Food Suggestions

I just stumbled onto this site doing research since our beloved Westie Wendal was diagnosed with TCC last week.  This hit us particularly hard, as we lost our other Westie Harley 3 months ago to lung cancer. 

Wendal will be 15 yrs old in 2 days.  We got Harley 2 1/2 yrs ago in preparation for (and to help me get over) losing Wendal.  What a cruel twist of fate to lose our prescious and sweet Harley first.  I'm no where close to being over that and can't believe I will be going through it again in the inevitable near future.

 I've spent hours reading as many postings as possible and have learned a great deal.  It appears we're on track with treatment - chemo and surgery weren't options, started piroxicam and pepcid, etc.  I'm very curious about the supplements mentioned and will explore them, but I really need to learn more about the food everyone is mentioning.  I am not a cook AT ALL and don't know how to prepare the things mentioned.  Should I just purchase food at the website www.onlynaturalpet.com or could someone help me out with specific cooking instructions?  He's always had a pretty sensitive stomach (as far as diet changes go) and I'm nervous to switch things up on him.  However, everyone is mentioning the need to get them off carbs. 

Any and all suggestions welcomed.  Just like everyone else, Wendal is my world.  We have no "real" children - I've just lost one baby and can't bear the thought now of losing another one.

 

Hi.  I had the same idea as you with having more than one dog (I have scotties), & now JJ has tcc, & the two girl scotties both have kidney damage (most likely from eating mice that were poisoned with d-con.)  I will probably lose all 3 of them within the next year.  It's very hard to accept & I am just focusing on one day at a time. Like you I am trying to keep them as healthy as possible for as long as possible.

I am feeding Innova Senior to JJ, as it is very good quality dog food & is a high protein low carb senior dog food. The website is www.naturapet.com & you can click on a tab that lets you put in your zip code to find your local sellers.  It's pricey but worth it. The oncologist at CSU said that was a good choice & that it's also ok to give him treats that he likes, because since it is a terminal disease quality of life for a dog includes those favorite treats even if it adds some carbs.

Good Luck.

JJ's Mom.

Hi JJs Mom.  I'm so very sorry to hear about your babies.  You've obviously got some very difficult times ahead of you, I will keep you all in my prayers.

 Thank you for responding to my message.  You've been the only one so far and I'm so desperate to get him off his current food and on to something that won't "feed" the tumor.  I will go to the website you mentioned and see if it's sold in my area.

 Good luck.  Enjoy every day you have with each of them.  They really are blessings from above.

Wendal's Mom

 

 

Hi.  Thank you for the good wishes. I forgot to mention that the oncologist said that she didn't think that the food had much to do with how the cancer progresses.  She said that making sure that all of the nutritional needs are met is more important, & that a high quality food should do that.  When I asked her about feeding home cooked food, she cautioned me that you have to be careful that you're meeting all of the nutrition requirements.  I am sometimes adding some cooked chicken breast crumbled up over the food, just to make sure he eats enough to coat his stomach for the piroxicam.  With an old dog you might want to get blood drawn occasionally to check the BUN & Creatinine & phosphorus for kidney function checkup. (My kidney damage dogs tend to throw up when their kidneys are giving them problems, & then I put them back on the hill's k/d & they stop throwing up.  But it's really expensive & they don't seem to like the taste.) When I researched dog foods, I looked for foods that had meat as the first ingredient, & I think that "by-products" is probably not a good thing to see in the ingredients.  If you can't find the Innova or if it doesn't agree with your dog, you can go to dog food center on www.petsmart.com & you can click on product detail to see the ingredients for each dog food & compare.  You can also click on reviews for each one & those are really helpful, especially if your dog has a sensitive stomach.  Some others I thought about trying were Nutro Ultra Senior & Nature's Recipe Senior Lamb Meal & Rice.  The senior foods are supposed to be lower in phosphorus & salt, because those are hard on old dogs' kidneys, & most older dogs have decreased kidney function due to their age.

Good Luck

JJ's Mom

I am sorry to hear about you westie. I have a 9 year old Westie, are they known to prone to have TCC? I hope not because my 16 year old beagle has it now. I changed his diet after doing some research and stumbling upon shocking information about what really goes into commercial pet food. I now just boil chicken , steam brocolli and grind it up in a food processor and leave it in tupperware container to feed. I'll add scrambled eggs to it too. They both seem to enjoy it very much. My vet warned me about making sure they get their nutrients and actually recommended that I give them a Centrum Silver supplement along with their dog food. I just ordered a book online about cooking homemade diets for dogs, I'll let you know how it is when I get it. The boiled chicken and steamed brocolli is really easy, Im not a cook either!

Hello--

Just as an addition, I coincidentally also feed my dog the Innova Senior.  She likes it and I, too , believe it is a high quality dog food.

Westies and Scotties are both prone to TCC, but I seem to recall that there are tests you can have done to see if there are indicators that your baby may have it.  I would definitely ask my vet about them as I believe early detection makes all the difference.

My Annie was diagnosed in February of 2005 and she will turn 13 in April.  As far as SHE is concerned her life has not changed one iota these past three years and she is as happy as she can be!

I have had her on 5 mg of piroxicam and that, for us, seems to have been the answer.

Good luck to all all of you!

Marty 

 

On 2/28/2008 JJsMom wrote:

Hi.  Thank you for the good wishes. I forgot to mention that the oncologist said that she didn't think that the food had much to do with how the cancer progresses.  She said that making sure that all of the nutritional needs are met is more important, & that a high quality food should do that.  When I asked her about feeding home cooked food, she cautioned me that you have to be careful that you're meeting all of the nutrition requirements.  I am sometimes adding some cooked chicken breast crumbled up over the food, just to make sure he eats enough to coat his stomach for the piroxicam.  With an old dog you might want to get blood drawn occasionally to check the BUN & Creatinine & phosphorus for kidney function checkup. (My kidney damage dogs tend to throw up when their kidneys are giving them problems, & then I put them back on the hill's k/d & they stop throwing up.  But it's really expensive & they don't seem to like the taste.) When I researched dog foods, I looked for foods that had meat as the first ingredient, & I think that "by-products" is probably not a good thing to see in the ingredients.  If you can't find the Innova or if it doesn't agree with your dog, you can go to dog food center on www.petsmart.com & you can click on product detail to see the ingredients for each dog food & compare.  You can also click on reviews for each one & those are really helpful, especially if your dog has a sensitive stomach.  Some others I thought about trying were Nutro Ultra Senior & Nature's Recipe Senior Lamb Meal & Rice.  The senior foods are supposed to be lower in phosphorus & salt, because those are hard on old dogs' kidneys, & most older dogs have decreased kidney function due to their age.

Good Luck

JJ's Mom

 

Wow, thanks for all of your great information!  I talked with my vet about the food and they agreed with yours that what's most important is meeting their nutritional requirements.  I found a local source for the Innova food, I will buy some this weekend and see what happens.  I will supplement with maybe some chicken - he would LOVE that!  This guy absolutely lives for food!

Good luck and thanks for the information!

Wendal's Mom

 

 

On 3/1/2008 joeydog wrote:

I am sorry to hear about you westie. I have a 9 year old Westie, are they known to prone to have TCC? I hope not because my 16 year old beagle has it now. I changed his diet after doing some research and stumbling upon shocking information about what really goes into commercial pet food. I now just boil chicken , steam brocolli and grind it up in a food processor and leave it in tupperware container to feed. I'll add scrambled eggs to it too. They both seem to enjoy it very much. My vet warned me about making sure they get their nutrients and actually recommended that I give them a Centrum Silver supplement along with their dog food. I just ordered a book online about cooking homemade diets for dogs, I'll let you know how it is when I get it. The boiled chicken and steamed brocolli is really easy, Im not a cook either!

I've learned on this site that Westies are 3 times as likely to have TCC.  I feel blessed because ours didn't get this until he was 15.  The vet says he should just live out the rest of his natural life on Piroxicam and for that I'm thankful.  I like your food suggestions and will give them a try as an addition to the Innova I'm going to try.  I'd be very interested to hear what you think about the book you ordered - let me know.

Thanks,

Wendals Mom

I have westies too, and wonder what the
TCC
is and what books your guys are talking about.  I am convinced the food is the problem too.  I was using Merrick, and now have the dogs on wellness......Mine would love the brocoli, eggs, and chicken diet.  You are not feeding any onions are you!!  Very bad for dogs and cats....

 

Conni

 

On 3/1/2008 Gentleannie wrote:

Hello--

Just as an addition, I coincidentally also feed my dog the Innova Senior.  She likes it and I, too , believe it is a high quality dog food.

Westies and Scotties are both prone to TCC, but I seem to recall that there are tests you can have done to see if there are indicators that your baby may have it.  I would definitely ask my vet about them as I believe early detection makes all the difference.

My Annie was diagnosed in February of 2005 and she will turn 13 in April.  As far as SHE is concerned her life has not changed one iota these past three years and she is as happy as she can be!

I have had her on 5 mg of piroxicam and that, for us, seems to have been the answer.

Good luck to all all of you!

Marty 

It's encouraging to hear your dog has lived with this for 3 years now.  Ours is 15 already so I don't think we'll have that much time, but I'll take every day we get. 

Wendals Mom