[PiaOnomato]

Hi,
I’m new here and couldn’t find a Forum Search so if this topic has been covered, I’m sorry!
I am looking for a good quality dry kibble that is more protein/carb balanced than a grain-free for our active, fit, small dog.
Here are the details if you care to read on! I have a 4.5 year old Rescue named Pico. Pico weighs 8.8# and is most likely a Chi/Italian Greyhound mix. He is very active and gets daily 3 mile walks and competes in Agility.
I had Pico and our other rescue (24# ACD/BC mix Gilda) on Wellness CORE. Pico was having some elevated BUN labs so I switched him to Wellness Super5 mix Small Breed.
When Wellness was bought by P&G, I got worried about possible formula changes and recalls so I came back to DogFoodAdvisor and started researching again. This time (I know this won’t make sense), I switched both dogs to Orijen 6 Fish. They both look great and have fantastic energy but Pico has starting having dark, strong smelling urine. Usually when he gets a UTI, he is ill. Now, however he seems fine (I did take a sample in today) and I think it’s from the high protein food.
I am sorry for the long post. Thanks for any and all opinions!
Dee

[theBCnut]

Wellness was not bought by P&G as far as I last heard, though they do own Iams/Eukanuba and Evo/Innova. If they are doing fine on Orijen and they dark urine is nothing more than very concentrated, maybe you should try adding water to their food to increase the amount of water in their diet.

If you really want a good grain inclusive food, then Dr. Tim’s is good, so is Nature’s Logic.

[PiaOnomato]

Thanks so much Pattyvaughn! I looked into both Dr. Tim’s and Nature’s Logic (neither of which I’ve heard of) and ended up ordering Dr. Tim’s on Chewy.com. There is a local feed store listed on the Dr. Tim’s site but when I called, they acted like I was speaking another language! They are going to see if they can order it for me.
Pico is my first-ever small dog (he has completely changed my mind about them!) and I’m finding that he has some different issues than larger pups.
Thank you very much for taking the time to help us. I’m looking forward to being a part of this forum after referencing FoodAdvisor for 3.5 years
Dee

[PiaOnomato]

I took Pico’s clean catch urine sample in on Saturday but somehow, it wasn’t sent to the lab until Monday! I was not happy… at all.
I got some really odd results on Tuesday (yesterday). Pico has a UTI but also has high glucose (100), protein, bilirubin, and fat in his urine!! I am really concerned that some or all of this may be a result of feeding Orijen 6 fish for 6 weeks but I can’t find any literature to support it. I had to do a pretty quick switch to Dr. Tim’s Active Dog kibble but so far, no ill effects.
The vet ordered additional tests on the urine sample (Protein and creatinine) and we will have blood work drawn on 10/1. Thankfully, Pico seems very much himself.
I will update this thread as this is potentially food related…
Dee

[theBCnut]

A lot of labs are not open over the weekend and the ones that are are associated with hospitals/emergency clinics and are priced accordingly. It is normal to wait until Monday for non emergencies, however I’m surprised they didn’t do some in house testing. Glucose isn’t necessarily accurate if it isn’t fresh. I hope everything is OK.

[PiaOnomato]

The urine should have gone to the lab on Saturday but the error occurred at the vet’s office and the specimen wasn’t sent. I too am hoping that the glucose is some errant reading from using an old, refrigerated sample. I thought the vet would have ordered blood work right away with glucose in the urine but it was me who requested blood work! Maybe they think the glucose reading isn’t real also. I don’t know what to think right now. Pico’s energy level is good but he is a little surly so I think maybe he doesn’t feel quite well. Thanks so much for your insight and your well wishes. It helps more than you know.
ps. LOVE your dog!

[Melissaandcrew]

If you are concerned that the Orijen may be too high protein for him, try the sisterproduct Acana. Its about 31% versus the Orijen 38% and my Iggys love it :

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