[Carol A]

Hi, just looking for some opinions. I have a 6-year old female dog, a month ago she started vomiting, became lethargic and did not want to eat. I took her to the vet and she was diagnosed with pancreatitis. They put her on prednisone, an antibiotic, and Hills Sciente prescription food for two weeks. She got better, although vet tested her again and she still had pancreatitis. She was around three weeks on Purina Smarblend Ground Chicken and was doing great, stools were normal and regular, no vomits. On Sunday, I gave her Purina Smartblend Tender Cuts in Gravy, she immediately started with diarrhea and hasn’t stopped since. Diarrhea is now yellowish, like mustard and found some mucus earlier today. She hasn’t eaten since yesterday morning, although she does have an appetite because she wants my food. Her other vet gave her cannabis pills, did not put her on a probiotic. Last night, like I said she had diarrhea, then she drank a lot of water and threw up, so I took her to the vet. Pancreatitis is still there, although pancreas is not inflammed, she’s alert. Vet put her on Cerivia (wrong spelling I think), famotidine, a gel probiotic, and metronidazole, told me to fast her for 24 hours and then start giving her Hills Science Prescription for 3-4 days, and then slowly transition to regular food.

I don’t know if I should keep giving her Purina Smartblend Ground food, or change her diet to something low-fat. Vets haven’t been helpful with that and I am very anxious and sad about all this, I want her to get better again but I don’t know if it’s even possible. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Ryan K]

I’m definitely not an expert but my dog has similar instances of vomiting, lethargy and runny stool and one thing I know has helped alleviate his symptoms a bit has been a lower fat food. He does better when he is on the Hills ID Low Fat. However, he hates kibble so I struggle. I give him a pouch of Tomlyn Pre and Probiotic powder mixed into some chicken broth and it has helped him. I also give him 14 days of omeprozole antacid at the suggestion of both people on this forum and my vet. If I notice him vomiting I have found the suggestion of slippery elm powder mixed with water and fed via syringe to be really helpful. It seems to ease his acid and calm his stomach. It’s cheap and easy to make. Of course, this is all still pretty new to me so my comment is just what has helped a bit for my sickly little dog. He still struggles a lot but he seems to do better on a lower fat food and especially with the tomlyn pre and probiotic powder I found. That has really helped him. He literally was off it for two days and his symptoms came back. I put him on it again and a day later he is ok. Soooo, seems like that helps a bit. It’s on Amazon for like 17 dollars so not too bad.

Good luck with your pooch. It’s so hard seeing them sick. Hang in there. 🙂

[anonymous]

Quote: “I don’t know if I should keep giving her Purina Smartblend Ground food, or change her diet to something low-fat. Vets haven’t been helpful with that and I am very anxious and sad about all this, I want her to get better again but I don’t know if it’s even possible. Any help would be greatly appreciated”.

There are no veterinarians here. Even if there were, they have not examined your dog so it would be irresponsible for them to advise you.
For the best possible outcome take your dog to the nearest vet immediately for an accurate diagnosis and treatment options.

[Susan]

Hi Carol,

When the fat % is too high poos are yellow, Mr Whippy poos, was the Purina Smartblend Tender Cuts in Gravy a wet can food?? What was the Purina Smarblend Ground Chicken ?? wet can or a dry kibble?? you have to stay 2% fat & under & 78% for moisture when its a wet can food.. this will be around 7-10% fat

Did you know the fat % in raw foods & wet can foods havn’t been converted to dry matter fat % like a kibble is, so when you convert say 5%min-fat in a wet can food the 5%min fat is around 20%min fat to 26%max fat %, it will all depend what the moisture % is in the wet or raw food? when moisture is over 80% you’ll fine the fat % will be higher…

You’re better off ither cooking chicken & boiled Sweet Potato or feeding Hills I/d Digestive Care low fat wet can foods or Royal Canine Gastrointestinal Low Fat wet can food,
If her diarrhea sloppy yellow poos doesnt clear up you’ll need some Metronidazole tablets…

Are you on Face Book join the “Canine Pancreatis Suport group”
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1435920120029740/
look in their “Files” scroll down to “Pancreas Low Fat dog foods.pdf” click on this PDF & all the pet shop foods come up that you can feed & are LOW fat..

Here’s is a Dog Food Guaranteed Analysis Calculator, save it..

Guaranteed Analysis Calculator

[Ana C]

One of my dog had an episode of pancreatitis almost two years ago. Yellow mucus stool probably means irrigate GI and too much fat.

Since then, I learned how to read the labels closely. You have to calculate fat content in dry matters in order to be to be accurate. DFA also did some calculations for you. You can do a search on DFA and you will get a list of recommend low fat dog food. My dog has been on Annamaet Lean and I am still looking for another brand to rotate.

If you have time, mix in some boil chicken and fresh vegetables to the kibbles. Fresh whole food are the best. I also keep a few Hills science diet prescription can food on hand as go-to food.

[joanne l]

Hi there, please don’t give her anymore Purina can dog food. It is the worst!!! Keep the fat down, continue with Rx diet if it helps her. They have Rx can food if you like (low fat). Also, cooking for her is great too. But when you think she is ready for regular kibble, try Anameat go lean, it is I believe the green bag. Read the ingredients and check it out on chewy.com It says “go lean” on the bag. I read some reviews and the customers that had dogs with this condition raved about it. Hope everything gets better!!
I just want to re comment here, the food I suggested has 9% fat which is good protein is 30% which is high but I don’t know how much protein a dog can have with this condition ask the vet about it. Also, anytime you change foods do it as slow as you can. But I would really keep her on Rx low fat diet until she is really getting better. With this condition she really needs a special diet for now. Most regular can foods are not good for her, except the Rx can food for this condition. Also if you cook for her boil the meat and drain all fat and add some white rice. Chicken breast is the best it is low in fat just like someone else mentioned. Take care.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 3 months ago by joanne l.

[Stacia W]

I have a yorkie.. She had Gastro issues the doctor at that time put her on prednisone after doing research I believe that it does way more harm than good I know that people will probably disagree with me however this is just my opinion and my experience as I have worked extremely hard to keep my dog on track and for the most part it’s worked pretty well except she does have flareups from time to time.
You really have to be proactive for the first so many years I let my doctors keep her on antibiotics and she started to build up an immune to them. They also had her on prescription food which I am not a fan of … Shaking horribly from the pain so finally I decided to do my own thing my research and by lots of trial and error we found what works..your dogs levels have to be tested on a regular basis it can be expensive at least once a year ,if they have flareups it’s really important to know how high their levels are . You need to check on the kidneys as well as the liver as well as pancreas and basically what it comes down to is the diet has to be at a high protein low fat diet. Daisy has been on primal’s raw rabbit And freeze dried when I’m traveling she eats steamed (which you can buy in the bag from like target for $.99 )broccoli cauliflower and carrots she gets baked sweet potatoes in sections (obviously not the whole thing) and rice she Has to stay on a strict diet.
She does have occasional flareups and I will do a round of antibiotics with metronidazole or Flagyl two weeks at a time but it’s not easy and unfortunately it can be expensive . I know people like to cook chicken or talk about cooking chicken but I believe that the protein needs to be higher.
It’s been a struggle but I will tell you after six months of starting her on this diet my vet did come back into the room with her results and was completely shocked.
The last few weeks we have had probably one of the worst attacks that she’s ever had and I did put her back on some meds and the prescription food but she wasn’t getting better so now I’m putting her back on the rabbit in hopes that her levels come down so we will see.
Diet is everything dogs really are no different then people some people could actually learn from this the dog food advisor is a good place to go.
But going the cheaper route with a low-quality food will definitely not end well.

[Patricia A]

Just curious of why the vet said she still has pancreatitis if no inflammation was found. Was an blood test done for elevated enzyme levels? Antibiotics does cause stomach upset. Especially on an empty stomach. Worse thing you can do is keep changing dog foods. Maybe give stomach a break and then a little boiled chicken until no diarrhea. VERY slowly start mixing in maybe a kibble that others suggest here. I have small dogs and feed freeze dried . I know others on this board have been keeping track of kibble safe from this DCM problem.

[Author]

Posts