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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