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Hi, All:
Several of you have mentioned your dogs are doing well on sweet potatoes. Are sweet potatoes zero fat? I would like to try it, as we are switching Diva slowly off Dr. Harvey's veggies. What is the best way to prepare the sweet potatoes? Baked, broiled, or boiled perhaps? Do you chop them up in small pieces or puree the pieces? Also, how long will a cooked sweet potatoes last in the frig? Thanks for any help!
DivasMom
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I've heard sweet potatoes are good, but until Ernie is stablized on a lower dosage of prednisone, I'm not entertaining any treats. Did you ask your veterinarian?
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Dear Geraldine:
Hi, there. Thanks for your post. The only treat Diva gets is a little ball of tuna. My other dog gets a small biscuit. I went on a search of dog cookies and biscuits and just could not find anything without fat in it, hence the tuna ball.
Apparently, sweet potatoes may be on the sweet side but have a lower glycemic index than white potatoes, and she seems to be digesting them a lot more easily than the Dr. Harvey's dehydrated veggies. We are doing a very slow tapering of Dr. Harvey's as we introduce the sweet potatoes.
How is Ernie doing?
DivasMom
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(02-16-2016, 06:44 AM)DivasMom Wrote: Dear Geraldine:
Hi, there. Thanks for your post. The only treat Diva gets is a little ball of tuna. My other dog gets a small biscuit. I went on a search of dog cookies and biscuits and just could not find anything without fat in it, hence the tuna ball.
Apparently, sweet potatoes may be on the sweet side but have a lower glycemic index than white potatoes, and she seems to be digesting them a lot more easily than the Dr. Harvey's dehydrated veggies. We are doing a very slow tapering of Dr. Harvey's as we introduce the sweet potatoes.
How is Ernie doing?
DivasMom
I brought Ernie in yesterday for blood work and we got the results this afternoon. His alubmin and globulin are good, but because they are on the lower side of good, his total protein is not good. We are going to keep him on his current dosage of prednisone, which is 1.25mg daily, for the next month and retest. I'm super disappointed. He seems totally fine, but the blood work doesn't lie. He's also on azathioprine every other day, but I'm not sure what the dosage it is though. I just keep beating myself up because he had good blood results on 1.25mg of prednisone every other day with no azathiprine and now I can't get him stable on a higher dosage of prednisone and azathiprine.
I wish I never took him off the prednisone back in November/December.
P.S. Thank you for asking!!
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Dear Geraldine:
Please don't get discouraged. I know I beat up on myself quite a bit when Diva has a setback. The bottom line is we are all pioneers when it comes to CIL, with LouiesMom being the Head Pioneer! There are no books written about CIL that I know of, and not even chapters in a book. We are being put in a position where we have to experiment with different things to help our dogs. Bless you and Ernie!
DivasMom
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(02-17-2016, 08:04 AM)DivasMom Wrote: Dear Geraldine:
Please don't get discouraged. I know I beat up on myself quite a bit when Diva has a setback. The bottom line is we are all pioneers when it comes to CIL, with LouiesMom being the Head Pioneer! There are no books written about CIL that I know of, and not even chapters in a book. We are being put in a position where we have to experiment with different things to help our dogs. Bless you and Ernie!
DivasMom
Thank you. :-)
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Just to provide some reassurance, something I've noticed is that the protein levels can take a little bit of time to stabilize and then reverse. The vets don't seem to realize this and I'm not sure why it happens, but if you're seeing good signs with stools and energy levels, it's probably good to keep doing what you're doing for a while to see if the bloodwork catches up.
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(02-21-2016, 04:17 PM)LouiesMom Wrote: Just to provide some reassurance, something I've noticed is that the protein levels can take a little bit of time to stabilize and then reverse. The vets don't seem to realize this and I'm not sure why it happens, but if you're seeing good signs with stools and energy levels, it's probably good to keep doing what you're doing for a while to see if the bloodwork catches up.
Hi, I'm just reading this. Thank you for the reassurance. Ernie is doing great. Even better then when I wrote this post. I also have him on the probiotic you recommended and his stool is even more fabulous-and it was already good. We go back next week for blood work...possibly this Saturday. I would love to lower is prednisone now without having the blood work, but I'm patiently waiting to get the new bloodwork. The funny thing is the first time around I didn't test this much and I got Ernie to 1.25mg every other day with good blood work results when I finally tested him. Right now he's on 1.25mg every day so if the blood work is good, we will move to 1.25 mg every other day. By the way Ernie is 6.5 lbs. He's a little guy. ;-)
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I just wanted to give an update on Diva. Because we were finding so much undigested food in Diva's stool, which was primarily the Dr. Harvey's dehydrated veggie bits, we discontinued the Dr. Harvey's by slowly tapering her off while adding sweet potato as a replacement.
The good news is she has stopped her incessant licking behavior and she has hardly any gas! I am now starting to believe that she had a great deal of difficulty digesting the Dr. Harvey's veggies and it may have caused her to have stomach upset. My vet said sometimes dogs will lick because they are in pain and they think it makes them feel better. And she has gained another 1/2 pound!
