What to feed overweight dog with possible kidney probs.

Hi!!! Happy Holidays to all. I'm usually on here about my cats and everyone has helped tons. But now I have a question about dogs. My mom has an overweight Min Pin...13 pounds. She's a football. She recently took her to my vet and he ran a senior wellness panel (blood, urine, etc.) and he called her back with the results, saying she might be going into kidney failure, but he'd like to run more tests on her kidneys to be sure. She also has knee misalignment issues and her legs collapse every so often. He said losing weight would definitely help her. Poor baby.

I'd like to know what food I can purchase for my mom to give to Bandit to help her lose weight and to help with warding off any possible kidney problems or preventing any further degeneration. Is the food for dogs, similar to that for cats...meaning, canned better? Obviously no harmful preservatives, garbage food...but I'm not up to date on canine nutrition at all.

My kitties are now eating canned Nutro and some treats of Solid Gold dry - can't remember the name but the bag is sparkly gold (I just found this new product they recently put out that says high protein, no grains...so I'm trying it out.)

Thank you so much for your help!!

You have a mix of issues to deal with at this point.

For weight loss, divide the total amount of the food into several smaller meals. My dogs love rice, so we usually add some to their food so they feel full. Carrots are also a low calorie food they like for a treat. Instead of regular treats, hold back some of the regular food and give it like treats.
Don't try to accomplish the weight loss too quickly, it should occur over several months to be a healthy weight loss.

Dogs are better than cats at drinking water. I'm not sure about the best diet though.

With Dogs a lower protein and fat diet has been shown to help kidneys( under 22 protein which in many cases is the norm_ ... i would just like a cat get the dog off dry alltogether

I will pm you later with some ideas.. but most senior and light foods fit ( premium)

I don't know much about dogs. Have you talked to your vet about it yet??? My cat Matallica had kidney and UTI problems AND was overweight. They vet recomended one of the Science Diets and it seemed to work out nicely.

Thanks for the replies. I purchased a few cans of Wellness Senior b/c I figured the lower protein and fat would help. I told my mom to get her off dry completely. So I was on track. Thanks! When the vet runs additional tests, we can discuss diet, but he is an advocate of prescription diets and well, I'm not. If worse comes to worse, I'll speak to another vet in town who does not believe in prescription diets. But working with the knowledge on this site and with my vet, who is pretty open when I bring this stuff to the table, I'm sure we can help this little doggie out.
Sharky, I'll look out for your PM. Thanks again!!!