W/D vs. Orijen Senior

[Doby's Daddy]

My Doby dog started losing a lot of weight and muscle mass on W/D and I read somewhere online that another diabetic min pin owner was having success with Orijen Senior.

I recently bought some and he absolutely loves it! He has gained some weight, got his spunk back, and seems like my Doby again.

However, we check his urine each morning and night with test strips and have noticed an increase.

Can someone please give me the pros and cons of switching to Orijen. Should we use the sliding scale and increase his amount of insulin? His currently was 13 lbs. and is on 8 units in the morning and 9 at night.

Any other thoughts on Orijen Senior?

[amydunn19]

Re: W/D vs. Orijen Senior

I would think Orijen is a good food - there is really no food that is better than any other. Some dogs do great on w/d while others like my dog refused to eat it. But she also refused to eat Orijen as well. One thing with a higher protein food is they tend to give high fasting numbers that drop off significantly during the day so I would keep an eye on that. The most important thing is to find a food your dog likes, will eat willingly, and you can easily get.

Changing foods will almost always cause a change in insulin needs. I would not randomly start increasing unless you are blood glucose testing at home. It is the only way to truly know how much to increase. The reason is that someone else's experience with that food won't matter - your dog is an individual and what he will need may not be as much as a similar size/type dog. We can help you get started blood testing - it is easier than it seems and will help you manage this disease more effectively.

[Emily]

Re: W/D vs. Orijen Senior

I can't speak to your food question b/c I've never fed Orijen, but we do use w/d glucose management. I was hesitant to make that switch b/c I wasn't crazy about the ingredients list, but after trying several others we ran out of options. It has helped control his BG levels and lower triglycerides (which have been an endless problem), but it is hard to increase his weight on this food. Vet suggested feeding more low fat protein so I add poach chicken breast to his breakfast and dinner.

The major suggestion I have is to switch to blood testing rather than urine testing. I started with the urine strips and switched to blood about 3 months later and the level of information I received was amazing. Urine provides an average not an accurate measure of sugar because the bladder is like a holding station of urine over a span of time. I think BG numbers from blood testing may give you more information and be helpful as you make decisions about insulin and diet. These folks taught me how to do it and it was a life saver

You may also want to check out dogfoodadvisor.com to compare foods and they have a dog food calculator to help determine appropriate feeding amounts.

Good luck

[Eddie]

Re: W/D vs. Orijen Senior

We used to feed Orijen (standard, not the senior one) until it became very difficult to get hold of here in England.

We switched to Canagan which is a similar UK version based on fish and veg (grain free) and find it suits our diabetic dog well. He has other digestive issues so it is difficult to manage everything but this is the best we have found. I am one who doesn't care much about the ingredients so long as it works and I wouldn't mind feeding him something a bit cheaper but each time I try changing it, his BG becomes more erratic so I stick with Canagan now.

As Amy says, we do tend to have a mountain shape curve with it ie his BG goes up fairly fast after eating then drops off through the day. He can get a sharp drop some afternoons heading down towards teatime so we do monitor that quite carefully as we have not yet worked out what triggers it.

Antonia

[Doby's Daddy]

Re: W/D vs. Orijen Senior

Thank's to everyone that has replied.

[k9diabetes]

Re: W/D vs. Orijen Senior

Did you increase how many calories of food he got per day?

If so, the insulin may need to be bumped up to compensate. And when he reaches the right weight, you would likely need to reduce the food amount a bit and perhaps the insulin along with it.

Changing foods with very different makeups also can change the shape of the curve - highest and lowest blood sugars may be more extreme or less extreme and may be at very different times of day.

Natalie

My Doby dog started losing a lot of weight and muscle mass on W/D and I read somewhere online that another diabetic min pin owner was having success with Orijen Senior.

I recently bought some and he absolutely loves it! He has gained some weight, got his spunk back, and seems like my Doby again.

However, we check his urine each morning and night with test strips and have noticed an increase.

Can someone please give me the pros and cons of switching to Orijen. Should we use the sliding scale and increase his amount of insulin? His currently was 13 lbs. and is on 8 units in the morning and 9 at night.

Any other thoughts on Orijen Senior?

[Doby's Daddy]

Re: W/D vs. Orijen Senior

I'm sure we did increase his caloric intake since he had been on plain w/d.

[k9diabetes]

Re: W/D vs. Orijen Senior

Food makers mostly all print the calorie count per cup/kg on the packaging and/or at their websites, so you can calculate the calories of what you were feeding before and are feeding now.

Natalie

[ceruleanblue]

Re: W/D vs. Orijen Senior

According to the manufacturer's websites, Orijen Senior is 445 kcal/120g cup and Hill's W/D is 240 kcal/cup, so by changing his food, it looks like the calories were significantly increased. Along with the very different make ups of each food, it could definitely account for the BG increase you're seeing.