my 8 yr old springer spaniel has pancreatitis

[matt demmery]

what should i feed my spaniel,his pancreatitis keeps flaring up he was on burns dry food,now on chappie,i need a fat free diet.my vet wants me to feed him i/d presciption diet at £2.25 a tin,he needs 3 tins a day.any advice welcome

 

[hanneroon]

hi there matt. I have no suggestions for you, other than to put 'pancreatitis' into the search box on here, and see if any previous topics come up. I'm sure, someone on here was talking about this the other day, and their are bound to be a couple of threads, good luck!

 

[Jasp]

I have a good friend with an 11 year old cocker who has just suffered the same condition and it really was touch and go for a few days, very nasty disease. Fortunately though this is one of those conditions that can be controlled by diet if you can find the right one to suit your dog. Always be wary of vets that recommend a specific brand of dog food, especially when there is a pile of it stacked up in the waiting room. Do your own research.

No diet is ever totally fat free but there are plenty of senior/light versions of most foods. Anything that lists less than about 15% fat content is considered low, but that does vary between wet and dry foods. The problem is that with many of them, in order to reduce the fat content manufacturers reduce the meat content, which in turn reduces essential protein and increases carb content.

If you want to carry on feeding wet then take a look at tray foods like Naturediet or Natures Menu, Petsathome's Wainwrights trays (not to be confused with tins, different stuff) are also very good. Expect to pay £9 - 16 for 12 - 18 395g trays depending on brand. Certainly not the cheapest diets but they are very good quality and if they improve your dogs condition and cut down on future vet bills then it has to be money well spent.

Be advised though that the feeding recommendations on Wainwrights in particular are way off, I fed it with great results for a while but my 35kg dog needed twice the listed daily amount.

 

[murphyrules]

I think I/D is available as a dry complete food rather than tins, that would be cheaper.