition or behavior. We were expecting a
typical clean bill of health. The Dr reported back that his creatine
levels were up and that we should watch them. She said that they have
been normal every year but this time suddenly, they were up. She
wanted a retest in 2-3 months, but no additional guidance for changes,
so we figured maybe it was a fluke. In October we boarded him with the
Dr’s office while going on a vacation. While there, they drew blood
again and reported grim news to us. Dr informed us his creatine and
Bun had jumped to much higher levels and that in her opinion it had
solidified irreversible degenerative kidney issues. She said it was
most likely due to age and advised we just change his diet to Science
Diet KD kibble, starting immediately in boarding, and retest in 2
months. She also said he only had 1 to 1.5 years left to live. This
was very grim news obviously. Hindsight we found it uncaring to give a
specific death sentence over the phone while just starting a vacation.
Buddy was in their care, and they could have held back that kind of
death sentencing until we returned home, as he seemed fine when we
dropped him off. Needless to say, we had a rough night. But maybe that
news was for the best because it motivated us to do extreme and
immediate research on our end and a firm decision that we were not
going to accept that death sentence. Nor were we going to just leave
it at a simple change to kibble as the only thing we were going to
do.
In our research we looked at the kidney failure symptom lists. I am
sure everyone reading this has already seen that list. Well, the only
things I can even lean towards were that he did drink more water
lately, he slept more, and over the last year he has had a harder time
jumping up on taller furniture (but he is over 13yrs old so…). His
weight was down from 40ish to 38.5, but that amount can also easily be
variance in the person weighing him. Then we read about diets for
kidney issues. Science Diet KD does appear to be a good kibble for
kidney health, but in other articles kibble was demonized. Then we
found 5 Leaf and read all of the information and reviews and realized
there was a lot more we could try. All of this research was done
within 12 hours of the phone call from the Dr. We decided right then
we would throw the kitchen sink at trying to reverse this beyond what
the Dr was recommending and refused to believe we only had 1.5 years
max left. We had no interest in doing minimal changes and see how it
helped, then try more. If he truly only had 1.5 years left, we did not
have time to baby step the treatment. The research and 5 Leaf info and
reviews changed our attitude and gave us focus. We ordered the full 5
Leaf package and were able to enjoy the remainder of the vacation
knowing in our hearts that Buddy was going to defy the odds our Dr
gave. We were so confident we even bought him a brand-new collar and
leash feeling he would still get lots of use out of it. Hope
restored.
When we picked up Buddy, we immediately started the cycles and changed
his diet. We rid the house of his former treats, which were great
quality, just not great for the kidney issues. For his food, we used
the beef and rice recipe from the 5 Leaf booklet. Instead of the
chicken jerky treats he used to get, we cut slices of peeled sweet
potato and baked them for simulated jerky treats (sliced at ¼” and
baked 3 hrs at 250, flipped halfway through). Buddy liked the sweet
potato a lot but didn’t take to the beef and rice recipe right away.
Especially not with the greens mixed in. We had to back off the greens
to get him to eat it.
When we talked to the Dr about our plans, she was extremely negative.
We provided all of the 5 Leaf info and our plans, but she seemed to
only hear the diet part of things. She seemed very offended that we
were not going to follow the kibble diet that she advised and then she
pushed the raw food company that conveniently sold in her office. I am
sure that well known raw food company is just fine, but they are
expensive and likely no different than the recipe. I informed the Dr
that we were going to make our own food and even provided the recipe.
Her reply was “ I guess you are going to make him the Guinea pig”
and “How good can 5 leaf be if she has never heard of them”. Those
comments rubbed us the wrong way and motivated us to really stick to
things so Buddy could really prove her wrong. Her attitude improved
slightly on the next call as she could tell we were not budging. She
conceded that the recipe looked fine, but also recommended we not use
raw hamburger and instead chose something more lean. Our next batch of
food we used turkey burger AND after mixing, we baked in a casserole
dish at 350 for 25 minutes so it wasn’t raw. (Raw poultry just
doesn’t seem right to us, even if it might be) We made a large batch
and froze most of it. Buddy came around to eating it, but he would
only eat late at night as he was hoping for his past treats all day
long. As night closed in, he realized eat what we gave, or nothing,
and would then finish his bowl and bring the empty to us for more.
This continued for 3 cycles. He did not like the syringes but too bad.
He ate his food, but less than what the recipe book showed as a
serving for his weight. We also switched his watering to just
distilled water. We upped his exercise as well. We saw an immediate
improvement in his energy levels. In fact, it was so drastic that we
concluded that even if his next test numbers were bad, we preferred
his newfound energy and that alone was worth the diet change.
As the end of his cycles neared, I wanted to document the numbers he
already had received so that we would know how much improvement we
would get. Looking at our records, we only had summer of 2021:
Creatine 1.6, BUN 24. July 2022: Creatine 2.3, BUN 25. Oct 2022:
Creatine 3.1, BUN 49. The first thing we found odd was remembering the
statement, “His numbers have always ben normal up until July 22”.
While the statement was not inaccurate, there was only record of one
previous test. So that statement was a little misleading as it seemed
she as stating he had several good tests prior to this one. No doubt
about it though, the Oct reading was a drastic jump. We have been told
elsewhere that the stress of being in boarding when last test was
performed could have drastically impacted at least the BUN reading.
But I wont judge on that.
All through his 3 cycles, we had extreme confidence that Buddy was
going to defy the odds and it was going to be an in-your-face moment
when the DR called with new numbers. How much we were not sure, and
what we would do with the numbers we were not sure. Just before
Christmas his 3 cycles were done, and we took him in for testing.
Unfortunately, our original DR was unable to be there for the tests
and all interaction about it was with a different DR at the same
office. We were not going to be able to get that in-your-face moment
and that was disappointing, but I did not want to wait to get numbers.
A couple days later we got the call, and there was zero thought of the
numbers not being a big improvement. When she said that she had good
news really in my mind I was thinking, duh of course you do. That
confidence and hope was the number one benefit of 5 leaf in my
opinion. Dr was giving us doom and gloom, and 5 Leaf offered real
hope. For that I cannot thank 5 Leaf enough. But thanks! So the moment
of truth: Buddy’s weight was back to 40.5Lb, His Creatine was 1.2
and his BUN was 14! Thank you again 5 Leaf!
So Buddy is a senior dog of course. His 14th birthday is in March. He
obviously cannot do all of the things that he used to do. But now in
our minds we still feel like he could be with us for several more
years. We are going to continue with the beef and rice recipe but are
changing it to ground chicken thigh meat with the fat removed. Also,
instead of 4 ounces of meat per serving, we are increasing to 6 but
will continue baking the mixture. FYI, he loves the new chicken thigh
recipe and cleans his bowl both morning and night. We are also
continuing to make homemade Sweet potato jerky treats and will only
water with distilled water. We will continue with the recommended 2
week cycles every 6 months and will be getting another blood test in 6
months. We also want to get him to the point where he accepts the
greens in his food. His new liking of the chicken thigh is a good
opportunity for that and are going to restart that effort with
maintenance dosage of greens.
So here we are. Nothing but positive reviews will come from us. We
have already been recommending 5 Leaf to other pet owners and will
continue to do so. 5 Leaf has given us incredible results but equally
or maybe even more importantly, they gave us hope in a very hopeless
moment. I also must mention, from start to finish 5 Leaf has been
there to offer advice and support on all decisions and changes we did
to treat and meal plans. Thank you does not seem to be sufficient but
THANKYOU!
Side note: I know I was not pleased with the attitude of the Dr at our
Vet clinic, and this review clearly reflects that, but I don’t want
to slam the clinic as a whole. They are a great clinic that has served
me for almost 30 years. All of my pets have always been happy to go
there and for the most part I feel I get great service. Our Dr was
just reacting to the numbers she got based on her training. Her
attitude and ego was beyond poor in this instance, and she has a very
closed mind when it comes to new holistic options, but I would not
slam the clinic as a whole, nor would I give them bad
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