Home made dog food.

[Lady Godiva]

My labrador is now diabetic. He does not like the (expensive) vet prescribed dog food. He has lost loads of weight, and now realizes he get an injection from me every time he eats. No one else wants to do it. So I have been cooking meat and vegetable, adding a bit of bran for his bowels. He likes it. The vet is (of course) disuading me to do it.
Made me wonder if any one else does this? what is your experience?

[Nanook]

My labrador is now diabetic. He does not like the (expensive) vet prescribed dog food. He has lost loads of weight, and now realizes he get an injection from me every time he eats. No one else wants to do it. So I have been cooking meat and vegetable, adding a bit of bran for his bowels. He likes it. The vet is (of course) disuading me to do it.
Made me wonder if any one else does this? what is your experience?

I just wanted you to know I saw your post and questions so you know to come back for a detailed response in the morning if you see this before then. I have a lot to say on the subject and knowledgeable people at my fingertips if it is beyond what I know, but due to the late hour will be back in the morning with info. You can cook for your dog successfully and healthily but the guidelines are much different between canine and human.

[Nanook]

I would keep the dog on his diet, using a premium food like Natural Balance LID (Limited Ingredient Diet). There is Chicken & Sweet Potato, and a Venison and sweet potato, A fish and sweet potato and I think a few other flavors, I can check. I feed the chicken and sweet potato to my Standard Poodle, there is something in other fodds that cause her to get ear infections. It is expensive food, but less expensive than cooking for a Lab.

I guess my first question is if he turned diabetic because he was overweight to begin with? If so, and a dramatic weight loss has occurred, I would re-test and make sure he still needs insulin. If his diabetes is coming under control and is less is there a pill form?

I apologize for not getting back to your thread sooner, I completely forgot all about it and though I have been through here a few times, when I did my usual quick look around I missed it.

How is he doing now?

Another possibility is a frozen raw food you can buy. Some of the people that feed RAW diet use it. It sells under the name Primal, and few stores carry it but a small business such as a grooming shop might carry it or be able to order it for you. We used to sell a lot of it at a grooming shop I where I used to work, some people fed it raw and others fed it cooked. Spendy though, probably on par with cooking for him but would have the correct vitamins needed for him to be healthy as a human diet and dog diet are not compatible when it comes to needed vitamins. Since the thing about cooking for your dog from scratch is getting the important vitamins into them, they do sell some great supplents at places like Petsmart and Petco, in loose form/bags, you usemeasurements according to dogs weight. If I were to cook for my dogs I would probably add a bit of that supplement.