[Steve P]

Hello all, I have been researching for days it seems now after my 10 year old Schnauzer was diagnosed to be diabetic and easily prone to pancreatitis.

He was originally diagnosed around a month ago after we had a sleepless night not knowing what was wrong with him, he kept crying and pawing at me all night and wouldn’t move further than a foot away from me.

We brought him to the vet where they did some blood tests to confirm it was his pancreas and also did a blood glucose test and UA. The vet said they were high and there was glucose in his urine that night but it could be because his pancreatitis so she wanted to test him again after his pancreatitis cooled down.His levels were in the high 3’s and mid 4’s. He was put on Royal Canin GILF. We brought him back a few days later to get more tests and his levels were in the 2’s now but he had glucose in his urine still. Diagnosed him with Diabetes and put him on 3 units twice a day 12 hours apart. He is right around 26.5 LBs give or take a few. He isn’t a standard but he sure as hell doesn’t seem like a Mini so we don’t know what’s up with that. He seems to be right in the middle of the 2.

2 weeks went by and we did his all day curve, glucose levels in the mid 3’s to high 2’s so bumped him up to 4 units 2 times a day. He has been getting royal canin GILF 1/2 can and 1/3 cup Blue basics lamb every 12 hours since he was diagnosed.

As we all know…. RC is an arm and a leg and I just want to find a food he can eat and be fine that isn’t prescription. We tried homemade lowfat recipe but he had very runny stool so we put him back on the RC GILF.

Now, I would prefer a combo canned/kibble but I am not opposed to going full canned. I am thinking Merrick’s grain free beef, or taste of the wild beef. Dog food advisor has different stats than on the can though, the can’s show a lower fat and higher protein than DFA lists. What is the reason for this? Also would these 2 canned dog meats be considered good for a dog with diabetes and prone to pancreatitis? RC GILF i have heard is just a ton of carbs to get the fat% down which I don’t really want for the long run.

Sorry for the novel of a first post I just need some guidance, thank you all for putting up with me 🙂

[Susan W]

Go to VeRUS Pet Foods website. Fill out their contact form. They’ll ask you about you dog, so tell them. They’ll give you some great info & suggest which of their foods will work best. Then, they’ll send you samples! They are good, smart people.
Good luck!

[CockalierMom]

Hi Steve,

I cannot offer any suggestions as to a canned food to recommend for diabetes/pancreatitis but can say that the two brands you mentioned are a lot higher in fat than the RC GILF. The GILF shows 1% min and 2.5% max for fat. To compare canned foods, you will need to convert to a dry matter basis since there is a difference in moisture content. On a dry matter basis, the GILF is 4% minimum and 10% maximum fat whereas the lowest fat TOW is a minimum of 16.5% fat on a dry matter basis and they do not state what the maximum is. This is a huge difference and I think it may be too high but check with your vet to be sure.

The other thing I wanted to mentioned is the GILF contains prebiotics and that is probably why he had a good stool on it and runny when you tried homemade. One food that I know is low fat and low carb is THK Zeal, however he would probably have a runny stool with it unless you tried adding THK Perfect Form or some other prebiotic/probiotic supplement.

Hopefully someone else will be along that can offer some food suggestions based on their experience.

[Steve P]

Thank you previous posters. I really appreciate all the info and insight! We had to make another vet appointment today unfortunately…. when we woke up and took him out for his morning potty he was urinating streaks of blood and globs of blood near the end, which continued every time he urinated today.

He is down to 24LBS as of todaywhich is quite low for him and the vet said that is not underweight but it is right on the threshold so he shouldn’t be losing anymore. She suggested Royal Canin diabetic canned food which has a higher protein and higher fat. We believe the latest bout of pancreatis was due to the cheap snacks he used to get and not his normal food he gets.

7.5 Protein / 2.5 Fat compared to GILF which is 6.0 Protein/1.0 Fat according to the can and their website. TOTW can claims 8.0 Protein / 3 Fat. Is that a huge difference between the diabetic RC and the TOTW/Merrick?

[Susan]

Hi Steve, do you know the fat % in wet tin food isn’t like the fat % in a dry kibble, If it says 5%min fat in a wet tin food when converted to dry matter (dry kibble) 5% fat wet is about 22%-26% fat, it depends on the company, some wet tin foods have more fat then others….With Wellness wet tin foods you have to send Wellness an email & ask for the fat % in wet tin foods as dry matter fat %, have a look at Wellness TruFood, Wellness Stews, Core Chuncky Centers, look for wet tin foods around 2% fat also it will say min email company & ask for max fat % in the formulas you like & want to try & the dry matter converted fat %.
My boy gets Pancreatitis & he does the same just stares at me while I’m sleeping & paws at me to rub his stomach & pancreas area…
May I ask when you did cook a low fat meal what did you cook? cause my boy can not eat boiled rice, he gets diarrhea, he can have rice in a kibbles cause it has been grounded down & there’s no boiled cooked rice to irritate his bowel, try boiling potato & sweet potatoes, pumkin, I boil some pumkin & sweet potato then freeze boil sweet potato & pumkin in sections… Cooking is the best, you know what he’s eating & it works out cheaper, I cook once a fortnight, I buy 1kg lean Pork mince or 1kg lean beef mince & make rissoles that I bake in the oven, so any excess fat comes out. I make 1 cup size rissoles, whisk 1 egg, then I cut up some broccoli, parsley, kale, grate 1 small carrot & mix all together & I use scales & make 130gms = 1 cup rissoles, freeze then take 1 rissole out & 1 piece of boiled sweet potatoe or 1 piece of pumkin, sometimes I add both sweet potato & a little piece of pumkin, take out the afternoon before & thaw in fridge for the next day. I feed 1 cut up cooked rissole & sweet potato about 1/3 of a cup sweet potato for breakfast & I’ve just started feeding for lunch & dinner “Canidae” Life Stages Platinum kibble, the Platinum formula is real easy to digest the kibbles are real small so if they don’t chew all the kibbles they are so easy to digest. Patch eats 4 small meals a day.
Patch was real ill about 1 month ago my grandson gave him a Fruit stick, he was put on Hills I/d vet diet he seem to be doing OK but after 1-2 weeks he had his pain again right side, so I took back the Hills vet diet got my $75 back & went & bought some Canidae Life Stages Platinum kibble & Patch is doing real well & sleeping thru the night Canidae Life Stages Platinum also makes wet tin food the fat is 4.5%min you’d have to email Caniidae & ask what it the fat % when converted to dry matter max %, it will be around 20% max fat, so I’ve never bought Platinum wet tin…

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