Dog Community

Fish oil vs. vegetable oil

Posted : 8/27/2009 11:09:25 AM

Jessie has chronic pancreatitis and has been on a cooked diet that's 4% fat for about five weeks; it was formulated by Monica Segal. While I was waiting for the consultation Jessie was on Hill's Ultra allergen z/d; it has less fat than her previous diet (10%) and she can't have the Rx diets for pancreatitis because of her food allergies. z/d has a good amount of omega 3's but the source is soybean oil. Jessie did well on it but her coat was a little dry and she had a little dandruff. I thought her coat would be even drier on the cooked diet because it's low fat but instead it's soft, shiny, and there's no dandruff. She weighs 58 pounds and gets 1000 mg of wild salmon oil daily ( two small capsules) and apparently it's a much better source of omega 3's. Needless to say I'm very pleased and wanted to share. Big Smile

jennie_c_d

Posted : 8/27/2009 1:56:20 PM

That's awesome! I have to spike Emma's Z/D with extra oil, too.

brookcove

Posted : 8/27/2009 6:55:57 PM

Many dogs lack the abilty to process ALA, the fatty acid in plants, to EfA and DHA. Fish body oil provides them in their basic form with no need for processing.

jessies_mom

Posted : 8/27/2009 7:58:33 PM

jennie_c_d
I have to spike Emma's Z/D with extra oil, too.

I wanted to add fish oil to the z/d but it would add too much fat. I guess you use fish oil?

jessies_mom

Posted : 8/27/2009 7:59:52 PM

brookcove
Many dogs lack the abilty to process ALA, the fatty acid in plants, to EfA and DHA. Fish body oil provides them in their basic form with no need for processing.

Jessie seemed to process them, just not as well as fish oil.

brookcove

Posted : 8/27/2009 9:07:40 PM

Right. I meant to say "process them efficiently". :)

jennie_c_d

Posted : 8/27/2009 9:35:54 PM

I use Seapet. At first, I was using flax, and even that helped. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that there isn't *enough* fat in it, for Em. She actually got constipated, dry, and flaky, for a while. Added the fat, and some probiotics, and things got moving, the coat looks great. Now, though, we're doing the fish oil, because it's better. I use less fat, and get the same results.

shamrockmommy

Posted : 8/29/2009 10:29:12 AM

Yay Glad you found something that works for her :)