At Sabre Pet Food, the well-being of our customers’ dogs is our number one priority. That’s why when we heard about Jack and his 12-year-old Labradoodle, Tinsel, we felt we had to share their story. Jack came across Alpha Spirit Pet Food back in November and he says, “I don’t know what we would have done if we’d not found Alpha Spirit.”
This is Jack and Tinsel’s story.
I got my golden Labradoodle, Tinsel, for my 16th birthday. I’d been pleading with my mum and stepdad to get a dog for over a year and when they finally gave in, I was over the moon! Because my birthday is in December, we got her just before Christmas, so I felt I had to choose a fitting name, hence the name Tinsel. I’m now 28 and Tinse is 12. We have our own home with a nice big garden, where Tinse has spent the past couple of years playing for hours on end. I have become an adult with Tinse by my side and like most dog owners, I know I’ll be lost without her.
This summer me and my partner started to notice that something wasn’t quite right with Tinse. Her energetic and playful personality was starting to fade, and she was becoming more and more fussy with her food. After numerous vet check-ups and tests that all came back clear, we just put her slight change in behaviour down to old age. I knew deep down though, that there was more to it than that. Before then, Tinse was a huge foodie, she’d devour absolutely anything you gave her and still come back for more. Now, she was barely eating a thing and losing weight quickly.
I became convinced that there was something wrong in Tinsel’s mouth. I think as a dog owner, sometimes you just know. Me and my partner decided to pin her down and take a proper look for ourselves. There it was... inside Tinsel’s mouth was a large growth that looked extremely painful and like it would burst.
We immediately took her back to the vet for them to take another look. Our vet, who has been fantastic, checked the growth in Tinsel’s mouth and suggested that it looked like a tumour. The only way we could be sure of this was to put her under general anesthetic and do a full-body scan. By this point, Tinse had lost a significant amount of weight and our vet advised that putting her under general anesthetic wouldn’t be without risk, due to her age and deteriorating weight.
Either way, the growth needed removing. Whether we decided to scan for cancer or not, it was clear that at some point, we’d have to put Tinse under to operate but our vet didn’t want to do this until she had gained some weight.
So that was it, we had to get her back on her food. I researched so many different foods during this time, and we tried a handful of tasty, high-protein meals, but clearly, the pain in her mouth was too much and nothing seemed to work. She continued to lose weight.
Eventually, I came across Sabre Pet Food and their Alpha Spirit Multi-Protein Semi-Moist Kibble. I ordered a sample bag and tried it with her as soon as it arrived. At first, she didn’t seem to want to even try it, but we persisted with her and managed to encourage her to eat a small handful of the food. Much to our surprise, she then wandered over to her food bowl and continued to eat a full meal.
I think the softer texture and size of the kibble made it easier for her to eat, without causing pain. We continued to feed her the Alpha Spirit food, and within just a few weeks, she’d begun to gain and maintain her weight. I think this rapid turnaround was down to the high-quality food. She was now healthy enough to operate and on the 11th of December, she went under.
A month later, Tinsel is back to her old self. The operation was a success. The growth, which was confirmed as cancer, was removed and she has recovered amazingly well. At one point, I believed we’d lose our Tinsel but through discovering Sabre, we were able to get her healthy enough to have a lifesaving operation. Since her operation, we have kept Tinse on the same food, and she continues to love it. I would 100% recommend Alpha Spirit to every dog owner. Thank you, Sabre Pet Food!
If you would like to share your experience with the Sabre Pet Food range, please get in touch with our team here.
The food Jack uses with his dog, Tinsel, is our Multi-Protein Complete Dog Food – Semi Moist.