Foods for Diabetic Dogs

Does your dog have diabetes? Do not worry, with care and attention, your dog can lead a long, healthy and in my personal opinion, happy life. But what food do you feed dogs with diabetes?

Diabetes is a medical condition that means the body does not produce enough, or any, insulin, a hormone that helps keep blood sugars in check. If blood sugar gets to high, or to low, these can lead to complications which can include, but are not limited to urinary tract infections and cataracts.

Like us, managing diabetes in dogs is more than doable and one of the best measures to ensure it is well managed is to ensure your dog is in good shape with regular excercise and good food. If your dog is overwieght, loosing a few pounds will help by allowing their cells to better use the insulin. It is the goal to keep these insulin levels stable (thusly blood sugars) and at an average level for your pooch.

Along with regular excercise, food can play an important role in your dogs health, this applies to all dogs, not just those with diabetes. Dogs with diabetes however, you need to control how much food you give them, this will be determined by your vet for which they will determine from a variety of factors, including how active your dog is, breed, age and the dog food your dog is eating etc. It is important to stick to the amount of food your vet recommends.

What food is best for dogs with diabetes however, is still something that is being researched by experts however, most vets will recommend a quality food higher in fibre and lower in fats. Fibre helps slow the absorbsion of glucose into the blood stream and also helps your dog feel fuller for longer, whilst a low fat diet will be a lower calorie diet. With a diet like this however, it is important your dog drinks plenty of water and keep an eye on your dogs waste to make sure it is not constipated, if so, introduce more water into his or her diet.

Most of the time, you do not need a special diet of specially formulated kibbles for dogs with diabetes, just a good quality food like Exe Valley, available at all good stockists however, we do recommend to seek advice from your vet with the ingrediants of any food you want to try. If you need to change your dogs food, we have written a guide for how to do this.

With your vets advice, you will come up with a schedule of excercise, dinner times and insulin injections and your dog will be a happy dog!