Hi again everyone. We are thinking of switching to Bravo raw frozen as our local retailer just started carrying it. Though I read in several places including Bravo's website that their original formulas need to be supplemented with fish oil and vitamin E (which we're already doing) and some combination of dairy and fish. They recommend canned fish like sardines and mackerel, though when looking at them in the store they seem really high in sodium and Gohan is supposed to have little sodium in his diet. Any opinions on that?

In case any are wondering, we did give a go at home preparing everything. I really wanted it to work out for nutrition and financial reasons, but he won't eat the chicken, veggies, rice, pasta, won't even eat eggs now. He loves raw beef though! I tried preparing the veggies different ways, puree, steamed, soaked in chicken broth, you name it, he won't touch the stuff. So we're trying to find alternatives to make sure he is getting balanced nutrition.

Just a quick update on him, we took him in for an EKG and more x-rays yesterday upon the referral of our holistic vet. They found very little fluid in his lungs and abdomen, not enough to remove with a needle, which is good. But they upped his Lasix which our holistic vet had us stop entirely over the weekend due to abnormal kidney values, which then led to vomiting and diarrhea for a couple days. He was taken in Tuesday to check for dehydration and get an emergency injection of Lasix to get him caught up on what he missed.

The emergency vet prescribed Vetmedin and Digoxin and we have to take him in weekly to make sure the Digoxin isn't reaching toxic levels and to recheck his kidney values due to the increased dosage of Lasix. He has been peeing like crazy but haven't seen him drink more to compensate, so I'm a little concerned.

On the bright side, since starting the Vetmedin and Digoxin last night he seems to have a LOT more energy. He's not bouncy off the walls, but the past week he has been progressively getting more and more lethargic and he hasn't had interest in playing at all or doing much of anything besides sleep. Today he kept bringing me his toys and teased me so I'd play with him. We played tug of war like 6 times today! Before today, he didn't even stay on his feet more than a few minutes. He was jumping up to get his treats from my hands before I could give them to him and he was wolfing down his beef patties before I could put them in his bowl. The last week I've had to beg and plead with him to eat just a little bit, but tonight he was on his feet watching everything I did as I prepared his food.

The vet called Vetmedin a miracle drug, and I'm convinced that she's right. He is obviously feeling MUCH better, which takes a huge weight off my heart. I was starting to wonder if we were doing all this to keep him here for us or to keep him here for him. I can't tell you how happy I am to see him coming back to life. The vet said he has a few months to a year left, which isn't what we wanted to hear, but it's a lot better than "any day" as the first vet told us. We're making the most of this time and the vet gave us permission to take short leash walks so he's going to get to go out for the first time since all this started! Excited about that.

Thanks for all the advice you have given us in previous threads! We'll keep you posted on how he's doing!