[Mieke v]

Our dog is on Honest Kitchen Zeal for pancreatitis and when researching it for that had read of folks who had lots of success on it for diabetes. I think that was maybe on Chewy.com where I read some of those. Maybe do a google search HK Zeal diabetes? I read on one post where one person’s dog was able to go down to half the medication dosage (for diabetes) after going on the HK. I also read that people w/dogs with diabetes will hydrate the food (HK is a dehydrated type) let sit for 10 min., then put it in a blender to break it up even more. Be warned, it is an uber expensive food! Due to its costs, and I am not sure if any food is good to give exclusively, we now have him on a rotation diet between the HK, Wellness Core (can) and Merrick Grain-free Wilderness (can). However, for us it save at least $500 in vet fees. Not to mentioned saved our beloved guy.

[Mieke v]

In one of Dr Becker’s videos she discusses dry pet foods. If I understood her correctly, dried food dehydrates an animal as the animal has to re-hydrate the food. This is why, according to her in the video, the army stopped putting dehydrated fruits into troop’s snacks. The body uses a lot of water to rehydrate the food and an animal (pet) generally doesn’t drink that much water in a day. She said the dry foods put pets in a chronic (long-term) state of dehydration. Given her advice, it seems that when feeding kibble one might consider adding the appropriate water (or other re-hydrating liquid) to prevent the animal from having to use stores of its bodily water to rehydrate the food. I am also new to DFA, and only recently learned this by watch some of Dr Becker’s videos on you tube.

[Mieke v]

Hi Again Carol,

I meant to mention that the website I put in my last post has dehydrated foods and also covers raw and homemade. Thought it might be helpful to you since it helped me in determinations.

[Mieke v]

Hi Carol,

We also had pancreatitis symptoms in our dog and Honest Kitchen Zeal really did the trick. He was symptom-free almost immediately. I would recommend to let the food sit about 10 minutes prior to serving (or make ahead and refrig.). We now do a rotation of HK Zeal, Wellness Core, and Merrick Grain-free Wilderness. Three months in and he still has no symptoms. There is a website that lists many of the dry and canned foods and the fat content. It also explains about the information given by the manufacturers and how to figure fat content. I can’t speak to its validity, but it was helpful in pointing us to low-fat, high protein foods. Here is the link: http://dogaware.com/articles/wdjlowfatdiets.html In addition to the HK, on our vet’s advice, we did 10 mg of Famotidine with each meal (our dog weighs 55 lbs) for 2 weeks. You can pick it up at any grocery or drug store. Of course, you’d want to check with your vet first to make sure there are no contra-indications and for the dosage. As you probably already know, fasting is a thing of the past with treatment for pancreatitis and several small meals a day for the first days is the current approach. Good luck! It is so hard – I did weeks of research and I am a research scientist by trade! I hope you find something that works well for your little one.

[Mieke v]

Hello all,

Just wanted to let everyone know that our dog had all of these symptoms as well. Gulping, licking, sometime frantic eating of grass or anything, odd posture, random vomitting, random loose stools with mucus, and the list goes on. We switched him to Honest Kitchen Zeal for 2 weeks along with a dosage of 10 mg Famotidine (acid reducer that you can obtain at any grocery or drug store) at each meal. He weighs 55 lbs. No other food or treats. After two weeks we introduced rotation with Wellness Core (canned) and continued the Famotidine. He was symptom-free within a day or two. He has not had any further symptoms now in three months. We took him off the Famotidine after about one month but carefully watched him for licking, etc. Now he is on a rotation of HK Zeal one day, one day Wellness Core (canned) or Merrick Grain-free Wilderness (canned). We always make sure that the HK Zeal is a full day between the other two. If your dog is not digesting the HK fully, suggest pre-mixing and leaving in fridge. We also increased his physical activity to one 3-mile fast walk with water pack per day after he was symptom-free. Strongly recommend switching up foods and going ultra-low fat, grain-free. It saved his life! So grateful to this forum and our local fancy pet store which helped us.

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