My Dog Has Pancreatitis And Won't Eat Well
How can I encourage my dog to eat? She has been diagnosed with pancreatitis, she has been in hospital and now home she is eating only low fat dog treats and a minute amount of other things to tempt her.
She is drinking water OK. But she is on a lot of medication namely, Synulox, Gabapentin, Ranitidine, Denamarin and Ursodeoxycholic acid.
Dr Susanna's Response
Raw egg is delicious, nutritious and very easy to digest. Let her lick Pet Plus from a plate so she has all the nutrients and enzymes she needs.
Does she like smelly things? Most dogs love green stinky tripe. Wolf Tucker do a really good smelly one!
Usually dogs are not carbohydrate consumers, but when they're ill (but not if they have cancer) certain dried fruit is a great source of easy energy for them. Use dates, apricots etc. but nothing from the grape family. So never give raisins, currants or sultanas.
Wild rabbit is an excellent low fat food. Turkey is OK too. All her meat should be raw of course as that is so much easier to digest than anything cooked or processed.
She might prefer it slightly warm, so just put the bag of food / her bowl in a bowl of hot water and allow the heat to gently warm the food. Do not use the cooker or a microwave!
You should filter her water of course.
If she likes fish, that's good for her too. Try something like whitebait or something not fatty.
Pet Plus contains the enzymes required for digestion and is a great help with pancreatitis as it does the job of providing enzymes missing in everyday dog food, and this means her pancreas only has minimal enzyme producing work to do. Which is how it should be.