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

Pancreatitis, the Puppa and the BARF Diet

Today was a much, much better day. Topaz ate a bit this morning, took his am PB in peanut butter and just overall is acting so much better.

I tried to feed him a bit of banana and the turkey mix at dinnertime since he was acting really interested in food and was looking at me like..."where's mine" when I fed Onyx her chicken back.

We did his temp today:
10:15 am - 102
1:30 pm - 103.2
3:00 pm - 102.1
10:30 pm - 102.3

So even his fever is better.

I got a list of his blood work results and his WBC is elevated, one of his liver tests was slightly elevated and one of the thyroid tests came back a little low. (hmm...reason for the seizures?)

So he's on a different antibiotic for the high WBC and we decided against the flagyl. Oh, and the antacidy medicine they gave us...we just can't get it in him.

We are also going to really give a BARF diet for pancreatitis a try. So, tonight the hubbs was so nice to go out and get me some fresh veggies and a food processor and I made a "veggie goop" for him. I put broccoli, celery, carrot, cabbage and canned pumpkin. I also added in digestive enzymes and their supplement.

The entire time I was making it he was in the kitchen and seemed really interested in the smells of the veggies and everything. I even gave him a little to taste...and then we did the big test and gave him some with a little lean hamburger and were able to put his pills PB, the KBr, and even his antibiotic in there! And he ate most of it.

I think this will work out well. Tomorrow, or whenever the kitchen is cleaner I will make a fruity goop and also a meaty goop. And then I'll freeze them into small baggies and we'll feed him like that.

So...hopefully, things are looking up for the puppa!!!

2/3/08 Grand Mal and 3 Clusters

Topaz had a Grand Mal this morning at 5:52am and then 3 clusters shortly after. The whole thing was over by 6:10 or so.

He has been sleeping in our bedroom for the past few nights. He's been barking at night when we put him in his cage to go to sleep and just would not settle down. I think that's because he went from crated 8 hours a day when my husband was volunteering at the shelter, to being out now that he's home again.

He was on my side of the bed on the floor when he had the first one. Once he came out of that, we put a leash on him to go outside to cool him off like we usually do and he had the other 3 once we got into the kitchen.

They didn't seem as violent as the past ones, but maybe I'm getting used to them...I don't know.

Right now he's lying on the floor next to me. He seems really out of it and very tired tonight in his post ictal stage. I'm sure they take a lot out of you.

We'll be calling the vet when they open. I think they will add Potassium Bromide and we will definitely be getting the thyroid test in a couple weeks. Will update again after the vet call.

Differences in food/environment...I gave him 3 tiny new treats and a couple days ago I started the dogs on chicken backs instead of turkey/chicken necks. Doubt either had to do with this though. Oh and he may have had some Mc Donald fries. But I'm not sure...if so it was like maybe 10 of them and it was the other day. Hmmm Environment...nothing I can think of offhand. The husband is home more, and I did go to the ER last night with an anxiety/panic attack so I know my husband and I have both been stressed and worried, maybe we are giving that energy off to the animals...but other than that, I don't know.

And...unfortunately, I need to reset his ticker. He had gone 66 days though! That's something.

7/25...Another Grand Mal...and Meds now too

We put him on the meds. I am not thrilled, but I don't know what else to do.

Will write more tomorrow, pretty exhausted now.

He had the seizure sometime before I came home from work. He had pooped & peed in his cage and his muzzle was wet on one side and he was acting a bit weird.

We went to the vet and got him the medication. We need to go back in a month and get his level checked, will do a thyroid 6 panel then as well.

Hopefully this medication will work for him and he won't have all of the nasty side effects I have read about.

Keep us and our puppa in your prayers, please.