Low Fat Dry Food

[hollywood]

My aged Irish Setter was diagnosed 3 months ago with pancreatitis and is currently fed on boiled chicken plus cooked rice and vegetables, small meals several times a day. I am looking for a good quality dry food that I could introduce and would be suitable for the long term. I'm not interested in the Vet Science Diet and the Royal Canine for dogs with this condition is very expensive at $130 plus for a 12kg bag. Any suggestions would be most appreciated.

[Nekhbet]

what percentage of fat is he allowed to have? You will find most foods will be too high for him if he's on a severely restricted diet. What did your vet reccommend as a long term?

I'm not interested in the Vet Science Diet and the Royal Canine for dogs with this condition is very expensive at $130 plus for a 12kg bag

I'm assuming you're looking at the Vet only lines that the vet has in his office at that price? You can't get advice from a forum with a condition like this you risk making your dog sick. Each pancreatitis dog is different and the consulting veterinarian should be the one naming brands.

[Chezy]

my girl has P too , I have her on same diet as u have yours on , being a smaller dog the cost is more manageable for me I imagine . I hav enot looked at any of the kibbles as I think you woould have to take other addatives into account as well not just the fat .

I have found some very cheap butchers though , where i have been abnle to get thigh and breast for under $7- a kilo and evenb cheaper at times

[yellowgirl]

Sorry to hear about your dog Hollywood. Feeding several small meals a day is a good idea. The Nutro Natural Choice Lite worked well for my girl. It's Australian made and preservative-free.

As Nekhbet said, panceatitis is different for each dog and the diet needs to be suited to their own needs, so mine is a suggestion only and one that should also be discussed with your vet :)

[WeimMe]

My dog has chronic pancreatitis as well - she used to have mild attacks that caused her a lot of discomfort but so far have not been life threatening. My vet advised a low fat diet (he said no more than 5% fat - which has proven impossible to find).

The lowest fat dog food that we could find is the Supercoat Light and Mature dry food - it has 7% fat which is even lower than the Hills one and since she's a big dog and gets through a lot of food, it is also easy on the wallet. I give her a little bit of human grade kangaroo mince as well and that does not seem to upset her stomach either. The kibble is not particularly appetising to her and she is usually VERY interested in food. There are days when she doesn't even eat it unless I put a little bit of low fat yoghurt or something on it. I imagine that it must be like eating a big bowl of All-Bran for every meal.

When I want to give her a treat I use Schmakos Cheweez as they are relatively low in fat as well but she doesn't get these every day. I checked with our vet that this food was appropriate for her and got the OK and you should probably do the same when you decide on a diet for yours.

Since we made the switch she has only had one episode (which I think was caused by a "kindly" neighbour throwing something from their BBQ over the fence) and has also lost a little bit of extra weight. We've been managing her condition for 2 years now.

[hollywood]

I have spoken to my vet re what percentage of fat was exceptable in the dry food now that my boy has been well for some time. The answer was, just the lowest you can get. I spent ages this afternoon reading labels on the bags at Pet Stock and there is a min. & max % of fat content in these bags which ranges quite considerably. I decided in the end it would be safer to continue cooking rice and vegies plus the cooked chicken but start adding lean roo meat. Eventually I may be able to stop skinning and boiling up chicken pieces and stripping off the meat which is very time consuming. Thank you everyone for your help.

[Lemonlime]

I dont know what percentage of fat the vet has recommended but the lowest in the premium kibbles (available in all good pet stores) is Advance and Artemis, both 6% fat.

[yellowgirl]

I have spoken to my vet re what percentage of fat was exceptable in the dry food now that my boy has been well for some time. The answer was, just the lowest you can get. I spent ages this afternoon reading labels on the bags at Pet Stock and there is a min. & max % of fat content in these bags which ranges quite considerably. I decided in the end it would be safer to continue cooking rice and vegies plus the cooked chicken but start adding lean roo meat. Eventually I may be able to stop skinning and boiling up chicken pieces and stripping off the meat which is very time consuming. Thank you everyone for your help.

Hollywood, I also found the Tucker Time roll quite good (fat content is 6%). Again, Australian made and preservative-free. It's completely different to the supermarket rolls.

[hollywood]

Thank you, I like the idea of having the Tucker Roll on standby in case I haven't had time to cook dinner. The Advance I thought was a min of 5% but the max was considerably higher (though can't recall exactly the %). I would think that 6% fat is very low especially when it is combined with rice and vegies. Anything I do will be done slowly but if I can also make it easier, all the better.

[grace]

We also feed our dog kangaroo meat, rice and veges as well a little natures gift the kangaroo one. Her biscuits are supercoat lite and she also gets a 4x4 every day. She has been on this diet for over eighteen months and has never had another attack.

[Staff'n'Toller]

I think the Supercoat Light has been mentioned here before in regards to pancreatitis.

The problem with acute pancreatitis is that the next attack could be the end, you're refusing the prescription brands with the scientific basis, but at what cost to you? Losing your dog, or spending many hundreds in intensive care fees for another bout?

It's kind of like the male cats we see with blocked urinary tracts, clients run out of food or 'try' the cat back on it's normal food and end up spending more in hospitalisation when their cat blocks up again than if they had have just fed the struvite control diet.

[gwp4me]

Years ago I fed an old pointer bitch chicken mince and another time lamb offcuts from Woolies supermarket. Every time she became very ill with pancreatitis and lost a lot of weight, first cheap dogfood - then came big vet bills. Now I feed my dogs ox hearts, small amount of lambs fry, small amount lamb kidneys, lean chicken necks - cut into small pieces and flattened with mullet, roo mince, beef soup bones, low fat cheddar cheese, sometimes Royal Canin Labrador/Retriever kibble, fruit (mostly pear).