[Mom2Vader]

My beautiful Standard Schnauzer Vader was recently diagnosed with Lymphangiectasia, a form of IBD. The vet says that he needs a low fat diet of about 3%. I’ve never heard of such a low fat amount and it certainly goes against my somewhat limited knowledge of biology that the brain has to have fat to function.

Vader couldn’t keep down any amount of Wellness Core kibble so I decided to give him my vet’s prescription of canned Science Diet i/d and lowfat. It wasn’t my first choice, but he was still losing weight, so I give him that and supplement with cooked chicken breast, defatted chicken stock, and some sweet potato. He’s since gained most of the weight he lost but I’m not sure whether that was the Science Diet or if it was the chicken stock, chicken, and sweet potatoes that did the trick.

Now that I have Vader stabilized, I’m looking at long term diet changes. I’ve had my dogs on 4 different kibbles in the last 10 years and every one has failed me after 2-4 years. All of the canned food on DFA contain carrageenan or tomato or guar gum or even flaxseed (they get rancid pretty fast so I’m not convinced that it’s such a good thing). So now I’m down to cooking for my dogs or going raw. Raw seems a little high in fat for Vader so I’m wondering what I can do to lower the fat intake for Vader and still have high enough for my other dog.

I’m waiting on a few books to get here next week but I thought maybe someone on here could offer advice from personal experience.

[Hound Dog Mom]

You could have your vet go to Balanceit(dot)com. They have vitamin/mineral pre-mixes designed to balance home cooked diets and will formulate diets specially tailored for pets with health conditions. You could also try a pre-mix (such as See Spot Live Longer Dinner Mix, The Honest Kitchen’s Preference, Wysong’s Call of the Wild, Dr. Harvey’s Veg-to-Bowl, etc.) and add lean meats to create a balanced meal. You may also be able to find some helpful information on dogaware(dot)com – they have a lot of great information about homemade diets and specific health conditions (they also have a list of pre-mixes if that’s something you’re interested in).

• This reply was modified 11 years, 4 months ago by Hound Dog Mom.

[Anonymous]

My Lab was feed raw before he was diagnosed with Crohns (IBD).We gave him the canned Royal Canin before going onto the R.C. hypoallergenic kibble. For the first year it was hard to keep weight on him and keep him stable. We had to be very strict he didn’t eat any other food as it would upset him. I intended going back to raw once he stabilised, but haven’t been able to. The smallest amount of other food sends him into a vomit session. He has been on it 5 years and the only things he can eat are red apples, not green, rice, a little kiwi fruit, beans and carrots.

A few months ago he ate a kebab and has been unstable since so had to cut out all extras and only feed his food. This week I am trying apples, and beans again to see if his gut has settled.

I know the kibble isn’t what I want, but it is what suits him so stick with it.

[bruno]

I hope Vader is doing ok.
You may be interested in a couple of formulas I have. They are non-kibble, do not contain any processed ingredients, wheat, soy or sugar or chemicals. One is Rolled Oats, dehydrated veggies, garlic with a packet of vitamin/mineral supplement. These Rolled Oats only contain 4% fat and none of the other ingredients contain any discernible amount of fat. The other formula is Brown Rice with the remainder of the ingredients (veggies, etc). Brown Rice contains less than 1% fat. These formulas are a great compromise between the (horrible) commercial processed food and feeding raw (more preparation than my formulas). You can read about them here California Gold I also have free samples of each formula.

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I am using a balanceit recipe now for my dog Jasmine with colitis/food itolerance & possible ibd. It is a mixture of oatmeal, ground turkey and canola oil. So far I haven’t added the metamucil and using the supplement lightly. She loves it – stool is still soft but the diet is fairly easy to make and she loves it. Am in the beginning steps as I have run out of choices. I know this vet originated diet works if you have the time to prepareit.

[Dawn G]

My 10 yr old neutered doxie has had either colitis or vomited every 35 days for 2 years. He is spunky, looks health and described by vets as an ideal weight. Then he has these sick bouts refusing to eat or drink for 24 hours. I wean him back on pecilite venison and sweet potato or turkey and rice. We have been to many very reputable vets all over the east coast; blood test for everything, ultrasounds, mri, urinalysis, b-12 injections. I drew the line at the invasive endoscopy. His results always show a healthy dog–no addisons, atypical addisons, cancer, crohns, pancreatic or kidney issues etc. We have been defaulted to IBS rather than IBD since there is no clinical answer.

In addition to probiotics and tylan, we have tried natural balance, wellness core, hills prescription i/d and d/d, honest kitchen dehydrated: they all work for about a month except purina hydrolized which he vomited immediately.

I have resolved to using balanceit.com. It has only been one week, but I see a softer coat and his breath doesn’t smell bad like it always did. I have him on balance it supplements and a probiotic, (purina fortiflora). I am playing with the food choices, and I am pleased with venison, turkey, oatmeal, black beans, green peas, organic pumpkin, apple, mango, spinach, carrot. i will check back with you to see if I get beyond the 35 day mark, episode free. I am praying.

Balanceit.com does have a high protien choice that might help you!! Cheers to Vader.

[Jody M]

Good Evening. I’m new to this website. I have a 4 year old Bahamian Potcake. He has canine hepatitis, one FHO hip and one full hip replacement. We have been thru a lot. The IM doctors want me to change his food from bison, brown rice and organic carrots to Royal Canine HP. They believe he may have IBS because of high ALT numbers thru out Finns life. His stools are soft and mushy. I know this is not normal but I just read the ingredients in Royal Canine HP and wow it sounds terrible. Finn is on the Balance IT supplement but this also upsets his stomach. He has to have low or no copper in a supplement because of his canine hepitaias. Does anyone out there have any suggestions how I could improve his diet to help my little buddy with the IBS without switching to a commercial dog food? And maybe a different vitamin supplement to complete his home cooked diet? Any help I would be much appreciated!!!!!

[Patti P]

Our dog, Gracie, is a mixed breed “best dog ever” and is 11 years old. For most of her life she has had bouts of diarrhea and has been given metronidazole many, many times. Recently her liver enzymes were very high and she was having very soft stools … like soft serve ice cream. Our veterinarian suggested we try the Royal Canin HP. We had been feeding her Stella & Chewy’s Frozen Raw Patties. She was doing very well on this diet but the vet wanted to try the hydrolyzed protein Royal Canin to see if the liver enzymes would lower. We started with the Royal Canin HP canned and her stools were still very soft … although the occasional explosive diarrhea stopped. I then added the dry kibble Royal Canin HP variety that contains potatoes … I believe it is called Hydroloyzed PS. I would give her ⅔ dry and ⅓ canned. Her stools continued to be very soft. So, about 5 days ago I stopped giving her the canned and her stools are more formed now. I did some research and learned that carrageenan, an ingredient added to canned food to hold it together, can be an irritant to the intestinal tract. Royal Canin HP canned contains carrageenan. So, I think stopping the canned version helped.
However, Gracie doesn’t really care for the dry by itself. She will normally eat anything but now eats a few bites, walks away, eats a few more bites, walks away, etc. Last night she threw up after eating the dry. This morning she wouldn’t eat it at all. So, I ended up fixing some boiled chicken and rice for her which she gobbled right up. I am now searching for alternatives. I hope this helps with your decision about the Royal Canin HP.

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