[Howard J]

Hi Tamara!

I have a similar dog as you and she also suffered with pancreatitis. For our Carine Terrier we had to do a lot of trial and error to figure out what was best for her. Firstly, she was overweight, 19lbs; 4.5lbs overweight in November of 2015. She is now 14.6 and staying steady. One reason she might of lost so much weight was because she had EPI from the pancreatitis episode in 2015. So she wasn’t absorbing as many nutrients. We also focused on exercise a lot more.

In regards to PANCREATITIS, we put her on a strict diet for about a month after her episode. Chicken boiled twice, white rice, sometimes a starchy food like Yam or sweet potatoes steamed and/or boiled. We should of supplemented with vitamins at this time but we were a little ignorant. Anyway, after this we bought HONEST KITCHEN Zeal Meal fish formula and HONEST KITCHEN veggie formula which is just a topping if you feed her protein such as fish boiled or chicken boiled. For 5 months we have been on a regime feeding her twice a day, either the zeal meal, ground up in a blender for a sec. Or the Honest Kitchen veggie topping dehydrated one. Both need hot water and let sit for 5min. The veggie one is mixed with fish, chicken or 95% lean twice boiled beef. We introduce more fat like coconut oil which doesn’t require the pancreas to work like other fats in small amounts.

NO TABLE SCRAPS PERIOD!! Supplements are what saved our dog. She has more energy than she did when she was 7. For every meal and what I think is the most important for dogs suffering with pancreatitis is an enzyme replacement. You can get them from your vet but we just use the vegan powder formula on amazon. Not too much money and lasts a year. We sprinkle 1/2 a teaspoon on her food for nutrient absorption and so her pancreas doesn’t have to work as hard. The brand is called Nusentia Enzyme Miracle.

Other supplements include pancreatrophin from standard process, which also aids in her digestion, paraplex and enteric powder all from standard process. We barely use the last two.

I hope this helps a lot, we had to go through the same thing, it’s important to stay low fat, but not too low and to add in enzymes slowly.

[Howard J]

UPDATE: So Coco is now 16lbs. She lost 3.2lbs in just over a month. We have been giving her supplements, including Pancreatrophin PMG and an Enteric powder as well. We still feed her boiled chicken and/or beef with rice occasionally. However, around a week ago we have been feeding her Honest Kitchen Zeal meal and she really likes it. She also has a super amount of energy, she is a completely different dog!

There’s a problem. Her stools are back to normal, they are formed and brown, yet, I noticed after a rainstorm that her poop seemed to still have all of the pieces of food found in the zeal meal. It’s as if she is not absorbing the nutrients. I’m not sure though. She also has blocked anal sacs, so we are trying to figure that one out.

[Howard J]

I see, I’ll call her and see what she says. It might even be a phosphorus binder, I have to look at the paperwork. Her calcium is elevated. Maybe it is due to the fact that her diet consists of chicken and rice for the time being, which is why she introduced it.

[Howard J]

The holistic vet also gave her low potency phosphorus like beads for her to take everyday. I’m not sure why she wanted us to do this, maybe because of high calcium levels?

[Howard J]

Hi!
She is starting to feel a lot better. Her stools are formed although they still are slightly yellow and mucusy. We brought her to a homeopathic vet and nutritionist today, she said she likely suffered from acute pancreatitis from the blood works and symptoms that we gave her. She also said she has symptoms for textbook Cushing’s disease and our other vet, thought this could be the case as well. She said to feed her chicken and rice for a few more days and she will help guide in the right direction regarding diet. She gave us PMG pancreatrophin, Paraplex and Enteric all whole food supplements. Here hormones are out of whack and she believed it stems from her pituitary gland.

[Howard J]

Good news. We received her blood work and her liver enzymes have dropped into normal range. Everything is excellent, except for slightly high calcium levels. Apparently she had colitis as well as bad bacteria in the small intestine, probably from the raw diet we were feeding her. They gave her Metronidazole and an anti-acid and she is doing better. Still feeding her chicken and rice/potatoes. We are going to to see a nutritionist on Monday.

[Howard J]

Thank you so much. I’m going to bring her in to see a nutritionalist vet on Monday. Her poop is still watery and yellow. I’m also going to try the Honest Kitchen dog food and see if that works for her. I’ll give her mashed sweet potato and chicken breast tonight. If I were to give her cooked food I would have to supplement with amino acids and vitamins. DigestaVite Plus 100g looks great and will probably help put good bacteria back in her system. However, I don’t know where to buy it? The site doesn’t have a checkout and I looked on amazon and it said it would ship between january 5-February 8, which is a long time from now. It’s obviously not an American company.

What fruit and veggies do you recommend? I know that they most likely have to be pureed or boiled for easy digestion. I just don’t want to overwork her pancreas that’s why I want to give her pancreatic enzymes, they are just expensive.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 4 months ago by Howard J.

[Howard J]

The only great thing about Royal Canin is a max of 2.5% fat in their wet food. Is there any food with a DM matter basis of fat 5% or less with good ingredients?

[Howard J]

So does the Fromm have less fat per 100g than the Zeal dog food or more? Also, would administrating probiotics and pancreatic enzymes help her pancreas. The reason why we chose to feed raw food was because of the good enzymes. Cooking would kill the enzymes, correct? Also, thanks for the input, I really appreciate it!

• This reply was modified 8 years, 4 months ago by Howard J.

[Howard J]

She does not take Metronidazole. We gave her Royal Canine low fat wet food a few hours ago, the ingredients are horrendous but she seems to be doing better. Probably will never give it to her again. Still looks like she is losing weight though.

Her breath does not smell good. Smells like putrid throw up, although it has gotten better. Her butthole seems to be inflamed too. I’ll try the mashed potatoes.

I’ll refrain from giving her a raw based diet, also I mine as well buy the Honest Kitchen food looks great! My only question is the Fromm wet food I have been feeding her has 44.63% Protein on a dry matter basis of 100 grams and 10.24% Fat on a dray matter basis of 100 grams. I can only imagine the fat content of Natural Instinct’s Venison Raw.

For Honest Kitchen the Zeal Dog food profile says Protein is 38.40% on a Dry matter basis and Fat is 9.25%, which is less than the Fromm wet food. However, it does not say the amount of grams, which would be my only concern. If its 100grams then she would likely do better on this food, in part because of the low protein and fat content and the better ingredients. The Fiber is much lower than Fromm’s wet food however the carbs are higher, not sure if that is good or bad for pancreatitis.

http://www.thehonestkitchen.com/media/wysiwyg/AAFCO/ZEAL-nutrient-profile-1.pdf
http://frommfamily.com/products/four-star/dog/can/shredded-chicken/technical-analysis/

Also, the As-Is Basis of fat per 100 grams of the Fromm is 2.10, which is lower than the As Received (8.5%) as well as the As Served Hydrated (4.25%). Yet, Fromms dry matter basis of 100g, the fat % is higher than all the categories in the Zeal Dog Food Nutrient Profile.

Really confusing!

[Howard J]

She also would somewhat randomly get extremely loud belly gurgles. Almost like a squirting noise. Loud enough to hear from another room. She appears to be completely normal at these times.

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