High Cholesterol

[Kerry Daly]

hello, one of my goldendoodles has been diagnosed with high cholesterol.  Now, he is my problem child (ate 5lbs of dog food as a puppy (we wont discuss), he got an auto immune disease that we caught and cured so he is living a full life, but because of this has PTSD and high anxiety to the point of eating drywall, carpet etc ( he is in the care of a behavioral medicine vet at The Ohio State University so he is getting help he needs, he is on two anxiety and he got a cataract at 2 years old... if it is going to happen it will happen to Apollo!)  So the vet has told me we need to put him on low fat prescription dog food to reduce his cholesterol.  Both boys eat Fromm Chicken ala Veg.  I talked to the vet about trying other measures first before going to prescription because I am already paying hundreds a  month to keep him calm, let a lone feed him!  Has anyone used the weight management Fromm Gold or used the white fish 4 star and seen a drop in their cholesterol?  Trying to decide between the two.  WM is 10% fat where whitefish is 11.  He is currently eating food that is 15%.  She wants to take him to 5%.  But is willing to let me try to do this for a month with more exercise and then retest.  I really do not want to alter his diet along with all the meds and the other stress he has... it just may be too much for him.  Help?  anyone get told your dog has high cholesterol???

[Lynda Kamrath]

No, not my dog, but my mother.  When she moved into a senior residence facility, she needed to have a thorough workup.  Her cholesterol was high (in the 300s) and they tried her on one med.  Then another one.  She had always walked two miles a day and was basically vegetarian for years.  And, she was 93 years old.  Well, she finally told me, "I know what to do about my high cholesterol."  I asked her what and she said stop testing it.  She said doctors have to do something about anything unusual on your medical record, so just stop giving them ammunition.  She was right.  I told her doctor no more tests and he agreed.  What he doesn't know won't hurt him.  She is over 100 now and takes no drugs and hates to go to a doctor unless something is wrong.  So, I guess I would say you can play the vet game, or just ignore them and love your dog the way he is.  Feed him a good food and leave it at that.  I use Blue for all my dogs.  Their favorite is fish and rice.