[Trinas Mom]

My 14 year old Beagle/Springer Spaniel is recovering from an infection in her pancreas. The vet reccommended "keeping" her on Prescription Pet ID Dog food. I don't think she is getting enough food, fed 3 x's a day, one cup dry, or even getting enough vitamins. Does anyone know anything about this type of food?

 

[RawFedDogs]

Science Diet prescription dog foods are among the lowest quality of all dog foods. Vets recommend them because they sell them and they make a good markup on them. You are absolutely correct about your dog not getting enough nutrients from this food. Lets look at the ingredients.
Ground whole corn ... Corn is not digestable by dogs at all. Dogs can extract no
nutrients from corn.

Brewers Rice ... Rice has basically no nutrients. Brewers rice is basically floor sweepings from beer companies.

Dried egg product ... After exaustive research, I can find no explanation as to what this is. Eggs are shell, yoke, and white. Which of these is or is not in dried egg product? Seems no one knows.

Chicken by-product meal ... this is basically ground up chicken heads, feet, and guts.

Corn glutten meal ... more indegestable corn stuff.

Pork fat ... ok, fat from pigs.

powdered cellulose ... this is a fancy word for sawdust

The balance of the ingredients is a list of chemicals added because all of what little nutrients were in this mix was cooked out in the rendering process.

The last entry on the ingredients list is Ethoxyquin which is known to cause cancer in lab rats.

Sooooo ... there you are, a breakdown of what you are feeding your dog. It is a very low quality food that is very high priced.

 

[Trinas Mom]

Thanks! Any recommendations on what I can feed her? It has to be easily digestable because of the infection in the pancreas. Vet says if she eats foods that are hard to digest she can and probably will get the infection back because of her age.

 

[RawFedDogs]

There is no kibble you can feed that is easy to digest. I suggest you feed raw bone-in chicken breasts for a few weeks. I would remove the skin. Nothing else need be fed during his 2 week period.

 

[glassygal]

While I agree that raw food is great nutrition and is much better than any kibble, you may also want to consider a high quality canned food like Halo's Spot's stew. I liken it to chicken soup for dogs. Also if feeding raw or canned, try letting the food warm up to room temperature before feeding - it helps things go down better for sick dogs too.

 

[chinookrun]

I agree that Science Diet is amongst the worst of all foods and it blows me away that ANY vet can look a client in the eye and say it is the best thing for their pet! I feed a combo of high quality kibble, home cooked food, and raw. I have 8 dogs and do recreational mushing. I occassionally have litters. My dogs have great coats, good health, and don't fill my yard with poo. Is there a natural/holistic vet in your area? They are increasingly common and they could steer you towards a good diet for your dog's condition.

Carie Taylor
Moonsong Chinook

 

[RawFedDogs]

The problem with Spot's Stew is that it's mostly veggies. Again, dogs are carnivores. Veggies and grains are a spieies inappropriate food for dogs. Would you feed meat to a horse?

 

[bellamicuore]

Completely agree with the first reply about Science Diet.

I feed Bella a dehydrated raw called Honest Kitchen. I feed her the Force, which is grain free. I sometime add sweet potato or cottage cheese to it. In the morning I feed her Fromm grain free kibble. She loves both and does quite well with both. And Bella does have occasional seizures, so I've been trying to cut out as much grain as possible.

 

[glassygal]

Before Rawfeddogs spreads misinformation about Spot's stew - the first ingredients in any dog food make up the majority of the contents of that food. The first two ingredients in spot's stew are chicken and chicken broth. Both are good sources of protein. Maybe you should read the labels before making statements about the content of the food. I only mentioned spot's stew since the dog in question is healing and in my experience with ill and dying dogs, spot's stew is very palatible and easy to digest. Hope this helps.

 

[RawFedDogs]

glassygal, you will learn in time that RawFedDogs does not spread misinformation. Every post I make is well researched and I can back up anything I say. First on the canned food in question has chicken and chicken broth as the first two ingredients but that doesn't mean that they make up a majority of the volume of the "food". Lets look at what "broth" is ... "broth" is nothing more than water and juice that chicken is cooked in. You boil chicken and take the chicken out of the pot and what is left is the broth. Not a lot of nutrition there. Then there is chicken ... yes chicken is a good ingredient. In this case, the chicken and broth don't have to make up more than about 10% of the volume in the can. I strongly suspect that chicken is less than 5%. Besides the chicken and broth in this food, it also contains: carrots, celery, yellow squash, zucchini, chicken liver, pasta, green peas, green beans, turkey, calcium citrate, barley, oats, dicalcium phosphate, soy sauce, dried kelp, garlic, zinc gluconate, ascorbic acid, copper gluconate. Not one of these other ingredients is a species appropriate food for a carnivore. Protein in this "food" is 3.5%. That tells me that there is very little chicken in the can. 88% moisture tells me there is a lot of water and broth.

The very fact that there is 3.5% protein and 1.5% fat is an indication that this "food" is not very nutritious. It also says that there are a lot more veggies than meat. Veggies are very difficult for a dog to digest. His body is not designed to digest veggies. His body is designed to eat meat, bones, and organs of any animal he can catch and kill. He has been doing that for millions of years.

I did read the label before I made my original post. :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[LPacker79]

Not everybody can go raw (despite our knowing how good it is for our dogs). I am one of those people. Instead, I choose to do a very high quality kibble.

OP - maybe you could try a really good canned food such as Innova EVO's 95% formulas (95% venison, 95% duck, 95% etc). This is a very very high quality food. You could also try supplementing with some green tripe. It's pretty easy to find canned or raw (if going raw make sure it's green tripe, not that bleached stuff you'd find at the grocery store). It smells to high heaven but dogs love this stuff, and it's full of good nutrients for them.

 

[glassygal]

I strongly suspect that chicken is less than 5%.

Suspicions are NOT based on FACT. After going to your nutrition page I see that you are one of THOSE who believe there is only ONE way to feed raw correctly. Come on - it's difficult enough to get folks to switch to raw without people like you harping on them that feeding veggies is WRONG. There are many different ways to feed or start to feed raw - why not try to open your mind and see that feeding something easy and palatable (like spot's stew) is still better than feeding kibble and let it go? Jeez......

 

[glassygal]

Not everybody can go raw (despite our knowing how good it is for our dogs).

Hi Leeanne
I'm curious why you cannot feed raw? I'm not being judgemental at all I just like to learn more why some folks can't feed raw? Thanks.

 

[RawFedDogs]

Hey glassygal,
It is a little more than suspicion. Just look at the economics of it. Meat is the most expensive ingredient in all the dog foods. Dog food companies put as little as they have to and still keep the meat at or close to the top if the ingredients list. There are many tricks they use to do this and keep the meat at a minimum. I have spent many years studying this and know how it's done.

Yes there IS only one correct way to feed a dog. It was designed by nature and created over millions of years of evolution. Dogs are carnivores. As such, their entire bodies are designed to eat, digest, and utilize meat, bones, and organs. They are not designed to eat plant material and cannot extract nutrients from fruits, veggies, or grains. They have no need for any nutrients that are not in meat, bones, and organs. Feeding veggies to a carnivore is similar to feeding meat to a horse or cow or deer or sheep.

My Abby (8yo Great Dane) has not eaten any plant material of any kind in 6 years.
My Thor (3yo Great Dane) has never eaten a veggie since he was 12 weeks old. You would think that if they needed veggies for health, something would be have shown up by now. They are both very healthy and have only seen the vet once a year for heartworm tests in the last 6 years. Neither has had any medical problem, allergies or injuries in their lives. How many people can say that about their dogs? I've had my present vet for 3 1/2 years and he doesn't know my name, my dog's names or my cats names. None of us have seen him enough for him to learn them. That should tell you something. The diet is the secret.

Edited to add: BTW teaching someone the correct way to feed raw does not impede someone's ability to convince someone to switch to a raw diet. Actually, since feeding raw the correct way is so much easier than the other way, it makes it easier. I have helped over 150 people switch to raw in the last 6 years and help more all the time.

 

[Rachelle07]

My italian greyhound just got over pancreatitis and the vet now wants him on Science Diet I/D or Z/D. I absolutely hate this food. I'm currently trying to find a different food for him that won't upset his tummy. He was previously eating Oma's Pride raw and Nature's Variety Grain Free Kibble at night. I think I'm going to try Wellness Simple Solutions for dogs w/ sensitive tummies/allergies. Since Beckham has had a history of an upset tummy the vet suspects there could be a food allergy (although he's been on all different types)...

 

[LPacker79]

I'm curious why you cannot feed raw? I'm not being judgemental at all I just like to learn more why some folks can't feed raw? Thanks.

I can't get my boyfriend on board, and he makes all the money LOL! I think I've now got him convinced of the value of a good kibble, and that took me 3 years. He was feeding Science Diet (um......ewww) for the first 7 years he had him and he thought it was a great food. I was researching food long before then (late 90's) and knew better. In his opinion raw is gross and he doesn't want that mess in the apartment.

Cost is another consideration. A 30lb bag of kibble (last bag was a 35lb bag of Great Life which cost $85) will last 3 months. He also gets canned Innova Evo and green tripe occasionally as well as marrow bones. I think I've reached the limit Randy will let me spend on dog food.

Space is definitely a factor as well. I understand that bulk is the way to go when buying raw, and my freezer space is jam packed as it is. I live in an apartment so space is at a premium. I've contemplated that dehydrated raw, but also have reservations on how it compares to premade raw such as Oma's or Primal. The Great Life kibble I bought last week has a dehydrated raw coating, though I certainly am not comparing that to real raw LOL.

 

[Stella08]

I am new here I have a question

I have a chihuahua of 4 lb.. I give her some meat or chicken..not row at all.. little cooked, she got diarrhea.. but I disagree to give her chicken's bones.. is danger..
so.. my question is how much row meet or chicken I should give it to her???

Thanks so much

 

[RawFedDogs]

I have a chihuahua of 4 lb.. I give her some meat or chicken..not row at all.. little cooked, she got diarrhea.. but I disagree to give her chicken's bones.. is danger.. so.. my question is how much row meet or chicken I should give it to her???

My dogs have been eating chicken, turkey, pork, deer, and fish bones for 6 years without one problem. Dogs have been eating bones for millions of years. They know how to do it and their bodies can handle them just fine.

BIG WARNING: Don't feed cooked bones. Those ARE dangerous as cooking can make them brittle and they can splinter. Raw bones are fine.

Bones are an essential part of the raw diet and you can't just leave them out. Nor can you leave organs out of the diet.

To answer your question, rule of thumb is to feed your dog 2% to 3% of his ideal adult weight/day. Small dogs like yours can eat as much as 4$ or 5% of their weight/day as they are pretty active dogs. Soooo ...your little dog can eat around 2 1/2 to about 3 1/4 oz/day. Thats just a tiny amount of food compared to my 145lb dogs. LOL

If your dog starts to get too heavy, feed less and if it gets too thin, feed more. The percentages I gave you are only a starting point.

 

[Stella08]

Thanks for your response

Thanks for your information is really helpful for me.. but 3 or 4 oz a day, mean like a coup of yougurt? that size? My dog never finish what I give it to her.. some times I feel afraid she will be hungry during the day.. so I try to put more food in her bowl.. but in the end of the day that food goes to the trash.. because she didn't eat it everything..

For your experience.. which can food is good? I try w/ Purina, Pedigree, Eukanuba..now Inna evo, I try to change to see what she like.. but I will follow your advice and I will feed her some raw meet.

thanks for your help.

 

[RawFedDogs]

For your experience.. which can food is good? I try w/ Purina, Pedigree, Eukanuba..now Inna evo, I try to change to see what she like.. but I will follow your advice and I will feed her some raw meet.

In my experience there is NO good canned or dry food. It is all garbage and not fit for a dog to eat.