The Diet We're Following

Topaz is doing so much better. He's just about back to his crazy self. I missed my loveable nutty puppa!!

He's eating pretty good, still getting smaller meals and we're feeding 3-4 times a day. Mostly veggies too. We're going to add some meaty bones back in probably in a week or so.

We have a pretty good variety of things to give him. This weekend I'm going to make a batch of the veggie goop as well as a fruity one and probably a meaty one, or else just chop the meats up so they are ready to give when we decide to do so.

I looked online for the article that the lady who we buy our food from, I call her my mentor, sent me about pancreatitis. I found part of it at this site, but I could not find the entire thing.

So here is what we are trying to follow...please remember this is copyright Ian Billinghurst.

DIET FOR PANCREATITIS

When it is time to re-introduce food, your dog will be nice and hungry and ready to eat just about anything.  This is great because we want your dog to start a completely new diet.  The diet is designed initially to prevent reoccurrence of the problem and, ultimately, to not only prevent re-occurrence but to improve your dog's total health.

You must not feed . . .

Cooked food, grain, fatty meals, processed food, canned or dry dog or cat food.

WHAT YOU SHOULD BE FEEDING

1. Lots of little meals - i.e., small meals several times a day.

2. Lots and lots of RAW vegetables - which must be CRUSHED, i.e., put through a juicer or a food processor.  Carrot, celery, cabbage, pumpkin, etc.

3. Lean RAW minced meat - chicken, beef, kangaroo - RAW - and only in very small amounts.

4. Non fat yoghurt

5. Fruit - apples, pears, orange, banana, mango, etc.

6. Liver, egg, cottage cheese, sardines [in spring water] - in very small amounts.

7. Slippery elm bark powder

8. Enzyme tablets

9. Supplements including Multi-vitamin B, vitamin E, Flax seed oil, Cod liver oil, garlic, kelp, vitamin C and zinc.

The first water after an attack - should be little and often till satisfied

The first food fed after an attack should be 90 to 100 percent raw crushed vegetables.  To this is added an enzyme tablet -crushed and mixed through and left to stand for 10 to 15 minutes.  If this is refused, add a tiny amount of one or several of the foods from the WHAT YOU SHOULD BE FEEDING list - to make it more interesting.  That is, depending on what your dog likes, a tiny bit of minced meat or egg etc.  BUT ONLY A TINY BIT!  This is a small meal.  Maybe a quarter to an eighth the size of what he or she would normally eat.

Two to four hours later offer the same again.  Repeat this over the next several days.  You may gradually increase the size of these meals to about a third to a quarter of what he/she is used to eating, and reduce the frequency to two or three meals a day.  You may do this over a period of several weeks.  Gradually introduce the other elements of the diet such as the vitamins, the cod liver oil, slippery elm bark powder, the zinc, the kelp etc.

When all is going well, and usually after a blood test has confirmed that the pancreas is back to normal, you may start to introduce some raw meaty bones into the diet.  Chicken wings/necks, shank bones, large beef bones.

 So far we've got the digestive enzyme, I need to get the flax seed oil, we have vitamin E I think it is...and we're getting cod liver oil. We're also adding milk thistle to his diet for his liver. I am starting that next week.

It's kind of hard because my husband feeds him his breakfast meal. I take care of dinner, but it's the morning meal that gets his taurine and anything else we will add in. Although, maybe if he's not getting a bone meal for a while I'll put somethings in the dinner meal for him.

I don't know, it's a big change for us. We were kind of used to our little schedule and routines.

I think we're also going to have his vet draw blood for a 6 panel thyroid test and see if I or they can send it to Dr. Dodds to have it analyzed. I'm pretty sure that he'll end up on thyroid meds as well...since his test was low. Maybe that's the reason for the seizures...oh wouldn't that be wonderful if we found his trigger???

Anyways,...will keep updating here and will probably add pictures as I make the goops. LOL