My senior Lab has pancreatitis. What dry or canned food is best?

Hi and thanks for visiting Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. I would stick with a low fat prescription diet such as Hills I/D or Royal Canin Low fat gastrointestinal. Continue this diet until your one pet is over their pancreatitis episode. Then you can slowly transition them back to a senior diet which is typically lower in calories and higher in protein and carbs. My top brands are Royal Canin, Hill’s Science Diet, Evo or Eukanuba. Best of luck with your fur babies and their new diets. Take care!

The current recall has been confined to a specific range of the hills canned/wet diets and if she has been doing well on the active longevity kibble with no flare ups of pancreatitis I would be very slow to consider changing as this may trigger relapses which may be more difficult to control as she is getting older. A very low fat and restricted diet is recommended in pancreatitis patients, this is difficult to prepare accurately at home over the long term to maintain a correctly balanced diet. My preferred choice in such patients is royal canin gastrointestinal low fat or calibra gastro-pancreas but many light and senior diets are also ok in stable cases

Poor Quinton! Pancreatitis can become a chronic issue. Switching the diet to the Low Fat food may help. You will also need to make sure he does not eat ANY human food or get into the garbage. Any treats need to be extremely low fat. Some dogs with chronic pancreatitis benefit from daily antioxidants for dogs. Some may need a daily steroid but most don't. Make sure Quinton drinks lots of water daily. Here is a link about pancreatitis: https://www.petcoach.co/article/pancreatitis-inflammation-in-dogs/ If this trend continues, your vet may want to look for an underlying condition such as Cushing's Disease. I hope this helps and that he starts feeling better quickly.

Yes, this is a great food to give a dog with pancreatitis. It is actually my first choice. I would recommend doing small meals every 4-6 hours and see if your dog can keep that down. If you're feeding the canned food do about 3 tablespoons to start and then slowly increase the amount you are giving him until he is recovered. If you're feeding the dry food do it in half cup increments and then slowly increase the amount you are giving him if he is able to keep it down. I would not recommend adding milk to the diet as this could further irritate the stomach. I hope this helps. Best of luck. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

Usually I recommend a low fat gastrointestinal food for pancreatitis as it is easily digested with minimum fat content. Royal canin does a feline wet GI food. Hills and specific do a similar option. You can get these from your vet. If your cat also has deficiency in pancreatic enzymes these may need supplemented.

Hi there. If you just need something to give her for a short time (up to a week or two), you could feed her plain boiled chicken and rice - this is bland and very low in fat, and shouldn't upset her stomach while you're waiting to be able to get her prescription diet again.

Poor Henry-pancreatitis is no fun. I don’t usually recommend adding something like this to the diet for animals who suffer these types of severe/chronic conditions. We never know what may cause a flair up. However, if Henry is using a prescription kibble you could check with your vet to see if a canned formulation is available as well. If so you can cut the canned product into little cubes and bake/dehydrate then in the oven to make your own treats! Another option is that most of the companies that manufacture prescription foods also have a range of treats which are labelled for use with various of their prescription diets. Good luck!