Hydrolyzed protein food can curtail allergic reactions & food insensitivities to the protein. It chemically alters the proteins, which limits immune reactions to them. It can help gastro problems that are a result of inflammation or IBD.
Hydrolyzed proteins are easier for most people than doing an elimination diet for their dog (which would typically mean using single protein/limited ingredient food and slowly adding in other foods). My understanding is that hydrolyzed protein foods are not as effective as just doing a true elimination diet.
Chicken is a very common allergen for dogs & “hidden chicken” (or cross-contamination) is also pretty common in dog food. My guess is that by advocating for hydrolyzed protein diets, it can reduce a lot of the “but did your dog somehow still eat chicken” problems in trying to do an elimination diet. It’s also cheaper than doing blood tests or needing a lot of medical appointment follow-up working through the issue.
The whole point of the hydrolyzed protein food and treats - other than capitalism - is to give you a quasi-elimination diet baseline to start at. From there, you can test single-ingredient proteins with your dog and see if it creates gastro problems for your dog.
For treats, my personal (i.e., not a veterinarian, not a veterinary nutritionist) take would be to test out a single ingredient freeze-dried type of treat that is either a novel protein to your dog or one they never had a problem with. Fish treats are typically good for a lot of dogs for this.
If chicken has been the main food in the diet, then I’d move toward the beef (e.g., freeze-dried liver) type of limited ingredient treats. If beef was the food, then I’d try a poultry that is not chicken first (duck or turkey may be less allergenic to dogs).
You can also slowly introduce other foods used as treats the way you would in any elimination diet - tiny bits of cheese, for example.
I haven’t looked into whether hydrolyzed proteins have other side effects or problems for dogs, especially when used long term. So I can’t comment on that. I would look into it. (Then again - I also think dogs benefit from dietary rotation and wouldn’t recommend any dog be locked into any specific food formulation for their entire life.)
Thank you!! This was very helpful! When Percy was put on this diet we had a toddler so we could never guarantee the dog didn’t snag something of the floor, so an elimination diet would have been for all of us basically, lol. That should be less of an issue now, I’ll give the freezer dried meats a try so she can have more variety in life.
The other aspect I would mention is that, since breaking down proteins can be difficult for our bodies, starting the proteins out already broken down serves to rest the gut. So hydrolyzed food can also be used after a severe bout of diarrhea, bacterial infection, IBD flare, etc to let the GI tract rest a little before going back to a normal diet. We do something similar for people on tube feeds too sometimes
That’s exactly how I’ve used it with my IBS/allergy kitty - in conjunction with his normal foods as a crunchy treat and then on its own during flares or allergen exposures.
I would love suggestions for supporting a close friend and their 5 year old while her husband is dealing with a prolonged health crisis and is in the hospital, mostly unconscious for the last two months and for the foreseeable future.
I don’t live nearby and she has good support in terms of meals and childcare help from local family. I know I can listen and check in but are there other ways I can give long distance support?
When my dh was in the hospital, someone brought me two grocery bags of snacks and paper towels and dish soap and generally useful things and it was so nice not to need to plan for that stuff.
Mail a bunch of ones and fives to use for tipping valet. So many times I’ve avoided using valet at the hospital, despite the enormous convenience, due to not being able to tip.
There is a job opening listed at The Place I Have Always Wanted To Work
It is an administrative position, which is not at ALL what I want (no shade toward admins, they do important work, it’s just not my field), but… it’s the only position open and maybe I could get it? It might end up in a similar situation to my last interview, where they decided I was “overqualified/not the right fit”… should I try?
Again, the position is not at ALL what I want to do, but it could get me in the door at the org?
If you did get the admin position, would you take it and how long would you be willing to work in that position before moving to something else? Do you have an idea of what the “something else” would be?
I’m not so sure getting a foot in as an admin would be an advantage if that’s not the sort of work you want to do. It’s profoundly unfair, but I’ve seen many people get the idea that someone does admin work and nothing else.
This. And what Oro said. Most other positions would be better suited towards movement than admin stuff. It’s not right or fair, but when someone is willing to accept an admin position it usually pigeonholes them, at least in my company.
I say yes! Internal candidates always have an advantage for new openings. I did that, actually, I started as a front desk receptionist and then eventually became a software admin there (which doubled my salary). You mentioned before you have a bit of the gift of gab/winning people over? I’m the same. We’re well suited to this kind of maneuvering. Use your advantage!
Oh that’s super interesting. Our children’s hospital has valet but it’s clearly signed that they do not accept tips of any kind, so I’ll double check their hospital before doing this, but if they accept tips, this idea is awesome.
Shockingly I have an actual finance question for once. I’ve read to opposing views on holding cash during periods of high inflation. One is basically the more obvious approach, that you’re losing money at a substantial rate if you’re holding a bunch of extra cash during periods of high inflation. The other though is the periods of high inflation correlate with times of more difficult borrowing and higher interest rates, so you should have extra cash on hand because if you get in financial trouble then it’s harder to borrow your way through to the other side. Is anybody changing the amount of cash that they’re holding during this period? I’m trying to figure out how much is reasonable to hold right now. Especially because we have been planning on increasing our standing cash in the hopes of doing a bathroom renovation here in the next couple of years.
