Doggie diabetes
dulcitonia
Posts: 278 Member
Well it appears people aren’t the only species with high carb diets. My dog just got diagnosed with diabetes. She eats a fairly good brand of food/treats. However, It appears most dog foods are up to 70%carbs!! I had no idea.
I am putting her on low carb doggie diet. She may join the group for support
I am putting her on low carb doggie diet. She may join the group for support
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dogs are carnivores, it baffles me that there are any carbs in their food5
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Oh my. That's sad but not uncommon. Do you have to give her insulin shots? We had a big ole husky in the neighborhood who was diabetic and her "parents" gave her shots.0
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I had no idea dog food is mostly carbs! That's disturbing. Poor doggie, I'm sure that she will instantly love her new diet though.1
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Yep insulin (which is expensive for humans and dogs but I won’t get into healthcare reform!)
2 shots a day to start. No doggie metformin evidently.
Yes I thought I’d mention it. The vet said the rate of dog diabetes is going up.
Well if we think we are giving them good food and it’s mostly carbs I bet it is
. I just wish I’d thought about it sooner. But now the others will go on diet with her and hopefully don’t develop it . 0 -
Grain-free dog foods help. If you can't do a true meat-based diet, those and "species appropriate recipe" foods are the next best option. It can be a little pricey, but likely not as much as the health issues that result from non-species-appropriate foods. 1
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Agreed!Dragonwolf wrote: »Grain-free dog foods help. If you can't do a true meat-based diet, those and "species appropriate recipe" foods are the next best option. It can be a little pricey, but likely not as much as the health issues that result from non-species-appropriate foods.
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Our sheltie eats a raw carnivore diet. We buy whole ground animals from a site called My Pet Carnivore.
If you are interested in learning more, there is a GREAT book by Lew Olsen on Amazon. It had everything we needed to know ~ and gave me the confidence to make this choice from the time we got him as a puppy.
"Dog food" is a man-made invention. Just like breakfast cereal and all of the other processed crap that's been pushed on humans.3 -
I guess the grain free foods are deficient in taurine which can lead to cardiomyopathy so be aware of that. I was not and have other issues with my dog, but that was the first thing the vet asked is if I was feeding a grain free diet. I definitely agree with decreasing the carbs. That is how I got my blood sugar normalized, so I can't imagine it's any different in dogs!1
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Hi I’m sweetie, I’m a farm dog. My humans have started giving me different food....something about carbs.
But I think it tastes waaay better than the other stuff.
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I guess the grain free foods are deficient in taurine which can lead to cardiomyopathy so be aware of that. I was not and have other issues with my dog, but that was the first thing the vet asked is if I was feeding a grain free diet. I definitely agree with decreasing the carbs. That is how I got my blood sugar normalized, so I can't imagine it's any different in dogs!
Uhm, taurine is ample in animal meat. Why would taking the grain out cause a deficiency? It is the reason cats can't survive on a vegan diet, they need the taurine from animal foods.1 -
The problem with the commercially available grain free dog foods isn’t that they’re grain free as much as they nearly meat free also... grains don’t have taurine. Meat does.
The conventional dog foods using grains add supplements and the grain free ones apparently didn’t add enough or maybe not at all to prevent taurine deficiency.
The bottom line though isn’t that they need grains for taurine, because they don’t have it u less it’s added anyway, it’s that they need animal meat.
The popular grain free foods are almost all some sort of starch.
I feed my dog a raw diet. I buy a pre made and balanced blend because I am worried I won’t balance the diet well if I DIY it.
I found a local co-op where I can buy Titan dog food and it’s very budget friendly. My dog eats about 1.25 pounds a day. Ends up costing me less than $2 a day. Much cheaper than the high end, high protein, lowest carb kibble I started out feeding her. That was Orijen Regonal Red. If you need to use kibble, I recommend that one. It’s about $100 for 25 pounds though. More budget friendly if you have a small dog though.
This is the food I’m feeding. There’s an email address on this page where you can ask about a co-op in your area.
http://www.titandogfood.com/site/1 -
I probably should have emphasized the biologically appropriate diet and mentioned that before the grain-free part in my previous response, because yeah, crappy "grain free!" kibbles are still going to be pretty far down the quality list and only marginally better than conventional kibbles, though IME, it's a start and a step in the right direction.
Basically, in my opinion, the order of priority should be:
Raw, meaty bones > raw, ground preparations > whole-food-based biologically appropriate recipe commercial foods (these are usually canned dog foods with ingredients that read like stew) > biologically appropriate processed commercial foods/kibble > general grain-free kibble > conventional kibble
For what it's worth, the raw meaty bones route is actually pretty easy to balance, nutritionally. If you can't get actual whole animals (like chicken or rabbit with feet and organs), you can ballpark it pretty easily with a reasonable variety of bone-in meats and the occasional "organ meal" with some conceptualization of the type of animals your dog would mostly eat.
Like us humans, when you cut out all the crap that prevents absorption, it's pretty easy to meet one's needs with meat. 1 -
My aunt & uncle's dog was the first diabetic dog I'd heard about - WeeBoy (PugaPoo) needed insulin shots once a day - that was 10 or 12 years ago now. He did live a long and relatively healthy life otherwise. He did receive french fry treats when his humans came home from their weekly shopping days. Didn't do him any favours, I guess.1
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Sorry to hear your fur baby's diagnosis! I know of a few cat's that have been diagnosed, but not dogs. If it's helpful, the one cat is now off his insulin due to some weight loss as well as very timed and measured feedings. I will have to ask whether they changed his food as well!?
Sadly, this all makes sense though.1 -
dulcitonia wrote: »Well it appears people aren’t the only species with high carb diets. My dog just got diagnosed with diabetes. She eats a fairly good brand of food/treats. However, It appears most dog foods are up to 70%carbs!! I had no idea.
I am putting her on low carb doggie diet. She may join the group for support
I have heard of dogs and cats with diabetes. I will be interested to hear how things go with the diet. I had a veterinarian friend at one point and her dog was on a diet of raw meat and bones basically. i never found out why or asked about this. There had to have been a reason.
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dulcitonia wrote: »Well it appears people aren’t the only species with high carb diets. My dog just got diagnosed with diabetes. She eats a fairly good brand of food/treats. However, It appears most dog foods are up to 70%carbs!! I had no idea.
I am putting her on low carb doggie diet. She may join the group for support
I have heard of dogs and cats with diabetes. I will be interested to hear how things go with the diet. I had a veterinarian friend at one point and her dog was on a diet of raw meat and bones basically. i never found out why or asked about this. There had to have been a reason.
It's because dogs are carnivores, and that is mostly what they would eat in nature.
Veterinarians ~ of all people ~ should know this.0
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