# Help with choices!



## Little Brown Jug (Dec 7, 2010)

I wasn't sure where to post this so I figured I'd post it here.

Woof has recently been diagnosed with Pancreatitis. We switched him to a separate diet from the other dogs that was lower in fat and limited ingredients (it was first thought it might be IBD) Natural Balance Potato & Duck. We made that switch about a month-ish ago when he had one of his worst episodes, less than 3 weeks later he had another bad episode, a week after that (just this past weekend) he had another episode. They've gone from a couple a year to this since 2010. So we've come down to needing to make a choice diet wise instead of just treating when needed. Either we do raw, vet food or homemade (namely Hilary's Blend as the vet photocopied a bunch of recipes for me). All options are going to be pricey, no way out of that but I was wondering people's thoughts. I really don't want to do the vet food, I don't like the ingredients plus Woof doesn't do great on grains. He gets runny eyes, a disgusting skin/coat and poops about 10x a day and that is on the high quality grain inclusive foods!

Raw will be a challenge, meat is expensive here. We don't buy it often ourselves because of the ridiculous pricing. I'm rural, I don't have a lot of options on where I get it just local butcher or grocery store both of which are expensive. The only meats available are chicken (VERY pricey), turkey, beef and pork. Fish too but I try not to buy that at the store instead wait until the cod fishery opens as well as moose. There are no coops or other places to get raw, there isn't even anywhere to get pre made within a 5 hour drive. We did do raw once before but because of price and supply issues I went back to high quality kibble with turkey necks when possible.

I'm honestly somewhat interested in this homemade Hilary's Blend thing. I know very little about homemade diets.


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## Shamrockmommy (Sep 10, 2009)

I know you said no grain, but I have a friend with a shepherd x who has a history of very bad pancreatitis. The food she's found that the dog tolerates the best is Nutro Venison and brown rice. She even tried cooking for her dog and she was still having bouts of it. No bouts going on 3 years but she only gets that one venison food.

Hope this helps, poor Woof


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## flashyfawn (Mar 8, 2012)

Does the vet think he has chronic pancreatitis? You need to be super careful with the fat content and take into account everything he eats, not just the food. If he has allergy/intolerance issues with certain ingredients, unfortunately that makes it more difficult. Some dogs can go back to a little bit higher fat after recovering, some cannot, and it sounds like you are dealing with one that cannot. The NB Duck & Potato looks like it's 10% fat which is low but right on the edge, some pancreatitis dogs need even lower fat, especially dogs who have chronic issues. My dog could never tolerate a food with 10% fat. I'm not familiar with Hilary's Blend, it looks like it's a balancer that you add to recipes? Nothing wrong with home cooking as long as you calculate the fat content and make sure your dog is getting all the the nutrients he needs. I tried home cooking for my dog (pancreatitis among other issues) but it simply did not work for her. 

As far as the prescription diets, I've said my piece on those before, as I have a dog who is thriving on Hills w/d. With those foods, you really do have to look past the ingredients. Those diets are formulated for specific health problems and though the things on the ingredient panel may not be popular, sometimes (as I have done) you simply have to accept that the best food is the one that keeps your dog alive. If your dog can't eat the prescription diets because he truly cannot tolerate the ingredients, then I'd do home cooked. The only other option I can think of is some of the dehydrated diets are low enough in fat (Honest Kitchen or Grandma Lucy are the two that I have used.) Not all of them are low fat, though, and the ingredients may be a problem for him. Getting both grain free and very low fat in a commercial food may not be easy.

The other thing I can highly suggest is joining the pancreatitis e-mail list on Yahoo. The people there are very experienced and always quick to help, especially with food as that can be really difficult to figure out at first.


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## NutroGeoff (May 15, 2013)

Shamrockmommy said:


> I know you said no grain, but I have a friend with a shepherd x who has a history of very bad pancreatitis. The food she's found that the dog tolerates the best is Nutro Venison and brown rice. She even tried cooking for her dog and she was still having bouts of it. No bouts going on 3 years but she only gets that one venison food.
> 
> Hope this helps, poor Woof


We also have a Grain Free Venison and Potato formula that might work well. I have also found that the venison formula has helped quite a few of my customers. I hope Woof feels better!


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## Georgiapeach (Jan 24, 2011)

Here's a kibble that's only 9% fat, recommended by dogfoodadvisor.com. It's also grain free. Maybe worth a look? Annamaet Grain Free Dog Food | Review and Rating - the Lean Low Fat variety.


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## flashyfawn (Mar 8, 2012)

I was actually coming back to this thread to suggest the Annamaet Lean. It's the only one I can think of that is grain free but still low fat. Nothing against the Nutro foods listed but if I'm reading correctly, they are at least 12 - 14% fat which is likely too high for a pancreatitis dog, unfortunately. There is low fat, and then there is very low fat. Pancreatitis dogs usually need very low fat and some also need lower protein.


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## Little Brown Jug (Dec 7, 2010)

Neither Annamaet nor Nutro is available near me. Annamaet to my understanding is not available anywhere on the island and Nutro is a 5 hour drive. I'm limited. The only dog food (besides the likes of Walmart brands and vet foods) near me are Orijen, Acana, Chicken Soup, Wellness Super 5 Mix/Core, Oven Baked, Boreal, TOTW, Go!, Canidae, Lifetime, Pro Series, Sojos and Natural Balance. None of which will work for him it seems. I will do the vet food if I absolutely have to, but it is a last resort.

I've got 6 recipes here from the vet that are low fat. Only one calls for a grain ingredient (brown rice) the rest are grain free although one does have rice krispies as an ingredient. It seems fairly easy to do according to the print outs she gave me. Can I freeze it once I mix it up and thaw it to serve? Should I only stick to one or can I alternate a little?


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## flashyfawn (Mar 8, 2012)

In that situation, I would definitely try to cook for him. When I was cooking for my dog, I made enough to last about 10 days and I would leave roughly 4 days worth in the refrigerator and divide the remaining part in half to freeze. I used a little kitchen scale to weigh out her portions. Personally I would only use one recipe initially, until you're sure he is stable and doing well. Sometimes once they have a history of pancreatitis, it can take a while for that inflammation to really go down and it doesn't take much to make it flare up again. But once he's stable, you should be able to slowly introduce some variety.


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## NutroGeoff (May 15, 2013)

Little Brown Jug said:


> Neither Annamaet nor Nutro is available near me. Annamaet to my understanding is not available anywhere on the island and Nutro is a 5 hour drive. I'm limited. The only dog food (besides the likes of Walmart brands and vet foods) near me are Orijen, Acana, Chicken Soup, Wellness Super 5 Mix/Core, Oven Baked, Boreal, TOTW, Go!, Canidae, Lifetime, Pro Series, Sojos and Natural Balance. None of which will work for him it seems. I will do the vet food if I absolutely have to, but it is a last resort.


That does limit you quite a bit. If you do have some good recipes from your vet or anything I would probably try that and see how that does. I would probably start with just one formula to begin with then once your dog becomes a little more accustomed to the new food, you can begin to introduce different flavors


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## Georgiapeach (Jan 24, 2011)

You could order a small bag online to see if it works. Annamaet Grain-Free Lean Low Fat Formula Dry Dog Food.


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## Little Brown Jug (Dec 7, 2010)

What about an all canned diet? Would that be suitable? I had a client suggest it as she does it with her pancreatic dog and so far so good (7 months without an episode)


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## flashyfawn (Mar 8, 2012)

Yes you can feed all canned, just use the same guidelines. It may be expensive for a bigger dog which is one reason many people don't do that. But you can't go by the fat percentage listed on the can, you need to convert it to dry matter to get a more accurate number. This website DogAware.com Articles: Healthy Low-Fat Diets for Dogs will help you do that. Sometimes you will find that the amount of fat is higher than what is listed so that can throw you off. On that page, you'll find a table with a lot of canned foods listed, so you can either pick something from that if there is one that will work for him, or just calculate it on your own for foods not listed but the table given will help you know what numbers you should be shooting for.


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## Little Brown Jug (Dec 7, 2010)

If I do canned TOTW Pacific Stream and Wetlands seems to be the lowest near me with 31 and 34 GFK. They consider ideal low fat to be below 25 GFK.


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## flashyfawn (Mar 8, 2012)

That GFK may be a little high, but it may work for him, there's only one way to find out. I'd introduce it slowly though and watch carefully for any sign of nausea or not feeling well (a lot of seemingly random behaviors end up being a sign of a digestive issue, and it's only obvious when you look back and really think about it.) On the Yahoo pancreatitis group there are a lot of dogs who are sensitive to certain ingredients, and there may be some link between the inflammation from a food intolerance sort of leading to inflammation of the pancreas. I don't have any idea if that's been proven at all, but it just seems like there may be a connection there. So if the ingredients in the canned food work better for him and are easier for him to digest, that will help things a lot. Also wet food may be easier in general for a dog to digest, compared to dry food. If you are able to feed frequent smaller meals, that would be great. My pancreatitis dog eats three smaller meals a day and ate four times a day when she was still recovering.


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