Who is still Homecooking?

[Ellie May]

Originally Posted by Ladymom

Oh, gosh, I hope you don't have to start feeding a prescription diet. I went through that seven years ago when Lady was diagnosed with diabetes and my vet recommended Hills W/D. I fed it to her for about one month until I could do a little research. It made no sense to me why you would feed an immune compromised dog all that corn and peanut hulls. I am convinced that the reason Lady has outlived all the other dogs on the diabetes forum who were diagnosed at the same time is because I did not feed her prescription food.

I really hope Ellie's nutritionist can tweak her recipe so you can continue to homecook.

I hope so too.
But to go with the more liver friendly/vegetarian protein ingredients, there is less chance that this is going to be able to be taken care of the right way. Fish didn't work. I didn't try it for long enough because I couldn't use supplements (didn't know the amount to use because it is not really meat), so had to stop after a week. In that time, her stool wasn't great. We head to dairy protein next I guess but I can't see that doing her any favors. Maybe rotating between soy and egg will work. I don't know. We are going to try probiotics and I am considering digestive enzymes and Tylan (already did Metro). If none of that work, I may have to consider an rx diet and/or an intestinal biopsy followed by prednisolone. The issue isn't that bad but if it is let go, it could turn into something worse. And the the low purine, etc., etc., etc. foods that are better for liver compromised dogs, we don't even consider because I can't feed her the same things all the time. She has allergies and I don't want her exposed to the same thing over and over all the time. lol, fun times. Oh yes, and fiber doesn't seem to help but it does seem to make things worse. I guess we should try Biopectin though.

[Ellie May]

Originally Posted by amandawash

Goodness Crystal I hope you don't have to put her on that either!! I just looked at the can of I/D I had in the pantry for the last year and it has Ethoxyquin in it I hope they have changed that.

Marj- that is AMAZING that Lady has done so well on homecooked!! Like I said before if the raw ever didn't work for my boys I would go to homecooked so fast.

I probably wouldn't use the I/D. Just picked that one in my post above because it is a common intestinal diet that seems to work very well (oddly enough). I was looking at the RC iintestinal but she had a horrible reaction to RC before. This one doesn't have corn though, only corn gluten meal. From China I suppose... But what do you do if no diet is working and a dog can develop cancer if GI issues are left untreated? Maybe it's not diet related at all and then we won't even need to consider going to it but then what is causing the issue? I just hope it is IBD without a diagnosable cause. It does go with liver issues and pancreatitis and she has or has had both.

[amandawash]

Originally Posted by Ellie May

I probably wouldn't use the I/D. Just picked that one in my post above because it is a common intestinal diet that seems to work very well (oddly enough). I was looking at the RC iintestinal but she had a horrible reaction to RC before. This one doesn't have corn though, only corn gluten meal. From China I suppose... But what do you do if no diet is working and a dog can develop cancer if GI issues are left untreated? Maybe it's not diet related at all and then we won't even need to consider going to it but then what is causing the issue? I just hope it is IBD without a diagnosable cause. It does go with liver issues and pancreatitis and she has or has had both.

Crystal you are Ellie's angel. You have to feel like your stuck between a rock and a hard place. But like you said, what do you do? What exactly are her symptoms? Does she just general gastroenteritis-like symptoms or something else? PRAYING that it's just IBD, can she have any probiotics? For Ranger's bad tummy I use probios and really noticed a difference when I added the digestive enzymes to his diet as well. I know that is silly to try and compare those two but I have noticed a difference. Can she have digestive enzymes?

I hope your nutritionist can tweak her diet. What are you going to do when you get a healthy little baby far far down the road

[Ellie May]

Originally Posted by amandawash

Crystal you are Ellie's angel. You have to feel like your stuck between a rock and a hard place. But like you said, what do you do? What exactly are her symptoms? Does she just general gastroenteritis-like symptoms or something else? PRAYING that it's just IBD, can she have any probiotics? For Ranger's bad tummy I use probios and really noticed a difference when I added the digestive enzymes to his diet as well. I know that is silly to try and compare those two but I have noticed a difference. Can she have digestive enzymes?

I hope your nutritionist can tweak her diet. What are you going to do when you get a healthy little baby far far down the road

Yes, she can have probiotics. Due to the fact that so many companies put anything they want to on the market and it may not be as potent as thye say, I have decided to go with Proviable by Nutramax. Her vet agrees. I did not want to buy a bottle of 80, so I am waiting for a sample. It will be here soon. She can have digestive enzymes but I'm skeptical about those to say the least. The ones that really work for EPI are the only ones that I would trust and a dog without EPI shouldn't need them. The plant based over-the-counter type...I just don't know. Her pancreas should be producing 70 times more enzymes than it needs to to digest a meal, so just not convinced that enzymes are necessary. However, I would consider them if nothing else is working.

She has had soft stool (started out as very loose stool) since October. It is on again off again. The Metronidazole worked the first time but after stopping, the problem came back. Went back on Metro for a month and the issue never really did clear up again that whole time. It is tolerable now and I would just let it go but this can't be healthy for her.

And she is scratching again (allergies) but it is hard to pinpoint what food is causing it because one of her allergens (corn) is in so many things (Cheerios, popcorn, etc.) and gets dropped easily for her to eat. So I don't know if the food she is on now is making her itch or the food that gets dropped that she isn't supposed to have. You know, like the one piece of popcorn that falls by the garbage can type thing.

I don't know. If it isn't liquidy but just very soft too often, do you just let it go? After the probiotics, I will talk to her vet again but while she is in complete support of diet change, probiotics, etc., she is thinking that a full thickness intestinal biopsy followed by prednisolone may be the only thing to work if all of this other stuff doesn't. She can't really give those meds without doing a biopsy first to rule out cancer... Whatcha think?

Ann and I have been talking about this too.
We were thinking maybe EPI? But Ellie is now gaining weight, so not sure if that is possible. Or possible SIBO.

[Ladymom]

I absolutely swear by Animal Essentials Plant Enzymes and Probiotics. Lady's pancreas does not function properly. She is diabetic and we think her HGE attacks were caused by her pancreas not digesting food properly and bacteria building up in her GI tract.

A combination of homecooking and AE probiotics and digestive enzymes have supported her pancreas almost unbelievably. No more diarrhea and her insulin requirement is half what it was seven years ago when she was first diagnosed. It's really astonishing.

[marcerella02]

Originally Posted by Ladymom

I absolutely swear by Animal Essentials Plant Enzymes and Probiotics. Lady's pancreas does not function properly. She is diabetic and we think her HGE attacks were caused by her pancreas not digesting food properly and bacteria building up in her GI tract.

A combination of homecooking and AE probiotics and digestive enzymes have supported her pancreas almost unbelievably. No more diarrhea and her insulin requirement is half what it was seven years ago when she was first diagnosed. It's really astonishing.

I use their multivitamin- it's great.

[amandawash]

Originally Posted by Ellie May

Yes, she can have probiotics. Due to the fact that so many companies put anything they want to on the market and it may not be as potent as thye say, I have decided to go with Proviable by Nutramax. Nutramax is a great company- I think it's a great idea to get her on the probios. You may be surprised and that's all she needs. I hope the sample size is large enough for you to test for at least 2 weeks, because serious cases can take several weeks for the probios to actually start doing their thing. I would give her a month on it before you decided if they are doing anything or not. If you end up buy the bottle and don't like them, let me know and I will buy the rest from you. With Ranger we can't have too many on hand and I am really leaning towards using those as opposed to the probiocyn that we use for emergencies. Her vet agrees. I did not want to buy a bottle of 80, so I am waiting for a sample. It will be here soon. She can have digestive enzymes but I'm skeptical about those to say the least. The ones that really work for EPI are the only ones that I would trust and a dog without EPI shouldn't need them. The plant based over-the-counter type...I just don't know. Her pancreas should be producing 70 times more enzymes than it needs to to digest a meal, so just not convinced that enzymes are necessary. However, I would consider them if nothing else is working.

She has had soft stool (started out as very loose stool) since October. It is on again off again. The Metronidazole worked the first time but after stopping, the problem came back. Went back on Metro for a month and the issue never really did clear up again that whole time. It is tolerable now and I would just let it go but this can't be healthy for her. That's a hard call to make isn't it? I know you don't want to put anything more artificial into her little body than necessary and I wouldn't want to do months of metro. I hope those probios can give her some relief.

And she is scratching again (allergies) but it is hard to pinpoint what food is causing it because one of her allergens (corn) is in so many things (Cheerios, popcorn, etc.) and gets dropped easily for her to eat. So I don't know if the food she is on now is making her itch or the food that gets dropped that she isn't supposed to have. You know, like the one piece of popcorn that falls by the garbage can type thing. I would guess she's just developing sensitivities to different foods at this point due to her immune system, as it is surely compromised due to her issues. Consulted with DH who said her system is probably "a little batty right now" (excuse the vet terms ) and is just over-reacting to everything due to the fact there is probably something else going on.

I don't know. If it isn't liquidy but just very soft too often, do you just let it go? I don't know! I guess if the probios don't help, then I would be more in favor of doing a diet re-formulation before I did a biopsy. After the probiotics, I will talk to her vet again but while she is in complete support of diet change, probiotics, etc., she is thinking that a full thickness intestinal biopsy followed by prednisolone I would think pred would be REALLY hard on her little body. But I understand it might be the only optionmay be the only thing to work if all of this other stuff doesn't. She can't really give those meds without doing a biopsy first to rule out cancer... Whatcha think? Is her bloodwork completely normal (for her)?

Ann and I have been talking about this too.
We were thinking maybe EPI? But Ellie is now gaining weight, so not sure if that is possible. Or possible SIBO.

I don't know... EPI doesn't sound likely due to the fact she is not emaciated and like you said, gaining weight. I would more so think it could be SIBO secondary to due to her dietary sensitivity and intestinal issues.

How freakin' WIERD is it that she may have one of two issues that are most common in German Shephards!!! Are you sure there isn't any GSD in there BTW- how old is she exactly?

[Suzy]

Crystal I'm still homecooking, just using the Sojos and supplementing with kibble in between. With our baby boy arriving at any time in the next few weeks, I wanted to make sure we had food that agreed with the furgirls that 1) they were adjusted to 2) was easy to feed them in case someone else needs to come in to feed them and 3) was easy to prepare the homecooked style of food that they are used to without as much work, in case I couldn't do it for awhile. I plan to continue homecooking, and feeding them homemade food in addition to the sojos-I make it ahead just like the homecooked food and then freeze it in smaller containers, which I have been alternating homecooked and sojos and they're doing great on these new foods. I more switched to their new foods for THEIR health-I was really worried that a friend would come to feed them while I was in the hospital and I wouldn't have any food made ahead of time!

[Ellie May]

Originally Posted by amandawash

I don't know... EPI doesn't sound likely due to the fact she is not emaciated and like you said, gaining weight. I would more so think it could be SIBO secondary to due to her dietary sensitivity and intestinal issues.

How freakin' WIERD is it that she may have one of two issues that are most common in German Shephards!!! Are you sure there isn't any GSD in there BTW- how old is she exactly?

Nope, not a bit of shephard in her.
She is seven.
I know her symptoms don't sound like EPI but she had acute pancreatitis last year and now this, so it seems like something is thrown off although her Spec cPL is normal. Something on her blood work was one point high. Hmm, I think it was hemoglobin. The vet said no worries. Her platelets were very low (out of reference range) but we redid it and they were right back up (clotting in the tube suspected). The hemo was normal then too I believe. Her lipase was about 200 points too high. This was in Oct. Then the cPL came back normal. Nutramax is sending an 80 day sample to the vet and she says they are all mine if I want them.

Lol, I agree. Her system is quite batty.
Please tell your husband thanks.

[Ladymom]

Originally Posted by marcerella02

I use their multivitamin- it's great.

I use their multivitamin, too!

[Ladymom]

Originally Posted by Ellie May

Nope, not a bit of shephard in her.
She is seven.
I know her symptoms don't sound like EPI but she had acute pancreatitis last year and now this, so it seems like something is thrown off although her Spec cPL is normal. Something on her blood work was one point high. Hmm, I think it was hemoglobin. The vet said no worries. Her platelets were very low (out of reference range) but we redid it and they were right back up (clotting in the tube suspected). The hemo was normal then too I believe. Her lipase was about 200 points too high. This was in Oct. Then the cPL came back normal. Nutramax is sending an 80 day sample to the vet and she says they are all mine if I want them.

Lol, I agree. Her system is quite batty.
Please tell your husband thanks.

Did they do a TLI test to see if she is producing the enzyme trypsin? And a fecal specifically for EPI?

Diagnosis of exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency | The Perfect Dog Blog

[Mum]

Ive been cooking for abbey and giving raw veggies and fruits

[4doggiemama]

Oh man, after reading this thread I am scared to death that I am doing Cocoa a disservice. After her recent surgery she refused to eat the prescription canned food that she was on before surgery or the other doggies' dry food mushed up with water. Vet suggested chicken, brown rice, gr. beans, and carrots cooked and mushed up since she is missing teeth. Am feeding her a small amount every 2 to 3 hours, even through the night. Said it wouldn't hurt her to eat this a month without supplements. Told me to give 1 protein to 4 carbs. Even though she is now a mite under 3 lbs. now she's finally eating well, and appears to be feeling well. Right now we don't know what sort of food she needs to be on until all the tests are back from her surgery. Wish they would hurry. Thanks for the thread and information provided. ~Joanne~

[chattiesmom]

Originally Posted by Ellie May

Right now Ellie does get homecooked (of course) but because of some medical issues, there may be a time very soon that we might have to go with a prescription diet. It is just really hard to mirror the intestinal diets like I/D, so we will see. It is very expensive compared to kibble and the better ingredients do cost quite a bit more. When you measure everything out to get the correct % of protein, fat, etc., it can be time consuming to package it.

Not sure what I'd do with a healthy Yorkie but a healthy large dog would be getting dog food. However, I take one issue or another with just about every dog food out there and I would not like feeding it.

If your vet recommends a prescription diet, you can ask for the the home cooked recipe for the prescription diet. Hills Science Diet supplies a home cooked version of their prescription diets to vets

[Mum]

abbey is 5 months..very picky eater..I boil chicken and tear off a few bites..another time white rice..and once a week scramble an egg
I give her apple slices and banana slices as treats
another meal might be peas or green beans.or sweet potatoes mixed with puppy food.
she weighs 7.13 and is very healthy was at Vets today