Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat

I think the biggest advantage to the Hill's diet (other than the fact that you don't have to cook it yourself) is that they really manage to cram extremely high levels of n-3 fatty acids into it, which actually have a fair number of studies that support their anti-neoplastic effects. And you can also don't have to worry about insufficient amounts/improper ratios of nutrients because your measuring was a little off, vitamins were expired or lost efficacy due to poor improper storage, etc.

Personally, I think I'll go with a mixture of both, just to make sure I have all the bases covered.

I spoke with our oncologist about feeding Hill's n/d--she said it's not something she usually pushes for her osteosarcoma patients for the following reasons: there are no published studies on n/d in osteosarcoma dogs, it gives some dogs diarrhea (I assume because the fat content is so high, but I forgot to ask), and at about $2-3/can it is a REALLY expensive diet for a large dog, and most OS dogs are giant. But since I can buy the food at an extremely reduced rate through a program for veterinary students, she said go for it.

So once the nausea from my dog's first round of chemo wore off, I started mixing it into his regular food, trying to switch him over slowly so I don't throw his digestive system for a loop. He likes it much better than his Innova kibble.

I noticed it had these white bits in it that at first i thought were rice granules, then realized were fat globules. It got me wondering--exactly how much omega-3 fatty acids are in there?

So looked at the nutrient analysis and did some calculations (feel free to check my math). One 360g can of n/d contains about 7.7g omega-3 fatty acids, which is the equivalent of about 25 1000mg fish oil capsules (each capsule contains about 300mg EPA + DHA). A 100lb dog would eat about 3-4 cans of n/d per day.

By contrast, a 375g can of Innova EVO contains only 1.65g n-3 FA. I'm not sure how many cans of EVO a 100lb dog would eat, but if you assume it would also be 3-4 cans per day that would mean supplementing the EVO with 60-80 fish oil capsules per day to get the same amount as what is in n/d. That's a lot!

On a side note--while reading up on the effects of omega-3 FA on cancer, I found a study that found Vitamin E antagonized its beneficial effects.

Nutrition is such a complicated thing even without throwing in cancer...