[Panya V]

Our Jackaranian will be turning seven this month and he just had his first bout of pancreatitis. He had been slightly overweight at 18 pounds before his illness, but is now back to his ideal 16 pounds. I’ve read that pancreatitis can reoccur, and that it requires a low-fat food. He’s had Halo Spot’s Stew Wholesome Chicken Recipe ever since we rescued him at six weeks of age, and the adult formula had 16% fat [min.; 18% DMB]. We had been thinking we could simply continue to feed him a lesser amount of this kibble and supplement with whole foods [he loves fruits and vegetables] to reduce the amount of fat in his diet; on the advice of his vet, this is what we did to get his weight down when he was overweight a few years ago. FYI, he also gets a bit of flax oil almost every day [he and our cat think it’s as a treat]. But now Halo has reformulated most of their foods and we can’t buy it any longer due to new allergies; we can’t have anything with fish, seafood, pork, and preferably no chicory. That is making it extremely difficult to find a kibble of good quality which isn’t too expensive for our budget [Halo was already at the top]. He’s always done so well on the Halo — regular, solid, drier BMs, no gas [only when he’s had too much fruit, and then the farts scare him because it happens so rarely! lol], shiny coat, lots of energy, etc. — the weight gain was usually due to my husband inadvertently over-feeding by rounding over the measuring cup. 😛 I’m positive we wouldn’t have to worry about the mental side of a food switch, since he’ll eat just about anything if we let him, though I am worried about how his gut will react to a different food, especially since we’re quickly running out of his supply of Halo. This very site helped us research foods when we had our first dog [whom we had to put down a few years ago due to a brain tumor] — so we’re hoping that we can find some help again.

[Susan]

Hi Panya,
I can’t stop laughting, Patch does the same his farts scare him when he’s sleeping & he farts he jumps up & runs off my bed lol when his farts are loud, he’s the same he doesn’t fart now he’s eating the right diet….
Go on Face Book & in the “Search” bar put “Canine Pancreatitis Support Group” join then look on your left & click on “Files” then click on first link “Low Fat Foods” you’ll see all low fat dry & wet tin foods, scroll down look at the wet canned low fat foods, I would be feeding a low fat wet tin food instead of dry kibble or feed low fat wet tin for 1 meal & dry low fat kibble for other meal…. Wet canned or cooked diet is heaps better for dogs who have suffered with Pancreatitis as kibble is harder to digest & is higher in carbs, the fat% has been converted in all these wet tin formula’s, the fat % is to your right, the fat % in raw & wet canned food hasn’t been converted to dry matter (Kibble)….Hills convert their fat % in all their vet diets but the other vet diets brands are not converted, so stay around 1-3% fat in wet tin foods when looking to buy any…
If you still want to feed a dry kibble look at “Canidae” Pure Meadow Senior, it’s low in Fat at 10.80% max, very easy to digest & has all the supplements for an aging dog…
always email the pet food companies & get the accurate max fat % & protein % in wet & dry food your thinking of feeding. I’ve already emailed Canidae & got the fat % in the Pure Meadow Senior, it’s a really good kibble it has No Prebiotic “Chicory Root” you will see a big improvement in your dogs skin coat & health while eating te Canidae Pure Meadow Senior formula there’s also Pure Resolve weight management but teh Senior has all te supplements to a senior dog & te fat % is the same..
Here’s Canidae’s site scroll down a bit & click on “VIEW ALL” on your left, click on page 3 has the Pure Meadow Senior & Page 5 has the Canidae All Life Stages Platinum Less Active kibble its low fat easying to digest & good for dogs with Pancreatitis. https://www.canidae.com/dog-food/products

[anonymous]

What food does your vet recommend? I would consider prescription food.
Zignature is a quality food, check chewy dot com for ingredients, copy the info and ask your vet if this food would work for your dog.

[Panya V]

Hi from almost three years in the future! 😀

In case anyone sees this and needs to know: We ended up switching him to something that was discontinued shortly thereafter, and now he eats Earthborn Holistic Weight Control Grain-Free kibble. It meets the necessary dietary criteria for us and it’s available at local stores so we can just run out to pick some up if needed [the discontinued kind he had before had to be ordered online and we got sick of that pretty quickly]. Now that he’s almost 10 years old he’s starting to have joint issues so our vet recommended we drop him down to 15 pounds to take some pressure off his joints, and that was super easy to do by just adjusting the amount of kibble per day. I now weigh him and our cat regularly to make sure they’re staying where they need to be, adjusting if not.

Speaking of the cat… I’m actually the one who’s allergic to fish and now the cat’s food is being discontinued too — finding fish-free cat food is so much harder than finding fish-free dog food! I don’t know who decided that all cat products had to have fish or fish oil in them, but my swollen lips and itchy, rashy skin don’t appreciate it! 😛 [Both of these pets love to ‘give me kisses’ all over constantly (they’re very jealous of each other) thus the need for fish-free food and treats!]

[Author]

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