Hi Nancy,
Yes, it is unbelievable how much fluid she gets – 2 liters in a week, that’s about a half a gallon! That’s why we do “the procedure” twice a week; don’t think she’d be able to breathe otherwise.
My dog is about 30# – the vet recommended 1000mg (2 pills) 3x a day. I use Nature’s Plus brand, there’s a health food store nearby that carries it (couldn’t find it at some of the larger stores like Whole Foods). I tried going up to 1500mg 3x a day for a few months but didn’t notice any difference in the amount of fluid so I went back to 1000mg. Don’t know that it actually does anything but I’m not going to stop in case it does.
Haven’t tried Metamucil; that was the nutritionist’s suggestion as she read that a high fiber diet helps with chylothorax. Don’t know what the dosage would be though, need to ask vet.
There are no restrictions on activity because of the port itself; it’s all contained and can only be accessed by needle (looks like a lump on her side). Vet said to just treat her like a normal dog. She is less active when she’s filling up with fluid so she restricts herself. After we drain her, she goes (on her own) to her crate for about 20 minutes or so to rest. I don’t let her run around right after just as a precaution.
The specialist vet doesn’t carry Royal Canin but my regular vet does. The PetSmart here carries it & probably Petco does too; your vet would have to write a prescription for them to fill it. I feed the dry and mix in some canned with it. I just ordered a case of canned from Petflow (www.petflow.com) – price is about the same ($61 for 24 cans) but they deliver it (free shipping for orders over $49) and you can set it up to auto ship (and get 20% off the first order for auto ship). You’d probably want to get a few cans and/or dry to see if your dog likes it before ordering that much though…maybe another local vet carries it.
She eats quite a bit actually – close to a cup of dry with maybe 1/4 – 1/3 can mixed in twice a day. The other dogs get 1/2 cup in the morning & 1 cup at night of their dry food. Her appetite is good and she’s not gained or lost weight (other than after surgery).
I kind of jokingly asked the nutritionist if giving her boneless chicken breast would help with the protein loss. She said it couldn’t hurt, just be sure to boil it and skim off any fat – I trimmed all the fat & other yuck off and then boiled it in no-fat chicken broth and have been adding some to her food but just in the last week or so. When she had the surgery she wasn’t eating so I boiled chicken & rice for her and hand fed her and that worked. Then mixed it with the dog food until it was all dog food.
I tried giving her frozen green beans as a treat and that worked for a while…then she caught on that the others were getting real treats. So, I’m giving all of them Pupcorn treats (found at Fred’s or PetSmart has their own brand) as it’s 3% or lower fat and supposedly healthy. She’s not a chewer and not crazy about toys. Wonder if maybe a Kong or similar filled with something low fat would work for your dog?
Hope that helps – do check with the vet though before you do anything. Carol
