Feeding a diabetic dog

mistyscottie

Can anyone help me. I feed all my dogs a raw natural diet but my 'oldy' has just been diagnosed with diabetes and has to have insulin injections daily.
The vet has told me he has to be on a special diet of either tinned or dried food and this goes completely against my beliefs.
Does anyone know what 'real' food a diabetic dog can eat.

krlyr

Don't see why you couldn't continue to raw feed but might need a few tweaks. Might be worth finding a raw group to see if they have any suggestions, e.g. BritBarf.
http://knol.google.com/k/diabetic-dog-food#A_Natural_Diet
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/best-diabetic-dog-food.html

antw23uk

Dont tell me .. Your vet also happens to sell this food as well? :rotfl:

Stick with raw and tell your vet nice try but your dog is already on the best possible diet :beer:

paddypaws101

antw23uk wrote: »

Dont tell me .. Your vet also happens to sell this food as well? :rotfl:

Stick with raw and tell your vet nice try but your dog is already on the best possible diet :beer:

I agree totally!
What I do advise is for you to learn to home test your dog...buy a Freedom Freestyle Lite human glucose meter in Boots and some strips on ebay and away you go! For cats we use the tip of the ear, presume it is the same for dogs, but am sure you can find out easily enough. This way you can feel assured that your dog is always in healthy range and never have to worry about over dosing.

Waterfalls

I wouldnt worry too much, the most important thing is that ur dog eats so he is able to have his injections and be stable

tankgirl1

Waterfalls wrote: »

I wouldnt worry too much, the most important thing is that ur dog eats so he is able to have his injections and be stable

Agreed again. He must eat regularly, ideally the same food at more or less the same time. High fibre is better for diabetics as it helps the glucose to be absorbed slower.

Chappie is a good low cost alternative to the diabetic foods, although it does produce huge volumes of poop!

tankgirl1

paddypaws101 wrote: »

I agree totally!
What I do advise is for you to learn to home test your dog...buy a Freedom Freestyle Lite human glucose meter in Boots and some strips on ebay and away you go! For cats we use the tip of the ear, presume it is the same for dogs, but am sure you can find out easily enough. This way you can feel assured that your dog is always in healthy range and never have to worry about over dosing.

Human glucometers are not accurate in animals as the cell size is so different. There is now a cat & dog glucometer available - can't for the life of me remember it's name - you calibrate it to either cat or dog and away you go. It is available to the public for home testing, and gives much more accurate results than human glucometers.

Yes you use the 'flap' of the ear (the pinnae). The animal glucometer comes with a pen thing to !!!!! the skin.

Remembered the name of it - its the Alphatrak!

http://www.alphatrakmeter.com/atm/url/content/en_US/30:30/AlphaTRAKSystem.htm

paddypaws101

tankgirl1 wrote: »

Human glucometers are not accurate in animals as the cell size is so different. There is now a cat & dog glucometer available - can't for the life of me remember it's name - you calibrate it to either cat or dog and away you go. It is available to the public for home testing, and gives much more accurate results than human glucometers.

Yes you use the 'flap' of the ear (the pinnae). The animal glucometer comes with a pen thing to !!!!! the skin.

Remembered the name of it - its the Alphatrak!

http://www.alphatrakmeter.com/atm/url/content/en_US/30:30/AlphaTRAKSystem.htm

Tankgirl.....I think I remember that you are a qualified vet nurse, so please don't think I am rubbishing your advice....but until recently I had a diabetic cat so do have hands on experience of this.
The Alphatrak meters are MUCH more expensive than a human version, and the strips also work out very expensive which can really add up over time. You can pick up a Freestyle starter pack with meter, strips and the pen lancet for less than £15 in a local chemist or on ebay. Tester strips are similarly easy and cheap to buy.
In terms of accuracy the human meters are just fine...Myself, and dozens if not hundreds of other members of my diabetic cat group....have tested our meters against vet readings time and time again and although there may be a slight difference it is nothing significant. Anyway, testing is done as a comparative and is relative to each animal, so as long as a person sticks to the same meter each day at home the resulting information is fine...and far more accurate than any Fructosamine or vet run curve because the animal is more relaxed in its own home.
Home testing gives owners the peace of mind to know they are never going to send an animal into hypo and the results can be taken back to the vet to provide a basis for any recalculation of doses.
High fibre diets are suggested as a means to slow down absorption of glucose.....but it makes far more sense not to feed that starch/glucose in the first place and a high protein diet will allow for smaller doses of insulin to be needed. Why start a fire and then try to put it out???

mistyscottie

Thank you all for your replies. My problem is understanding what is good and bad in the way of starch/glucose. My boy is 8 but has had health problems since he was 2 which various vets have never been able to determine the causes. My current vet suggested it was food related. I used to feed commercial dried food. I switched to a raw diet and he improved dramatically and has been quite well for the past 3 years. He is underweight due to the diabetes which was only diagnosed 3 weeks ago. I feed pet mince produced by my butcher which consists of mainly red meat (offcuts when they are butchering) I buy whatever fresh vegetables are on offer and process these into a mix which varies in content but will always contain greens, carrots, one or two other veggies plus apples and one other fruit. The mix is usually 90% carrots and greens and 10% fruit. I also feed raw chicken carcass or chicken wing in the morning.

krlyr

I would imagine that offcuts from a butcher will be the fattier parts of the meat and could be the stuff you're needing to avoid when raw feeding. There are several raw food suppliers who will provide a better range of meats at reasonable prices - though you will pay more if you want freerange/organic meat. The articles online seem to recommend steering away from the red meats and more towards poultry, e.g. chicken and turkey (skin removed), for the less fatty quality and the fact it's easier to digest and less strain on the organs. Fish is also recommended and fish oils seem to be better for dogs that need to gain weight than fatty meat like beef and pork.
A few of the suppliers dotted around the UK are Landywoods, Durham Animal Feeds, the Dogfood Company and rawtogo, but there are both stockists of the above and new suppliers popping up all the time.

itchydog

mistyscottie wrote: »

Can anyone help me. I feed all my dogs a raw natural diet but my 'oldy' has just been diagnosed with diabetes and has to have insulin injections daily.
The vet has told me he has to be on a special diet of either tinned or dried food and this goes completely against my beliefs.
Does anyone know what 'real' food a diabetic dog can eat.

Hi

Have you come across this company honeysrealdogfood.com they're suppliers of raw food and I'm sure they will have diabetic dogs on their books.

Good luck
Kate