Hi Terri!

Umm...your vet does realize that in the wild the diet of a dog is mostly protein, right? Dogs are descended from wolves. Wolves are carnivores and yet they have not all gone extinct from kidney failure. I'm not sure what's in HI PRO, but I'd be willing to bet that it's not all protein. My parents fed my dog from the table after I got married and moved out (couldn't take the dog with me). After 4 years of that diet (which included vegetables and starches), she became grossly overweight and developed diabetes. They had to have her euthanized because by that point, I was living in another state and my mom had terminal cancer and was in no condition to give the dog insulin injections.
There have been NO studies to the best of my knowledge that show that an adequate protein diet is harmful to the kidneys in any way. Yes, the glomuler filtration rate can increase a bit, but so does your heart rate when exercising. Does that mean that exercise is dangerous to my healthy heart because it increases my heart rate? My point is that a higher filtration rate is not necessarily indicative of a problem; only that the kidneys are doing what they were designed to do...filter. Normal healthy kidneys do not filter protein and will not unless they are already damamged by another mechanism, so how can eating adequate amounts of protein harm healthy kidneys? Atkins, as well as many other low carb plans, is an adequate protein/high fat/low carb diet, not high protein. There is nothing magical about carbs that decreasing them while maintaining your protein intake (or even increasing it to meet your minimum requirements) suddenly makes protein harmful to your kidneys.
As for diabetics on low carb, I am one. I've been on low carb for over 18 months. My doctor checks my kidney and liver function every 6 months. So far, everything is working just fine and I'm at a much lower risk for kidney problems now than I was before because my blood pressure and blood sugars are now normal. High blood pressure and uncontrolled blood sugars are the leading cause of kidney damage and failure because both damage the filtering mechanism of the kidneys which is what allows protein molecules to then be filtered and appear in the urine.
Another good example of a diabetic on low carb is Dr. Richard K. Bernstein. He's been doing it for 40+ years and puts his diabetic patients on it. No kidney failure for him so far. As a matter of fact, he was already exibiting kidney problems when he began low carbing to control his type 1 diabetes and it has since reversed itself.