Inflammatory diseases of the pancreas are one of the diseases that can occur in a dog if they eat a high-fat diet.
Also, eating unusual foods or giving human food rich in fat can cause acute pancreatitis (AP). A risk factor when checking for pancreatic diseases is also dog obesity or hyperlipidemia.
The role of a low-fat diet
In the case of acute pancreatitis confirmed by a doctor, a proper diet is the key to achieving an improvement in health.
A low-fat diet should be put in place for at least a few weeks and tests should be performed again to reassess the dog’s health. For some dogs, a low-fat diet may be recommended to be introduced permanently.
You should pay attention not only to the fat content of dry matter, but also to what percentage of metabolic energy comes from fat – ideally, it should be 24-35%. For some dogs, it may be necessary to further reduce the fat content.
Use our calculator to calculate the fat content of your dry matter and the percentage of metabolic energy that comes from LINK fat.
Home diet
In the case of dogs fed wet meals, the alternative is often to introduce a homemade diet based on highly digestible animal proteins, such as white poultry meat or lean fish (turkey breast, cod fillet or pollock).
At the same time, in the case of such a diet, appropriate supplementation of a mixture of polyunsaturated fatty acids can be introduced to ensure an increased supply of Omega-3 EPA/DHA acid, e.g. from wild salmon oil.
Look for information about the dosage of EPA/DHA acids in our article LINK.
Carbohydrate digestibility
It should be noted that in order not to burden the pancreas, a low-fat diet with a reduced level of protein is used. Therefore, the role of carbohydrates is growing. It is worth taking care to provide highly digestible carbohydrates, the sources of which can be:
Rice, pasta, potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, parsley, pumpkin.
Remember to serve the meal shredded and warm, which will increase its digestibility.
Also use proven recipes and remember that an easily digestible diet contains less crude fiber,
Summary:
The diet of a dog with recurrent pancreatitis resembles the diet of a dog with pancreatic insufficiency. It is a low-fat or ultra-low-fat diet, depending on the condition of the dog. Such a diet often has to be followed for the rest of your life. If your dog weighs too much, has hyperlipidemia, you feed him commercial wet foods with increased fat content, and at the same time your dog has problems with the digestive system, do blood tests to rule out inflammation of the pancreas.
