Too much protein?

[Tia's mommy]

Tia is my 11 year old toy poodle. She was diagnaosed with hypothyroid almost a year ago. She was diagnosed last week with diabetes and has just started insulin. She will go in for 12 hour monitoring in a couple of days. Her blood test also put a question mark for Cushings. I suspect she may also have that and will get her tested next week. Why does that come up on a diabetes blood test? Also the vet wanted her switched to a high fibre diet. I was reluctant but agreed. The results were diastrous. I mixed the 2 foods but Tia just picked out the new food. She used to just have Solid Gold which was very successful after years of scratching. It turns out she picked all the new food out of her bowl and did not eat the solid gold. Friday night she had a severe allergic reaction, swollen eye, tummy rash, itching and she was wired. We gave her an antihistamine and also pepto-bismal and it worked well in calming her down. I decided to just feed her small amounts and just put one new kibble with each serving and even soaked in chicked broth she refuses to eat it. it is as if she knows it's not good for her. I have done this for a few days and she will not tough the new food (Hill's w/d). Can someone explain the problem with the higher protein food? Thanks

[Traci]

If I understand you, she developed an allergic reaction after eating a good portion of the new W/D, yes? And now you are feeding her the solid gold with only a kibble of the W/D?

Ask your vet for an alternate veterinary diet, you don't have to stick with the W/D, there are a variety of veterinary diets available. The protein problem could be that she is sensitive to an ingredient in the W/D, so another diet with a novel protein would probably be better. Ask your vet to compare the ingredient list of the solid gold and the W/D to get an idea what ingredient(s) she may be sensitive to. Your other options might include Purina Rx, Walthams, IVD, etc.

[CrystalsMom]

Crystal had a bad reaction to the Science Diet w/d also. If you were using the dry kibble, the main ingredients are corn meal and peanut hulls. The canned w/d contains corn meal and eggs.

[JMM]

We usually use a high fiber food for doggy diabetics. IVD's Hi-Factor is another option.

Waltham/Royal Canin has a diabetic formula.

Eukanuba Vet diets makes a glucose control formula for dogs.

If your vet doesn't carry them, VetCentric carries a number of prescription diets.

The diabetes test probably included a chemistry panel and urinalysis. An elevated Alk Phos on the chemistry panel along with clinical signs can be suspicious for Cushing's. The specific tests for it (Low Dose Dex Suppression and/or ACTH stim) are pretty expensive. Depending on the dog's clinical symptoms, it may or may not be recommended to treat it.

If her liver values were up, did she also have a thyroid panel recently? It might be a good idea to make sure her thyroid supplement is at a therapeutic level.

[Tia's mommy]

Thank you all for you replies, I will discuss with the vet after tomorrow's glucose monitoring. I will probably ask for another Thyroid panel as suggested. My little girl is so funny. I am mixing a few solid gold kibbles with her homemade chicken, rice and carrot. She likes that because the juice gets into her kibble. I have also been putting in one of the Hill's kibbles everytime and she cleans her plate except for the one Hill's kibble, so even though originally she liked the taste, she KNOWS that it isn't good for her. I've told her I won't try to trick her like that anymore.

[CrystalsMom]

My dog would eat absolutely anything. She's like a junkyard dog.