Diabetic Veterinary Diets: Which Do/Have You Used?

[letskick23]

Re: Diabetic Veterinary Diets: Which Do/Have You Used?

I am mixing science diet wd dry and canned..Having trouble now getting him to eat it mixed..I have even put fat free low or zero sodium chicken broth on it and he won't touch the dry..He gets 6 cups a day as he weighs about 65 pounds..The price is crazy..I am thinking about asking the vet about the chicken thighs and brocoli diet i have seen posted

[Lunarhamster]

Re: Diabetic Veterinary Diets: Which Do/Have You Used?

I am mixing science diet wd dry and canned..Having trouble now getting him to eat it mixed..I have even put fat free low or zero sodium chicken broth on it and he won't touch the dry..He gets 6 cups a day as he weighs about 65 pounds..The price is crazy..I am thinking about asking the vet about the chicken thighs and brocoli diet i have seen posted

Welcome to my world!! my dog will eat around the WD, the WD soft only worked for about 2 days, then she wouldn't eat that either.

I tried the chicken and beef broth over the WD, that worked for about 3 days, then she wouldn't eat that either. I started buying different kinds of canned food, mostly adult ground food, from a high end pet store, I tried EVO, Avo Derm, Nutro and even once resorted to Alpo Filet Mignon flavor, ANYTHING to get her to eat, I have made her scrambled eggs over the dry, she eats the eggs, leaves the dry.

The Vet switched her food to DCO, basically it's the Purina brand of WD, she liked that better than the WD, I think it's more palatable for them, but they do not make a canned food, only dry.

In the morning, her food better be a pretty tasty treat, or she isn't going to eat. I have resorted to making her homemade food. Once a week I take my Crock Pot, I use 2 pounds of ground turkey, green beans, carrots a cup of brown long grain rice, a little bit of barley, I add water and let it simmer for about 6 hours, it makes a mushy food and she loves it, I try and mix that with the DCO, she at times will eat around the DCO, but at least she is eating something. I don't know what else to do, she is hungry and I just can't stand watching her not eat anything, her BG's are high all the time, I have cut her food back a bit hoping for lower BG's, we just switched her insulin from Vetsulin to human N, I really hoping to see lower BG's.

I have to say, this is the hardest thing I have ever done. Even one more day with her is worth it to me, I won't give up on her.

[baileysmom]

Re: Diabetic Veterinary Diets: Which Do/Have You Used?

When Bailey was diagnosed in September, the vet recommended Prescription Diet w/d. I quickly realized that the expense of this food would be much higher than I really wanted to pay especially since he is so young and will be on this for the rest of his life. So I set out researching other light/diet dog foods to try to find something with similar nutritional info as the PD w/d. The vet did indicate that low-cal and low-fat were important but probably the most important was the food being high in fiber to keep the dog satisfied between meals. This was the hardest thing to find in other foods. Most of the major brands had similar calorie and fat contents but the fiber was far less. The only food that was similar was Science Diet Adult Light so that is what I have Bailey on now. All of the nutritional info is exactly the same as PD w/d except the fiber which is about 3-4% less but still much higher than any other brand. PD w/d has a max fiber of 20% and SD adult light is 16.5%. Most other foods were between 6-8% at most. He's done well with the SD adult light and the cost is about half of buying the PD w/d from the vet. You can get it at any pet store and with rewards programs and coupons it can bring the price down even more.

[BestBuddy]

Re: Diabetic Veterinary Diets: Which Do/Have You Used?

Buddy also started out with the WD, it was expensive and not easy to get when I needed it, so like Tina, I checked around and changed to Science Diet Lite. I worried about the lack of fiber so I used Benefibre to add to the meal. I used this diet successfully for 4 years and then changed to Science Diet Mature (still adding the Benefibre).
Jenny

[jessiegirl]

Re: Diabetic Veterinary Diets: Which Do/Have You Used?

Has anyone heard or used EVO pet food by Innova? The label reads EVO the ancestral diet meets modern nutrition. We have a specialty dog food store in the area and they recommended this can food for my Jessie (12yrs old) who has been a little finicky for her morning meal. I have to say, she absolutely loves it!! It says it is protein rich, ultra low carb and no grains. I bought the turkey and chicken fromula and the ingredients look very good. It even contains whole eggs and cottage cheese. If anyone has any comments, I am very interested in hearing any feedback.

[Bagel's Mom]

Re: Diabetic Veterinary Diets: Which Do/Have You Used?

Am reading all these posts as my Bagel is one week into being diagnosed.

She has ALWAYS loved to eat and been about 5-10 pounds overweight..

The Vetsulin has brought us some sleep finally, and the water drinking is down a LOT...

Tday I am home with her and she seems hungry. Her stew of veggies and turkey and whole wheat pasta is gone and I am making more today. THIS time leaving out all carrots, potatoes, or corn since those are such high sugar carbs....adding more green beans and zucchini and broccoli..

I found a holistic dog food a couple of years ago and they only sell it at one pet store..It's called Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul and it comes in all ages..Mostly meats. She has been eating the senior kibble and some canned for a long time and no stomach probs- ( Lysodren 3 X a week) she has been Cushinoid since last March and it has agreed with her. BUT then she had a few UTIs and a bladder stone so they put her on Urinary SO for 3 months..CORN..am wondering if that brought on the diabetes??
So now he says that the word for her may be Purina W/D which would be good for urinary also?
good Lord this girl is complicated..and I need three jobs...
but she is MOST precious...tomorrow the curve test...
Mom is losing weight...

[amberiu99]

Re: Diabetic Veterinary Diets: Which Do/Have You Used?

I use the Royal Canin brand for Diabetics, but I also make food for my dog. I use chicken cooked and run through a food processor (I boil or bake it, I have used boneless & skinless breasts and thighs, I have also boiled whole chickens and then deboned and deskinned them, but it is a lot of work!) I also run carrots and green beans raw through the food processor. I have at times included beets, broccoli, cauliflower (limited amounts because it causes gas), and brussle sprouts. My general ratio is 3/7 chicken, 2/7 carrots, and 2/7 green beans. I know that sounds confusing...I weigh it out so its 75g chicken, 50g carrots, and 50g green beans per meal. I add 1 Tbsp of Benefiber and 1/3 c. of Royal Canin. He gets this twice a day at 12 hour intervals.

[Tina]

Re: Diabetic Veterinary Diets: Which Do/Have You Used?

it seems to me that different insuline types require different diets, and also the size of the dog, I have a very small dog and he cant seem to chew the WD DRY. I do boil chicken but add baby food and WD wet, I would love to find somthing I could cook for the week and mix as we go any suggestions, we may be switching from lantus to NPM HPM gosh I always mis up the letters

[k9diabetes]

Re: Diabetic Veterinary Diets: Which Do/Have You Used?

You could soften up the dry with some water or salt free broth - make sure there are no onions in the broth.

Insulins have different tendencies but they are very broad. Every dog is so different in how s/he processes food and insulin that the best thing is to do a curve and see what your dog does with her food and her insulin and go from there.

WD does also come in cans.

Seems to me someone I know used to mash up dry food into crumbs... I think they may have then mixed them with something else. That's something else you could do and mix it with a little meat baby food - again, no onions - or cottage cheese, or canned WD.

[Autumn]

Re: Diabetic Veterinary Diets: Which Do/Have You Used?

Just wanted to chime in about the Evo wet food. My dog loved it... BUT....unfortunately, it did raise her BGs. We switched to the Wellness Core, she loves it and her BGs are good with this food.
Anna

[JuliaAnne]

Re: Diabetic Veterinary Diets: Which Do/Have You Used?

Our vet put Sable on the Royal Canin dry too. Since they don't have a canned food he prescribed w/d to add to it to get her to eat. It has been a struggle getting her to eat 4 and a half cups of dry food and he wanted us to stick to ONE other food to get her to eat for now until we had her regulated. At first we did the scrambled eggs but she quickly got tired of that so for the last few weeks we only use a jar of Stage ONE baby food - turkey and broth. It is hard to find sometimes so everyone in the family buys all they can find whenever they go to the grocery store. We take turns sitting with her and putting it on top or underneath the dry food about a half a spoon at a time and this has worked pretty good and the vet said it is fine to use. He said we can slowly start adding other foods since she is regulated so well but now we are going to have to go through the switch from Vetsulin to Humulin so I think it best we continue the exact foods as we make this switch. That way we can see how quickly she can get regulated on the new insulin or how that works and also add other foods as time goes on and she does okay. I am really nervous about this switch in insulins! Anyway, we have found that the turkey baby food (be sure it is stage one as the others have starch) works quite well if you take your time in feeding. Good luck to everyone trying to do this - it has been difficult to get a GSD who is used to 'free feeding' to eat 4 and a half cups of dry food twice a day!

[eileen]

Re: Diabetic Veterinary Diets: Which Do/Have You Used?

A main factor in choosing a baby food to help 'jump start' them to eat is to look for one without garlic or onion powder. It all depends upon the baby food company, Gerber Stage 2 has several choices without either of these additives.

Many baby foods are high in fat content which is a huge 'no no' for our diabetics. There are other healthy choices of enticements that do not have the fat content.

I believe that Vetsulin usually takes a higher carb diet than when using NPH.

Eileen/Mildred

[JuliaAnne]

Re: Diabetic Veterinary Diets: Which Do/Have You Used?

Eileen,
Thanks for the reply! I agree on the fat content in some baby foods and that is why we ONLY use the stage one baby food (Beech Nut) and only one jar and they are really tiny. Also the one we use has as it's ingredients only turkey and turkey broth so I feel okay since Sable is 91 lbs of German Shepherd Dog and if that little jar helps get her to eat it is good. Thankfully, our veterinarian knows diabetes well and he is a wealth of information. I had a list of all sorts of stuff to ask when we went in yesterday. He said she looks good but we are concerned about one of her eyes that seems a little cloudy and then this morning we started the switch to Humulin. I am so worried about her. At least, it didn't seem so all-consuming and confusing as it was when we first had her diagnosed and had so much to take in. I just pray a lot and am thankful that she is doing this good at 11 years old with such an insiduous disease. I am sure the information will be helpful to me since diabetes runs in my own human family. As I have said, my younger brother was diagnosed with diabetes the same week as Sable, our dog and others in my family have it as well so I am not totally new to the disease.
Thank goodness for this forum filled with intelligent people who understand what we are going through and have helped me so very much. Sometimes I just sit here and read and read!

[eileen]

Re: Diabetic Veterinary Diets: Which Do/Have You Used?

Hi JuliaAnne,
I see your Sable is a biggie. I had no doubt that you were fine in your choice of baby food, just wanted to touch on it for any others reading.

You are fortunate to have a vet that is well versed in treating diabetes, many aren't.
Gosh, and to have it all around you too within your family.

The development of cataracts is a huge concern, with so many developing them within what seems like 'over night'. My Mildred became almost blind within the first 2 months of being diagnosed with diabetes. Fortunately she was able to have the cataracts removed back in 2005 so can once again see.
Getting their bgs under control quickly when newly diagnosed is the best thing one can do to help ward off the development of these cataracts. Many sources will tell you that most will at some point develop cataracts to some extent. There is always the exception but as a whole it does happen.

Good luck with your switch to NPH, Mildred has been on only this for her entire 5 1/2 years and has done very well as do countless others.

Eileen/Mil

[ankh1972]

Re: Diabetic Veterinary Diets: Which Do/Have You Used?

Is the Blue Buffalo Weight Management a prescription or something i can just get from pet store?