Best food after pancreatitis?

[Cynthia and Magic]

My Magic is recovering from a weekend in Doggie Hospital....and is just now starting to eat again - boiled chicken and rice. It came on so sudden. Perfect on Friday - and Saturday started throwing up with bloody loose stool. Pretty scary - don't want him to go through this again!!

Any idea what is a good dog food I can give him when he is recovered....or do I keep him on the chicken and rice? ....any treats I can buy/make him?

Magic and I thank you for any advice!

[Nicky, Riley & Boris]

Amazing that I am asking exactly the same question for a woman I met today whose dog was very ill last week!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Wow, two discussions about diet for pancreatitis at almost the same exact time! 

Cynthia, check my reply to Nicky's discussion: http://www.doodlekisses.com/group/thefoodgroup/forum/topics/need-to...

The main concern is to keep the fat in his diet as low as possible. 

What kind of food was he getting before? What kind of treats & chews?

High food foods like peanut butter are out, period. But there are lots of good choices of food and treats with low fat percentges. 

[Cynthia and Magic]

Isn't that odd we posted at almost the same time!! I have been reading your replies to that post - very helpful. Looks like I need to do some label reading...

I have him on good kibble I think - Blue Wilderness mostly. His treats were causing the most problem though.(insert blame hubby here!!!) I would give him a Dentastick every day....and sometimes a pizzel for those 'special' times...but my husband was giving him whatever he was eating....chips, nuts, peanut butter. I would tell him he was killing the dog with that stuff....and now he realizes (again) that I was right!

Are those dried bits of liver and chicken ok?....and what about things like dentasticks? are they off limits? What treats do you give your dog?

[F, Calla & Luca]

Liver is a higher fat treat being organ meat. I would stick with chicken breast and things like that. Hot dogs, cheese etc, not good.

[Cynthia and Magic]

thank you!!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

F is right. No liver, no peanut butter, no chips or nuts (there is almost no food in the world higher in fat than nuts and nut butters), no cheese, no hot dogs or lunch meats. Use plain white meat chicken or turkey. JD also gets chicken flavor Pure Bites and Fromm's Chicken with Carrots & Peas biscuits (both contain only 5% fat.) Baby carrots make a good treat if your dog likes them; mine doesn't. Bully sticks are also relatively high in fat. Try antlers for chews instead. 

Dentastix are low in fat, but they are really not very good for dogs; made by one of the crappiest companies out there, Pedigree, and full of rice flour and wheat starch, which are the first two ingredients. Try Zuke's "Z" bones instead if you want a good dental chew.

If your dog is doing well with Wilderness, I wouldn't recommend changing it. The fat percentages are right at the top of what I would recommend for dogs who are prone to pancreatitis: 15%.  You really don't want more fat than that in his food, ever.

[Cynthia and Magic]

Perfect.....thanks for all the helpful info. I am always learning!!

[Joyce (Casey & Cody's mom)]

I have a dog also that has has pancreatitis. He is very prone to flare ups, so we have to carefully monitor his diet. We feed from the Fromm Family line. There are several different foods that we can use in this line that are all 11% fat. With this one particular guy, he gets 1/2 dry food (11% fat) and 1/2 canned food (3 1/2 % fat) for treats he gets dried brocolli or dried cauliflower. (Loves his veggies!).

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Good to know that some of the Fromm kibble formulas contain only 11% fat percentages; thanks, Joyce! 

JD gets their Chicken with Peas & Carrots treats, only 5% fat and grain-free. 

[Joyce (Casey & Cody's mom)]

Yes, my guys love those, too.