Too Much Protein and dog limping

We have Bella to the vet a month ago with one front leg that she would limp with when she gets up. Vet couldnt find any problem so she has got worse and yesterday we asked him to xray her leg and we have found out that she has a soft bone that is growing too quickly through too much protein. She was having fresh raw lamb and chicken for breakfast and ARTEMIS Medium to Large Puppy dry food at night. We are to only feed her dry night and day and vet suggested that once the Artemis has run out that we change her over to Hills Science for Puppy. After reading about the ingredients and fillers in Hills Science im not to keen to swap her over and he didnt say ARTEMIS was bad for her either. Has anyone else had this problem and any advise would be appriciated.

Theres no such thing as 'too much protein' it's the quality of that protein, plus if you think that fresh meat is mainly water and only about 20-30% protein then that isn't the problem.

Also hills is sh*te

Thanks Ella, she was having 200g of fresh human grade Lamb and half a chicken breast for brekky followed by a couple of spoons of natural yoghurt. I have noticed that there is more protein in her dry than her fresh!!!
She did have about a month where all she had was boiled chicken , rice, vegetables and eggs as she had a reaction to beef and roo. Do you think this could have caused her limp due to lack of vitamins etc.

That's my point!

Possibly she can't cope with kibble and raw in her diet together, so is missing some vitamins. As i feed all raw my boys eat alot of bones and get all the calcium they need, so perhaps a calcium supplement is needed, ground egg shells is good for that.

Apparently, there can be to much protien, my only experiance of this is when blitz had kidney failure.

Well like I said there's more protein in kibble then fresh meat which is why it's down to the quality of it.

Interesting article.....

http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=protein_myth

As far as I'm aware, excess protein wouldn't cause bone to soften or to grow malformed, anyway.

I would be inclined to seek a second opinion. There are vets who would say anything to deter people from feeding raw. I just wonder if the food your vet sells at the surgery is Hills?

Caryll wrote:As far as I'm aware, excess protein wouldn't cause bone to soften or to grow malformed, anyway.

I would be inclined to seek a second opinion. There are vets who would say anything to deter people from feeding raw. I just wonder if the food your vet sells at the surgery is Hills?

Caryll, thank you for the post interesting reading! I have spoke to a few Staffy owners and they class it as growing pains and said it went away on its own. Vet said it should only take a few months on all dry feeds and she will be ok. Yes he does sell Hills but didn't push it really as I said I was feeding her Artemis medium/ Large fresh mix and he didn't say to take her off it, just swap her over when I'd used it all up.
Does anyone rate Artemis as a good dry for staffies. Also give her Blackhawk. She eats it but would prefer to go back to her Lamb & chicken... She also has a beef intolerence!

How old is your girl ??

If still a pup and she limps only after rest, but after abit the limp gets seems to improve after a bit of movement then its a muscle problem.

A pups bones grow faster than the tenors and muscles, they are always playing catch up as a pup grows in height.
She could of had a bit of a growth spurt so accounting for her limping abit as her muscle etc are sore and ache from being stretched.

Just rest her as much as you can, knock any long walks on the head for abit, she'll soon come right.

Not all pups get these growing pain limps.

Hi Denise,

Bella is just 8 months now.

She only has it now and then when she has had a nap and gets up.

Been still feeding raw for Brekky, bones during the day occasionally and shes having Black Hawk Dry food which seems to be helping.

Yes shes a bit skitzy in the house running around and its so hard to keep her quite.
I think you are correct as she did have a growth spurt in height about 2 months ago when she was limping more and it has only ever been in her left front leg