Hi everyone,
I recently took my 3.5 year old sow Penny to the vet as she has gradually been losing weight and started to drink a lot. He suspects she probably has chronic kidney disease and she will be having another urine test to confirm this week. He recommended she has a low protein and low phosphorus diet.
Does anyone have any experience with pigs with kidney disease and have any recommendations? for food / diet or products that may help slow progression? Any advice would be appreciated
Hi
I am very sorry.
Please replace your pellets with dry or fresh forage; they are biggest source of protein but they are the one part of the diet that can be dropped.
Peppers (daily) and greens (USA: collard greens) are low in phosphorus. Greens are higher in oxalates (and vitamin C) and a bit higher in calcium though but you can feed a 1 in slice safely 2-3 times a week with dropped pellets and filtered water.
Stay off butterhead lettuce (high in phosphorus) and iceberg lettuces (low in phosphorus and nutrition but high in nitrates, which is another thing to avoid) but most lettuces and cucumber are in the medium range and acceptable. The food group lowest in phosphorus are fruits - but overfeeding them comes with its own rat-tail of digestive problems from overfeeding sugar and acid.
Please keep in mind that veg, fresh and dry forage, pellets and any treats altogether count as a single food group because they replace the supplementary role of wild forage which makes about only 20-25% of the diet; over three quarters of the daily food intake should be hay and fresh grass. You can still feed herbs but use them only in a small quantity - you still need the trace elements.
You have to be aware that if you lower the phosphorus intake considerably you also need to lower the calcium intake (including in water) even more because otherwise the calcium : phosphorus ratio becomes unbalanced. Either side of the sweet spot in the diet you end up with a high risk of bladder stones - it really doesn't take much.
The problem with a long term balanced diet is that it is in effective one huge compromise; remove one or two key stones and the whole comes crashing down. Every single food has pros and cons. Avoid any extremes because they will in turn cause their own problems.
I would recommend to stay with a diet of peppers (you can feed them a little more generously), cucumber and lettuce but with a bit more greens instead of herbs and pellets. That should lower the protein lots and also the phosphorus content somewhat but not unbalance the phosphorus : calcium ratio too badly.
Guinea Lynx :: Nutrition Charts
All the best. You may find the chapter on caring for a terminal piggy helpful because the remaining time is precious. You can spend it dreading the end and being fixated on it or you can celebrate every new day as the special gift it is and make it count.
I prefer to re-set the life clock of the piggy in question at zero in that kind of situation and play the rest as overtime, taking a leaf from the piggy book by cherishing the moment and feeling blessed every day my piggy is still there with enough zest of lifefor food and some shared fun. That way you cannot lose out. Love transcends time; you can pack a lifetime's worth of it into a very small space so it's still all there to win for you.
1 Your mental health, sensitivities and work commitments
- Mental health and support resources
- Sensitivity aspects
- When work and other commitments clash
2 Life or death emergency – Can my piggy be saved?
- Contacting a vet clinic at all times and link to life and death emergencies list
- What to do if I cannot access vet care instantly?
- The need to save up for emergency vet access
3 Is my...
