Helping my senior dog recover from Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever
Written: Sep 13 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: palatable for dog, helps recovering dog gain weight
Cons: somewhat pricey
The Bottom Line: You can always trust Science Diet to be the best for your pet, and canned chicken senior formula is no exception.
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| sshelle's Full Review: Hill's Science Diet Canine Senior Canned Food |
My 10 year old Corgi mix, who has had a history of coughing since we adopted him as a 'yearling', got an increasingly worse cough this summer. I took him to the vet, and after an overnight stay and many tests and x-rays, it was determined that he had Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever! What a shocker! He had also dropped several pounds in weight. Previously he had been a little chunky, because our 18 year old dog Cato had to be put down last year, and towards the end Cato was on high-calorie Hill's A/D diet which he didn't finish (so our younger Corky did). The slow weight loss hadn't concerned us (since he needed to lose a few pounds) until we saw the numbers on the scale at the vet's office and realized just how much he had lost!
The Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever caused a lot of problems--enlarged heart and congested lungs were just two of them. So back home we went with antibiotics to kill off the RMSF parasite, drugs for all the injured internal organs, and a 6-pack of Science Diet Canine Senior Chicken Formula in cans. The vet really wanted Corky to get the weight back on, and since we feed free-choice, she figured his appetite was waning and wanted to make sure he was eating.
Usually we just feed our dog dry Science Diet Canine Senior because we don't want to deal with so much tartar buildup, etc. So when we feed anything out of a can, Corky thinks it's a treat. Corky went straight for the canned food like it was Christmas! He ate about 3/4 can every night (the suggested amount according to the vet and the can), and by the time the next vet visit rolled around (about two weeks), he had gained a pound back (relief)!
I only feed Science Diet, so I was glad there was a canned version out there for my dog to eat. The canned food has the same results as the dry food--small amounts of feces (yeah!). The ingredients are healthy ones, not cheap fillers. The top two ingredients in the chicken recipe are water and chicken, then cracked pearled barley, corn meal, dried whey, liver, dried beet pulp, corn gluten meal, natural flavor, vegetable oil, fish meal, taurine, iron oxide, minerals (calcium carbonate, potassium chloride, zinc oxide, ferrous sulfate, copper sulfate, manganous oxide, calcium iodate, sodium selenite) and vitamins (chiline chloride, vitamin D3 supplement, vitamin E supplement, thiamine, niacin, calcium pantothenate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, riboflavin, folic acid, biotin, and vitamin B 12 supplement).
I suppose the taurine is in there for people who feed dog food to their cats, as I only know of its nutritional requirements in cats---without it, cats go blind. I remember working in a vet clinic and seeing blind cats (blind because their owners decided to feed their cats dog food to save money, and the dog food didn't have the taurine that cats have to have). To cover other would-be idiots and ignorant people, the labels on these cans even say "Important: DO NOT feed onions, chocolate, or table scraps. They can cause health problems." Too bad not everyone reads that--the current pet obesity problem is 100% preventable.
So our dog is happily eating the canned senior diet, thinking he's on some kind of spa vacation, and he's recovering nicely from his RMSF. With his weight gain and prescriptions, he's much better now, and is continuing to improve. When he gets off of his medications, we'll probably go back to dry senior diet, but give him some canned senior diet as long as his weight stays stable (not too much or too little).
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
sshelle
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Location: Stillwater, OK
Reviews written: 351
Trusted by: 55 members
About Me:
Working on my Piled Higher and Deeper degree. . .
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