The Kidney Playbook for Dogs
Your dog just got a kidney diagnosis. It is 2am and you are deep in bloodwork, food labels, and worst-case stories.
Here is exactly what to do
in the first 30 days
The Kidney Playbook is the 31-page plan we built when our own dog, Hazel, was given three to six months to live at 11 months old. She turns three this September. It is what we wish someone had handed us on day one: what to ask, what to track, how to think about food, and what to do today.
One-time purchase. Instant PDF download. Reads on your phone.
The Day One Promise
My dog was just diagnosed. What do I do today?
That is the first question the Playbook answers. You do not need to solve the next five years tonight. You need the next few moves. It opens with a Start Here checklist, and these are the five moves it walks you through:
- Ask for a copy of every record. Bloodwork, urinalysis, ultrasound report, blood pressure, vet notes.
- Write down the numbers your vet is watching. Creatinine, BUN, SDMA, phosphorus, and more.
- Ask what stage your vet thinks your dog is in, and what information is still missing.
- Ask for an internal medicine specialist referral. We treat this as a must, not an optional upgrade. The Playbook tells you exactly how to push for it.
- Do not overhaul everything without your vet involved. Some choices depend on bloodwork.
Your job is not to become a kidney specialist overnight. Your job is to become the person in the room who knows what to ask next. That is what this guide is for.
Hazel’s Story
At 11 months old, our Aussiedoodle Hazel was given three to six months to live.
She turns three this September.
Renal dysplasia. The vet said we would be lucky if she made it to her second birthday. The next morning, we got to work: support groups, a second opinion, a renal diet, and an internal medicine specialist two weeks after diagnosis.
Her creatinine started at 2.4, crept to 2.8, and then stopped climbing. It has not moved since. Nothing in her routine has changed in over a year, because nothing has needed to change.
Hazel is not the sales pitch. She is the reason this guide exists. We are Tyler and Sam, and the Playbook is the exact plan we built for her, written so you can build yours faster.
What’s Inside
Every section answers a question you will face this month
This is not an ebook you skim and forget. It is a plan you run. Here is what is inside:
01
What To Do Today
The five moves to make before the panic wins, laid out as a checklist you can act on tonight.
02
The Diagnosis Decoder
Creatinine, BUN, SDMA, phosphorus, and IRIS stages in plain English, plus the exact questions to ask about each one.
03
The First 30 Days Plan
A week-by-week sequence: records and food moves in week one, the specialist in week two, the supplement plan in week three, the repeatable routine in week four.
04
The Food Decision
Why renal diets are different, the protein and phosphorus questions that matter, homemade versus commercial, and the framework we used to choose Hazel’s food.
05
The Protocol, Schedule, and Delivery System
Hazel’s full protocol at a glance, her actual daily schedule, and the part nobody warns you about: how to get pills into a dog who does not want them.
06
Cost Reality
The real monthly math from Hazel’s protocol, item by item with a total. For scale, her food and supplement routine comes to roughly $550 a month at her 43-pound size, and the guide shows every line behind that number plus the priority order for when money is tight. A clear priority order is kinder than pretending every item is equally urgent.
07
Warning Signs and Monitoring
What deserves a call today, what to log and watch, what means emergency care, and how bloodwork tells you the plan is working.
08
The Printables Pack
Three fill-in tools built for the fridge door: a Daily Routine Tracker, a Bloodwork Log that shows the trend at a glance, and a Vet Appointment Question Sheet.
A Page From Inside
From the Vet Appointment Question Sheet:
“What number are you watching most closely?”
“What change would worry you?”
“What symptoms mean call you immediately?”
Ten questions like these on one printable sheet, built for the fridge door. It is one of three fill-in tools inside.
31 pages. Instant download. Printables included.
Who It Is For
Who this is for, and who it is not for
This is for you if
- Your dog was just diagnosed with kidney disease or renal dysplasia and you do not know what to do first
- You are drowning in conflicting advice from search results and Facebook groups
- You want a clear sequence for the first month, not another wall of generic information
- You want to walk into the next vet appointment knowing what to ask
This is not for you if
- Your dog is in an emergency right now. Call your vet or an emergency hospital first. This guide can wait.
- You are looking for veterinary medical advice. This is our lived experience plus sourced explanations, and it is built to be used with your vet and an internal medicine specialist, not instead of them.
- You want a cure promise. There is none. The honest goal is a stable plateau, and the guide is upfront about that.
If you are ready, the Playbook is $14.99, below. If you still have questions, the next section answers the most common ones.
Questions
What you are probably wondering
Can’t I find all of this free online?
Most of the raw facts, yes. We read those same free articles at 2am, and half of them contradicted each other. What you are paying for is the order: one sequence for the first 30 days, one dog’s full worked protocol with the real monthly costs, and three printable tools for tracking it all. It replaces forty open tabs with one plan.
Can I read it on my phone?
Yes. It is designed to read well on a phone, and the three printable tools are built to be printed on regular letter paper.
Is this veterinary advice?
No. It is our personal experience with Hazel plus plain-English explanations grounded in sources like the IRIS guidelines, the Merck Veterinary Manual, VCA, and AAHA, all cited inside. Every dog is different. The guide is built to make you a better partner to your veterinarian and an internal medicine specialist, which we treat as a required part of the plan.
My dog’s case is different from Hazel’s. Will this still help?
Every kidney case is different, and the guide says so up front. That is why most of it teaches you what to ask and what to track, so you and your vet can build the version that fits your dog. Hazel’s protocol is in there as a worked example, not a prescription.
My dog was diagnosed months ago, not yesterday. Is it too late for this to help?
No. The first 30 days framing is about momentum, not a deadline. The Diagnosis Decoder, the food framework, the warning signs and monitoring section, the cost math, and the printable trackers are just as useful in month six as in week one. If you have never had a clear system for tracking bloodwork and routines, this gives you one.
What if it does not help, or it is not what I expected?
We cannot promise an outcome for your dog, and we will not pretend otherwise. No honest guide can. What we can promise is exactly what is listed on this page, section by section, so you know precisely what you are buying for $14.99. If anything goes wrong with your purchase or the download, reply to your receipt email and we will make it right.
You do not need the next five years figured out.
You need the next 30 days.
Tonight does not have to be the night you figure everything out. It can be the night you start the plan.
Instant PDF download. You could be reading it five minutes from now. From Tyler, Sam, and Hazel at The Daily Dog.
