Feeding raw vs dry food

L

Lexi

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I'm interested how better for Shelties with gallbladder mucocele (gbm) was feeding raw food insted of dry food? My vet who feeds raw said she doesn't think raw food helps because it is difficult to keep the low fat diet. Meanwhile my dog breeder said she thinks it is way better. But her dogs are all intact. I feed low fat dry kibble because my sheltie gets fat easily. The vet also said the pills don't realy help, while everybody else said they do. I don't know what to do.
I didn't know this disease is so common. :no:
 
I've had numerous Shelties with gallbladder issues, three of whom have needed the surgery to remove and one waiting to be done as soon as I can get her scheduled, because the amount of sludge in her gallbladder has increased. My best advice to Sheltie owners is no matter what you feed, keep tabs on your Sheltie's gallbladder with ultrasounds regularly. If there's any indication of increasing sludge, scan more frequently...I do every three to six months. For my one girl with a healthy gallbladder, I scan once a year.

I've always been told that feeding a high quality, low fat commercial food is the way to go, although you can do home-prepared with strict nutritional advice. I don't feed raw, so I can't help you there, but I'd trust what your vet says.

A Sheltie prone to GBM (increased sludge) should be taking a good milk thistle supplement such as Denamrin and, if your vet thinks it's needed, prescription Ursidiol. Mine take both. It does help some; others it doesn't, but I'm not going to take the chance if a simple pill might improve them and avoid surgery.

The ASSA (American Shetland Sheepdog Association) has done extensive research on GBM and has good information on its website here. Good luck with your pup and good for you being proactive to research this!
 
I'm also sadly the owner of two dogs who were quite suddenly found to have bad gallbladders, and Meadow was only 4! As Ann said, there is research going on for this issue. Meadow is part of the study actually. There isn't currently thought to be a link of raw vs homecooked vs kibble for the issue. I sure hope they can eventually figure it out. Meadow and Elijah are related, uncle and niece.
 
I feed raw and Benny has sludge at 7. He's the first of all my raw fed dogs to have it that I know of. He is on ursodiol and silymarin and his sludge reduced to small instead of moderate. IMHO weight is easy to maintain feeding raw. Raw food is typically low fat. Meat and veggies!
 
I think there’s still a lot of studies to be done to determine the cause of this. Genetics clearly plays a huge part as does diet and pesticide use (tick medications). Whether one particular diet is better than the other is unknown at this point.
As Margi said her dog has sludge and she feeds raw. I also feed raw (and avoid tick medicine) and fortunately both Finnie (8) and Piper (10) are clear (they’re also closely related with Finnie’s sire being Piper’s brother)…so with all the ??? marks it’s impossible to pinpoint one thing. Unfortunately…
 
So the ultrasound showed just a little sludge in the gallbladder and we will repeat it after 6 months to see if worse/same( she is 9 years old).
Blood results came back normal. The vet's advice for now is, only keep feeding low fat kibble and do regular ultrasounds. I hope for the best.
 
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