[Stephanie B]

I’ve had good results feeding my dog (8yr choc lab) Weruva human style canned, ZiwiPeak, and Nature’s Variety Instinct. With canned food you have to be careful to look for the “gums” used as a thickening agent….like carrageenan. I have not personally tried it yet but I’ve read good things about Nature’s Logic canned as well. Best of Luck!

[Stephanie B]

That’s wonderful news! So glad you found a local vet that knows what she’s talking about with regard to heartworm treatment! All the best to you and Remy!

[Stephanie B]

Absolutely not! Your dog should go on the monthly heartguard pill immediately. The immiticide injections kill the adult worms. Monthly Heartguard kills the worm larvae that are in the bloodstream.

[Stephanie B]

Sounds like a good rescue organization! Is it possible for you to continue Remy’s treatment with the vet that your rescue used? That would be a good way to ensure continuity in care. I have never heard of a reaction to heartguard after heartworm treatment. In fact, my vet administered 2 doses of heartguard while my dog was having her immiticide injections and in their care overnight.

[Stephanie B]

I agree, it would be beneficial to have the paperwork or at least contact info for the vet your rescue organization used to administer the injections. I think the confusion comes in because the “standard protocol” now calls for the 3 injections vs. 2. But both are effective depending on the worm infestation level. If the dog has already been subjected to 2 injections (as confirmed by the vet who administered)…it doesn’t make sense to start over from the beginning and give 3 more! Unfortunately, it takes 6 months before you can re-test to know whether the treatment has been effective. I would also agree with your decision to switch vets to one who knows about/treats heartworm disease.

[Stephanie B]

I also adopted a HW+ dog and she had the 2 injection treatment as well (2 months ago). It often depends what stage the HW infestation is at (there are 4 stages) as to which course of action the vet takes (2 shot vs. 3 shot) The Immiticide injections are hard on the dog so I definitely WOULD NOT start over at the beginning. The injections are done at the spinal cord which is painful and can cause soreness/weakness. There should be a shaved spot on your dog’s back where they administered the injections. After the injections the dog needs to be kept minimally active/at rest for 4-6 weeks as the worms “die”. High activity can cause a pulmonary embolism (clotting.) Also, you need to get the monthly preventative (eg. Heartguard) immediately and give it every month. The injections kill adult worms but you want to stop new infections with the preventative. And as a side note, the prednisone steroids will cause increased thirst and hunger so make sure you have lots of water for the dog to drink and take him out for more bathroom breaks. The dog should be retested (blood test) in 6 months to ensure he’s HW negative. https://www.heartwormsociety.org is a great resource for information as well.

Best of luck!

[Stephanie B]

Good point! Definitely go by your dog’s look than just the number on the scale. I think switching from the Natural Balance still wouldn’t be a bad idea though if you can find something she’ll tolerate without diarrhea. As it’s very high in carbs and low protein. Unfortunately, as they age it gets harder for weight loss and as with humans excess carbs makes it even harder!

[Stephanie B]

Hi Teresa B- I totally understand not wanting to return to diarrhea issues!! And it sounds like she’s getting lots of exercise, that’s great! We adopted ours as a senior and she weighed 94lbs…she’s gotten down to 84 with about 6 more pounds to go. Do you feed treats between meals? I know those can add up so if you do you should factor them in to her daily calories (there’s a calculator on this site that helps you figure out the recommended daily calories for a dog’s ideal weight and activity level.)

I’ve never used Natural Balance foods so all I can go off of is the label and lower ratings here due to the high carbohydrate content and low protein (Potato is listed as the first ingredient…ideally I’d try to find something with the protein(s) listed first.) That being said if your pup really does well on it and you can’t find an alternative that isn’t causing diarrhea, it’s only 375/cup which is not excessively high. The very high quality protein rich foods (Acana, Orijen, Wysong, etc.) are in the 450-500cal/cup range. So, you could cut back just a little on the serving size per meal of her current food (either mixing in wet food or not) and see if it aids in weight loss. As far as suggestions see below:

Ones that I’ve tried and like (or I should say Heidie liked 🙂 ) are:
Wellness Core Reduced Fat 360cal/cup
Dr. Tim’s Metabolite 268.6cal/cup
Weruva Caloric Harmony Venison & Salmon w/ Pumpkin 348cal/cup
Orijen Senior 445cal/cup (this one is higher calorie so I tend to mix 50/50 with either Wellness Core RF or Dr. Tims Metabolite to cut down the cals per meal)

Some I’ve researched (but haven’t fed yet) that could be viable options to try are:
Annamaet Grain Free Lean Low Fat 350 cal/cup
Nature’s Variety Instinct Grain Free Healthy Weight 347cal/cup
Premium Edge Healthy Weight I 347cal/cup
Nulo Freestyle Cod and Lentils 368cal/cup
Dr. Tim’s RPM Salmon & Pork Grain Free 389cal/cup

If it seems like your dog is having a lot of digestive issues with new foods it might be worth getting an allergy test done to narrow down what foods you can try based on their ingredients.

Hope this helps…all the best!

[Stephanie B]

From my research, if it has to be Grain Free I think you may have a hard time finding a food that low in calories. I’m in a similar predicament, my 8 yr old chocolate lab is 84 lbs and the vet recommends 78 lbs as her ideal weight. Dr. Tim’s does make a 5 star food that is only 286 kcal/cup but it does contain grain (it’s called Metabolite). In my opinion, for grain free it’s better to go with a good quality/higher protein food which is slightly higher in calories (say 350-380) and feed a little less. Or cut down the dry kibble and mix in wet food which is much less calorie dense (ie. a whole can of wet food generally has the same number of calories as only one cup of dry kibble.) This is what I’m doing for my Heidie and she’s down 2lbs in the last month or so. I like the Wellness Core reduced fat mentioned above mixed with any variety of 5 star canned products (one of my favorites is the Weruva human style ones.)

Just my 2 cents…Good luck! 🙂

[Stephanie B]

Follow-up: I submitted a review suggestion request for the Weruva dry.

Thanks!

[Stephanie B]

I am interested in an analysis of the new Weruva dry foods…specifically Caloric Harmony but a comparison to the Caloric Melody would also be helpful. I love their human style canned food and am considering switching to their dry as well.

[Stephanie B]

Oh and I forgot to add…the maximum discount they’ll give you is $15…so mathematically it’ll be less than 20% off if your order is greater than $75 🙂 But like Laura said their prices are the best you’ll find so it’s still a good deal!

[Stephanie B]

It’s a one time 20% off discount the first time you order from Chewy.com and include an item in their auto ship program. It automatically showed up in my shopping cart checkout when I created my user account (again it’s only one time so order all you need!)

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