Happy tummy = long walks.
We have a lot to celebrate this week. Parka has reached the two-year anniversary since his near-death experience with congestive heart failure and we have just passed the four-week mark since the last time he had a bout of pancreatitis! Fingers crossed, we’re dealing with a 12-year-old dog that is acting more like a puppy these days than a cranky old man.
The difference? A change in food!
We’ve been told that the fat content of food can affect a dog dealing with acute and/or chronic pancreatitis. What we didn’t factor in was that food allergies might also play a part in stimulating this inflammatory illness.
For Parka’s whole life he has been eating Eukanuba brand dog food. In the last six years or so, we’ve been giving him the Small Breed Weight Control variety. Either way, Parka never really liked his kibble. He would eat it when he got hungry, but he preferred to wait until the latter part of the day to eat, when he was starving. Never could I have imagined that his dog food might be causing his tummy to be upset.
Thing is, the first ingredient listed on Eukanuba’s Weight Control food is corn meal, a grain. I’ve been reading lately a lot about how dogs and grains don’t often mix very well. Margaret Schindler Conners points out in her article in The Bark magazine how veterinarians are starting to discover that a lot of dogs have allergies to certain proteins (such as beef) and grains. It seems some dogs do better overall on exotic high-proteins and grain-free diets.
“Some of the most common allergens for dogs are beef, chicken and grains, which are also the most common ingredients in commercial dog foods….â€
That’s not to say if your dog is having tummy issues to go out and immediately start feeding your dog raw bison meat on the Raw Food Diet. It’s important to talk with a trusted veterinarian first.
What we did when Parka started having bi-monthly attacks of pancreatitis was evaluate exactly what he was eating. I had already ruled out the fat content of his kibble as being the culprit. Eukanuba Weight Control has no more than 12% crude fat, which, compared to their Small Breed Adult Maintenance formula is at least 6% less fat. Even then, that wasn’t enough. So I switched him to Natural Balance Brand, Reduced Calorie Formula, which boasts 6% minimum crude fat in its formula; that’s half of the amount of fat in the Eukanuba brand. Still, Parka hated it and he continued to have constipation, lack of appetite, and tummy upset. As it turns out, the first ingredient for Natural Balance is brown rice, a grain.
It wasn’t until I was chatting with Nikki Rogers of Pampered Paws Mobile Grooming that things clicked. She said one of her dogs had been having food allergies so they switched her to a grain-free food which focused more on exotic proteins. It turns out, her dog was allergic to beef and grains, so they went on to buy some of the exotic meat dog foods out there and it made a huge difference in the skin problems her dog had been having. For Parka, though, I knew beef wasn’t the problem, but I wasn’t so sure about grain. The two foods I had tried both had more grain in them than any other food product and he had bouts of pancreatitis when eating either one.
Wellness CORE Reduced Fat dog food gave me back my dog.
After a lengthy search for grain-free dog foods, I came across Wellness CORE Reduced Fat. Not one grain is listed in the ingredients (hence the “grain-free†advertising on the label) and, although the crude fat is a little higher than the Natural Balance at 10% max, everything I read about it suggested that it is easy on the tummy and good for keeping off the pounds (or ounces, in Parka’s case).
Four weeks later, I am happy to report that Parka is doing great on this food. Since making the switch, his pancreatitis has practically disappeared. He has a great appetite and, forgive me for going into the gory details, but his poops look so healthy! Before they were slimy and dark. Now they’ve got some heft to them, but they’re not hard, and they’re a medium-brown color. I know it’s gross to talk about such things, but this was often the only way I could predict whether or not we would need to break out the Pepcid AC.
If that weren’t enough, for the first time in his life, my finicky dog actually gets excited when it’s time to eat! He dances around like a little puppy and then races me to the food mat on the floor. He then proceeds to inhale every last bite and “bings†his plate with his toenail as if to say, “More pleaseâ€!
Happiness is having the life restored to your beloved friend. Bliss is knowing that he is as happy to be alive as you are to have him. These days, we have a lot to be blissful about and it’s all thanks to modern medicine, our tenacity, and a bag full of grain-free dog food.
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