[Patricia A]

My limited understanding is that certain proteins in dog kibble have naturally low Taurine such as lamb, rabbit and even beef has lower then chicken. Add in all the legumes which displaces the protein coming from meat and the high processing of kibble which lowers the taurine level even more? . Consumers believed that a food touted as high protein is what to look for in a feeding a quality kibble. But really it’s the meat, meat and more meat they need for adequate Taurine levels for heart health.
Now I WAS feeding as a base to freeze dried Stella’s Chewy’s after my dogs stopped eating Fromm. I was going by the Advisors reviews at the time from a few years ago when this kibble came out . It was before the FDA statement regarding grain free and dCM. At the time I was just looking for a 5 star food with an ABUNDANCE OF MEAT. Well it seems now that the advisor has changed his reviews of the exact same recipe/protein for Stella’s raw coated kibble to MODERATE AMOUND OF MEAT? So this tells me in his breakdown that yes those peas/legumes so high up on their list of ingredients IS displacing meat protein. So what caused him to change his review? He didn’t break it down right to begin with?
I can’t bring myself to give the WSAVA big three. What do you think of Wellness core small breed? I stopped ALL kibble but at times I give a little mixed in when I feed home cooked for them?

• This topic was modified 6 years, 8 months ago by Patricia A.
• This topic was modified 6 years, 8 months ago by Patricia A.

[Christie B]

I’ve become so skeptical regarding my dog’s diagnosis of a Lipoma, given the inadequacies of his examination. Even with the needle aspiration, I wonder what they took a sample of because it doesn’t feel like a normal ‘lump’. Since the vet said that surgery wasn’t something that needed to be done in the next 3 months or so (he’s not in pain, and he still walks and runs and play with no issue), I searched the internet for all things lipoma.

I’m not going into this thinking that there’s a magical cure out there nor would I purchase some snake oil claiming to be one. However, I have seen an consensus of various forums and sites suggest changing to a quality kibble that’s lower in fat as well as various supplements that may help remove toxins and increase circulation/metabolism etc. My sister gave me some Frankincense essential oil to apply topically mixed in a carrier oil.

But I’m at a loss when it comes to food and supplements.

He’s 9.5 years old and 119 pounds and he’s an extremely picky eater.

And I know that lipomas just randomly, especially as dogs get older, and there isn’t a precise cause. But I’ve gone back and looked at old pictures and videos to see if I can pinpoint when it may have started to grow. Could it just be a coincidence that it started to appear not long after switching him to a ‘low rated’ commercial food when trying to figure out his food sensitivity issues?

• This topic was modified 6 years, 9 months ago by Christie B.

[haleycookie]

First, what did the vet recommend? Second did he specify what type of crystals they are? If they are a reoccurring type he may have to be put on a specific ph diet either a prescription food or you can talk with a vet nutritionalist who can formate a homemade diet. I would go that route if u have the time. It will likely run u the same amount of money as a prescription diet will and give your dog a better quality diet.
If it’s a non reuccuring type he can just be kept on whatever he was eating and maybe you can soak his kibble in water everyday for added hydration which can help with urinary problems.
Also why is he on a vegan food? There isn’t much reason to feed a facilitated carnivore a vegan food especially since it seems u top it with a beef canned food so I’m assuming u don’t feed it for ethical reasons. Does he have some other problem that requires the vegan food? If not I would take him off it.

[apet8 u]

Last January we put down Dylan, our almost 13-year-old chocolate Labrador Retriever (and the best brown dog in the world).

About a year earlier I wrote a post about finally acknowledging that he wouldn’t be around much longer because he stopped running upstairs to the kitchen when he heard me making a meal (or doing anything with food).

Being a soft touch, I always “dropped” something I was making on the floor for him. But when he started staying on the couch in basement instead of coming upstairs to mooch food I knew his health had started to deteriorate.

As I had never put one of my dogs down before, I was petrified that I wouldn’t know when it was time to let him go.

I didn’t want to hang on to him if was suffering. And I obviously didn’t want to euthanize him while his quality of life was still good.

Most dog owners who have had to put down a dog will say that you shouldn’t worry because your dog will let you know when it’s time to let him/her go, and while that was true in Dylan’s case, it may not be true for every dog in every situation.

[anonymous]

https://www.gofromm.com/fromm-family-classic-adult-dog-food

$41.26 for 33 lbs (today’s price) Grain inclusive.

You won’t go wrong (imo), use this as a base, add a tablespoon or more of cooked chopped chicken meat or canned food. A splash of water and always have fresh water available 24/7

I feed a quality kibble as the base, about 2/3rds of the diet, I add a little chopped boiled chicken, plain chicken broth or water, sometimes scrambled egg or a little tuna or something.
My chicken broth recipe /forums/topic/grain-free-2/#post-109751

For science based veterinary medicine go here http://skeptvet.com/Blog/category/nutrition/

Check with your vet if you don’t believe me, most vets speak highly of Fromm.
PS: Feed twice a day, measured amounts (don’t leave food down/free feed). Maybe an occasional snack.

[Christie B]

Yeah, I put the majority of the recipe topper in the freezer. Maybe I’ll be able to use it for my other dog in the future. As for my big guy, he was mopey this morning and gulping, coughing and shaking his head and rubbing his face and sure enough when I checked his ears…yeast infection.

It doesn’t seem to matter what food I put him on. I try different proteins, grains, grain free, limited ingredients….it makes my head spin. I try a new food…seems great. A few weeks later back to the drawing board. It seems to get worse with age.

Do I really go back and try the low quality brand he ate years ago with no issues? Do some dogs just not do well on good quality food?

These are the ingredients for the vet recommended food:

Chicken, brewers rice, poultry by-product meal (source of glucosamine), corn gluten meal, whole grain wheat, whole grain corn, oat meal, medium-chain triglyceride vegetable oil, pea fiber, dried egg product, natural flavor, fish oil, barley, fish meal (source of glucosamine), L-Arginine, mono and dicalcium phosphate, potassium chloride, salt, Vitamin E supplement, potassium citrate, L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (source of Vitamin C), zinc sulfate, ferrous sulfate, niacin, Vitamin A supplement, manganese sulfate, thiamine mononitrate, calcium pantothenate, Vitamin B-12 supplement, copper sulfate, riboflavin supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, garlic oil, folic acid, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), Vitamin D-3 supplement, calcium iodate, biotin, choline chloride, and sodium selenite

I hate to try it, but I hate how the Benedryl my vet recommends for the symptoms knocks him out. He sleeps during the day while I’m at work, I don’t want him conked out when I’m home to play with him. And he absolutely hates when I have to clean out his ears. The more I try to make the healthier choice, the more it backfires.

Is it bad to try and see?

[haleycookie]

If he’s been checked by a vet and nothing is found (he’s just being picky) try the suggested above, egg (raw or cooked), some raw (thaw slowly in fridge) or cooked chicken prepared properly as a topper. You can also try raw goats milk to add some fat into his diet, or look for new born puppy dog formula at a pet store and mix that’s with his food. Also whatever brand he is eating try to see if it has a puppy formula and feed him that if he likes it, you can also top with canned puppy food as well for a calorie boost.
The main the would be to make sure he doenst have any ailments first. And hopefully getting him transitioned onto a better quality food.

[. .]

I had been feeding my three dogs Hill’s Science Diet Canine “i/d” dry, and then mix of dry and canned (also i/d)…I have been feeding my animals (cats & dogs) only Hill’s Science Diet (i/d, m/d). No table scraps no snack…very strict and consistent diet.

I don’t believe in giving my animals food items that are not meant for good health. Yet, all have developed diabetes, and/or cancer, and/or kidney disease and/or urinary dysfunction at much earlier ages than what would be expected. So here’s what…I no longer trust Hill’s Science diet — particularly the dry food.

I first eliminated the dry for my cat, out of desperation after months of heavy, I mean HEAVY, urination — replacing the cat litter every 48 hours because of major urination, complete litter saturation. One evening I only served the wet food, and to my hope, prayers, and pleasant surprise…starting the VERY NEXT DAY, the heavy urination STOPPED!

That was about 2 months ago, and he’s been fine ever since. He still has diabetes, though (4 units insulin/day). For now. But I am working on changing his diet further — getting as far away from any Hill’s Science Diet as possible, or any conventional pet food. Wet or dry.

Same with my dogs, I now have them completely off Hill’s. I switched to Just Food for Dogs (formerly known as True Food for Dogs). It’s too late for one of my dogs whom I just had down about 3 weeks ago — cancer. But I have my two others and they are doing well. But…

One of my dogs, having sever symptoms of kidney disease, urinary dysfunction (constant thirst lots of urination), and an insatiable appetite…all seemed like signs of diabetes and/or kidney disease — but, his blood work indicated all was fine. So what could it be? Well, it turns out his calcium, sodium, phosphorus, and of course his electrolytes, and many other things in his blood work results reported dangerously low. “The lowest I’ve ever seen in my career,” stated our 17 year veteran of veterinary medicine stated.” (Oh, BTW my dog had lost a lot of weight over a short period of time, where I could see his ribs and hip bones very prominently.

Then vet concluded from the above indications that it must to be Diabetes Insipidus, “a condition that results from insufficient production of the antidiuretic hormone (ADH), a hormone that helps the kidneys and body conserve the correct amount of water. Normally, the antidiuretic hormone controls the kidneys’ output of urine.” But we needed further examination to confirm.

So we got on schedule to take my dog in to get an ultrasound procedure ($350-$500). It was a couple of weeks away before I could afford the additional cost for confirming or knowing the true problem. If the ultrasound did not reveal anything…a CT scan would be required to check for brain tumor. (I know. Very serious.)

Meanwhile, I went to Just Food for Dogs (JFFD) and had several long talks with them as I’m a very inquisitive and discerning consumer. Once I was satisfied with their answers about the product, how it works and why, I picked up my first batch of the fresh ready-made food as well as the supplement powder and the recipe so I that could start making the food myself at home — and save money.

Just under two weeks later, I asked the vet to take another blood panel — just like the previous one to compare if he was getting worse or improving. When she received the results, our vet called me and stated, “It’s like a miracle, all his levels are up to very healthy normal indicators…what did you do?” I told her we’d changed our dogs’ diet to the JFFD, and she said, “Keep doing what you’re doing. Don’t change a thing!” (BTW, he’s filling out, I look forward to weighing him again in a couple of weeks.)

Do you like to cook? I do. (I’m a bit of a foodie.) If you are a person who appreciates quality ingredients (Did I mention, this simple and particular recipe for my dogs’ age, calls for fresh ground lamb, cauliflower, carrots, blueberries, brown rice, yum! Of course, adding the powdered supplements to make my dogs’ meals whole and complete)…if you care about your animal’s comfort and well being, I highly recommend you consider making your dog’s food yourself with the proper, professional, guidance, and supplemental ingredients (powder).

I’m also going to look further into Nutra Thrive as a possible additional supplement. It looks very interesting. But I plan to be careful to not overdo. Will seek the proper guidance.

In summary, I am getting as far away from Hill’s as I can, and will be switching to the Feline version from JFFD very soon, hoping I can get my sweet little cat (actually, he’s a big tabby with the heart of a kitten) on the healthier food source, too.

One thought I’d also like to share: Just one thing I don’t agree with from the video and the veterinarian who created Nutra Thrive… I think his statement was in the effort to be encouraging, make it sound easy — to simply NOT change from whatever junky food (be it grocery store, pet store, or vet office source) dog owners are currently feeding their animals. I just DON’T agree with that at all. Why? It pretty common sense to me.

Just by what the vet in the video says regarding how pet foods are processed (super high temperatures, no nutrients left, for example), and just by my reading the ingredients, and how the vet in the video states conventional food makes dogs look, feel, act, or eliminate poorly are but a few key reasons for me to stay clear of anything I feed my pets that I don’t have control over — hence, cooking it myself, with proper ingredients and guidance.

[Amir H]

Thanks for the reply.

I do know about the DCM issue and grain-free. That’s why i chose Fromm large breed puppy (it has 4 stars on dogfood advisor). I am worried about switching to a grain-free diet a bit as well but most high quality kibbles are grain free these days (Fromm is really an exception). Here are some other thoughts I had:

1- Orijen is great in terms of ingredients but their last lawsuit is keeping me away from Orijen and Acana. I totally know that the lawsuit could be baseless but I want to be safe.

2- I’m adding Primal nuggets and stella & chewy freeze dried to Fromm kibble as topper every day. So that’s a route I can continue. My dog eats 3 cups of Fromm food and the toppers I put are about 0.4 cups. So, at least I know I’m getting some freeze dried food and some other nutritions to her.

3- I’ve also considered going completely freeze dried (buy Stella & Chewy). It’d be expensive but it still fits my budget. I just don’t want to make the transition while she’s still a puppy. I’ll do that when I’m transitioning her to adult food.

It’s kind of sad that all good quality foods are grain-free these days.

[Karen G]

Gosh Hi Everyone! I didn’t get an alert from the last 3 posts so I had no idea that Cara and Laurence had joined and Susan had updated.
Firstly Abby is doing great. She was up to 17lbs at Christmas, so we have had to cut back on her daily food intake….what a glorious thing for me to write! She is now down to 16.4lbs and I think we will keep her at this weight over the Winter (it’s pretty cold outside now and she can use the extra fat). We will probably limit her food intake a little more in the Spring as her ideal weight is actually 15.2lbs.

Abby remains on our home made prescription diet. She gets 75mg metronidazole daily and 1ml B12 injection weekly. Our nutritionist Vet did a presentation about her at the OVC and asked me to write up how I prepared her meals, the cost and the time. If anyone is interested I can post that here. I have learned a lot about making a home made diet, I think it helps to be a little obsessive compulsive….keeping to the recipe exactly and weighing each item after cooking and draining is very important.

Because Abby lost 70% of her small bowel she can’t absorb fats. She only gets 1tsp of canola oil daily, and whatever fat is left over after meticulously draining the lean ground beef (I obsess about draining it very thoroughly because the prescription recipe called for extra lean ground beef but it’s expensive to buy 2kg of extra lean ground beef at a time and extra lean generally doesn’t come in large packaged amounts).

Another very important addition to Abby’s diet is a vitamin/mineral supplement. Abby was prescribed Balance IT by the OVC Vet. We have to order it on line from the U.S. which is a bit of an annoyance but The OCV trusts that the product is properly monitored in production and the ingredients are of good quality. I believe the standards for medications for animals are not as stringent as they are for humans so the OVC is careful about what they choose when prescribing an OTC product. (over the counter)

Laurence, the trick for us in decreasing poops and firming them up is the homemade diet. When Abby was on the Purina H/A her poop was still pretty watery. Thickest in the morning and then like water by evening. Looking back at my notes from a year ago Abby was pooping 4-10x a day. Currently she poops 2-3x day. Her first poop of the day looks like a normal dog poop and we are now back to carrying poop bags with us when we go for walks. in the evening her poop is the loosest and I’d say it is the consistency of pudding. (On the fecal score chart she is a 3 in the morning and a 5-6 in the evening) What a change in a year!

I think there are 3 main factors in Abby’s improvement: 1) time – time to heal 2) home made prescription diet & 3) a regular daily dose of metronidazole – I hate that we have to rely on an antibiotic to keep her gut flora under control but that is our reality. Currently she is on half the daily dose she was originally prescribed but if I try to wean her down to a lower dose she starts pooping more so I guess this is where we will stay for now.

Finally I want to say a couple of words about probiotics. Abby was started on Fortiflora almost immediately after her surgery. We didn’t know if it was helping but we hoped it was. Later our nutritionist Vet suggested we try Visbiome. Visbiome is a high quality probiotic for humans with ulcerative colitis and I.B.S. You order it on line and it is delivered in a styrofoam cooler with a cold pack inside (obviously great care is taken to keep the bacterium alive). It was kept in the fridge and we gave it to Abby everyday. However, when I was researching fecal transplants in humans (yes, Abby had a fecal transplant – it didn’t really help) I came across a journal article that stated in humans:
“SBS patients, with colon in continuity, harbor a specific fecal microbiota that we called “lactobiota” because it is enriched in the Lactobacillus/Leuconostoc group and depleted in anaerobic micro-organisms (especially Clostridium and Bacteroides )”
The ingredient list of Visbiome states that over half the bacillus species in the probiotic supplement were in the Lactobacillus group! So essentially we were giving Abby more of the same bacteria that she already had an overabundance of!
Fortiflora has a lot of filler ingredients but only the Enterococcus faecium is the active one. Which is a strain of gram + streptococcus (which is naturally occurring in the gut of animals and humans)
Needless to say, we stopped the probiotics and she hasn’t had any since. I’m not saying this is the case for every person and every dog, but I believe the probiotic was not helpful for Abby. As an addendum I would just say that dogs and people, being both mammals there isn’t a heck of a lot of difference between them when it comes to the GI system.

Okay, I’ve written a lot here so I better stop. If anyone wants my recipe notes or even the link to the journal article about lactobacillus let me know
Cheers for now….Karen

[K F]

Please- try Halo brand kibble, if you are giving kibble. No recalls EVER; USA-sourced, no GMO’s, no meat sourced from inhumane factory farms, profits go to help other animals in need.
When I adopted my Husky 12 yrs ago, she had all sorts of GI issues…diarrhea, right and left. She had Giardia, which we treated….(make sure that your pup does not have this..) but, she would still react to the foods that I bought her- All organic, with high quality ingredients.
She FINALLY stopped having GI ‘events’ when I switched her to the Halo Spot’s Stew (it used to be called) kibble. Not grain-free…either the Chicken or the Salmon basic kibble. NO ISSUES at all, in the 10 years following.
I ALSO give my Husky a daily serving of human grade, cooked protein- either a can of wild caught salmon, sardines, or tuna in water. Occasionally some roasted turkey slices. I also feed her plenty of veggies, which she loves (frozen broccoli and green beans, and raw carrots..)
I agree with Kimberly, that raw food diets are very risky in that there are recalls every other day for e-coli or salmonella or listeria outbreaks… Why go through that? Particularly with a vulnerable puppy…. Dogs have been bred, over thousands and thousands of years, to be omnivores. They are not still wolves out in the wild, and don’t have the protective antibodies for spoiled or rotted meat anymore. Can people be real, here?
Anyway- best of luck to your baby! 🙂
If in doubt, just ask…”Would I want to eat this?”.. (If its not on the list of human foods that are toxic to dogs…its a great way to gage safely for your dog. 🙂 )

[Christine A]

An update to my other post.. I still don’t have great answers

I’ve been attempting to do my research on seizures in dogs for some time now. The vet will cost a fortune to run tests, so I’m just out here looking for similar situations.

My dog, Zeus, is a ~75lb pit mix (possibly with hound/boxer) at (approx.) 3 years old. He has now had 5 observed grand mal seizures this year between May and Dec. with a 12 week break after his first 2. All lasting about 2-4 minutes from the time it was caught.

I was determined it was the Interceptor heart worm prevention since the first 2 this year happened exactly 1 week after the dose was given. After I switched the heart worm preventative to ProHeart6 in July, we had about a 12 week period without a seizure. He then had 1 in Oct. and then one 7 weeks later in Nov. and then 4 weeks in Dec.

I then was convinced him eating his brothers poo was the cause. After doing MORE research, some hounds just eat poo (and he definitely has some in him).. and sometimes it is due to lack of enzyme & probiotic nutrition.
So what I did was order NaturVet Enzyme plus probiotic. In the meantime, we were very strict about watching him outside and picking up after every load. We also started a high protein diet by adding 1/2 – 1 cup meat to a 1/2 cup of dry kibble.. What I noticed during this time, he appeared to not have the acid-reflux symptoms (throwing up unexpectedly, mouth swallowing, etc.), no throwing up at all, overall more energy & perky, and not a strong beagle skin smell. What happened after the second dose of enzyme replacement was the acid-reflux symptoms reappeared (unexpected vomit & lots of swallowing) while still using CBD oil and high protein.

I proceeded to purchase a high quality/rated CBD oil for pets after the seizure in Nov. I did not order the second bottle soon enough and ran out. As I began to put him back on it slowly on day 2 of 1x/day he had his 5th seizure Dec. 24. We gave him a dose as he was beginning the seizure and did not appear to shorten or help.

Some things I have observed about him and these seizures:
– The first 2 (May & June) seizures occurred while eating Pure Balance wild & free grain-free salmon & pea (walmart) after wanting more convenience and switching to Chewy.com, I switched to Taste of the Wild grain-free bison & venison, July-Sept. I then made a personal decision to switch back to a grain food, Purina pro plan Focus sensitive skin & stomach salmon & rice in Sept. His 3rd seizure happened in Oct. and 4th in Nov.
– The 3 times that I have witnessed the episode, after he has relaxed for a few minutes, he immediately begins eating his food. He’s not a big eater and will eat about once a day on dry food only if no added meat.
-During the seizures, he expels his stomach bile (not sure if that is normal)
– He does eat his dog brother’s feces (and we have tried nearly every additive to the food to prevent this – now were down to frequent clean up/muzzle). We found him as a stray at approximately 1 year.
– The first 3 occurred while he was outside (which also made me believe that he was getting into a weed or poisonous fungus/plant). The 4th one occurred while he was sleeping and 5th inside.
– The 4th & 5th one were the only seizures I have seen from beginning to end as it happened when waking up in the AM. He began to try to vomit and then began running round, stopped, peed and grand mal for 2-4 minutes. During the seizure his stomach bile expels
– The 4th one also occurred while on doxycycline & vetprofen for a infected hair. He’s been on antibiotics before for a surgical ingrown hair removal
– Common demonstrators: Salmon flavor (possibly other similar ingredients)

Questions I have for myself: Is he eating it because his body needs something in the feces? Is it the Salmon/brand? Is his stomach bile doing something with the enzymes ingested?

If another one occurs, I will probably have to get a prescription for seizures. I feel there is a pattern and there is a healthier solution than medication.

[zcRiley]

Budget cuts and mergers have driven quality control down, prices have doubled while the labeled bags contain much less over time. The (in)voluntary recalls are becoming alarming and you wonder if you should join the lawsuits out of fear or an actual mishap with your dog. It’s time vs money vs your anger. Yes, the kibble-raw-freeze dried-wet food buying community IS at the mercy of all brands. Anyone testing each bag for Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes or “elevated” levels of certain vitamins? Not me, as I trustingly scoop the kibble out twice day, adding freeze dried on top, always wondering. And adding nutrients like I’m a canine nutritionist. With that said, I spend as much money as my bank account allows for food allergy panels, blood tests and anything else I need to do to “know” my dogs’ bodies throughout the year. Otherwise, we’re just sitting ducks as we may misinterpret the recalls. Yes, large class action lawsuits do have merit. I wouldn’t ignore how it became that way with thousands of medical issues and/or dog deaths documented. Again, “know” your dog every single day and be on top of the news. All dogs are NOT the same.

[Joseph G]

Hello. Your messages a few months old, but I figured I’d still reply to it. My dog has severe allergies as well and is very difficult. My dog is on Apoquel because her allergies are that bad
And the benefits far outweigh any risk for her. She honestly hasn’t had any problems with the medication says she’s been on it, which has been a few years now. It doesn’t completely help with her allergies, but it definitely helps considerably. Even if I miss one dose, you can tell that she starts itching more. There is also a new medication called Cytopoint That is an injection that your vet gives your dog approximately every 4-6 weeks. After the initial evaluation of your dog, usually one of the techs can give your dog the injection and you don’t need to see your vet every time you go and pay an examination fee. You just pay for the injection. The injections aren’t super cheap, but it’s comparable or maybe less expensive than Apoquel. I haven’t tried it yet on my dog as she is doing okay on the Apoquel. Some people will say these injections are bad because they modulate the immune system, but they are safer than steroids and when your dog has severe allergies with horrible symptoms, sometimes you don’t have a choice. Trust me, I tried all the other stuff. Probiotics and other supplements might help, but you also have to be leery or ingredients in them your dog can be allergic to. The eggs in the food you were making can definitely cause allergies in dogs. Basically any protein is capable of producing an allergic response. In addition to Apoquel, I feed my dog Rayne Nutrition kangaroo manintenance dry food and canned food as a topper. It is a prescription food that you’ll need to have your vet approve when you order it online, but it is worth it. It is a whole-food dog food and has very high-quality ingredients in it. It is not like other prescription dog foods. This stuff is top-notch. The dog food and the Apoquel have helped my dog as much as possibly can be. I’m sure my dog is allergic to grass and other outdoor stuff, as well as some foods. Allergies to dog foods usually manifest as digestive issues. My personal feeling is that the Rayne dog food and Apoquel or Cytopoint would really help your dog. I would speak to your vet about it. Good luck!

[Merrick W]

Hi Charles!

I am almost exactly 7 months late responding to your post — and I’m shocked no one else has up to this point — but, thanks to the everlasting “archival” nature of the internet, your post was preserved and awaiting a response, any response and, finally, here I am!

First of all, how is your boy doing 7 months later? What are you feeding him now and is he reacting well or still having some GI problems and itching?

SO, here’s my story that I hope will help you out: I had been on a massive journey to find my Lab mix, Perry, a kibble that has no grains, no legumes, and no white potato. It took hours of searching, as well as a lot of trial and error with at least a half-dozen different brands, but I finally found it:

EARTHBORN HOLISTICS VENTURE ALASKA POLLOCK MEAL & PUMPKIN
https://www.earthbornholisticpetfood.com/dog-food-formulas/venture/alaska-pollock-meal-pumpkin

So, here’s the first thing to be said about Earthborn: their REGULAR (vs. Venture) line … no good! Peas, peas, and more peas. They “ingredient split” peas about five different ways (e.g., peas, pea flour, pea fiber, etc.). If Earthborn stopped using peas they’d put some pea farmers out of business!

BUT… then they developed this new Venture line. It’s been out about a year now, I think. Six flavors. Grain free. No GMO. High quality ingredients. Unfortunately, and to my great dismay, three of the flavors use peas. WHY? I don’t know — they can’t help themselves, these folks at the corporate offices of Earthborn (mind you, they are a family owned and operated business). Another two don’t have peas, but aren’t legume-free: they use chickpeas.

And then there’s the Pollock formula!

First five ingredients: Alaska Pollock Meal, Pumpkin, Tapioca, Sunflower Oil, Flaxseed

And the rest of the ingredients are essentially minerals, vitamins, probiotics. Omega 6:3 ratio is better than most kibbles. Also, higher fiber than most kibbles, 9%, which a canine nutritionist I went to said is likely one of the keys to this food stabilizing Perry’s GI tract.

This is pretty much the ONLY kibble my dog does well on. And it is so frustrating because you’d think that a special line as this would have flavors that mimic each other, but this one is the odd man out. I have implored them to make more Venture flavors with just the pumpkin, tapioca and flaxseed — and, of course, they’ve taken my suggestion ‘under consideration.’ But, ok.

Also, I love that they’ve opted for sunflower oil in this line, rather than the controversial and overly-used canola oil, or pretty much any other vegetable oil.

My dog loves it — and I also love that this particular flavor has a slightly larger kibble size — great for large dogs as mine (70lb) — maybe or maybe not for smaller dogs, although I know of smaller dogs that do fine on larger-sized kibble pieces.

The flavors with chickpeas are Turkey — which, instead of pumpkin & tapioca uses chickpeas & butternut squash — and Squid (SQUID..?!?! WTF?), which uses chickpeas & pumpkin. Squid is a bit odd and I really don’t need another fish kibble as a rotational protein source, but I did try the Turkey — and Perry did not go all that great on it. It certainly could be that pumpkin is a bit better than squash for him, but I suspect the chickpeas as the culprit — and I’m pretty much sold on the argument that legumes of all kinds are not good for dogs. (The turkey kibble has flaxseed, too, so I rule that out as being a better or worse ingredient for Perry.)

So, we found our kibble in the Venture Pollock. I really would like to offer Perry at least ONE additional protein using the same pumpkin & tapioca formula, and am praying Earthborn will finally see the light and come through.

OK, Charles — there IS one more line you can check out that a lot of folks don’t know about: Sport Dog Food. This is a small husband-and-wife-owned company out of Long Island, NY. It originally was set up to be a dog food specially gears towards working dogs, hunting dogs, sport dogs, and the like, and they have several flavors made WITH grain for that purpose. But they great folks also developed a grain-free line called Elite which is more about what it doesn’t have than what it does:

https://sportdogfood.com/dog-food/special-diet/grain-free/

No legumes of any kind. No grains, no rice, no white potato. No corn, wheat, soy, flax or alfalfa (for me, I’m ok with flax for my dog, which I actually think helps some with fiber to keep him regular — but I get that others aren’t). No controversial Menhaden fish, and no vegetable oils (again, I’m ok with sunflower oil — not with a lot of other vegetables oil though!). And a few other things. And, then on the positive side, lots of great ingredients.

I used Sport Dog for Perry in its earlier incarnation in 2017 — until they had a disagreement with their manufacturer (small plant in the midwest) and had to cease business for several months while looking for new manufacturing plants to contract with and, in doing so, had to change their formulas quite a bit, although still with most of their “no-no” ingredients left out. The previous incarnation, which had beef, chicken and fish flavors, Perry did spectacularly with the beef and chicken, but not so much with the fish, and I think the culprit was the use of mussels — he doesn’t do well with shellfish.

However, when they changed manufacturers, they changed protein sources and changed several of the other ingredients within. Instead of beef, they now use water buffalo (now commonly farmed in the US!). Instead of chicken, it’s now turkey. And their whitefish stayed whitefish but with a little more varieties of fish in it, albeit without mussel.

Regrettably, Perry only did “ok” with the whitefish; “not-so-great” with the turkey, and “pretty bad” with the water buffalo. It’s no fault of Sport Dog — they really do have a great product, and SO well thought out — but, just for Perry, for whatever reason, his GI tract wasn’t having it. Perhaps some element of fiber missing. And I tried it again several months later, just to make sure but, nope.

SO… on the Venture Pollock formula for the foreseeable future.

Hope you made it this far through my ‘mini-novella’ — I truly hope this is helpful to you, Charles, and to other readers who might come across this post — and would love to hear your further comments, opinions, questions, etc. Thanks!

-Merrick

[Susan]

Hi Ana,

No wet can isnt safer then kibble…
Look at Dehydrated Raw instead of dry kibble & wet can foods, Dehydrated Raw isnt raw, raw like you think when you read the word raw, Dehydrated raw is more like frozen hard raw but it isnt, but its dry like dry kibble but hasnt been over processed & cooked & cooked like kibble…
My boy who has IBD he does really well on an Australian made “Frontier Pets” Free Range Dehydrated Raw balls, I just add a little warm water he loves it for lunch, start feeding 1 of your dog meal a dehydrated raw food & let them decide which is best…
Offer the kibble in a bowl & in another bowl some dehydrated raw..
I think dehydrated is best if you want to feed something like kibble..
Honest Kitchen would be better then buying the wet can foods in pet shops & super markets, alot of wet can foods aren’t balanced properly, well the cat wet can foods aren’t & they’re made by the big 3 pet food companies..
Here’s the proof.
A study was done in Australia by “Sydney University junk pet-food research investigated”

8 out of the 20 pet foods that were tested 8 did not meet nutritional standards, the University will not release names now cause Hills + Royal Canine donates heaps of money to the University & the researchers got a bit scared they wont get funds…..

When you cook for yourself & your family you know what your eating & have watched it cook, when you go & get take away or eat in resturant you dont know if some dropped the food on the floor or they just went to toilet never washed hands, or had a smoke etc this is the same when we feed our pets kibble & wet can foods but worse…
Wet can & Dry Kibble are the lowest of quality when it comes to pet foods, they’re quick & easy, then you start getting the better pet foods Air Dired, Dehydrated Raw they also make wet can foods that are good aswell..

These brands are good..
The bottom 3 brands have come 1st, 2nd, 3rd, when tested for Toxins, Heavy Metals & Contaminates…
The 2 top Brands weren’t tested probably cause they’re made in New Zealand.

“Ziwi Peak” – wet can & Air Dried Raw,
send Ziwi Peak email ask for some samples, just say you have fussy dogs.

“K-9 Natural” – wet can raw & freeze dried & frozen raw in freezer & treats.
K-9 Natural Green Lipped Mussels are really good + Healthy to give as a treat daily.

“Buckley Liberty” Freeze-Dried Dry Dog Food

“CaniSource Grand Cru” All Life Stages Dehydrated Raw Dry Dog Food

“BIXBI” Rawbble Freeze-Dried Dry Dog Food

[Susan]

Hi Athony,
Your dogs probably have Environment allergies, my boy has Seasonal Environment allergies & food senitivities, they both normally come together…
I’ve worked out my boy food sensitivities & I’m in a routine for his environment allergies weekly baths in a medicated shampoo, twice a week when he’s really itchy, I use Dermcare Malaseb medicated shampoo, it relieves Patches itchy skin & paws & kills any yeast or bacteria thats on his skin & paws, he feels heaps better after his baths & Ive washed off allergens & dirt, then I use baby creams for his paws, “Bepanthen” soothing antiseptic cream for red rash on stomach from grass & “Sudocrem” on his paws to protect against the allergens, (grass).
I also use baby wipes to wipe him down after being outside…

If you want a diet thats ethically-sourced, organic/certified chemical free you’ll have to feed a raw diet, organic meats & vegetables humans eat.. if you live in Australia, then I’d recommend “Frontier Pets” dehydrated raw, it’s free range, organic meat, eggs & veggies..
I’ve heard “Answers” fermented raw is very good quality but expensive you could just buy their Goats milk as this will strengthen your dogs immune system also Vitamin C & Krill Oil added to your dogs diet..
The only other thing you could do is see a good Animal Dermatologist & have a “Intradermal Skin Test” done to see what are your dogs are allergic too in the environment then they get “Immunotherapy injections”

As the dog ages their allergies get worse, Patch is doing really bad this year at the moment its Spring & we’re having 4 seasons in 1 day some days, no wonder more & more dogs are suffering with allergies now….
Good-Luck

Have you tried “Cytopoint Injuctions” a few people say Cytopoint injection have helped their dogs they last 4-8 weeks depends on the dog, Cytopoint has less side effect then Apoquel..
Dog will have better quality of life relieving their itch, we dont have Cytopoint in Australia yet, we have Apoquel tablets, I bought 2 weeks worth but I haven’t used them yet, my vet said I can start giving Apoquel twice a day with his meals then once he stops his itchying reduce to just 1 Apoquel tablet a day, then 1 Apoquel tablet every 2nd day, a few of my vet dog owners are doing this then stopping the Apoquel & see how the dog goes in the cooler months..

[Susan]

Hi Athony,
Your dogs probably have Environment allergies, my boy has Seasonal Environment allergies & food senitivities, they both normally come together…
I’ve worked out my boy food sensitivities & I’m in a routine for his environment allergies weekly baths in a medicated shampoo, twice a week when he’s really itchy, I use Dermcare Malaseb medicated shampoo, it relieves Patches itchy skin & paws & kills any yeast or bacteria thats on his skin & paws, he feels heaps better after his baths & Ive washed off allergens & dirt, then I use baby creams for his paws, “Bepanthen” soothing antiseptic cream for red rash on stomach from grass & “Sudocrem” on his paws to protect against the allergens, (grass).
I also use baby wipes to wipe him down after being outside…

If you want a diet thats ethically-sourced, organic/certified chemical free you’ll have to feed a raw diet, organic meats & vegetables humans eat.. if you live in Australia, then I’d recommend “Frontier Pets” dehydrated raw, it’s free range, organic meat, eggs & veggies..
I’ve heard “Answers” fermented raw is very good quality but expensive you could just buy their Goats milk as this will strengthen your dogs immune system also Vitamin C & Krill Oil added to your dogs diet..
The only other thing you could do is see a good Animal Dermatologist & have a “Intradermal Skin Test” done to see what are your dogs allergic too in the environment then they get “Immunotherapy injections”

As the dog ages their allergies get worse, Patch is doing really bad this year at the moment its Spring & we’re having 4 seasons in 1 day some days, no wonder more & more dogs are suffering with allergies now….
Good-Luck

Have you tried “Cytopoint Injuctions” a few people say Cytopoint injection have helped their dogs they last 4-8 weeks depends on the dog, Cytopoint has less side effect then Apoquel..
Dog will have better quality of life relieving their itch, we dont have Cytopoint in Australia yet, we have Apoquel tablets, I bought 2 weeks worth but I haven’t used them yet, my vet said I can start giving Apoquel twice a day with his meals then once he stops his itchying reduce to just 1 Apoquel tablet a day, then 1 Apoquel tablet every 2nd day, a few of my vet dog owners are doing this then stopping the Apoquel & see how the dog goes in the cooler months..

[kullboys b]

I have a 6 lb long-haired chihuahua and she is currently on Blue Buffalo. I want to switch her to a higher quality food and have narrowed it down between the 4 below. I wanted to see if anyone could help me choose 1 or narrow it down (based on your experience or research). My dog doesn’t have any allergies and generally likes any food that’s put in front of her 🙂

– Nature’s Logic
– NutriSource
– Zignature
– Orijen
– Instinct

Thanks .

• This topic was modified 7 years, 2 months ago by kullboys b.

[the saw is family]

So in April I rescued this beautiful little beagle/coonhound mix and named her Sophie. Ever since I got her, she’s had the whole gamut of symptoms for what I have determined to be chicken and beef allergies. (my determination is based on her symptoms growing more severe when she eats chicken or beef.)

Let me say, as an aside, I’m a very pro-Orijen guy. I am the guy who scoffs at inferior foods and everything is inferior to Orijen. Well, my dog can’t eat Orijen. I tried a number of other brands I believed to be high quality, and settled on Zignature solely because of their hypoallergenic diets with a good potential to rotate flavors. I know it’s not the best, but if my sweet little dog stops suffering it’s worth it. It certainly is a good food, without question.

So here’s why I’m at a loss. I got her the kangaroo, and fed her that exclusively for 2 weeks. She started getting better. The bag ran low and the store was out of it, so I got her the pork. Stupid me also bought her a can of trout and salmon wet food as a topper. (she LOVES the Zignature without the topper, I just like her to have variety so she ENJOYS her food). She is scratching and biting herself more, but not nearly as bad as before. Now, I know I did a bad by introducing other proteins. Fine, fine. I won’t do it again, believe me. Here’s my real question:

How likely is it that she is allergic to the pork vs the fish? Also, if she is more likely to be allergic to fish, does that mean ALL fish, or can it mean only, say, Salmon? Help! I love my dog more than my own life. I want the best for her.

[Amelia Z]

Hey Linda
You should of asked me about which taurine to use instead of going nuts. Anyway, I use Now Foods powdered taurine.
https://www.nowfoods.com/supplements/taurine-pure-powder
I only chose the powdered because I couldn’t get the dosage I wanted in a pill and it was easier to do so with the powder.
I got this list from Dr. Stern after I already starting my supplementation. So I guess I did good since he recommends Now Foods also. But he does not recommend supplements unless your dog has DCM. But I see your cardiologist is recommending it for your boy. I stopped supplementing Kodi, although his taurine was low, I think it should be better now due to diet change.
This is from Dr. Stern:
Choosing a taurine or l-carnitine supplement:
Selecting supplements should be performed based upon those that match their stated contents and are readily available for absorption. Luckily a previous publication tested multiple taurine and lcarnitine supplements. Based upon this publication our laboratory recommends the following supplements as those meeting our quality criteria. (Bragg et al. 2009 J Am Vet Med Assoc; 234(2))
Tested taurine supplements that test within 5% of stated contents and if applicable disintegrated within 30 minutes
• Mega taurine caps by Twinlab (1000 capsule)
• Taurine by Swanson Health Products (500mg capsule)
• Taurine by NOW foods (500mg capsule)
• Taurine 500 by GNC (500mg tablet)
Tested L-carnitine supplements that test within 5% of stated contents and if applicable disintegrated within 30 minutes
• L-carnitine 500 by Jarrow Formulas (500mg capsule)
• L-carnitine caps by Country Life (500mg capsule)
• Maxi L-carnitine by Solgar Vitamin and Herb (500mg tablet)
• L-carnitine by Puritan’s Pride (500mg tablet)
The Stern lab does not recommend the empirical supplementation of taurine or l-carnitine to dogs without evidence of DCM and/or significant deficiency. If DCM is diagnosed we typically recommend dogs over 50lbs receive 1000mg of taurine every 12hrs and dogs under 50lbs receive 500mg of taurine every 12hours. We recommend L-carnitine at a dose of ~50mg/kg orally with food every 8hrs. Your veterinary cardiologist or family veterinarian should be consulted for prescribing the best dose for your dog.

[judy w]

hello everyone, i have been following recent posts from email notifications after signing up on this thread in July. i got confused because i think there are two Melissa T’s? or maybe it’s just more symptoms of the ways my brain has been not fully functioning right from stress levels.

i am sad to hear about dogs and owners going through health conditions, trying to help, and sometimes, the help, the medicine, causes its own serious medical problems.

the thing that is most frustrating for me about this is the way that many vets, not all, are kind of in denial of the risks related to adverse effects. There should be informed consent when giving a medication even when risk is believed to be small. The risks should be discussed with the owner so that they can know the risks they are choosing to take in advance, not to overreact if risk is small but just to be aware because their individual pet is not a statistic but someone they know well. The owner is the one who is at home with the dog 24/7 and knows that dog individually, and in that way, even though the vet has the training and education and clinical experience, the owner has experience with their individual dog and can be in a better position to know when something just isn’t right.

i deal with this with my own doctors too. i always search for doctors that are openly cautious about medications, and when they recommend them, they also address the risks and say something like “if you see anything that concerns you, call me right away.” i have mostly had the opposite experience with doctors, because that is their training and they believe it is the best judgement and want to reassure patients that they know what they are doing. Some are better than others at being collaborative with patients and pet owners.

in the case of Galliprant, it’s so new, there isn’t a lot of clinical experience with it, so no vet should assure a patient when side effects come up after being on the treatment for weeks, that it can’t be the medication that’s causing it, especially a new medication, but all medications are always being learned about and while there are statistical generalizations from pharmaceutical company research required by FDA for approval, those are still generalizations, not absolute universal outcomes, there are a percentages of dogs that have had adverse effects, or effects that are not understood, serious enough to be mentioned. when 10% of those they studied get diarrhea and vomiting, my dog could be one of those, because they don’t know what the risk factors of that are or how to predict that in each case.

When my dog’s vet really pressured me to give him Galliprant in mid July when i posted here before, we didn’t know what was wrong with him or what was causing his sudden stiffness and difficulty moving. i read over one of the posts and i had written that she, the vet, had said that in addition to having a painful spine, he also had a distended abdomen. We talked about her doing an ultrasound, a technician came in twice a week, and i was planning on having it done the following week.

As it turned out, i took him for his second acupuncture treatment with the new holistic vet, for his back pain, and she examined him and said “no acupuncture today.” She commented on his distended abdomen and said she would like to do abdominal x-rays. she did and she showed me that his abdomen looked abnormal, there was detail you can usually see that was not clear on his xray. she went over some different possibilities of what might cause that, there were about 4, one was heart related but as she said, he had just had chest x rays and exam at the cardiologist a couple of weeks before and that cause didn’t show up. We all three, me, regular vet and holistic vet, thought the heart would be the most likely cause because he has advanced mitral valve disease. She said the only other possibility that wasn’t ruled out yet was cancer of the abdominal wall. 🙁 so, that seemed to be the most likely theory, and she said get him in to see an internal medicine doctor ASAP to find out what is going on.

i got an appointment for the next day at the specialty clinic with an internal medicine doctor and she did an abdominal x ray, she said it looked like the fluid in his abdomen was related to heart dysfunction. His cardiologist was there and took over and did full cardio eval and said Zack had right side congestive heart failure and pulmonary hypertension, severe, and he said he could remove the fluid from the abdomen which would make him feel better, so he did that and said they removed 800 ml of fluid. wow, that’s a lot. poor baby. no wonder he was having trouble moving around and eating his food. After the fluid was removed, he began to gradually get more normal, he was put on a diuretic, furosemide (Lasix), and also pimobendan (vetmedin) which is a dog medication for the heart (no human version). my memory is confused, think there were just those two. Either that week or the following week he started sildenafil which is better known as Viagra, which can be used for pulmonary hypertension to lower it.

Zack gradually became more normal and is pretty normal now. for me, there was so much stress about giving him the medications, they definitely have potential adverse effects , the diuretic can damage his kidneys, etc, so i had to give it to him but not unambivalently, and my own stress level about everything probably played a part in me having a lot of trouble remembering which medication to give when, and also, i found sometimes i would give him a pill and later find it on the floor, and he would then not have that dose since i didn’t know which dose he didn’t swallow.

i got an app called Medisafe that someone told me about that helps me remember what time to give which pills. Gradually the level of crisis went down but for a long time, i was thrashed by it, and at the beginning of when Zack first got his symptoms, i went to a specialist doctor appointment for a spreading skin rash i had for many years, other dermatologists had not diagnosed what it was, and that day, right at the beginning of Zack’s crisis i was told i have a cancer, a cutaneous T cell lymphoma, and i was reassured that most people don’t die from it, and the treatments aren’t bad, and that day, i started having whole body light treatments three days a week, so that was going on while i was trying to find out what was wrong with Zack, seeing three vets, two of them multiple times, and also trying to research the cancer thing on the internet and not feeling very good about what i was finding, scary treatments. then i got my biopsy results, he had taken three biopsies and sent them to two top labs in other parts of the country and when they came back finally after two weeks, he said it didn’t show results that confirmed the cancer, and now they were calling it some unusual kind of psoriasis, and the treatment is the same so the light therapy continues, but that was a load off my shoulders, to help with trying to find out what was making my dog deteriorate with some mystery cause. it doesn’t mean i don’t have the lymphoma thing, but at least i don’t have to know that i have it for now. One of the lab reports said it was eczema and not the cancer, the other one just listed off a bunch of possibilities of what it was and did not include the cancer, or eczema either.

i only gave Zack the Galliprant one time. He had increased panting and it lasted all night when normally he would sleep throughout the night. Heart failure has panting as a symptom, but he had never not slept all night before, or since. i will never give him Galliprant again, partly because i don’t like any medication that is long lasting, Galliprant is 24 hours. i would rather give it more frequently, like 3X a day, i just feel safer that way, though not convenient.
If he gets osteoarthritis or other pain from the musculo skeletal system, that’s different, i’d have to consider it, but if i did give him an NSAID, it would probably not be a 24 hour one, and one bloody vomit, it would be back to the drawing board.

i don’t fault my vet for wanting to try Galliprant because Zack seemed to be sore and stiff, she gave me her best advice and she did not invalidate my concerns and i will continue to go to her if needed. But if i had it to do over, i wouldn’t have given Zack that one 24 hour dose, he didn’t even have back pain, it turned out. What he had, as far as i know, just guessing, could be made worse by Galliprant. So it’s good that i was so scared of it all along.

As some other people have mentioned, when a pet is sick seriously enough to need a vet, part of the stress for many of us isn’t just these helpless babies dependent on us to find solutions and get them better, but also it’s expensive, and that just adds to the stress. I have dog pet insurance for Zack, i pay $145 a month, and i paid a similar amount his whole life, even though he was healthy and rarely went to the vet, but i knew he had that mitral valve disease bred into him, his breed, almost 100% will get mitral valve disease and 50% die from it by the age of 5 ! 🙁 We have been so lucky, his wasn’t symptomatic until he was 11-12, and pretty mildly, until June of this year, he’s going to be 13 in a couple of weeks, i thought he wasnt’ going to make it that far when that vet said it might be cancer of the abdominal wall.

So, his vet bills for the month of July came to $2700 paid upfront as i filed a claim. they pay 80%, but it took a month and a half for them to pay it, yay, they paid the whole 80% but i didn’t know until then how much they would pay. So stressful. now i can pay off the Care Credit balance , relief.

it’s so good that there is a discussion site for this subject, because for the many who need meds like Galliprant in their efforts to help their dogs have good quality of life, it’s important to be aware of potential adverse effects and to know what’s going on, even when some vets insist it can’t be the medications. It’s discussions like this one that are informative in a way that isn’t learned in medical school, to help both doctors and owners work together even when at odds to have the best result.

[Kat J]

Hello everyone, my name is Kat and I work over at Dr. Marty Pets! Thank you so much for taking the time to leave us a review, customer satisfaction is a #1 priority of ours. I just wanted to quickly touch base on some of the reviews that have been left regarding your experiences with our product, Nature’s Blend.

Nature’s Blend contains 7 cups. The amount for your dog is entirely up to you! You can give your pup a whole cup full or you use less and sprinkle some of Dr.Marty’s on top of your desired kibble. For larger dogs we suggest using Dr. Marty’s food as a topper.
Dr. Marty’s Premium Freeze-Dried Dog Food, is priced this way to reflect the incredibly high quality ingredients that make up the product. It is a nutrition-packed formula designed to give your dog a healthier, happier life. While a majority of our customers have seen huge improvement in their dog’s happiness and health, we do understand that not all dogs may react this way… Which is why we wholeheartedly standby our 90-Day Money Back Guarantee.

I hope this has cleared up any confusion, if you have any other questions or need help for a refund please email me at [email protected]. In addition to e-mailing my direct e-mail, you can also call our amazing Customer Service team at (800)-670-1839. We are able to assist with answering any questions you might have about Nature’s Blend! Thank You!

[joanne l]

I had to start this topic b/c I had to ask people about top dog foods and regular dog foods. I got to thinking about this and wonder if the top brands really give quality foods? IMO if there is no regulation on dog food how are we getting top quality? You may hear companies say oh we have our own farm, I don’t know if I believe that b/c it takes a lot of money to have farms not to mention how much animals they need to make dog food. It takes a whole lot of chickens and cows and so forth to make dog food. I have a hard time believing this at all. I keep going back to regulations, if dog food is not regulated it can’t be top quality. Not that it is bad but definitely not top notch. To make kibble it is cooked at high temperatures and it will kill off any bacteria. These are not facts just my outlook on it. Our food is so expensive now a days so how are they providing top quality? It doesn’t make sense.

[joanne l]

Hi Susan I noticed that too with bags of food, when you first open it up it smells good and after a week or two it doesn’t. Fromm dog food always smells good even when opened for a few weeks. I used to use it but a lot of their formulas are too high in protein and too many grain free choices. Over all a great food. Getting back to exotic meats, I think for now when people have dogs that have allergies or IBS or IBD depending how bad, they may want to use prescription diets. I really never liked them, but if a dog is that bag off at least these companies have a lot of science and a lot of experience behind them. I know some people won’t like the ingredients and or they say quality is not good, but you also here people say their dogs got sick eating the top brands too. I hear it all the time on the internet people saying my dog got sick on orjein or wellness or merrick etc…. And that goes for to big brand names too. You will hear my dogs to great on science diet, pro plan etc…and you will hear my dogs didn’t. You will hear good and bad in all these dog foods. So like I said maybe people should go with the tried and true formula’s instead of exotic when it comes down to allergies and so forth. Like I said these new Formulas have not been around long enough to know. I get confused to with all these choices and even when I did try top brands I would hold my breath hoping the dog will take to it. I guess it is a matter of what the owner feels good about the food and has peace of mind with it.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by joanne l.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by joanne l.

[Susan]

Hi Joanne,
this happened with Patch at all the local parks in our area, the council men would spray the grass & weeds at all the parks every 3 months & they only put up their weed spraying signs saying they are spraying & have the name of the weed killer poison that they were using at each end of the walk ways, then when they were finished they take down their weed poison signs & leave so if you came a few mins or hours later you wouldnt have a clue there’s poison every thru the park where the dogs walk on the grass & sniff & this poison gets absorbed thru their paws or they lick their paws 🙁

Did you end up trying a new dry food or you were going to re feed Pro Plan Lamb & Rice formula but you were worried to retry it again??
What dose was he taken when he took the Metronidazole? with Patch I have to do very low dose 200mg with a meal twice a day every 12hours then after 4-5 days I just give him 1 x 200mg Metronidazole tablet at night with his meal then he goes to sleep…

I’m looking thru Patches IBD note pad, I use to write things down when another dog in the IBD group had similar IBD problems like Patch had…
here’s other drugs that are used for dogs with IBD but the dog reacted to Metronidazole & dog can not take the Metronidazole.
Sulfasalazine
Olsalazine
Secnidazole or Tinidazole
Doxycycline,
but my vet told me there is NO drug the same as Metronidazole that has an anti inflammatory & antibiotic in it?

Holistic meds instead of using Metronidazole.
“Colloidal Silver” from health food store, Colloidal Silver is suppose to help anything bacterial, fungal or viral, upset stomach instead of giving the dog Metronidazole or there’s L-Glutamine, Licorice root but Ive never tried the Holistic meds, Lew Olson swears by L-Gutamine she has her “K-9 Nutrition” F/B group, I never tried the holistic meds cause Patches vet ended up talking to another vet & he said to re try a very low dose Metronidazole for a 17kg dog & said to give Patch 250mg Metronidazole twice a day every 12 hours with a meal, so now when needed I just give 1 x 200mg Metronidazole tablet twice a day when Patch first starts the Metro then I reduce in 3-5 days to just 1 x 200mg Metro tablet Patch poos dont go good straight away, his poos are yucky for 5-10 days then after I’ve stop the Metronidazole he starts to do 2 perfect poos again…
I found this really good information, research done on small & large breed dogs the other day in the files of my”Dogs With Inflammatory Bowel Disease” – Raw Feeding & Holistic Support ” F/B group..

when you have a quiet 15mins read thru all this
REVIEW ARTICLE
Digestive sensitivity varies according to size of dogs:
a review M. P. Weber, V. C. Biourge and P. G. Nguyen
Royal Canin Research Center, Aimargues, France..

After reading the review I now I understand why Patch who is only a medium size breed dog does really well on “Large Breed kibbles” they are made for a large breed dogs stomach & bowel, to prevent large breed dogs getting bloat & other intestinal problems…

Have you ever tried a Large Breed dry dog food that was grain free & had Potatoes, no Lentils or Chickpeas? the “Wellness Core” Large Breed Adult formula is really good or another dry food that has similiar ingredients & has high Protein, low/med Fat, Fiber & low Carb % low Kcals per cup, I was always scared to try over 30% for Protein but Patch seems to d better with less carbs…
I hope this link works it explains why small breed dogs & large breed dogs need different dry diets. here’s a bit of the Review.

For a large breed dog, the general goal is to limit any ingredient that could increase the level of fermentable undigested residues and, in fine, exacerbate colonic fermentation. Highly digestible sources of proteins and starches are therefore strongly recommended to maintain an optimal digestive tolerance…
Fermentable fibre sources (i.e. beet pulp and FOS) must also be used in limited quantity in their diet. Conversely, the incorporation of non-fermentable fibre (i.e. cellulose) appears useful to increase their stool quality. It’s a really good read, I hope this link works, it worked when I posted it on f/b for another lady whos dogs is pooing too many poos & is doing sloppy/jelly poos….
Patch didnt do well when Patch was only eating the Purina Pro Plan OptiDerma, I had to put him back on the Wellness Core Large Bred & the next day perfect poos..

https://lookaside.fbsbx.com/file/Digestive%20Sensitivity%20and%20Dog%20Size.pdf?token=AWxdS0LAtYflktKtk13bU2vfu6buTNCdW6HuK-ODXVMRA1UBaouyR1S_TfaVGEbXbIpp2p6fRZXdmszsoTwQZGhNeoDyb0W9R_0CvuF-OKim0TaYxFpqxeGUiMAul6fOw942a71TqDuB7PAfHWAjeqQEF40Ftp4UF-2VFrylY3uo-A

[J S]

Seriously please tell me WHY cat food is bad for dogs? The only thing I can find is higher protein and fat levels. Is that it?

If that’s the case why would I not feed my dogs high quality cat food that still has OK protein levels?

For example: ATM I feed my dogs Fromm. I did feed Orijen before the switch to Kentucky and a baseball sized clump of kibble was found in the bag errrrr. I love the history of Fromm and feel safe feeding my dogs the food. The problem….30 or lower protein levels compared to 38+ of Orijen and other top foods.

BUT Fromm’s 4-star cat food is about the same as Orijen in protein and fat levels.

I could feed my dogs Fromm’s cat food that looks a lot better in ingredients and protein/fat levels than Fromm’s dog food and still be cheaper than Orijen.

I looked at the analysis and everything else besides Protein/fat levels are pretty much the same when comparing Fromm dog vs cat food.

SO please tell me why my dogs can not eat Cat food on a regular basis?

Thanks All

[Susan]

Hi
if your vet has “prescribed” the Omeprazole 20mg please try it, it may not of agreed with you but it might help your little man, if not ask vet to try Pantoprazole instead, natural doesn’t work for acid reflux, I tried natural (Slippery Elm) + Zantac for 2 yrs & NOT tried Patch on the Omeprazole cause its a PPI, then my vet said to me, its all about quality of life Susan & he is having 5 bad days a week, maybe 2 good days a week if he’s lucky, so I started Patch on 10mg Omeprazole in morning & the other 10mg at before night, but in the end these PPI drugs work best given in 1 dose in the a morning & they last 24 hours… I gave Omeprazole for 10 days with 200mg Metronidazole twice a day aswell to kill any bacteria in gut & he was heaps better, I had my old happy Patch back again, then I stopped the Omperazole & Metronidazole & 2-3 days later Patch started having a licking & grinding attacks again, so I only gave him the Omeprazole for 2-3 days when he needed it & was having an acid attack then I stopped cause its a “PPI” but in the end Patch was heaps better while taking the Omeprazole so he stayed on it for 2 yrs & this year I had to changed him over too Pantoprazole in March cause he went down hill real bad again his flap isnt closing properly, Pantoprazole is what I take for my GORDS & my flap doesnt close properly either, I have to sleep sitting up & I raise PAtches head aswell at night while he sleeps, he’s started doing really well again when I changed him from 20mg Omeprazole to Pantoprazole 20mg once a day morning, BUT 2 days ago he had a bad licking attack after I had just posted a post to you lol, he had eaten these coconut lamb balls for Lunch he was fine the last 4 times he ate this healthy natural pet food for lunch but the other day it must have been too much fat & he wanted grass badly crying at the back door having a panic attack to get out..
I keep grass inside in water so if he needs grasss badly at night I have some I have picked on walks & washed, I dry the grass blade & give 1 pieces at a time not too much, the grass in water only lasts about 4 days then goes yellow… I find the Quick Eze Chews work the best he gets instant results, I told my vet & she said if its working then do what helps him..
We are seeing vet tomorrow morning, he’s getting a Dexafort injection for his skin allergies but I dont want to do it, I read all the side effects 🙁 the vet wanted to do this Dexafort injection back in March & I said not yet, I want to fix his stomach first.. but Spring has come early & its hot already here in Australia & Im not putting him thru another itchy Summer & then he reacted badly with a IBD flare attacked with his stomach & Esophagus.. last Nov thru to March this year.
It’s VERY stressful seeing the dog you love suffer….
I hope he gets better soon…

[Kellie B]

I have been feeding Top Quality Dog Food for about a month now. I love the packaging, food and customer service. Whatever I need Zach is there to help. The food is high quality and I see a difference in my boys already. I have 2 English Mastiff’s. One is very picky and has MAJOR stomach issues. He has not thrown up nor had loose stool since on this food. I am very pleased and feel good feeding them both this food.

[Patmae B]

Also make sure you are eliminating wheat gluten from the diet. Stop feeding kibble and make food if you can. Or feed a high quality canned read ingredients no by products or gluten. Start out with canned toss in some cooked meat and cooked vegetables slowly. Incorporate raw goats milk once daily your dog will love it ! The gut will improve over a couple weeks. In a month you should see a huge improvement.

[Susan]

Hi Ryan,
is your boy on any medications for Arthritis pain, as these can cause stomach problems, ulcers etc?
You have to be careful you do “not” want to confuse your vet….
When a dog has a seizure they don’t respond while having a seizure, their body/muscles are all tense & tight, there’s no mouth licking or gulping they do not respond….
This is awful to watch but this is a dog having a seizure
the dog does not lick or swollow like when a dog has bad acid that has come up into the dogs mouth…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzZ-IgD7HXs

Yes, all vet diets are very high in omega oils, the Hills Z/D & Royal Canine Hypoallergenic skin wet & dry vet diet formula’s are VERY high in Omega oils for skin & can upset their stomach, Patch can NOT eat any vet diets or normal premium kibbles for his skin problems, most of the vet diets give him bad acid reflux especially when he eats a fish kibble, even the Intestinal Health vet diets wet & dry give him bad acid reflux 🙁 ….
After trying nilly all the vet diets, I finally worked it out, his acid reflux was from all the omega oils & I saw Dr Judy Morgan “Pacreactitis Again” video, Judy talks about her 16-17yr old dog who suffers with Pancreatitis & other health problems, she worked out her dog can NOT have any fish oils, the same thing happens acid reflux or a Pancreas flare…
I stick with dry foods that have Canola oil, Sunflower/vegetable oil or Flaxseed, Patch ends up licking & swollowing like you said around 1hr after eating these high omega oil foods & high carb foods, especially when you see a fish oil, flaxseed, corn oil, within the first 5 ingredients….
I feed tin pink salmon in spring water drain water add 1/2 boiled sweet potatoes, salmon isn’t as oily like Sardines are..your dog would like that as a small meal, see how he goes…

When I see Patch starting to do his swolling, licking mouth, or doing his weird mouth thing, this is when I give him 1/2 a ant acid quick eze berry chew & tell him chew chew & he chews the quick eze chew, then 20mins later he seems heaps better, they’re not that expensive at supermarket you can get the plain white quick eze lollie, there’s another ant acid chew/lollie a few people in the Pancreatis support f/b group use for their dogs when they’re having a licking swolling attack from bad acid reflux, they use Rennie tabs, I’d give one of these a try next time you see him starting to have an attack, probably will work better then the Sucarafate, the Sucarafate didn’t really help Patch, he wanted to eat grass after I gave him his Sucarafate slurry…
Something better then the Sucarafate tablets is Slippery Elm Powder, it stops nausea, acid reflux helps with stomach problems..
Get 1 teaspoon of the Slipery elm powder put in cup, boil the jug & slowley add boiling water to the slipery elm powder in a cup & stir till you have a thick slurry, put 1 teaspoon of the Slippery Elm Slurry on a plate to cool then see if your dog will lick it up, Patch licked it up once then didn’t again, so I had to get a 20ml syringe & pull up 5ml & give 20mins before he eats, then cover the cup with foil & put in fridge, it turns into a jelly slurry & need to be heated, takeout about 1 spoon put in the microwave or I just add some boiling water to about 1 spoon that you’ve taken out of the cup then when its can be pulled up into a syringe just use 5mls…

You still have to make sure what they’re eating isn’t too high in fat or omega oils & ingredients agree with your dog… Have you looked at the Rice dry formula’s?
It has taken me 5yrs to work out Patch..

His Sphincter flap from stomach to esophagus mighten be closing properly & the acid is washing back up into throat & mouth, you’ll need something stronger to settle this, if the Sucarafate isnt helping him… so he doesn’t end up with a sore throat & burnt wind pipe like Patch ended up with, he may have an Ulcer?? Ulcers happen cause of too much acid, you need ant acid blocker meds to stop the acid burning the ulcer & it can heal…

Sometimes no matter what Patch eats he just has a few bad days, sometimes it all starts again when I feed a wet can/sachet or the low fat vet diet for lunch, so I avoid the wet foods for a 3-5 days & just feed 4-5 small kibble meals…

With a dry food look for 10%-15%max-fat, sometimes a food will be 14.5% fat, that why I say 15% max fat, the lower the fat & protein & the higher the carbs, so you have to find a dry kibble that works for your dog..
Wet foods arent low enough that are sold at Pet Shops, you ned under 3%max fat in a wet foods, best to email the pet food companies ask what the fat when converted to dry matter fat & the MAX fat % you’ll have shock, some wet foods are high…

I have found the Large Breed formula’s work best for Patch, as they arent too high in carbs or fat, the protein is over 26% & seems to help reduce his acid reflux…. I stay around-13%-fat & 34%-protein.

Have you tried any of the Purina One formula’s a few people say their dog does well on Purina One formula’s here’s, but I looked & some are 16%, 17%, 18 % in fat, so way too high in fat for your boy, this Purina One formula large breed formula looks good, the fat is 13%, protein-26%, fiber is 4.5% the fiber is not too high & the carbs are about 40% carbs-
these ingredients are like the Intestinal Health vet diets minus the high Omega Oils….
https://www.purinaone.com/dogs/products/dry-dog-food/smartblend-large-breed-adult
or if you find a good brand you like just have a look at their large breed formula ingredients & fat protein %..

Most small breed dog foods are higher in fat & higher in Kcals per cup, so avoid all small dog foods.. Have you looked at Senior foods? they normally are lower in fat around 10-12% fat & higher protein…
With his skin, I know Patches skin would itch with some of those ingredients in Purina One BUT Patches vet always tells me, we fix his stomach problems first then we’ll deal with his skin problems, in the mean time continue his weekly baths to relieve his itch & use baby creams to relieve any itchy red skin….

Have you looked at the Nulo Grain Free Style Weight management formula.
MedalSeries High-Protein Kibble weight management chicken & sweet potato recipe
Just becareful with fish dog foods the Nulo Cod & Lentil formula didn’t do well & came back High in Metals & Process Contaminates in this last testings…
Most of the Nulo fish formula’s the Puppy & Small breed also came back high in metals & contaminates but they have good ingredient quality….just got a bad fish supplier 🙁

This will not go away over night, it takes time to find the right dry food, the right ant acid meds, the right routine & feed more smaller meals a day instead of just the 2 bigger meals a day..
I know your head is probably spinning with all the info, but there might be something I do for Patch that might also help your boy, all the things that have helped Patch & alot of other dogs…
By the way what is his name??

[anonymous]

I never did the blood test suggested by the regular vet, (got tired of the back and forth bandaid remedies). Consulted a specialist instead, the dermatologist told me it was not necessary. Allergen specific immunotherapy is the most natural treatment available, no meds involved. See my posts….
The dog’s allergies appeared to be environmental.
Environmental allergies wax and wane making it impossible to tell what food might or might not help.
The intradermal skin testing is the only accurate way to identify environmental allergens.
My allergy dog eats a variety of foods with a quality kibble as a base, lots of boiled chicken meat and boiled egg as toppers.

My dogs are thriving on Zignature, but due to the recent “grain-free scare” I am trying Fromm Classic Adult for one of my dogs….. Don’t want to make a change with my allergy dog, but we’ll see.

PS: The blood test, that’s the one you had, right? It is known to be unreliable.

[Lauren H]

Thank you so much for all the replies!! Great to get others opinion and experience. I still go back and forth on feeding raw but have seen so many improvements with all three of my dogs in doing so. I’m receptive to veterinary ‘science’, but I also understand that there is a lot of influence and funding coming from these commercial foods as well. Also, most vets have very minimal training in nutrition. My vet is actually an advocate for raw, just wants it to be from a well known and trusted raw dog food company, but even he said that he’s no nutritionist. Sounds like maybe I just need to bite the bullet and pay for quality raw to be safe.

acroyali- thank you for taking such time to write such a detailed response. I was ordering from hare-today but after their shipping prices increased for the summer, I stopped buying from them. I started ordering from raising-rabbits.com instead. Have you or anyone else heard about them or their quality?

Like I said earlier, I’ve seen huge benefits to feeding raw. In my lab mix with Addison’s, before raw, he was drinking a ton of water and I mean a ton! He had horrible breath and he had a lot of tartar on his teeth. My shiba mix would eat about 2 meals worth of kibble and then quit eating eating it either because he was bored or just didn’t like the taste, no matter the brand, protein, etc- we tried it all. My shiba seems to be less anxious too. Our 5 month old puppy was the first dog that we started on raw from 8 weeks raw, she’s done great on raw. No bouts of diarrhea, never gotten sick, and has been a dream to house train.

My vet said that I could mix kibble with the raw to help with the costs. I’ve read a lot of conflicting information on this, any thoughts? I’m certainly open to switching back to kibble but would be hard pressed to go all the way back since my dogs are clearly doing so much better on raw. There isn’t a whole lot of scientific proof on raw feeding but who’s funding these other ones saying that raw is harmful for dogs? Just to be safe though, I think I will stop feeding them grocery store meat and stick with the ones I can buy at a pet store. I’ll check out mypetcarnivore as well. How much veggies do you all like to add?

Sorry this ended up being so long but again, I greatly appreciate your time and responses.

[Patricia A]

So in further research I found this article that I think makes sense to me. What I took away from it is that it’s both grains AND starches that displace quality protein that intern causes amino acid deficiencies. Please correct me if I’m wrong. Now I’m feeding some kibble with topper of freeze dried raw. But trouble is according to article raw with high fat means they are not getting enough protein from the raw diet. I wish I can find a raw that’s not also high in fat. I am just exhausted from my daily dog food research already and now this new worry about grain free. My take is that when companies got on the band wagon of touting “NO CORN, NO SOY etc” they just replaced it with other cheap fillers and fooled everyone into thinking all grain free recipes are outstanding foods.

[anonymous]

“It is hilarious that you are tying to suggest human quality food items that have passed USDA inspections are more dangerous than the vile ingredients legally used in dog kibble. LOL”.

https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/food-safety-education/get-answers/food-safety-fact-sheets/meat-preparation/ground-beef-and-food-safety/ct_index
Excerpt below

Is it dangerous to eat raw or undercooked ground beef?
Yes. Raw and undercooked meat may contain harmful bacteria. USDA recommends not eating or tasting raw or undercooked ground beef. To be sure all bacteria are destroyed, cook meat loaf, meatballs, and hamburgers to a safe minimum internal temperature of 160 °F (71.1 °C). Use a food thermometer to check that they have reached a safe internal temperature.

[Spy Car]

AAFCO rules allow for condemned animal parts, and those from dead, downed, and diseased animals (including dead pets) to be used in kibble, so long as the foul ingredient are first rendered.

It is hilarious that you are tying to suggest human quality food items that have passed USDA inspections are more dangerous than the vile ingredients legally used in dog kibble. LOL.

Please stop this nonsense.

Bill

[Debbie D]

To solve this problem and gain enough knowledge (and spend enough $$$$ at vet clinics) it took me 10 years. I am glad to say we have kicked this problem 100%. I am very sad though that my pets had to suffer for 10 years before we found the solution. Several of the answers here are on the mark, however, there are some missing pieces of information. Here are the components of the solution that results in the ear problems clearing up in addition to every other allergy issue a dog may have. You can’t do just one thing, you have to address all aspects of care:
1. Diet
2. Flea control poisons
3. Heartworm and Parasite poisons
4. Vaccinosis
5. Chiropractic
6. Vet type
We solved this problem when we started going to alternative vets and Chiropractic vets. I spent thousands at the veterinary clinic, hundreds at the alternative clinics and next to nothing at the Chiropractic vets. The alternative vets (3 of them) were all indispensable. One used Chinese herbs, another acupuncture and another (the best) used a combination of modalities including cold laser, acupuncture, Chiropractic, nutrition, and herbs. The Chiropractic vets gave the most bang for the buck but it took to a visit to five different ones to settle on our favorites. Yes, hard to believe, but a spinal adjustment can be miraculous in calming down allergies. The older the dog the more likely they need this treatment. Some Chiropractors also have cold laser treatments. Go to AVCA.org to find a pet Chiropractor. Some states require Chiros to be vets (like Texas) and others (Oklahoma) allow human Chiros to treat pets. There are advantages both ways.

So bottom line, we now feed NO commercial food but instead feed raw chicken plus a home cooked chicken and vegetable stew. We freeze it in daily portion size containers. This raw food supplemented diet eliminated all parasites (fleas, ticks, heart worms, intestinal worms, etc.) thereby eliminating our need for poisons. Raw diet also eliminated our need for vaccines (titer testing proved this.) Eliminating vaccines eliminated the need for steroid therapy that the vets kept pushing on our dogs. Eliminating flea control like Nextgard, Trifexis, Comfortis, Frontline, and Advantage was a major step forward. These chemicals/drugs were a major cause of itching in our Pugs and we tried them all. These chemicals also caused sores and weeping irritated skin.
Once our dogs were already having out of control skin issues we had to use shampoos and aloe vera in addition to dietary changes. We switched to duck and fed only (USA) Merrick commercial dog food and this was a major improvement. However, the real change came with the raw. We eventually eliminated the Merrick except for traveling/hiking and emergencies. It took about 3 months to a year of proper feeding to stop the fleas dead in their tracks. We used flea combs and Ark Naturals Neem Shampoo to check for fleas.
In one dog, we had to get a prescription of Apoquel (new drug only at select vets) to stop the itching (instead of dangerous steroids.) This was an emergency measure because itching causes scratching which leads to staph infections in ears and on the skin/belly.
The ear itching and yeast infection eventually led to staph infection also from the dogs scratching their ears. To clear this up we used a combination of products over several months. I will list the products and their purpose.
1. Zymox enzymatic ear solution (green bottle) for yeast/bacteria
2. Olive Oil drops – extra virgin for yeast/bacteria
3. Colloidal Silver (10ppm) dropped in ears for yeast/infection
4. 7-Day feminine antifungal cream (yeast only, outside of ears and bumpy noses/folds)
Zymox was best for yeast. Olive oil was the best for everything including swelling of the ear canal. Colloidal Silver kicked the secondary infections almost overnight.
Moist ears is a side effect of yeast infection, not a cause. Swimmers ear is a result not of the water but of having a dietary systemic yeast infection before your dog ever goes swimming.
Taking our dogs swimming in a creek or lake had no effect on the ears, however, swimming in a chlorinated pool did aggravate the ears and skin.
The feminine yeast cream has been a real life saver. We use the weakest version and only apply it to ear flaps. If you want Miconazole ear drops, you’ll have to go to the vet for that. But honestly, the olive oil is just as good. The problem with prescription drugs is that they usually only treat one bug, unlike the first three items on my list.
I hope someone finds this useful.
Since this is a dog food website, i will give my two cents on dog food brands (never feed dry): Highest quality, readily available brands are Merrick, Nature’s Variety, Primal Freeze Dried Raw, and Orijen. No, I would never feed Blue. I’ve been in the pet business for most of my life and I know secrets about many brands that will make your skin crawl. I will not lookup or recommend any brands other than the ones I listed.
I am chronicling my personal experiences on a blog so feel free to visit as you like. Snortlepuss.com
DogFoodAdvisor.com is one of the best resources a person can have for learning about brands. Please take the ratings seriously and only feed to top rated foods.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 5 months ago by Debbie D. Reason: missing info

[Ryan K]

Thanks for responding Bill!
That all makes a ton of sense. It IS very conflicting to what some are telling me to do so it’s a tricky spot. I do know though that he did much better physically when he was on a higher protein diet. I’m not sure if hypothyroidism was ruled out. Would that show up in the blood work or is that a specific test he would require? My vet didn’t mention it. I do think it is most likely diet since all of his issues began when I started attempting to fix his skin issues by mixing up foods for him. It also didn’t help when he slipped his disc and didn’t have any appetite so I wound up relying on canned food which then led to him not wanting dry again. I am open to trying the high protein again for sure since I do know that he did so well on it in the past. I might just need to throw in the towel on his skin issues and go with the higher quality food. I am not having much luck finding foods with fat levels over 20% though. I will keep looking. I see them near 18% but I haven’t found one yet over 20. I was contemplating a go on Nulo Freestyle Turkey & Sweet Potato Recipe Grain-Free Adult Dry Dog Food. It has 33% protein with 18% fat. Not sure if that sounds like a good one to try or not. But, I am definitely investigating. I just want him to settle a bit and recover a bit. I’ll definitely try a new food soon for him though! He isn’t thrilled about this Science Diet. He only eats it if I throw a chicken topper on it so it’s not winning me over. I might also go back to Instinct by Nature’s Variety Original Grain-Free Recipe Rabbit. He was on that for about a year and liked it a lot. That was when he was a young dog though. I think the protein on that is 36.5% and the Fat is 20% so it could be spot on with that recommendation. We’ll see! I might order that though soon! Thank you Bill!

[Susan]

Hi MX
if your dog health has gone done hill then change his diet, we are what we eat…
Does he like eating cooked or wet can foods & stop feeding him kibble all together…
Is it just kibble he doesn’t want to eat or is it all types of foods?

Have you taken him to vet to see why he doesnt want to eat?? normally stomach problems & food is causing pain, acid reflux, gas etc then they go off their food & can become very fussy eaters….
If he likes the ingredients in the Pro Plan Sport then look at Hills Science Diet or Royal Canine premium formula’s, they have similiar ingredients to Purina Pro Plan, the Corn & Corn gluten meal, their ingredients may be of better quality then Purina…But if he isnt pooing daily, he must be bloating up, not a good thing…
also the Hills & Royal Canine diet might be balanced better & higher in omega 3….
If the Omega 6 & is too high & the Omega 3 is toooo low this is when a dogs coat & skin will suffer….
One thing about vet diets they are balanced properly & very high in Omega 3 to help stomach, bowel, skin, coat, heart & brain health….
Have you tried the Hills I/d Digestive Care dry vet diet & wet can food?… or the Hills Science Diet Sensitive Stomach & Skin dry kibble?? buy from a pet shop & then you can return if he wont eat it, I know the Hills Sensitive Skin & Stomach is very palatable, also these foods are guaranted money back on palability…& it has ingredients he likes….

another food to look at is “Vetalogica” made in Australia & also sold USA when it first came out 2017….
Looked on their site & look at the Kangaroo formula, my boy who has IBD has become fussy with his food lately as he’s aging, so I bought a bag of Vetalogica Kangaroo I saw great reviews & he loves the “Vetalogia Kangaroo” formula, the kibbles aren’t dry like a normal kible, the Vetalogica kibbles are small & moist chewy type ball, I’ve never seen a kibble like this before, when Patch eats dry kibble all I can hear him do is crunching up the kibble but with these Vetalogica kibbles there’s no noise, he just chews them then swollows…
Send email to Vetalogica link below & ask do they have any samples especially of the Kangaroo formula & explain how you have a fussy dog & read on DFA that Vetalogica have a very palatable kibbles but you’d like to try sample first before you buy just incase….
https://www.vetalogica.com/

Also contact “Ziwi Peak” ask for samples…
he will definitely eat air dried Ziwi peak”” Venison formula. its healthier then any processed dry kibbles…
Air-dried recipes for dogs

[M X]

Thank you both for the replies.
I like that you both went with the idea that if he’s happy and healthy on this food, then is a good food for him and I think that’s how I am going to look at it until I can find a better quality food that he’ll eat daily.

I had some ingredient specific question about the Purina Pro Plan Sport and I created a new post in the Dog Food Ingredient forum.
/forums/topic/analyzing-pro-plan-sport/

[M X]

I have a 50lb adult dog that has always been very picky with his food. He will go without eating for 4-5 days if I buy a food he doesn’t like.
I have tried a ton of the top rated foods but he he doesn’t seem interested in them. Most of the food would go bad since one 25lb bag would last 3 months.

I was recommended Pro Plan Sport by many people but never tried it due to it containing terrible ingredients.
I broke down and tried it, only to find that all of my dogs love it. My picky dog now eats daily and begs at the food container.

I’m stuck in a dilemma with staying with this low quality food he loves or try (and probably fail) to find a 4 or 5 star food that he’ll eat.
I want to get him on a better food, but can’t find one that he likes enough to eat regularly.

Does anyone have any advice or suggestions on what I should do?

[Chris F]

Ah, this is great topic of conversation and quite a good bit of debate surrounding the issue.

The various studies that have been done imply that nutrition is an important aspect to a growing large breed puppy and can have signifcant impact the quality of his health later on.

The evidence (http://ivcjournal.com/feeding-large-breed-puppies/) suggests that we should not restrict protein from their diet since this play a huge role in lowering the risk of developing joint and arthritis including hip dysplasia later on in their life.

The second suggestion (http://ipupster.com/best-puppy-food-reviews/) as also purported by DFA is that excess calcium can now be linked to skeletal disease.

So the key-takeaway is to find commercial dog foods that are low in calories, are low in fats and have limited calcium.

With that mind, I think the best way to control these is to choose a raw food diet for our large breed puppies.

Dr. Becker at Mercola Pets has a great and detailed video (https://youtu.be/u9gbxLiKaJU) I also found helpful. A tad long but well worth the watch!

[Carrie V]

Our seven year old Boston Terrier mix has tested allergic to flaxseed, beef liver, pinto beans, barley and potato. I believe he is sensitive (or allergic) to coconut oil and hemp oil, as well.

Currently on Nutrience SubZero Canadian Pacific:
http://www.nutrience.ca/dog-food/nutrience-sub-zero/dry-food/canadian-pacific/
There’s something in there making him itchy and flaky…coconut oil maybe? I figured I’d try him on this because his Mastiff sister does incredibly on it. Not going to work for him.

Was on Smack Chunky Chicken a few weeks ago:
Chunky Chicken (DOG)
And did phenomenally, with a silky, dandruff-free coat…but the cost, eeek!

He’s being switched back to Smack now. If that’s what he’s got to eat for the rest of his life to be happy and healthy, I’ll fork out the bucks…but if there is a less expensive–but still top quality–option, I’d love to know about it!

I feel like all I do, all day long, is research dog food so I might ramble a bit. 😀 Thanks for reading all the way to the end!

[Sheri N]

Recently, we have switched dog food for our dogs from Acana to Annamaet. (Since Acana switched to their American plant, their formula changes haven’t agreed with our dogs). One of our dogs, a Berger Picard, has always been a terrible eater all her life with a high metabolism and it has been a struggle to keep her at a healthy weight. I have tried fresh meats, fresh eggs (from our chickens), various toppers, etc…. Since switching to Annamaet, we have been much more successful in getting her to eat, but she still won’t eat enough, so I wanted to add a quality, high calorie supliment that wouldn’t add physically more food.
Long story short, does anyone have any experience with Annamaet Impact supliment?

[Deanna B]

I believe eyes stains can be rid of with quality foods. I have 3 white dogs, when adopted from rescues, stains around eyes, feet etc. I feed Wellness Core dry kibble and Farmers Dog As a topper…no more stains. Just note it will take a few months for this to happen, then the staining is over. Note that Farmers Dog is an online dog subscription food delivery company. Homemade dog food made with human grade ingredients. And my dogs love Wellness Core and Farmers Dog…and I have picky eaters.

[Kenneth A]

Mike:

Thank you very much for writing solid advice about the dog food lawsuits. I have conducted a lot of research about Dog Food to include joining this site as I want to feed my Earl with a top quality food. After making the decision to switch to Acana the news about the lawsuits broke and yes it made me feel uneasy, questioning my decision to switch. Your message puts things back into perspective.

Thanks again,

Ken

[anonymous]

Per the search engine: /forums/search/bladder+stones/
See my posts
Also regarding prescription food:

More Nonsense from Holistic Vets about Commercial Therapeutic Diets

I have used Royal Canin SO for a dog for a dog with bladder stones with good results.
Zignature is a quality food, copy the ingredient list from Chewy and show your vet, maybe the dog could have that? Or, 1/2 and 1/2 with the prescription food? Check with your vet.
Whatever you feed, add water and maybe soft food, presoak kibble and add water.
Dogs that get bladder stones often have a genetic predisposition (struvite and calcium oxalate are the most common), not enough water is another contributing factor.
Has she had an x-ray/ultrasound to rule out bladder stones? Because, they can have more than one type of stones. This also. can result in recurrent urinary tract infections.
Add water to the kibble, and you can also presoak the kibble in water overnight in the fridge prior to serving.
Offer frequent bathroom breaks/opportunities to urinate, keep the bladder flushed. Stagnant conditions in the bladder are conductive to stone formation.
Don’t free feed, 2 or 3 small meals a day is better and always have fresh water available. Maybe add a little plain chicken broth (no onion) to the kibble.
A blocked urethra is a medical emergency and can result in surgery to save the dog’s life.
Did the vet talk to you about prescription meds for stubborn cases? Don’t confuse supplements with medication.
Work with your vet, prescription food and all, when the dog has been stable for 6 months to 1 year you can discuss diet changes.
Use the search engine here to see more threads on this topic.
This is not veterinary advice; consult your veterinarian.
Ps: You may find some helpful information here http://skeptvet.com/Blog/?s=urinary+tract+infection

[anonymous]

My dogs do well on Zignature as a base with a little chopped boiled chicken meat and water or chicken broth mixed in.
/forums/topic/help-food-change-disaster/#post-111832

See chewy dot com for more information and reviews on Zignature.

PS: Listen to your wife 🙂

There is no reason to feed raw when you consider the risks. http://skeptvet.com/Blog/category/nutrition/

https://www.mspca.org/angell_services/choosing-the-right-diet-for-your-pet/ (excerpt below, click on link for full article)
Raw diets are another popular option on the market today. Studies have shown that 20-35% of raw poultry and 80% of raw food dog diets tested contained Salmonella. This poses a health risk for your pet, but also for humans. This is especially true for children or immunocompromised adults, whether exposed to the raw food directly, or the feces of the pet eating the raw food. Additionally, there is increased risk of other bacterial infections and parasitic diseases when feeding raw diets. And the bottom line is there is no reason to believe raw food is healthier than cooked food.
The numerous dietary choices for your pet can be daunting but if you pick an AAFCO approved food made by a manufacturer with a long track record, odds are good that you will find a suitable food for your pet. Most of the large pet food companies employ full time veterinary nutritionists and have very high quality control standards. That is not to say that a small company cannot produce nutritious and high quality food, but you should check out their website if it’s a company that is not familiar to you. Take the time to research, and ask your veterinarian if you have specific questions or concerns.
Please understand that this article is meant to provide basic dietary guidelines for healthy pets. If your pet has specific health issues, then your veterinarian may make specific food recommendations, which may include special prescription diets.

[Lisa K]

I can almost 100% tell you that your dogs seizures came from the food you are feeding them.

My dog Horus ( Shih Tzu Chihuahua mix. Completely Shih in apearence) 5 years old at the time, was perfectly healthy. I had been feeding him Prina One dog food. At the time I was unaware of what Raw dog food and thought I was feeding a good quality brand of Purina. Well one day he just feel over and his body seized, foam started coming out his mouth, his eyes bucked out. I grab him up hysterically thinking he was having a heart attack. I was about to try CPR on him, when he snap out of it and jumped up, and began running around. I got online immediately and started searching for a reason by symptoms. I came to the conclusion it was a seizure and hoped it would not happen again. A few days went by and he had another one, but this time he began having them every 30 mins to an hour in between. I rush him to the vet. They administered phenobarbital and did blood work. His readings were normal with a slightly elevated liver, which the vet said could be the problem but he was not sure. I took him home with a prescription. The doctor said he would need these meds for the rest of his life. I didn’t believe him because that’s what they said about my daughter when she was one. The doctors gave her to high a does once and I pulled her off the meds. She’s 26 now and has never had another seizure, but I gave Horus the meds as prescribed. One day the thought hit me that it could be his food. I started researching the brand I was feeding him and discovered that Purina had several law suites against them for seizure related issues. I was stunned. I continued to research to find what I should be feeding him and found out the a Raw food diet was the best options for dogs. After more research on quality and the best brands I immediately ordered his Raw food. Over the next few weeks I whenned him off the meds. For the next 2 years he never had another Seizure.

Now 3 weeks ago I forgot to order his food and had to get a bag from the market. This time I got Pedigree until his food could arrive. Big mistake. 2 days into the Pedigree he began having seizures again. I rushed him to the vet emergency because he was not recovering from it. They just kept coming. They put him on Keppra and Potassium Bromide which did absolutely nothing to stop the seizures and later his normal vet told me vets sale this stuff to make more money. It does not work, and it’s way more expensive then phenobarbital. My vet gave him one shot of phenobarbital and started Horus on a regiment of vitimains, Enzymes and Amino Acids along with a suggestion to purchase a product called Vet CBD, which I got immediately after leaving her office. These along with the Raw food should help in his recovery. She also said that he may have some brain damage because of the severity of his seizure this time. It has now been 1 week and Horus has not had another seizure. I am still working on his recovery as I do think he may have suffered some brain damage as he will not stop endlessly pacing. He has a wonderful appetite and his blood work remains good.

With all this said, I do see that your pooch is on a raw food diet, but I would also suggest you get her started on supplements also. What she recommended was: Arthur Dex joint support for all animals given by weight of dog, Ultimate Daily Classic 1/2 pill daily, and Ultimate Selenium1/2 pill daily, All by a company called Youngevity which you can get on Amazon. The Vet CBD I’m not sure you can get. It depends on the state you live in. I’m in California and Cannabis is legal here.

I hope some of the info I left helps you in some way.

[Alex D]

We just took home our 10 week old Vizsla puppy and were sent home with some of the Pro Pac Ultimates food she’d received since being weened, along with some TruDog Boost as a topper for the dry food (1 tablespoon per meal).

I’d not heard of Pro Pac before and checked the review here and discovered that he puppy formula appears to receive 5 stars. That said, we’d given our old girl, who recently went to the Rainbow Bridge, grain free food (Blue Wilderness Senior among others over her life) and she seemed to perk up when we moved her to grain free. I also am not able to get Pro Pac Ultimates locally whatsoever–I’d be relegated to online ordering only which isn’t a problem (I’d always ordered from Amazon/Chewy/etc. in the past) but it’s nice to have the option to pick up locally in an emergency.

Accordingly, before we picked up our new little girl, I’d looked at the potential dog foods from the Editor’s Choice list and was contemplating Wellness Core (puppy) given it’s high rating, relative availability both locally and online, and the fact that I’d have a better idea about where they source their ingredients.

Pro Pac Ultimates is certainly cheaper than Wellness Core, and is likewise cheaper than the Blue Wilderness we’d fed our old girl, but my wife and I are willing to spend more for a better product if needed (and within reason).

Curious for input on whether Pro Pac Ultimates is a quality natural dog food (especially for puppies and with/without the TruDog Boost) or if I should consider transitioning to Wellness Core or another grain-free brand. Alternatively, would it be best to keep her on the Pro Pac until about a year old when we’d move her to a non-puppy formula anyway and try a different brand at that point?

Any input is greatly appreciated.