Nutritional Changes
Desi is happy to have his coat, but waiting for spring!
Happy Spring – almost! Here in New England Mother Nature has played another cruel Monday joke on us and blasted us with more snow. This seems especially mean after a warm weekend where we could almost touch spring!
In my last post I promised to tell you what nutritional changes we’ve made to help Desi recover and live his life feeling as healthy and energetic as possible. We first did a blood allergy test to determine what foods he is in fact allergic to. I realize vets’ opinions differ on the reliability of allergy testing, but we did get results that confirmed some foods we knew for sure he is sensitive to. He is sensitive to some grains that are generally found in better quality foods and treats such as oats and barley in addition to poultry, which we knew, peanuts and green peas. Since we have to carefully control his fat intake and we want him to enjoy good healthy food we are cooking a small amount of a different protein, usually a fish or a tiny amount of beef and combining that with Dr. Harvey’s Veg-to-Bowl minus the green peas. I sometimes add a bit of other vegetables if I have something fresh he can eat such as sweet potato. Of course you should check with your vet or nutritionist to see what is right for your dog. He’s a happy boy at meal time and his weight is in control – no significant weight loss or gains. More importantly he hasn’t had any symptoms of pancreatitis and he’s tolerating the GME meds. His neurologist was very pleased at his visit last week and his chemo treatments are stretched to six weeks, then seven weeks, then eight weeks apart. If all goes well after the eight week interval chemo will be discontinued.
Desi had his tenth birtday last month and we are so grateful he’s with us, enjoying his life again and regaining his health.
Thanks so much for your concern!
Patti and Desi
