lurcher with epilepsy

Hi, so glad I found this site! We have an 8-year-old rescue lurcher who just had a cluster of fits. He’s got various genetic problems already (undershot jaw, abnormal leg bone growth) but is generally fit and healthy. The vet didn’t find anything wrong in his bloodwork and has put him on phenobarbitol. I am looking for the best dried food for him, doing the research it seems like higher fat content/omega 3 & 6 is recommended. I’m not sure about protein content though, I am almost superstitious about keeping protein low-ish after I gave my terrier skin lesions with eukanuba!
I currently give him Dr John Silver (hangs head in shame :-[ ) .Any advice would be appreciated

Having used the search tool for the food directory looking for food with average protein but a higher fat range. These are the first 4 foods that came up: Gentle Cold pressed, Millies wolfheart gamekeeper mix, platinum adult Iberico greens, platinum adult rice and lamb

It might be worth looking at some of those. I think generally though, it is the higher protein foods which have higher fat contents.

Has the vet told you you should avoid any ingredients or types of food due to the health issues?

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Hello and welcome to the forum. It is unfortunate that you dog has these problems and I hope that the epilepsy responds to treatment. Regarding diet, I don’t know if it makes any difference to this condition but a good diet would surely help him to be the best he can.

As Tinyplanets has said, high fat diets usually have higher protein levels but you should not worry about this unduly. As long as your dog is active and otherwise well he should be OK. There might have been something else in the Eukanuba that troubled your previous dog. However, as you are concerned then as previously suggested, use the Filters on the left hand side of the Dog Food Directory and set the protein slider (it is near the bottom) to the level you require. There are plenty of good products with moderate levels of protein including the ones already mentioned. Canagan is another one that is reviewed on here and is regarded as having mid range protein level.

The Dog Food Directory is a useful tool but if you have any problems with it, please post back and we will try to help. Also, if you are considering anything in particular and want further advice, do ask.

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The important thing with epilepsy is to get a clean and truly balanced diet, anything in a food that shouldn’t be there, especially artificial colourings and additives, can cause imbalance in the body. higher carbs can also cause imbalance as the body tries to adjust to deal with it. Higher protein and fat foods are usualy lower carb.

High quality animal protein will not cause lesions, lower quality plant based proteins shouldn’t do either, but look out for the E-numbers etc. also note that protein % or fat% is only a part of the equation, you need to also look at the daily feed amount. It is possible that with lower feeding amounts you will be feeding less total grammes of protein/fat than a food that seems to be lower based on % alone.

I can only comment on Eden, and experiences with a number of our customers with epileptic dogs and all have reported incidence of fits reducing from every few weeks to several months apart or in many cases no more fits at all (so far). I do remember we removed one of the herbs as it was mentioned that it could be a potential trigger for fits, apologies as I can’t remember which one it was, I will try and find out, Feel free to join us on facebook and speak to other customers yourself, I would advise this with which ever food you choose.

There are, of course, other foods will be suitable (and I certainly wouldn’t rule out a properly balanced raw diet) I just don’t have any experience of them to be able to comment.

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Thanks for the replies. I am probably just trying to control the uncontrollable by looking at food but I do value the information here bw :slight_smile:

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