Ugh! Pancreatitis overload!

[KelasMom]

Okay, my baby Kela is 2 years old and recently (two weeks ago) spent a week at the doggy doctor. I was terrified she had a blockage but thank goodness she didn't...now my problem is acute(thankfully!) pancreatitis. I am terrified of feeding her too much or the wrong food and I need serious help. My wonderful vet is very overloaded right now and doen't have much time except to tell me that I need to ease back into a full-fledged dog diet (3 cups of wet or dry a day?).

I have thousands of questions...well maybe not thousands but A LOT!
What is a really good dog food for pancreatitis?
What is the best thing to have in her diet(analysis-wise)?
How fast is too fast to increase her food intake? Because she acts like she is starving to death!

Right now she is eating the prescription i/d wet food from the vet and I would like to get her on a normal dog food. I've been looking at Wellness and Blue Buffalo and tons of other high quality brands but they all seem so high in fat! What IS low fat?? Ugh...HELP PLEASE!

 

[KelasMom]

In addition...

I've been looking at a wet food that is 2.5-4% crude fat and dry that is 6-10% crude fat. I've seen how high a lot of these bag foods are and I just don't think she can handle them...but she's eating 1% now and I feel like that is not enough to sustain her. She is only 2 and is acting like she's starving....Help please! Haha!

 

[DSmitty]

We do not have experience in this but you found the right forum. Hopefully someone will advise soon. Until then, we hope your baby has a speedy recovery

 

[Gatorblu]

Oh the joys of pancreatitis. My Thor has chronic pacreatitis, so I know how you feel. First take a deep breath...hold it...now slowly let it out. The worst is over and your baby is going to be ok.

Wellness makes two good Reduced Fat formulas. Wellness Core Reduced Fat is grain free, and there is Super5mix Healthy Weight Recipe. Both are dry and there is no canned version, but if you feel you need to you can wet the foods down before feeding. When looking a the label it lists the minimum and maximum fat. I know there are others on this forum that use them.

As for feeding, I feed Thor 4 times a day, (remember his is chronic and he is a senior boy as well.) and yes he is always hungry, but then again he always has been. For now I would feed Kela 5 small meals a day and then in a week or so cut it back by one meal to 4, and then in another week cut back again, etc to youare down to your normal two meals. If you feed too much at once the pancreas becomes over worked and you end up starting over again. It just takes time to heal. Sending lots of positive, healthy (((vibes))) to Kela!

 

[Barkley]

Excellent advice from Pam. Jordan has had on-and off bouts with pancreatitis over the years as well, and thanks to this forum we found the Wellness Core low-fat after his most recent trouble, about four months ago. We currently combine the Wellness with (slightly higher fat) Acana Pacifica. Both are grain-free, of which I am a huge proponent. I added the Acana for both variety/taste and to keep some fish in his diet, because we used to feed a can of sardines in the afternoon as a snack, and since those are fairly high in fat, we stopped for awhile. For a variety of reasons I won't bore you with (mainly, I question the diagnosis we received in the first place), we are now back to feeding the sardines, but he seems to like the dry food combo, so we're sticking with it.

We are fortunate to be able to feed several times a day, as Pam does. They eat kibble at 0730, then snack on sardines at around one or two, then kibble dinner at 1730 or so, and then a bedtime snack (also kibble) around nine or so.

Try not to freak out...this is very manageable. Jordan's only had about four acute bouts and he's almost nine. Boxers are known for tummy troubles, but with good quality food and some flexibility in feeding, you should be fine. You may want to investigate a raw diet, for what that's worth. We used to feed raw, with tremendous success, as a result of Barkley's early tummy problems as a pup. The only reason we don't still feed raw is that we are overseas now and both the cost and availability is prohibitive.

Good luck to you both!

 

[DiverDiva]

Mali had a bout with acute pancreatitis last January. The vet wanted me to buy her some bland prescription kibble that had corn as a ingredient. I really did not want to feed her that, asked if I could feed her boiled turkey breast and white rice instead, and that was fine. She was on the bland diet for one week.

My dogs are fed RAW 5 days and kibble 2 days per week. Mali gets half Wellness Core Reduced Fat mixed with half of the same kibble Oscar eats. On RAW days, about 1/4 of her meat is a very lean meat like chicken breast.

She has been just fine, so far.

 

[johann]

Johann has had one acute bout of pancreatitis and a few minor flares (thankfully caught before it got bad- he is a big wimp so it's easy to notice).

He maintains well on Wellness Core low fat and Acana (half and half). He eats around 2 cups twice a day, but is a tall boxer and weighs 80 lbs. He also gets a beef rib bone a few times a week (no marrow bones anymore though). We keep him rather thin, can see 3-4 ribs, to help reduce the risk of a reoccurance, his first one was when he was about 13 lbs overweight.

I hope your boxer is feeling better soon. It seems overwhelming, but pancreatitis is usually very manageable with some diet changes and restrictions.

 

[Barkley]

Kate...I wonder if you're the person I stole the Wellness Core/Acana half-n-half combo idea from? I did find it on here! If so, thanks!! Jordan's doing well on it, too.

:D

 

[johann]

Kate...I wonder if you're the person I stole the Wellness Core/Acana half-n-half combo idea from? I did find it on here! If so, thanks!! Jordan's doing well on it, too.

:D

Glad he's doing well on it too! Johann is not a fan of the Core (too dry/dusty) alone, but will gobble it up with Acana. Thankfully he is able to handle a slightly higher fat content with the mix.

 

[KelasMom]

Thanks for all the advice! Keep it coming please!

Right now she is still on the prescription wet i/d mixed with regular Blue Buffalo weight maintenance. I am very slowly switching her back to store-bought dog foods because my vet has such a high volume of patients and I don't want to buy the food from them when some other pup might need it more desperatly than my Kee. She is doing great this week(2nd week out of vet). I was just so afraid that she wasn't getting the amount of food she needed, but hearing that it's okay to keep them smaller than you might a dog without this condition makes me feel better. Kela has always been a leaner dog because she is just SO active so I really don't know where it came from other than low quality(and price!) dog food combined with table scraps and a predisposition to develop pancreatitis. With all that said, absolutely no table scraps from my dinner now, much healthier dog food, and no more fatty treats. She still gets treats but they are locally-made and all-natural by a wonderful pet shop owner in my town that makes food for dogs. I am hoping that I can help her maintain a good balance on store-bought food because, admittedly, it is much easier for me. If she doesn't continue to recover, I will switch to a raw diet. I just love her so much and it pains me to see my babies hurting so I will do whatever is necessary!