Feedback welcome on our diebetic dogs diet

[newelm]

Hi everyone, we are new members and are so happy to discuss our questions with what we have observed to be some of the most kind, caring, loving and dedicated pet owners.

[U]We welcome any and all feedback on Brandy's diet
to make sure we are not missing foods or have incorrect portions of [B][U]Carbohydrates, Proteins and Fats.

Our sweet min. poodle was diagnosed with diabetes last November at 10.5 years of age.Brandy has a fast metabolism and receives
1 unit of Levemir every 8 eight hours after we give him the following diet as suggested by a holistic vet. Brandy weighs 11 pounds.

Since given the diet we have made changes to the amount of food and slight changes to the food as the diet changed from twice per day to three times per day. We incorporated the use of a food scale to increase accuracy.


-42 grams of roasted chicken breast (skinless and boneless)
-15 grams raw broccolli
-5 grams boiled egg white
-10 grams barley
-10 grams oatmeal
-3 grams canned pumpkin

-once per day-300 mg-Calcium citrate with vitamin D
-once per day 1/4 teaspon- OptiPet Multi - liquid vitamin(Omega/alpha)
-three times per day 1/4 teaspoon of dry pet essentials (udo's choice)
-three times per day 1/8 teaspoon of brewer's Yeast

One week of every month we give Brandy 3 grams of canned salmon -3 meals per day.

[Cebe]

Re: Feedback welcome on our diebetic dogs diet

I'm not good at the home cooked diet but I did want to welcome you.

Are you testing at home? I think testing at home will let you know if the diet is working with the insulin and that's very important, in addition to knowing if the food is adequate in general.

[Patty]

Re: Feedback welcome on our diebetic dogs diet

Hi and welcome to you!
I don't have time right now but could sit down and look at the diet in more detail later this weekend. I have a couple of books I go to for homemade diet ideas and balancing.
http://www.amazon.com/Raw-Natural-Nu.../dp/1556439032
http://www.amazon.com/Dogs-Diet-Dise.../dp/0967225329

Is the raw broccoli pulverized? Is is essentially being used for fiber?

I'm not a homemade expert but have done quite a bit of reading. I usually like for broccoli to be slightly cooked, especially if feeding on a daily basis, as raw broccoli contains goitrogens that can affect the function of the thyroid. These goitrogens are inactivated by cooking the broccoli.

Dogs also can't break down the cell wall of vegetables so pulverizing them is necessary for them to utilize the nutrients. If it's just being used for fiber it wouldn't matter as much.

Have you had a curve done recently to know how well it's balanced with the 3x/day Levemir?

Again, welcome to you!
Patty

[newelm]

Re: Thank you for reply Brandy's diet

Thank you Cebe and Patty for your reply to our posting on Brandy's diet and welcoming us as members.
Your questions help us reflect on what we left out of our posting.

REASON FOR POSTING DIET

We are trying for TIGHTER blood glucose levels on the diet we posted.
We do home testing with a meter.

WHEN BLOOD GLUCOSE LEVELS SHOWED BRANDYS DURATION ON LEVEMIR insulin WAS ONLY 8 HOURS AND NOT 12 HOURS, WE THOUGHT WE SHOULD GIVE HIM HIS FOOD AND INSULIN DOSE EVERY 8 HOURS. Our holisitic vet. agreed based on his readings. However our holistic vet. recommended WE NOT CHANGE THE AMOUNT OF FOOD PER MEAL even though we increased his AMOUNT OF MEALS per day from 2 to 3 meals per day. Personally we felt 4.5 cups of his home made diet would be too much for a 10 pound dog in a 24 hour period. That would be 1.5 cups of his homemade diet every 8 hours.

Perhaps we are wrong and our holistic vet. is right. That is why we welcomed your feeback as we tried on our own to reduce the size or amount of food per meal. His blood glucose reading after 8 hours on 1 unit insulin is 19. We have been trying to adjust the insulin dose however we just realized it may be his home made diet that we need to adjust.

We welcome your feedback. Patty we are going back to steaming his brocolli
as per your suggestion. Thank you for your input.

[Patty]

Re: Feedback welcome on our diebetic dogs diet

I'm really sorry I haven't been able to get back to this over the weekend.

Have you figured the calories for Brandy's meals? That might help in knowing how much he needs.

This is a decent caloric calculator for dogs: http://www.mycockerspaniel.com/mer.htm Though if you know roughly what he was getting on his food prior to diagnosis to maintain his weight that would be a better comparison.

www.nutritiondata.com can also help with figuring calories

Harry/Fergy's thread has some great home cooking info in it as well if you want to read through, such as link for the amount of calcium etc: http://www.k9diabetes.com/forum/show...?t=1844&page=5

Patty