Picky Pacreatitis Tango

Izzy's Valkyrie

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#1
So, Tango was diagnosed with mild Pancreatitis in September and I've been trying a various diets to see what will keep him at a good weight and not cause a flare up. When he's on a food with too much fat, he vomits daily. When he has a flare up, he vomits multiple times a day and eats/drinks nothing. Right now I've tried four or so kibbles, Stella & Chewy's free dried raw, and Honest Kitchen.

- He dislikes the lowfat Wellness Core and it increases his shedding
- He does ok on Prairie Lamb & Oatmeal but my local chains aren't carrying it or only have 20+ lbs bags, still has higher shedding
- Got sick on other varieties of Prairie
- Loves Stella & Chewie's but it's cost prohibitive ($50+/month for a chihuahua)
- Does fine on Honest Kitchen Verve but in the last few days has refused food except for small amounts. He's currently ignoring a bowl even topped with cheese.

I'm at a loss. I need a food that's easy to find and isn't going to cost $50 a month for a dog eating only 1/2c food a day. Help? The food requirements are:

- 13% or less fat
- Cost effective < $30 month
- If pre-made/freeze dried raw, not fish based (He HATED the fish based Honest Kitchen, wouldn't touch it, barked at the bowl)
- Is grainfree or very low grain content (If it has grains, the only option is really oatmeal. Others do not sit well with him)
- Not raw because he will not eat raw meat anymore. I don't know why he stopped

Any ideas?
 

JacksonsMom

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I definitely would avoid Stella & Chewy's for pancreatic-prone dog. They're really high in fat on a dry-matter basis and I've heard of a lot of yorkies getting pancreatitis from S&C.

Maybe check out some of the Annamaet formulas -- they do have a GF low fat formula (the other GF ones may be too high in fat, but the grain inclusive should be okay).

I'm on my way out the door... I'll check back in later for some other ideas...
 
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#3
Sojos? It's a dehydrated food, comes in three formulas, turkey, lamb, and beef. They're all 12% fat. I feel like it's a lot more palatable than Honest Kitchen, so he might like it better?

I don't know how big he is, but I'm sure you could feed a smaller dog on it for less than $30/month. I would buy it in a store or online, not on their website, it's the highest price I've seen. The 2lb bags run $20-25ish and the 8lb bags about $65-75.
 

Laurelin

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#4
Annamaet Lean might be worth looking into? I ordered ours from Chewy.com. If you spend $50 you get free shipping so I always buy a couple bags (I don't buy big bags because we'd never get through them before they expire).
 

Izzy's Valkyrie

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#5
I definitely would avoid Stella & Chewy's for pancreatic-prone dog. They're really high in fat on a dry-matter basis and I've heard of a lot of yorkies getting pancreatitis from S&C.
That's really interesting. The S&C that I was feeding was less than 10% fat according to the bag, I believe it was the lamb formula? Now that I go to their website everything is 20% or higher in in the freeze dried dinners but the frozen dinners are down in the 11% range. I wonder if the number on the label included the water added serving suggestion? Since Tango didn't get immediately sick on it, there's no way it was coming out to 20% fat. I'm definitely not feeding it though!

Checking out Chewy.com and the Annamaet stuff but they don't have the Guaranteed Analysis on their page. I may end up using this website though if I have to change foods again. Looking at Sojos, it looks to be mostly pieces of meat/things. Ironially, in the HK, he pulled out the pieces big enough for him to see and left them next to his bowl but ate the mush. My dog is a weirdo.

Turns out that the Primal Chicken is only 11% fat so we're currently trying that. Also, I can feed him on one 3lb bag (At $16) for almost a whole month (24 days) so it's not outside of the realm of possibility. And he scarfed it down so thats good!

Kibble would be ideal because he goes on trips and is watched by other people if I have to go out of town for work.

Thanks for reading!
 

JacksonsMom

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That's really interesting. The S&C that I was feeding was less than 10% fat according to the bag, I believe it was the lamb formula? Now that I go to their website everything is 20% or higher in in the freeze dried dinners but the frozen dinners are down in the 11% range. I wonder if the number on the label included the water added serving suggestion? Since Tango didn't get immediately sick on it, there's no way it was coming out to 20% fat. I'm definitely not feeding it though!

Checking out Chewy.com and the Annamaet stuff but they don't have the Guaranteed Analysis on their page. I may end up using this website though if I have to change foods again. Looking at Sojos, it looks to be mostly pieces of meat/things. Ironially, in the HK, he pulled out the pieces big enough for him to see and left them next to his bowl but ate the mush. My dog is a weirdo.

Turns out that the Primal Chicken is only 11% fat so we're currently trying that. Also, I can feed him on one 3lb bag (At $16) for almost a whole month (24 days) so it's not outside of the realm of possibility. And he scarfed it down so thats good!

Kibble would be ideal because he goes on trips and is watched by other people if I have to go out of town for work.

Thanks for reading!
Yeah even though it says '11%' fat, you have to convert that over to a dry matter basis. Like a lot of canned foods will say '5% fat' and seem really low, but when you convert it to dry, it's not as low as it seems.

Example. For example, Primal Rabbit is
Crude Protein (min) 19%
Crude Fat (min) 4%
Crude Fiber (max) 1%
Moisture (max) 74%

To determine the amount of protein on a dry matter basis, divide the reported amount of protein (in this case, 19%) by the total amount of dry matter (26%).

Then, multiply the result by 100.

Dry Matter Protein Content = (19/26) x 100 = 73%

Dry Matter Crude Fat Content = (4/26) x 100 = 15%


So the fat is actually 15%.


But also remember with pancreatitis, it's necessarily JUST fat that's the problem. It can be anything really. Nobody really knows for sure what *causes* pancreatitis per say. I know one dog who sweet potatoes and lamb trigger it. Lamb tends to be kind of rich as well.


Here is the Annameat lean formula:
http://annamaet.com/products/dogs/grain-free-for-dogs/44-lean-formula

Natural Balance has some formulas with lower fat as well. They WERE just purchased by Del Monte which some may be uncomfortable with.

http://www.naturalbalanceinc.com/Dog-Dry-Formulas.aspx?category=Dog+Dry+Formulas


Here's a good link that explains a lot:
http://www.whole-dog-journal.com/issues/11_12/features/Healthy-Low-Fat-Dog-Foods_16088-1.html
 

Izzy's Valkyrie

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#7
Thanks for the conversion! The reason I picked S&C up in the first place is that the girl at the store was doing all the math for me on the wet food which came out to too high for Tango then she tried the raw foods and the freeze dried came out ok. So possibly it worked? Not sure.

Tango is currently doing very well on the frozen Primal. Hasn't gotten sick, is more than happy to eat, and has nice firm poos less than three times a day which is how often he went on kibble. Looks like his body approves of the chicken formula.
 

JacksonsMom

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#8
Thanks for the conversion! The reason I picked S&C up in the first place is that the girl at the store was doing all the math for me on the wet food which came out to too high for Tango then she tried the raw foods and the freeze dried came out ok. So possibly it worked? Not sure.

Tango is currently doing very well on the frozen Primal. Hasn't gotten sick, is more than happy to eat, and has nice firm poos less than three times a day which is how often he went on kibble. Looks like his body approves of the chicken formula.

:thumbup: Awesome news!
 

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