Check Your Food Sources for Your Diabetic Dog

I know that we talk about food for our pups a lot, and that is because it is such an important part of the Diabetes management mix. Today I want to chat about checking where your food is sourced from. Most of the food sold in the US is from reputable sources, but not all of it. The big issue is treats. I know that some treats seem very expensive relative to others. Most likely that is because the ingredients are “sourced” from the US. What do I mean by that? I mean that the food comes from the United States.

If you are looking for treats and find one that looks the same as the others but is much cheaper, please do some investigative work and find out where the ingredients come from. This is a subject near and dear to my heart as my best friend is very active in rescue and took in a dog a few months ago. After much testing and many vet visits later, it turns out that this sweet boy has Fanconi Syndrome. It is a condition that affects the kidneys and their ability to absorb nutrients from food. This disease is more typical in Basenjis but has appeared in other breeds as well.

This pup is a Westie and it is believed that he got Fanconi Syndrome from being fed chicken treats from China or being exposed to lead or lead paint. When working in rescue, you never really hear the whole story about a pup’s prior life, so it is important to try to piece together clues from behavior, lab tests, etc. It is almost a certainty that this pup got the Fanconi from the chicken treats from China. I’m sure that most of you remember not so very long ago that these treats were an issue and most people caught on fairly quickly that these were not a good option.

Like so many things in Canine Diabetes, we need to be very good detectives and do our homework to make sure that we keep our pups as safe as we can. For many that means home cooking, for others it means doing research and calling the food companies. We all have seen the many food recalls that happen routinely in the dog food industry. What have we learned from that? We have learned that things are not always as they seem. We have even learned that “prescription” foods are not necessarily safe to feed our pups.

I’m not trying to scare anyone, what I am trying to do is to raise your awareness so that you do whatever level of investigation that you need to do to feel safe when feeding your pup. A quick call to the manufacturer to ask where the ingredients are sourced from will go a long way to putting your mind at ease. If they can’t or won’t answer a few simple questions, perhaps it’s time to find another food or treats.

You can refer back to these blogs about making your own treats at home:

https://shoppettest.com/blog/homemade-treats-for-your-diabetic-dog-part-1/

https://shoppettest.com/blog/homemade-treats-for-your-diabetic-dog-part-2/

As in all things, better safe than sorry.

You’ll notice that for most of the products or groups that I mention, the text is linked to a website that you can purchase that item or a link to join the group mentioned. Just click on the colored text (red or blue, depending what device you are on) and it should take you right to the item or group. If you have any thoughts or ideas for topics that you’d like to see covered here, please feel free to comment below or send me an email at NancyForPetTest@PharmaSupply.com. As always, please “like” this blog post or any of the others that have helped you or just refreshed your memory. Look for new posts every Tuesday.

Until next time…