[Christie]

Anon101- I was mistaken. Blood was taken when they brought him to the back room to cut his nails. I’m so used to going to the vet that I don’t even look at the receipt when I sign my money away. But there’s a $135 charge for a workup. I thought that it was the same as anesthesia pretesting that was on the dental procedure estimate. My vet was annoyed that the walk-in didn’t do much of anything (they didn’t even spot the ulcer on the bottom of Chance’s jaw).

Susan, thanks for the suggestions. I’ll look into the TOTW. Thinking back now, I made another change when I switched to Wellness Core Reduced Fat. Neither of my two dogs likes to eat kibble. Last year I added 1/4 can of canned food mixed with the kibble. That had mixed results. They’d like it for 3 meals then refuse to eat it after. I’d switch up the proteins and the types (stews vs. pate) but I seemed to be wasting more than what was being consumed. Not to mention the added calories that caused the weight gain. So I cut out the cans completely. I sprinkled a tiny bit of cheese on the food and they’d eat it for the most part (my little one usually ate around the kibble to get to the cheese but once she got hungry enough, she’d eat the kibble). But I know cheese isn’t the healthiest option, so I tried low sodium chicken broth. Dogs liked it for a few days and then I had to deal with throwing out soggy kibble that they wouldn’t touch. I tried adding canned pumpkin. Worked for 2 meals and then that was it.

So I scoured different sites and forums to see what people added to kibble. Apples and sardines were two things that I hadn’t previously thought about. Apples didn’t add much in the way of calories and the sardines had all the oils and fatty acids that are beneficial. I didn’t hear anything bad about sardines, only that you should avoid ones that aren’t canned with water and that you shouldn’t feed them in both meals.

I would cut up an apple and split it between both dogs with their morning meal. And I would split a small can of sardines for the evening meal. They definitely like the evening meal more, but they’ll reluctantly eat the kibble with the apple pieces mixed in the morning.

That said, could either the apples or sardines cause the possible upset stomach/acid reflux? Because I started giving them around the same time as the kibble switch.