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My dog Gracie has 2 favorite treats that I would like to share & hope that Dog Food Adviser would check into whats good or bad about them:
Blue Buffalo True Chews Natural Dog Treats, Chicken Bacon Recipe
SmartBones Mini Bones with Real Chicken Rawhide-Free Chews
She loves both of these. The Smart Bones really smell good enough that I havev been tempted to eat them also.
Thanks!
Hi, first time posting on here but I’m kind of at my wits end. This is going to be long but I really need some advice here.
So I have a 14 month old Cane Corso/German Shepherd/Great Dane/ Rotty/Lab/Pitbull mix. She’s a mouthful, I know. She favors heavily on the German Shepherd side and is currently 63lbs with the vet thinking she could comfortably get up to 10lbs heavier. Since she was a puppy she has been a picky eater – with me going through about 5 brands of puppy food until she actually showed interest in Blue Buffalo. When she became an adult I transitioned her to adult Blue Buffalo adult and she would eat, but she’s not a heavy eater daily. The vet told me not to worry about it because she was proper weight.
Come to the present and she just had her routine physical exam and her yearly labs. The vets told me she had elevated levels in certain things but not to worry about it and that she had a severe UTI. I got the medicine for her, she’s been taking it with relucatance. Once I looked at the paperwork and started to lookup exactly what she was elevated in for her labs, everything had to do with her liver. Which, to me, seems like something I should maybe worry about. Anyways the vet also stated I should change her dog food from Blue Buffalo to a different brand and gave me no reasons. Just a list of what they recommend, which seems to all be owned by the big 3 food companies. As I researched her elevated levels and what they meant, her UTI, and the request to change the dog food, it all seems to point to maybe she can’t handle a high protein diet.
So my long winded question for suggestions is : anyone know of a low – medium protein dog food that I can try? I know fish recipes tend to be the better option for this and I have successfully transitioned her from Blue Buffalo to Natural Balance salmon and brown rice and she doesn’t like it. She eats here and there but would prefer to not eat until she goes to a family members house where they have not so good dog food down for their dogs.
Any help would be appreciated.
Hi, First off, thank you for providing this forum and your recall system. That in particular is invaluable.
I have studied dog food, nutrition, and health as an admin on a popular dog food group for nine years but stepped down and away from the group in January. I’ve worked in the medical field my entire life.
I have problems with some of the foods you listed in your Top Dry Dog Foods. First up, Blue Buffalo. They have had several recalls in the past. Listed ingredients include: Deboned chicken, chicken meal, brown rice, barley, oatmeal, etc. First off, I noticed several foods, including Wellness Core, which you rate highly, use brown rice as a second or third ingredient. All U.S. rice, brown, white, or organic, is naturally contaminated with arsenic in the hulls, so I refuse to feed my dog anything with rice in it. Rice is only a cheap filler anyway, so you’re losing zero nutrition when you cut it out.
Also, you have many foods in your Top Dry Dog Foods that rely heavily on grains. Look at Blue above: Brown rice (see above), barley, oatmeal, and the list goes on. Our dogs don’t need grains. They’re carnivores, not chickens. There are many dog foods who use cheaper grains like corn (that would be moldy hog corn), soy, wheat, etc. NONE of these are good for your dogs. Grain-free foods are best.
Orijen and Acana were wonderful foods when they were all made in Canada. Since they built a factory in Kentucky, the food’s quality has greatly declined and, before I left the group I referenced above, I saw many. many dogs get very sick or worse from eating Acana, Orijen, Blue Buffalo, Wellness & Wellness Core, and several more of the foods you have listed in your Top Ten.
I’m not trying to cause trouble or be picky, I’m trying to share what I’ve learned about dog foods over the past nine years. Oh, and Diamond food and anything made by Diamond (like Taste of the Wild) — awful foods. Diamond has had several recalls and lots and lots of production issues. I wouldn’t recommend TOTW, Diamond, or anything else they produce.
I could go on and on but wanted to shed some light on what I’ve already read. I hope this information will help at least one person.
Hello, i’m new to this site and i don’t know if i’m posting correctly.
I have a 2 year old goldedoodle, she’s been with TLC dog food since she was born. When we first got her I tried to change her food at the vets recommendation but she wouldn’t tolerate it. I tried the one the vet recommended (cant remember the name) and it didnt work. The vet told me to try a different one and i tried blue buffalo (it was the last “good” brand i had tried years ago when i had a dog). Both she rejected with bloody endless stools. I was introducing it little by little. I figured we could wait a bit until her stomach matured a bit. Randomly she starts throwing up last month and again this month. I figured it must be her food since she only goes on walks and hasnt eaten anything weird. I tried introducing a new food (Science diet) last week but she started with bloody stools again.
Do i have to keep on until she stops and gets used to it?
Is there a better way to introduce new food?kind responses will be appreciated 🙂
I bought a large bag of Blue Buffalo Small Breed Dry Dog Food for my dog. Bought it on sale so had it for a couple of months before opening it. No rips or tears in bag and it was kept under ideal conditions. Expiry date is 2022. When I finally opened it and transferred some of the food to a smaller container, I found a huge hunk of mold. Only the one clump but it was disturbing. Contacted the retail store and the manufacturer but no one wanted to take responsibility or do anything about it. Has anyone ever encountered this problem before. I definitely am changing brands.
I have always fed our dogs blue buffalo but want to change. I bought the canidae, wellness core and merrick in lamb. Our one dog is allergic to grains, chicken, etc. I just bought 3 small bags for them to try, Hoping they would like one over the other, lol. They liked all three.
I can’t find online opinions that differ much. I did notice that the canned food in those lines are also more than Blue too.Does any one have opinions on these 3 with a highly allergic and sensitive tummy dog? Thank you.
Topic: High liver ALT enzymes
my malchi is 5yrs old. Has high enzymes. Her bile test came back normal. Her ultrasound came back normal. But her enzymes kept going up! So I decided to change her food to blue buffalo & give her denamarin. Her enzymes has went from 1100 to 600! Nobody told me about changing her food! My question is Hills science diet liver care will help or digestive care? Thanks for your time
Hi,
We have a 55 pound mixed breed pup who’s 2 years old. He has a very sensitive stomach and so far the only food he’s done well on is just food for dogs turkey and whole wheat pasta. We have been cooking fresh food for him for over a year but we travel a lot with him which makes it hard. We want to try a dry food but don’t know where to start. Before the fresh food we tried Purina, hills, blue Buffalo, etc. he was even on the vet’s chicken prescription food. Does anyone have any suggestions for dogs with similar stomachs? We are open to regular dry or dehydrated raw. With precious dry food he always had bathroom issues as well as would throw up fairly frequently, have itchy paws and need his anal glands expressed often. The fresh food fixed everything but the itchy paws and anal glands. Thanks in advance!
Hi Everyone,
hoping someone here can provide some advice guidance/recommendations. I have a 13 yr old Shiba whom we just adore, who started having major vomiting /eating grass issues last April. We had him do rounds of tests at a bad vet with no resolution. I suspected he might have food allergies and got him on a protein he had not eaten and food that was grain free. He did GREAT ont his new food majority of the covid summer (had him on Just food for dogs DIY Venison and Squash).
He recently had a very bad episode of vomiting, loose stool and no appetite in November. We got him to the emergency vet and their team there recommended we put him on Ultamino by royal canin for IBD. He eats the kibble but itches and itches/licks his paws 45mins after feeding, and he’ll do this for quite some time (1-2hours sometimes more). I think something in the food is irritating him, but I don’t know what.
I called the vet and she just said to try a different food. However all the Royal canin Hydrolyzed brands seem to have the same ingredients… I can try a different brand… Does any one know of any Limited ingredient Hydrolyzed protein foods? He’s allergic to grains , chicken and beef (those are the ones I know of)
Blue Buffalo makes one (Hydrolyzed Salmon, grain fee, preservative free) , but the vet said there is no science or verified results on that brand that is proven effective for IBD and that the ingredients I think I am getting might not actually be the ingredients I am getting… I heard allergy tests are not reliable. Any advise would be much appreciated! I feel like I am running out of time to get him better since he’s a senior pup
many thanks!
KerThe evening news, on 20 September 2020, announced there was a recall on certain types of Blue Buffalo dog foods. I didn’t hear them say which ones or provide any other details. I had just got home from shopping with two bags of Blue Buffalo. Does anyone have any more details? I checked into the “Recalls” section here but saw nothing relevant. TIA. Ken
My pup Walden just turned 4 recently. For the majority of the first two years of his life, he was on a Nutro chicken food, then a Blue Buffalo duck food. Then he started having issues with acid reflux, throwing up bile almost every single day. The vet recommended Hills I/D, I switched to that, and for almost two years Walden’s issues we’re almost non-existent (bile thrown up once a week at max). Back in November, he had what I believe I’ve researched and understood as an HGE. He suddenly had started to not be able to control his pooping, and was vomiting and pooping everywhere constantly. The vet found inflammation in his intestines in the x-rays and put him on Fortiflora and Metronidazole for I believe 10 days. I’d never had him on the Metronidazole, so I started the Fortiflora and was trying to start the Metro a couple days later over the weekend so I would be home and could see how he reacted to it. Well the next day the presence of blood appeared in the vomit and poop and he was very weak, so I rushed him to the vet immediately and they gave him a shot of penicillin and fluids I believe. He immediately started getting better and I finished up the antibiotics and Fortiflora.
After finally somewhat getting over the fear it was going to happen again, this February I started trying to transition him to a Hill’s Science Diet with chicken and after just a couple days of transitioning, I came home after Walden had been acting normal for days and he’d pooped all over the house again, this time however the blood was immediately there. I knew it had to be the same issue (even though the vet never found out the original issue) so I rushed him back there. They, like me, assumed it was the same issue (although they said the food change triggered it which I say is BS because that didn’t explain November), so rather than hundreds of dollars in the same tests as last time that showed nothing, gave him the same treatment, along with a diet of purely chicken and rice until his poop started firming up. I noticed after a few days his poop was still extremely runny, so instead of waiting, I started moving him back to his normal food. Poops started getting a ton better after less than a day off the rice.
Once he recovered from that, in March I went into overdrive. I’ve got to figure out what’s wrong with my sweet boy. He’d been regurgitating his food every so often and just plain throwing it up a few other times, but otherwise seemed okay. I brought him into my vet (Thursday) before things got to the emergency point this time. I’d done my research beforehand and I was down to a few ideas, with IBD, a food allergy, or an ulcer being the top ideas. The vet agreed and figured the way he’d been acting, especially with his increased issues of throwing up bile (he couldn’t go more than 5 hours without food), that it seemed like an ulcer. She prescribed Sulcralfate and Prilosec, along with weekly vitamin B12 shots for 6 weeks then we could re-evaluate if those should continue or not. Walden got worse quicker than he got better within that next week. To a point that he wasn’t keeping his food down at all and throwing up way too much. I went to my vet clinic Saturday, my normal vet not being there. They said his anal glands looked infected but otherwise he looked fine. I asked if there was anything I could do to help. She suggested the I/D low fat and told me to “go ahead and just put him straight on it, it’s the same thing just lower fat”. Okay I’m no vet but I’m not an idiot, my dog is already extremely sick, I’m not adding an immediate transition to a completely different food (which by the way, did have completely different ingredients) that I don’t even think is going to work. Well they did nothing that day so I figured I’d keep him on his meds and pray he got better. Sunday rolled around and he was looking worse. He didn’t want to jump around like normal, refused to eat, was constantly throwing up, and I couldn’t stand it. I took him to the emergency vet and they did some blood tests and everything looked fairly normal, so I had the choice to have him stay overnight and see a specialist and get an ultrasound in the morning (almost $2k), or they could give him a shot of anti nausea medicine to get him through the night for me to get him into my normal vet the next day. I had already spent $1,500 since November at this point and my savings was almost gone, so I had to go with just the anti-nausea shot. After he had that, he did much better throughout the night, and acted fairly normal the next day. He slowly started to get back to normal but just couldn’t last very long without eating still (feeding routine was 8am, 1pm, 6pm, 11pm).
When he’s gotten the blood tests at the emergency vet, they had noticed some levels that pointed towards the possibility of Addison’s Disease. This in my mind would be awful, but also I knew it was manageable in most dogs and it would finally explain all his problems, especially after he’d acted so much peppier with a shot of cortisone the day before his test. Well, one expensive test later with my vet and unfortunately it came back negative.
My vet then referred me to a digestive specialist because that was really next steps, we’d exhausted a lot of things. The specialist was wonderful, but the options were a vitamin blood test and ultrasound, which was going to be almost $1k. At this point I’d spent my entire savings. And trust me, I’d go into debt if I knew I’d be finding a the answer, but I was so scared another test would go by and still nothing, with what I knew would have to be an endoscopy next, that there’s no way I could afford. The specialist was great and completely understood, and said really the top 2 things she thought it could be (which I agree still to this day) were a food allergy or IBD. We decided to treat it like a food allergy and she gave me Hills Z/D.
Well, great news, I started transitioning Walden to Z/D over the course of 2 weeks (after the HGE incident I wasn’t taking any chances of switching him over too quickly). He started acting better as soon as he started getting that Z/D in his food (even though it was still mixed with his old). I then started checking out the ingredients more in I/D and I presumed that the #1 ingredient of rice and the main protein of chicken were what was the issue more than likely, because I just had a feeling he was very allergic to rice and I’ve always thought he has a slight sensitivity to chicken. A couple days ago he was fully transitioned to Z/D and ever since then he’s been acting much better. No more getting sick throughout the nights, he’s able to lay on his back and not choke on acid reflux coming up, and not to mention he WANTS to eat his food for the first time in at least 2.5 years.
The only problem now is, I started noticing yesterday morning that his poop had a darkish mucus in it. I was worried it may be blood but chaulked it up to my overreacting. Well his second poop that day definitely had a presence of some sort of red mucus in it that looked like blood. It wasn’t much, normal pet parents probably wouldn’t of seen it, but I inspect Walden’s poops very carefully because of his past issues (I’m sure my neighbors are disgusted watching me carefully dig through 2-3 times a day). When I moved it around though, it definitely had more of just a mucus look than redness, just like a normal stomach irritation. He had only a little bit in his last night poop, but the same thing again in his morning poop today.
I plan on talking to my vet again tomorrow about next steps, but I wanted some advice as well. Could this be his anal glands still being infected and causing small bits of blood (and I mean they’re very small, almost unoticeable… And his poops aren’t overly soft to where I would think this was another HGE yet)? Or could this be just because of the transition to his new food and it will more than likely go away? He’s acting completely normal and eating/drinking great or I’d be rushing him off to the emergency vet obviously (I even called them yesterday and they agreed to just keep an eye out for any worsening symptoms for now).
Hi all, I have a 10 month old black lab/retriever mix who had a bladder infection about 2 months ago. After antibiotics, it was found he had crystals in his urine.
My vet put him on Royal Canine Urinary S/O and it has been nothing but problems since. He is always starving, he stinks (I bath him almost every second day to keep the stench away), he is always peeing and drinking excessive amounts of water.
We have his mother, who was on the gastro Royal Canine and was not doing well on it (not gaining weight). We switched her to blue buffalo dog food (it is a non dairy, no gluten more “holistic” dog food), and she has been thriving on it. We have been feeding her the recommended amount for her targeted weight and she looks so healthy, and with the royal canine brand she was so thin, you could feel her spine. She did not look healthy when she was on it, and he does not look healthy right now either. It looks like we do not feed him because he is so thin! When he reality, he is suppose to be eating 3 1/2 cups of food a day, and we have him on 6 to try and get his weight up.I have been trying to convince our vet to let us try another brand of urinanry food, as we cannot get one without her consent, and she won’t (she sells the royal canine and only the royal canine). When she told us our girl needed to gain weight, I asked if we could try another dog food and she got snippy and said “Just feed her more, she’s a hard to keep dog”.
My question here is, I don’t think the royal canine is working well for my dogs. He is always starving, to the point he starting eating her feces to get more nutrients. If I were to switch to a brand that is not meant for urinary problems, is there anything I can do to try and prevent crystals? At this point, he has figured out how to get the garbage can over because he knows there is food in there, and he is starving all the time. He is a little ninja, and he is eating food other then the special urinary blend from the vet. She has told us we just need to put the garbage can away (we have no where else to put it), “watch him better” etc etc.
I Should also mention, when he had the crystals we were living in a house with very very hard water. We have since moved to a town with a special water filtration system for the taps.
I have seen tips on soaking the food in water, and getting cranberry supplements. I wanted to try the blue buffalo with him, and then bring him in for a urinary test in a month to see if he still had the crystals. Any other tips??
Hi everybody, this is my first post and I hope you cam give me helpful advice from your experience/knowledge. Please take it easy on me as I know how forums can be and how judgemental some users are. I am not experienced with this site so I apologize if this does not apply to you guys and gals! I just want my dog to be healthy and live as long as possible!
I have a question about homemade dog food. I have read books and researched the web to come up with a homemade diet for my dog. He is an Australian Terrier/Chihuahua mix that is approx 5 years old.
These are the ingredients I used tonight for his food tonight and please give any tips and knowledge you have about these. I wont go into too much detail and exact amounts used to save time but here is what I put together:
Lean ground turkey (lightly cooked with coconut oil)
Broccoli heads (lightly cooked in bone broth with the carrots)
Carrot (minced and lightly cooked in bone broth)
Anchovies (very lightly cooked then chopped)
1 egg (scrambled and cooked until just a little runny)
2 egg shells powdered (added and mixed at the end)
Little coconut oil
Little vegetable oil
Little bone broth
1 small sweet potato microwaved and skin removed
Little ground gingerThese are the ingredients and unwould appreciate any feedback. I used amounts close to what I found in books and from a Vet recommendation. I would really appreciate any experience with these ingredients you have regarding a dogs health. My dog weighs around 12lbs so I would also appreciate how much you would feed this weight daily. I mixed some with his blue buffalo dry food tonight as to not upset his tummy. I know broccoli can cause gas and has an ingredient not good in large amounts so I went light on it and only used the green tips.
Thank you in advance for any advice!
Hi all,
I have a six month old mix who will likely be around 55 pounds full grown (he is currently 37). He loves all of his treats, but will not touch his Science Diet Puppy Chicken & Barley food. We tried mixing it with Science Diet wet food, which he likes a little better, but still won’t eat most of the kibble.
We has him on Blue Buffalo Puppy food, but he was having diarrhea and the vet suggested we transition away from it because of the high fat content.
I am overwhelmed by all of the puppy food choices. Any suggestions for a puppy who is bored of mealtime with a sensitive stomach?
Thanks in advance for any advice!!
We have a seven pound Maltese mix and two almost 15 month old Chiweenies, 13 & 14 pounds. I’m having great difficulty trying to find healthiest, safest foods for them. We are currently feeding all three Click to open expanded view
Blue Buffalo Wilderness Small Breed Chicken Recipe Grain-Free Dry Dog Food, Blue Buffalo Wilderness Small Breed Chicken Recipe Grain-Free Dry Dog Food By Blue Buffalo but I don’t think they should all be eating the same thing. What do you advise? It’s very difficult trying to figure it out on your web site. ThanksTopic: Home made diet
Hi I’m new here and looking for advice? I gave a 3 yr old staffy iv fed her a few different foods like blue buffalo, Halo to name a couple. But she eats her own poop! So I turned to home made for her and it’s much better. But would live some support ona supplement To add in?thank you!
Topic: Reps in Pet Stores
There’s this one Blue Buffalo rep that stalks around my local Petsmart. I went there the other day to pick up food for my dogs and my mother’s dogs. Her dogs eat BB Lamb dry food and wet food. He gave me coupons for both. But then he noticed that I had Merrick dry and wet food in the cart and started bashing it, going on and on about the superiority of BB.
Now, I’m not particularly a fan of either food. My vet dislikes BB, and attributes some of my 1 dog’s weight gain years back to when I fed him BB large breed food. I think that their commercials are just about as misleading as the big corporate brands’ commercials are.
I’m not even the biggest fan of Merrick and I know a lot of people on this site aren’t. But it seems like they are the only brand that both my picky eaters will eat and I have far less episodes of digestive discomfort/excessive drooling from my 1 dog. The food works for them, so I wind up buying the food.
But I hate to be talked down to by a person whose only interest is his company’s profits.
I wound up telling him that his food made my dog fat…and he had no comeback. lol.