Emma... is.... fat?

Has her activity level been the same?  I know with Twister, a few pounds really show up and if he is getting too many treats I have to substitute his meals for training treats.  He is very active but gains weight easily, he cages treats at work all day, little beggar. :)

  Jessie lost muscle when she was on it too. Hill's doesn't tell you how many grams of protein there are in x number of calories, so you don't know how much protein she's getting, and since it's not meat based protein it's not very good quality. I think the amount of protein is more important than the amount of fat to maintain muscle; senior dog foods designed to maintain lean muscle mass are about 26% protein and 10% fat. I agree with you about not wanting to cut back on the amount you're feeding; Emma would get even less protein. A little padding on her ribs doesn't seem so bad, unless PRT's aren't supposed to have any. At least she won't be on it much longer.

 

You know this is interesting to me because Willow's put on weight recently too.  I had chalked it up to her just not taking it off after the Prednisone but now I wonder.  But, I can't reduce her portions either, there just isn't enough calories per can. 

 

 When Jetta was on Z/D she gained weight, loss muscle, and was just generally unhealthy( tear staining worse, and itching didn't improve) . I think its  a pretty common side affect of being fed that food.

Have you weighed her? I have two Jacks, one I try to keep around 20-21LB (big Jack 16";), the other I try to keep around 13-14lbs. Mine are very active (agility, hunting, fetch, walks/trails). With grain/carbs, they got hyper. I went raw, they are calm to a point. If I let them go up to 4-5 days with no activity, they start to get 'busy' by pacing or start doing zoomies. They are a lot calmer off grain. My dogs need FAT to maintain their weight and active lifestyle not CARBS or grains. Case in point, I did a rotation to another RAW product where the FAT content was HALF of what I normally feed (17%). After 2 two months on this lower fat raw red meat, they lost 3 lbs. So I needed to add fat right back to their diet so I started to included green tripe while I was on this other raw product. Now, I just do morigins and hare today. When people see my jacks, they think they are broken because they are so calm but once I flipped that switch consider the definition of a JRT/PRT. :)

 No, she's not as active. She can't keep up, which is my major concern, with the Z/D. She has joint issues, also, which is why I generally keep her quite lean (not thin, she's been in great condition until now, muscles popping out everywhere).

 She also gets stir crazy after a few days of no activity. We've had rain for a week and a half straight, and she's started chewing stuff. Furniture, shoes, LOL. I just laughed, and took her for a walk in the rain. 

 Janice, she almost qualifies for senior food, and those levels would probably work great for her.  I just have to find a food she tolerates....

 Sounds like it's what Z/D does, so reducing wouldn't even help. Thanks, everybody!

How old is Emma? Her name, we have a Jack in class who is 11 that does agility and competes at the Excellent level - she just moved up there! For joint stuff, I just feed my dogs green tripe. Morgins does have green tripe in it.

 Emma is 5 1/2. She has a list as long as your arm of genetic health issues, including a pinched nerve in her back (which isn't helped by glucosamine, and is hurt by being too heavy). She's special She's not allowed to jump more than a foot, ever. Last time she did, she ended up sedated for several hours, because of the pain.

 Well, you could put her on Hill's j/d--Jack LOST weight on that stuff, and this was with the *very* reduced activity due the the elbow surgery.

Can you homecook for her for a while until she gets back into condition?

jennie_c_d

Janice, she almost qualifies for senior food, and those levels would probably work great for her.  I just have to find a food she tolerates....

 

  Jessie can't have any of the senior foods because of her allergies. Before I got her into so much trouble by feeding the cooked diet that Sabine formulated ( wasn't Sabine's fault; I hadn't tried turkey when doing the elimination diet), I was adding a few ounces of cod or lean beef to the SS21 to boost the protein and she was doing great. She's just been eased onto the SS21 from the pancreatitis diet so I'm going to wait a few weeks before adding meat. If the tests show that Emma can't tolerate any senior foods, you can have Monica formulate a cooked or raw diet or add some meat to a lower protein food that she can tolerate. I'm guessing you've stopped her joint supplements while doing the elimination diet; once she can have them again, she may feel like being more active. I've been thinking of Emma and the tests today; hope her senior bloodwork is great.

 Christina, we don't know what she's allergic to. That's why she's on Z/D. She was reacting to everything I put in her mouth, unfortunately.

 

Janice, I was thinking of doing the same thing. Some lean protein, with her kibble, just to give her a boost. Honestly, she's doing well, other than being soft and squishy. I wouldn't mind keeping her on the Z/D, if she could have protein with it.

 

She was *so good* at the vet's! They took 10 ccs of blood from her neck, and when they spun it down, it wasn't enough for her phenobarb levels and her allergy test. They came back, and she had to be re muzzled and put back on the table. She took it so nicely. She didn't even make an ugly face. We're keeping a close eye on her liver and kidneys. Her BUN has dropped to almost too low, in the last six months. The other tests will come back whenever, and then we'll hopefully know something. The vet told me he can have a custom oral formula "like a homeopathic" made up for her, with her allergens, to help sensitize her. She won't have to have allergy shots. He's seen good success with using this. 

jennie_c_d

The vet told me he can have a custom oral formula "like a homeopathic" made up for her, with her allergens, to help sensitize her. She won't have to have allergy shots. He's seen good success with using this. 

PM Callie about that -- I think Dr. Deemers is doing something with Billy along those lines. I know she's really busy these days and I don't know if she'll see this.

YAY Emma! But I bet she didn't get to stop at McD's on the way home, huh? :( That's Pirate's favorite part of getting blood drawn.

 

sl2crmeg

PM Callie about that -- I think Dr. Deemers is doing something with Billy along those lines. I know she's really busy these days and I don't know if she'll see this.

   Megan, I think he's making a serum from Billy's blood and injecting him with it.

  

jennie_c_d

The vet told me he can have a custom oral formula "like a homeopathic" made up for her, with her allergens, to help sensitize her. She won't have to have allergy shots. He's seen good success with using this. 

   Sounds cool; I tried something like that with Jessie using a product made by bioallers;

http://www.bioallers.com/category-exec/category_id/580   T

  There's a well known holistic vet that uses there products for treating dogs with allergies;   http://www.crvetcenter.com/allergies.htm

  Each bottle has extracts of allergens; for example, the grass pollen has extracts of several different grasses. They upset Jessie's stomach and made her vomit, probably because of the alcohol. If I remember right you put the liquid under the tongue and don't swallow it for several seconds. I'm sure the mixture your vet mentioned would be different.

  I hope the other results from her bloodwork show the kidneys are okay; sending good vibes.

jennie_c_d

The vet told me he can have a custom oral formula "like a homeopathic" made up for her, with her allergens, to help sensitize her. She won't have to have allergy shots. He's seen good success with using this. 

 

Sounds like a "nosode" -- which would be possible.  What Dr. Demers does with Billy is called "Auto-sanguis" -- they combine one drop of his blood with homeopathic injectible remedies and he injects it back in acupuncture points.  It's not oral.

 

I'd love to know more about it -- give me the name of it if you can and I'll see what I can find.  Nosodes are pretty popular -- Dr. Demers makes a nosode out of cephalexyn for Tink -- literally taking the drug and making a homeopathic out of it (Diluted thousands of times, and then successed to activate it).   Sounds really good -- that should work well.