Diary of Gracie's Canine Renal Failure - 2

Continuing today with Mary’s journal about our dog Gracie’s canine renal failure.

February 27th
Another follow-up visit to the vet for blood and urine testing today. Gracie’s been shivering and she’s still not eating enough. I’m trying hard to find prescription food that she will eat. She doesn’t like the Hill’s k/d or the Royal Canin Renal, canned or dry. I’ve tried to incentivize with small amounts of regular dog food, boiled chicken, fresh chicken broth, but she’s not interested. I’m trying her now on a homemade diet based on Hill’s canine restricted protein diet (from our vet via the internet):

¼ lb ground beef, not lean
2 cups cooked white rice without salt
1 hard boiled egg, finely chopped
3 slices white bread crumbled
1 teaspoon (5grams) calcium carbonate (ended up grinding up eggs shells for this)
Cook beef in skillet until lightly brown, add rest of ingredients and a little water if too dry. Keep in refrigerator. Yields 1 ¼ lbs
(Analysis: 6.9% protein, 5.5% fat, 21.1% carbohydrates, 65.5% moisture)
A 40 lb dog such as Gracie should eat 1 ½ lbs of this mixture per day. So one batch is slightly less than one day’s worth of food. (Daily amounts according to Hill’s: 5 lb. dog, ¼ lb of food; 10 lb dog, ½ lb of food; 20 lb dog, 1 lb food; 60 lb dog, 2 lbs food; 80 lb dog, 2 ½ lbs food; 100 lb dog, 3 lbs food)