bkagel: If you go to the front page of this thread, on the top, I have a stickie with grain & potato free foods. A few things I want to point out: shopping at Pet Co isn’t always the best place to find foods. They don’t carry the best selection when you’re looking for something specific, such as grain/potato free foods. I know nothing about Pet People and can’t help you there.
Shopping online is sometimes your best place to find alot of foods that you can’t find locally. I suggest looking at wag.com, PetFlow.com, Chewy.com, for starters, for places to order from. These three offer free shipping if you spend a certain nominal amount. If you look at the stickie and find some foods you think may work, check those sites. Their websites have store locators and probably have a list of internet places that sell their products as well.
Regarding looking for samples: I don’t suggest that. It can take anywhere from 2-4 weeks to know if a food will work for your dog. Unless you have a dog that you know can go from one food to another without problems (yours does not sound like that), you should transition from one food to another over a 5-7 day period. Then, it can be the 2-4 weeks after that to know. Samples won’t be enough food to know, even the smallest bags (4-5 pounders) aren’t even enough, even with a Papillion.
Hopefully others can chime in on possible IBS. If it’s a yeast overload, dogs can go through a detox period where they seem to get worse, then better.
