Canine Pancreatitis–Do You Feed Your Dog Table Scraps?

Pancreatitis in dogs is a serious issue but one that can be avoided with proper nutrition and diet. So, do you feed your dog table scraps? If so, depending on the quality of the scraps, you may be setting your dog up for pancreatitis, and here’s why.

So, what exactly is pancreatitis and how do you identify it in your dog or puppy? Well, the job of the pancreas is to make digestive enzymes–chemicals whose job is to asssit in breaking down food for digestion. Pancreatitis is a severe inflammation of the pancreas, and yes, if severe enough can kill your pet.

What do table scraps have to do with pancreatitis? A diet of low quality scraps can lead to this condition. The scraps from a meal made from pre-trimmed, pre-battered, pre-buttered, pre-cooked, and pre-packaged foods consists of only bits and pieces which are either inedible and generally unwanted by humans. Such a diet of scraps is not balanced and provides only inadequate nutrition, if any at all.

Symptoms of pancreatits may be your dog suddently vomiting, dehydration, lethargy, and/or diarrhea. These symptoms also belong to many other diseases, but if you suspect pancreatitis, take your dog to a vet immediately. Generally, high amounts of fat, a high-fat meal, the dog feeding out of the garbage can lead to canine pancreatitis. Ingestion of pesticides can also manifest as pancreatitis.

When wondering whether or not to feed your dog table scraps, ask youself what you would do with the scraps otherwise. Would you throw them in the garbage or eat them yourself? If you would throw them in the garbage, don’t feed them to your dog. This is a good rule of thumb–if you won’t eat it yourself, don’t feed it to your dog.

Most table scraps are fats and carbohydrates, providing a plethora of low quality calories and little else. As a consequence, the dog obtains a sizable portion of its daily caloric need from the useless scraps and loses his appetite entirely for the commercial food. By refusing to put table scraps on the food, you may feel that you are leaving your dog with unpalatable dog food. This is not true if you are feeding your dog a good quality dog food for such a food will have balance nutrition.

If you feel you must feed your dog something extra from the table, then save some of the good portions of meal, such as rice, potatos, or meat. Add just a tiny bit to the dog food and blend it well. Remember, just a tiny bit of good quality table food (not scraps, as such) All you are doing here is enhancing the aromatic quality of the food, and this, in turn will heighten the dog’s sense of tasting the food.

Discover everything you need to know about your dog’s health with the guide we recommend for solving and understanding dog health needs.

 

 

[tags]canine pancreatitis,pancreatitis in dogs,dog nutrition[/tags]

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