The topic of feeding dogs for specific medical conditions or other stressful situations can be complex, but there are certain basic guidelines agreed upon by most veterinarians. Many individual circumstances require modifications of the standard diet recommended for these conditionst, but the approach of this article will be to address the basics. Modifications will have to be determined by you, your dog, and your veterinarian. For example, a dog in kidney failure often have a pronounced loss of appetite. Your vet may have prescribed a specific "kidney diet," which your dog may refuse to eat. Since weight loss is frequently a serious problem in dogs with kidney failure, it is better to eat SOMETHING than nothing. Therefore, what may appear to be violations of the recommended diet my be preferable to having your dog eat nothing at all. Always consult with your vet, however, before making significant changes.

There is much evidence to suggest that diet plays as much of a role in the development of Hip Dysplasia, and other young-dog joint and bone disorders, as does heredity. There are many large-breed dogs with impeccable bloodlines with respect to hip dysplasia who still develop the disease. One of theories that has been investigated for years, is that overfeeding and oversupplementation of large-breed puppies, especially in the most active phases of growth, can be a significant risk factor in the development of bone and joint disorders. The general rule of thumb is to feed either a diet specifically formulated for large breeds--It will say it on the label--or a high quality "adult" food which says on the fine print of the label that it is also "complete and balanced for growth." See last week's topic for how to obtain this information from a dog food label. Keep the pup lean as he is growing. This means that, for the first 2 1/2 - 3 years of a large-breed dog's life, he needs to stay thin! Large breeds do not finish adolescence until this age and they are still "filling out" throughout this period. Because large breeds grown very fast, their bones need ample time for lengthening and remodeling before they have to handle a lot of weight. Being lean means that you can feel ribs without digging, that there is a visible "tuck" at the "waistline," and that dog's body fat does not roll from side so side when you watch him trot.

Most puppies should still be hungry when they finish their meal. If they do not happen to finish a meal within 5 minutes, pick up the bowl and DO NOT give any more food until the next scheduled feeding, except possibly for small treats used specifically during training. Pups under 10 weeks of age should eat 4 small meals a day. The last one should be about an hour before bed-time, to allow time for urination and bowel emptying before bed. Between 10 and 16 weeks, feed 3 small meals daily; after 16 weeks, feed 2: keep him on two meals a day, throughout his life, so that the stomach does not overexpand with meals, which can happen if only one large meal is fed each day. It is probably better to make the morning meal slightly larger than the evening meal, since most dogs sleep all night, but this suggestion has not been confirmed scientifically.

An important piece of nutritional trivia that owners of large breed puppies should know is the proper ratio of calcium tophosphorus in the diet and that muscle meat contains primarily phosphorus and very little calcium. Vegetable proteins and grains have both, but significantly more phosphorus. Bones are mostly calcium. The proper ratio of calcium to phosphorus in the diet of large breed puppies is 1.2 parts calcium to 1.0 parts phosphorus. This is a fairly simplistic rule, since, in fact, there are other nutritional factors affecting the absorption of these nutrients, but this is a good rule of thumb if you are brave enough to supplement the pup's commercial diet with other foods. On a practical basis, this works out to be approximately one rounded teaspoon of food-grade bone meal (NOT garden grade) to one pound of raw hamburger. I want to reiterate, however, the risks of trying to supplement, augment, or create your own diet without either a lot of advice from a nutritionally knowledgeable veterinarian or a lot of scholastic level nutritional education on your own. By "scholastic level" I mean education that you receive by reading text books and refereed scientific journals, and by attending college or university level courses on nutrition. Do NOT assume that nutritional information you get from friends, breeders, certain well-meaning but underinformed veterinarians, dog books, and, ESPECIALLY, the Internet, is either correct or complete. DO YOUR HOMEWORK! If you do not REALLY understand what you are doing, feed a high-quality commercial diet and don't mess with it!