Odd/Dangerous Food Request?
Greetings fellow sitters! I'm going on year three with my Rover sitting business and for the first time have run up against a strange client feeding request. I have a 13 year old Yorkie mix staying for two weeks. when the owner dropped the dog off they came in with several bags of food for a 12 pound dog (if that). In the bags were Beneful canned food for small dogs and 10 lb s. of Oscar Mayer deli turkey. They told me the dog gets a half pound of turkey every morning followed by the canned beneful. Of course this immediatley raised my eyebrows but I didn't say anything to thje client and intended to follow their request. But looking at the deli meat I noticed it has 500 grams of sodium per 2 oz serving--for 8 oz, that's 2000 mg of sodium. They said the dog drinks a lot of water (I wonder why...). I did some reasearch and its recommended that dogs are not supposed to have more than 100 mg. of sodium per day. The dog has liver problems and is on meds. The owners told me that they can't seem to get his liver problems under control. The dog acts much older than its age. So I am having a moral dilemma, do I follow the feeding instructions knowing that they are probably contributing to its poor health? Do I bring it up to the owner and risk getting a complaint about meddling and bad feedback? Do I call their vet and ask if the vet has recommended this diet? Thanks in advance for your comments/advice.