Pancreatic disorder

Question
QUESTION: Hello Jennifer,
I have a 7 year old female boxer that has had recent blood tests to confirm that she has a pancreatic disorder.  We have stopped giving her 3 or 4 tablespoons of canned meat with her dry food and replaced it with some "gastro" dry food recommended by the Vet. This seemed to work after 2 days but she seems to have recurring days.  The gastro food is approx. $16 for a very small bag and only available through our Vet.  Can you recommend another dry food that is more reasonable and accessible? Or something that we can give her to help the discomfort.

Thanks,

Gary

Thanks,

Gary

ANSWER: I'm guessing by "pancreatic disorder" you mean pancreatitis; there are other possible disorders but pancreatitis is the most common.  

The general recommendation is a low-fat diet with an eye on keeping the sugars down.  I'm guessing the food your vet gave you is something like Hill's i/d or Purina EN, which are 22% protein/9% fat and 23% protein/10.5% fat, respectively - so you want to look for a food in those ranges, and there are several.  One that might be most easily found is Canidae Platinum, which is 18.5% protein/8.5% fat; Wellness Healthy Weight is 17/6; Wellness Just for Seniors is 18/10; Innova Reduced Fat is 18/8; Innova Senior Plus is 24/10; Solid Gold Holistique is 18/6; even some of the "regular" foods are still lower in fat - in the Solid Gold line, for example, Wolf King is 22/9 and Hund-n-Flocken is 22/10.

Obviously protein/fat are not the only concerns when choosing a diet for a dog with health pancreatitis, and you would want to discuss the options with your vet before making a final decision - but one advantage of the above foods (and there are many others you could try, as well) over the prescription foods is that they are not as heavily grain-based, and that itself often provides a health benefit.  

Another thing to consider would be adding a digestive enzyme to the diet, to help ease the burden on the pancreas.  Some of the more popular brands are ProZyme or DogZyme, but there are many.

Here are a couple of articles on pancreatitis and management, including alternative diets:
http://www.b-naturals.com/newsletter/pancreatitis/
http://www.thewholedog.org/artpancretitis.html

Good luck!

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi Jennifer,
Should I be mixing the new low-fat diet food with the current food?  If so, what percentage of each food should I be using and how long should I be using this mixture?  Should I be working on feeding the low-fat diet food on a perm. basis?

Thanks again,

Gary

ANSWER: Hi Gary,

If she's been diagnosed with chronic pancreatitis, then you want to look at a low-fat diet as a permanent change.  If she's just had an acute flare-up, a few days of a bland diet (boiled chicken with rice, for example) should be enough to get her back on track - but from your post it seemed the problem was more difficult than that.  You do want to make the change very slowly, moreso than a normal food change, just to be sure not to upset things further.  Dogs with pancreatitis sometimes tend to be more sensitive to dietary changes in general (or maybe it's the other way around!).  The "usual" method is generally 25% new food, then 50% new food, then 75% new food, then fully on the new food, over the course of about two weeks (so about 3-4 days per change) - depending on how she's doing currently, I'd probably start out with maybe as little as 5% new food, to 10%, to 15%, to 25%, to 40%, etc.  Adjust it to her needs - if she's having some problems, drop down a bit and stay at that level a few days longer before trying to increase the amounts; if she's doing really well you might increase more than you'd planned on the next 'bump'.  If you add the enzymes, you also will probably want to start out with just a small amount, and gradually build up to the full recommended daily amount.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi Jennifer,
I'm not sure if it's chronic or not.  As I mentioned, once I stopped giving her the wet(canned meat) & dry combo, she appeared to be physically better.  I then started mixing her regular diet of dry, (24/12) mixed with the new dry (low-fat) twice per day....sometimes she leaves it in the morning but eats again in the evening. I can only assume that she has some discomfort as she traditionally does not leave any food behind.  Although, I must admit, I have not tried the boiled chicken and rice. By the way, are you suggesting that one feeding of this may stablize this Pancreatic issue?
I am hoping I can find a compatible mixture by testing her food.  Other than blood tests, I'm not really sure how else I can tell if she is improving. (My Vet charges $260 for blood tests)  This is why I was asking as to how long I should be giving her the low-fat diet and is there any risk to her health by continuing with the low-fat food.
I appreciate the input and expertise.

Gary

Answer
Sorry, Gary, I didn't see this follow-up until just now.  Without having more details it's difficult to really tell what's going on.  The fact that the vet prescribed a special food seems to indicate a chronic problem, but maybe that's not actually the case.  If just removing the canned food made her feel better, then maybe that's the solution right there; it really depends on how her pancreatitis presents and whether it is chronic or acute, which I guess is something you're going to need to ask the vet about at this point.

The bland food is recommended for acute flare-ups - not just one meal, but rather a few days and then a gradual change back to the regular diet.  Some dogs need to be on a low-fat diet after an attack of pancreatitis, while some can return to their normal diet.  There shouldn't be any risks to continuing her on a low-fat diet so long as it's a quality food; the minimum required amount of fat is 5%, so even the lowest at 6% is still well within the guidelines.