[sunshine D]

A C. The difference is the added msm & heres info on msm
MSM (methylsulfonylmethane) is a form of sulphur which can be valuable for arthritis, joint pain and swellings. It can be particularly beneficial for acute muscle injuries and some forms of arthritis as it strengthens connective tissue and also helps to increase the permeability of the joint and muscle membranes allowing the release of excess fluid. This can result in a relief of swelling as well as drainage of inflammatory toxins. However, many dogs are sensitive or intolerant to sulphur compounds which can then result in fatigue, shortness of breath, congestion, immune issues, or skin problems. In addition, the long-term use of MSM depletes calcium levels which then exacerbates joint problems. All of these symptoms can occur shortly after taking the supplement or appear more slowly over time. No matter how your dog responds, dose on the side of caution and limit the use of MSM to thirty days unless obvious benefit is demonstrated beyond that time.

[Nancy W]

“Quote: “There is nothing that says you can’t do both.”

That’s not always true. Supplements can interfere with the absorption and effectiveness of some prescription medications……”

My comment was in reference to what the book does or doesn’t say in response to the “holistic rabbit whole” comment. The
book and it recommendations does not exclude traditional treatments and in fact includes them and leaves the decision up to the caretaker.

[Jeniffer P]

Hi all. First of all thank you for writing, I’m getting some positive thoughts upon reading this. I’ll be seeing a specialist this week to confirm the initial diagnosis and layout a strategy plan if it indeed it’s TC. I’m super sad my dog is so young just 3 yrs old. The vet said mild case but still so so worried. How are everyone else’s pets doing? Hope all your fur babies are doing good. I’m starting him in glucosamine and cartilage/joint supplements, as well as probiotics, and anti-allergy natural supplements for gut and allergy-immune defense. Since his gut health and respiratory / anti-allergy health is key. Changed his diet to grain-free salmon as well (Merrick). Any or all advice on signs or things to look out or to keep an eye out on are truly appreciated. Bless you and your paw-besties.

[Laura L]

Hi Rachelle & Kathy – I am so sorry for all you are going through with your dogs. It sounds like you both have tried everything within your means that the vets have suggested. I had similar experiences with one of my dogs and ended up finding that I didn’t need all of the expensive tests to help my dog. We treated the symptoms instead of searching for a diagnosis. After much online research, we found a site that seemed to have a lot of experience with pet digestive problems. We started with a probiotic and added some digesitve supplements and saw significant improvement. They are from a site called Ask Ariel: https://www.askariel.com/pet-probiotics-p/81.htm Unfortunately, many vets just want to sell you their special food and medications. Don’t get me wrong…many times the medications are necessary. We never got a definitive diagnosis, but once we switched off the prescription foods and started the supplements our dog really improved. I think the food the vet was giving us was actually making the symptoms worse.

[Patricia A]

Madison I have dogs’ which have digestive problems with higher fat in their diet. I came to that conclusion because whenever I fed certain home cooked food as a kibble topper they would have loose stools. That being dark meat chicken vs boiled white meat, ground beef that wasn’t 90% fat free, fatty pieces of steak vs very lean(when they got lucky lol). They have no trouble with plain, boiled salmon.
So, that being said I hope I can make some suggestions of a starting point in switching to raw and then you can see how she does with each of these brands.
I got used to my dogs’ with one brand/protein VERY, VERY, VERY slowly. Then when i knew that they were digestively good with the brand/protein I would switch the protein also very slowly. Just giving them bits mixed in with the other protein. Eventually, I also would change brands and did the same. I just feel better not sticking always to one brand, but that’s me.
I used a starting point by looking at the raw food reviews on DFA. This led me to Primal, Stella Chewy’s, I have Chihuahuas’. This allowed me to use freeze dried. However, for a larger dog as yours, I believe the frozen raw would be most cost efficient. Freeze Dried should be the same as raw nutritionally once hydrated.
I always only feed his 5* reviews in the protein/flavor of that brand. I believe he rates by protein to fat ratio. So the 5* ones are lower in fat. So I stick to Primal’s turkey/sardine, venison, pork, duck. All of these proteins/flavors are non HPP (HIGH-PRESSURE PROCESSING (HPP)
High-Pressure Processing, or HPP, is an FDA- and USDA-approved cold water pressure process that allows us to target salmonella and other food-borne pathogens—without cooking.) Some raw feeders do not like the HPP process claiming it effects nutritional values. However other studies show he use of High Pressure Processing (known as HPP) is becoming increasingly common with commercial raw dog foods. However, HPP can be a controversial process. Some view it as an effective way to eliminate disease-causing bacteria while having only minimal effect on the integrity of the finished product.)
I believe Stella’s uses HPP in all their products. With their food I use chicken, venison bland and their rabbit.
Their are many other companies which are rated highly on this site. I believe VITAL ESSENTIALS is the brand which Is as a whole below in fat . If you go to the reviews on DFA they are all listed as a 5*. Many different flavors also. They are also low in calories . Their company goes by the prey model which is no veggies/fruits which are sometimes added to other brands. vital essentials example (ngredients: Beef, beef tripe, beef lung, ground beef bone, beef liver, beef heart, beef kidney, beef blood, beef fat, herring oil, d-alpha tocopherol)
I also want to suggest possibly kibble with salmon. Pancreatic digestive enzyme supplements have been reported to help some dogs with pancreatitis while fish body oils (such as salmon oil or EPA oil but not cod liver oil), can help to lower blood lipid levels which may reduce the workload on the pancreas.
I believe your dog does not suffer from pancreatitis but just occasional IBS? So I hope she does well with any of these . Just go slowly. So much confusion with all those brands. Hope I gave you a good starting point and she does well with these suggestions.

[sienna11711]

Hi,

Just to clear up any misunderstandings here WondrousPups your suggestions have been great but Susan does have a valid point. When you have a dog with a really sensitive digestive system even the best supplements and whole foods can cause them distress. I personally have gastroparesis and I cannot handle turmeric in any capacity. I don’t think Susan was trying to discredit the benefits, I think she has a lot of valuable experience. Having a “mystery” case dog is extremely stressful. I have tried a home cooked diet and raw diet and I did not experience any of the benefits of it for my dog. The people in the raw feeding facebook group treated me extremely harshly and insisted my dog needed to detox further even though she was slowly becoming skin and bones. Please be sensitive to that! We are trying so hard.

Susan unfortunately the endoscope and biopsy are out of my price range at the moment 🙁 I am getting an affordable second opinion with a telehealth visit with a vet from Barcelona, I’m looking forward to what she may think. Your vet made an EXCELLENT point- IBD can occur anywhere along the digestive tract, just because a dog isn’t having diarrhea or vomiting does not mean they don’t have IBD.

Also, lastly, (Patricia A) my vet said my dog could have IBD and we could certainly try the Hills IBD diet if I wanted to go down that road but she really didn’t seem convinced that it was. So there’s really no official actual diagnosis besides anxiety/stress. But I would classify her symptoms as some form of IBD or IBS – ravenous hunger, inability to digest anything besides kibble, poor fat digestion, resulting weak immunity, in the past she had chronic regurgitation as well.

[Susan]

@Wondrouspups
I’m not being rude or meaning to be rude to you, American always take us Australians the wrong way, Americans are very sensitive where Australian aren’t.
Re read your post honestly, You even write
“I’m kind of scared for you right now. DO NOT start using Ashwagandha until after the vet exam.”

When people are desperate they will try anything thinking they’re helping their sick dog which can lead to more pain, then emergency vet or if pet owner doesn’t have the funds NO emergency vet a very painful death.

This dog is sick & has pain which has been left untreated, probably way too long with no proper medications, sounds like the vet was an idiot & he didn’t know what was wrong with the dog so he got rid of his problem & recommended a animal behaviorist, when the dog probably should of seen another vet & not wasted more of Sienna’s money, Sienna (dog owner) has probably been going around circles for years now, I’ve been there with Patch until a lady straight out told me to change my vet, your dog is sick & is in pain, Patch saw 4 vets before I found a good vet who knew straight away its his stomach, Patches poos were firm, except when he ate foods he was sensitive too, my good vet explained to me, IBD starts at the mouth & can be anywhere all the way to the bum, a dog doesn’t have to have diarrhea, this is when the vet should have known its probably the dogs stomach, sent dog owner to see an specialist for a Endoscope & a couple of Biopsies of the stomach, the dog owner would of had answers, & proper meds would have been prescribed.

Peppermint oil is Toxic to dogs when taken orally.
Peppermint oil should only be used in a diffuser and in low amounts. It can be toxic if ingested.

Ashwagandha causes vomiting & diarrhea.

Turmeric – Over-supplementing your dog with turmeric can cause upset stomach, or increase risks for those with kidney problems.

Wondrouspups you’re probably have healthy pups, pups who haven’t suffered with stomach problems, as soon as I read your post I thought where’s Anon, what happened to Anon she would of been posting all side effects to your holistic supplements or reporting your post to DFA….
The dog needs a good vet who’s dealt with IBD in dogs
Sorry if I’ve upset you but its upsetting reading post where the dog isn’t well & has learn’t to live with its pain..

[WondrousPups]

Hi Susan,
Thank you for the clarification and sorry for mixing up IBD with IBS. I didn’t suggest turmeric to you. It’s peppermint oil. It’s still helpful for helping pains, gas, bloating associated with the disease. If you don’t find my offering helpful, that’s not a problem for me. My sharing is from my heart, and freely given, and it’s up to you to do whatever you’d like.

I fine it very troubling and unethical for you to say things untrue about turmeric. It does not cause pain or upset stomach. Turmeric actually work as a pain killer in high doses much like aspirin would without upsetting stomach that NSAIDs often causes. It’s been well documented. I am also don’t suggest using purified forms of supplements. Whole plants as a food as medicine is my general approach.

[Susan]

@ Wonderuspups,
A Colonoscopy is different to an Endoscope Stomach you just need a empty stomach, not empty bowel the camera can only go down esophagus & maybe small bowel only if the sphincter flap is open to enter small bowel for dogs.
Patch has IBD not IBS..
When Patch is having Endoscope + Biopsies, he eats his Dinner night before then no more food after 8pm, no water after 12am, next day he goes to vet 10am, his Endoscope app is at 11am, blood is taken for anesthetic check.
then I get a call from his vet nurse who’s looking after him after his procedure to tell me Patch has woken up come around 3pm to pick him up then he’s back home eating small meal 3-4pm & running around, there’s no pain with Endoscope/Biopsies, he stayed on his Acid Blocker meds weren’t stopped same with me.
I have Endoscope every 5 yrs, no food after 12am I’m at hospital 8am next day, back home 11am same day & I have to take my meds before I leave home that morning, when I was younger I was told to stop my ant acid medication 2 weeks before Endoscope & my god the pain I had bad acid reflux, when my scope/biopsies was finished & I woke up the Gastro Dr told me to take my ant acid medication as soon as I get home, cause my esophagus & stomach is red & inflamed..

Turmeric is hot spice, I cant take it & I’d never give to Patch as it would upset his stomach. Same as Apple Cider Vinegar makes acid reflux worse if dog or person is making too much Hydrochloric acid in their stomach, coconut oil can cause bad acid reflux as well its a hard fat, not a soluble fat.
You have to be very careful with animals as they cant talk & tell owner they’re in more pain after having natural herbs etc.. The only supplement I’ll use is Slippery Elm powder cause I’ve tried it & CBD oil, I always try things first..

@ Sienna.
I’d be trying medications before trying any holistic supplements, Turmeric can cause stomach upset, if your dog has Ulcer Turmeric will make pain worse.
Patch was eating Earthborn Holistic Ocean Fusion & the fish made his acid worse he cant eat any fish kibbles they’re higher in Omega Oils, also dogs who suffer with Pancreatitis have problems with oily fish + fish oils, they can cause a Pancreas flare, if you follow Dr Judy Morgan her old dog he’s since passed away, he kept having Pancreatic flare every month so Judy stopped everything in his diet & did Elimination Food diet & re introduced everything slowly & it was the Fish Oil causing his flares… look at Turkey & Potato kibbles, Pork & Potato kibbles
Here’s Canidae Pure Wild Boar but the fat is 15-16%???
https://www.canidae.com/dogs/canidae-pure-grain-free-dry-dog-food-wild-boar/

Patch does really well on the Canidae Pure Senior it has the lowest fat- 10.80%max are you 100% sure she cant have Chicken you’ve don’t a proper elimination diet?

There’s also 4Health Special Care Sensitive Stomach, there’s NO meat + kcals are low
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/4health-special-care-sensitive-stomach-formula-for-adult-dogs-8-lb-bag?cm_vc=-10011

4Health has Lamb & Rice Kcals are 328Kcals per cup easy to digest ingredients fat -12%min.

Sometimes we have to put aside our strong beliefs & do whats best for the dog, I’m feeding Patch Eukanuba Senior kibble Eukanuba made in Australia, ingredients are slightly different to USA Eukanuba, it has Corn & Wheat & Patch isn’t wanting his grass he normally wants after Dinner, I’m going back to what Patch was first put on when I rescued him 2012 + I know Eukanuba makes low residue kibbles easy to digest ingredients.

[WondrousPups]

Hi Sienna,

If you are planning on biopsy and an endoscopic exam, I believe you need to have your pup off of any meds/supplements for two weeks before the exam to clear the system, and no food for three days before endoscopic exam. At least that’s what I had to do for my colonoscopy so that the test results will be sound. I can understand your urge to want to help your furbaby. Starting with new herbs before the tests can contaminate the results, though. If I were in your shoes, I’d wait until after the test results are back so that I’d be able to make a more informed decision, not shooting in blind. How can anyone treat something one doesn’t know what’s wrong? Do you know for sure your girl’s problem is from IBS? Slippery elm is helpful for protecting digestive lining. I would not use it before the exam because it increases mucilage in digestive tracks and it can make it difficult for the doctor to establish the base line. Does this make sense?

I’m kind of scared for you right now. DO NOT start using Ashwagandha until after the vet exam. Your pup probably has to be sedated for the endoscopic exam, and ashwagandha can potentiate the sedative that the vet is going to use. VERY DANGEROUS! I don’t want you to risk getting adulterated powder somewhere as supplements and herbs are not regulated as medicine although some are potent enough to be as such, I’ll tell you where to get a safe supply, but again, I recommend waiting. With that said, I highly recommend buying herbs from Mountain Rose Herb – mountainroseherbs.com. They are highly ethical and well respected company. Prices are very reasonable for the quality (fresh, organic, ethically harvested, and sustainably sourced). Bulk is the least expensive way, but if you don’t use it quickly, quality diminishes (especially powder form). Some herbs, spices and tea make sense to buy in bulk, others, smallest quantities in powder from.

Dosage (Upto, Roy, and Petrone, Cathirose, eds., Ashwagandha Root: Withania Somnifera – Analytical, Quality Control, and Therapeutic Monograph.):

As powder, ¼ teaspoon (1/2g) – ½ teaspoon (1g) per day for your 50 lb. pup. You can add it to the turmeric concoction I shared earlier, but here it is again.

2 servings (1 cup per serving daily)
2 cups of full fat coconut milk – heated. In a blender, add the milk, 1 tsp turmeric powder, ½ tsp ginger powder, ½ tsp Ashwagandha powder, 1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper, 1 tsp honey (optional). Blend on high for about 30 seconds.

Remember – it is meant to be taken over time every day to restore nervous system and sleep cycle.

Let me know if you have any questions.

[sienna11711]

Hi!! I am definitely a food is medicine kind of person. I was pretty sad when the raw and homemade diet didn’t work for her, because it definitely made her more calm overall but the stool and weight loss was a no go. I’m hoping that one day we can do a homemade diet especially since she’s a senior now.

We have used various tinctures from Pet Health and Nutrition Co.- they make awesome blends for many different issues, but unfortunately with my dog they would help a lot (almost like a sweetspot) for like, one month tops, and then she would go back to how she was previously. We were doing a hypothyroid blend as well as the adrenal blend. I still have the adrenal blend, so maybe I can try starting it up again.

She was also previously on a supplement called Thyro Complex (Progressive Labs) which has thyroid/pituitary/adrenal/spleen glandulars as well as iodine and kelp. When she was first “diagnosed” with hypothyroidism and prescribed levothyroxine, the vet also prescribed this. Within 2 days her coat drastically improved, even the color (she’s a brindle) opened up, she looked like an orange tiger! Her coat was amazingly soft. But unfortunately she then started dribbling urine nonstop all day, became excessively thirsty, and lost like 5 pounds in one week. Our new vet said it was likely that since her thyroid is not the true issue here, the thyroid glandular was over supporting her thyroid and plunging her into possible hyperthyroid territory. I did used to pour out half the capsule for a while, but gave up on it once we ruled out true hypothyroidism. Perhaps I should re order for the time being just to give extra support.

I’m very interested in turmeric, would you recommend giving it as a powder? she totally has some inflammation going on so turmeric would probably be a good option.

I’m not sure if you’ve ever tried aromatherapy, but Caroline Ingraham ihas an amazingggg essential oil program for animals with behavioral and health issues. I myself never was into oils although I do enjoy the scents, but it’s basically a method of letting animals select their own “cure” by presenting them a bunch of different oils. Animals in the wild will often self medicate by consuming certain plants when distressed so it works with that phenomenon. She’s done this with horses, dogs, cats, and even leopards. Usually during a successful session the animal will totally relax and even sleep. It’s amazing how the animals actually choose what they need. I ordered a bunch from her just to try out and my dog was obsessively trying to lick and eat Violet Leaf Oil- commonly used for stress and anxiety. She actually just keeps going at it over and over so it made it pretty clear my dog’s condition is really taxing to her. Other oils she would sniff for a bit and then turn away and others she just ignored completely.

[sienna11711]

Hi all, any bit of advice or insight?

9 year old spayed female boxer, 56 pounds, eating 3 cups of Victor Professional Formula daily.

For the last 9 months we have been dealing with:

Behavior-wise
-restless
-sleeps a lot less during the day, wakes up earlier to eat
-clingy, doesn’t stop following me
-frantic and fearful when outside
-extreme reactivity to dogs that gets WORSE with more food (I know this sounds crazy)
-flinches when being pet
-will nip at strangers who get too close to her body (not always, still likes people a lot and always wants to say hi)
-will nip if you try to pick her up or move her
-doesn’t play or cuddle
-pees a lot on walks

Digestion/health-wise
-ravenous, always looking for food
-eats other dog’s poop on walks
-previously regurgitated kibble everyday, hours later
-previously struggled with chronic UTIs (low immunity)
-frantic in the AM about eating
-drinks excessively after checking empty food bowl
-shedding excessively
-anal glands leaking and peeing herself while she sleeps
-fat such as fish oil makes her nauseous / may vomit
-cannot digest real food period (ie. rice and boiled chicken, cooked veggies, cooked ground turkey, or raw meat)
-with the above food her stool is orange and slimy
-stool has changed over time since adoption at age 7 from pooping way too much but now it is normal, firm, brown

Labwork
-consistently low T4 despite using levothyroxine, took her off in Jan 2020
-T4 goes up into normal range when she is on anxiety medicine
-extremely high/out of range TLI
-high cPL
-has, at times, had very high PSL randomly
-no diabetes, no cushings, NOTHING glaring us in the face

-We have tried every digestive supplement you can think of and many different foods including grain free, with grains, dehydrated cooked, dehydrated raw, actual raw, and actual cooked
-We have worked with an animal behaviorist who does not think this is purely behavioral
-She lost 8 pounds eating up to 2 pounds of raw a day
-She is much less reactive on cooked food and raw, but will rapidly lose weight and be even hungrier
-We have also tried Hills Science Diet wet food for IBD, orange slimy stool
-She can only really “digest” kibble

Chronic low grade pancreatitis was brought up to me on another forum but her stool is totally normal, so not too sure.
I do think that whatever “this” is affects her thyroid function but the thyroid itself is not the root cause- vet agrees
I just recently began putting enzymes in her food and incubating 20 min with warm water– will see if any improvement

[Joyce B]

There is something in the diet causing this. A dog that is up all night gulping and licking is being fed wrong. Please try a single protein and carb. If the reflux calms down then stick with that for life, forget variety. If it doesn’t calm down, change it to another protein and carb. Don’t deviate, even with treats, until you get to the culprit. Those berries might not be helping either, I have one dog that got acid reflux from a cranberry supplement (among other things). Be patient and good luck!

[Brianna K]

This thread has helped me immensely.
my four-year-old pug has had this issue for a really long time, and I can’t seem to diagnose it. I’ve taken him to vets a few times in his life, but they rarely have anything to offer that I didn’t already know.
It ends up being a waste of time and mostly money for me, so I have become diligent in learning about my dog’s health so that I can try and diagnose fix with a level of education that keeps my dog safe.
With that said, I still haven’t solved this one.

My pug is on a raw food diet, I supplement with a variety of different types of foods, as well as prebiotics and probiotics. Naturally, not always supplemented.
I’ve found cooking up some lean meat, rice, veggies, with a lot of stock works well for his general comfort.
I just want to figure out why this is happening.

Sometimes he will sit in his kennel at night, just licking and swallowing and gulping really hard. It will happen for hours at a time sometimes and I don’t know what to do when it happens. He’ll just sit there gulping and licking really quickly. Almost like he’s throwing up and trying to swallow something quickly before it comes up all the way.
People often times get mad at me for getting a dog that I can’t afford to, but the state of the world has us all financially flustered and unfortunately not able to pay the big bucks that others can make for expensive medications. I also prefer to keep things as natural as possible as not to disrupt his already fragile system and to be able to diagnose the issue at the root and solve it in a way that is permanent.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 4 months ago by Brianna K.

[WondrousPups]

Just bumping this question up to the top as I’m having the exact question, and would appreciate learning what other folks who mix dry kibbles with fresh food on a regular bases.

I’ve already followed the Acroyali’s link, and it recommends books such as “See Spot Live Longer the ABC Way” by Steve Brown and “Feed Your Best Friend Better: Easy, Nutritious Meals for Dogs” by Rick Woodford. I’ve read See Spot Live Longer the ABC way some time ago, and I’ve adapted weekly fresh food day as the author recommends (I’m only doing it more like monthly rather than weekly, though.)

Right now, I am more interested in Rick Woodford’s approach – using dry kibble as a base, and adding freshly prepared food as much as 50%. I haven’t read his whole book yet, but I agree with his analysis that commercial dog food is supplemented with 200% – 600% of essential vitamins and minerals that it is safe to add excess of 10%-limit (by calorie) of fresh food to each meal. Does anyone using this approach? How long have you been feeding this way, and what has been like for you and your fur babies? Thank you for your input!

[Karen G]

Hello Lily and everyone,

Karen Here…Mom of Abby who is doing so great you would never know she lost 70% of her small bowel. Lily, What I have learned is Baker needs time to heal, It took close to 2 years before Abby was completely healed (and as a nurse I can tell you, even with humans, a wound may be closed but the healing underneath takes up to 2 years). Secondly, getting a good home made dog food recipe really made the difference for Abby. She hated all the prescription kibble and her poops were always watery and frequent, up to 10 times a day, when she was on some of those foods (Purina in particular)
Thirdly, Metronidazole daily helped to keep her gut flora in check. She was on Metronidazole 2 times daily for about 10 months. when we could see that she was improving we slowly weaned it….really slowly
Four: If Baker lost his ilium, he will need injections of B12 for the rest of his life. B12 is absorbed in the ilium so if you don’t have one anymore then you can’t absorb it.
Five: get Baker away from probiotics. We were giving Abby probiotics for a year after the injury thinking we were helping her but if you look at the type of bacillus in probiotics, at least half of the species are lactose-bacillus. Lacto bacillus is the most common bacteria in the stomach, duodenum, and jejunum. If Baker lost his lower intestines then giving him more of the bacteria he naturally produces in the upper intestines will overrun what little lower GI bacteria he can produce, which will contribute to more diarrhea and discomfort.
I can’t help you with the hind end pain problem, but certainly when Abby was pooping 10 times a day she wasn’t comfortable. Could it be a post surgical/scar tissue problem? That hurts.

Anyway, I am happy to send you any and all information I have. The prescription home made diet recipe was a game changer for Abby and I have shared this recipe with Stephanie too. I believe it also had a very good result for Maui. The recipe is specifically designed for dogs who have lost much of their small intestine (the part that absorbs most nutrients). It is a low fat, high carb, high protein, lots of veg diet and we add a vitamin supplement and a small amount of canola oil every meal (very small amount…1ml to each meal). The recipe was created by a clinical nutritionist veterinarian at the Ontario Veterinary College…which is 15 minutes away from where we live (The OVC saved abby’s life that fateful night, another regular vet office would not have been able to save her –her story has even been used in case studies at the OVC)
Finally, Abby’s weight dropped significantly in the first year after her surgery, she lost almost 25% of her post op weight after 6months. That is when we started the homemade diet and daily metronidazole and stopped the probiotics.
Let me know what you think….Karen
my email address is [email protected]

[WondrousPups]

I’m sorry your pup is in pain 🙁 I’ve posted this in another thread, but it is the same issue, so I thought to copy is here. I posted this originally on a turmeric dosage thread:

I’ve been taking some curcumine suppliment for years now for the pain management for my knees and for my senior dogs with surprising success. I have a condition known as Patellofemoral syndrome, which have no known corrective surgical treatment similar to late stage osteoarthritis. A chiropractor gave a bottle of curcumin suppliment that he has been using for free for me to try. I was like, you are kidding me, right? None of the strong prescription meds worked for my pain, and you think a supplement made of a spice in curry take care of it?!? But it was give to me free from a chiropractor who had been helping me for my paint, so I took it. Within a couple of month of taking it everyday, my pain was completely gone! So some years back when my Dane x Lab. who started to limp the same supplement I was taking. He stopped limping, too.

Anyhow, the reason it works is because curcumine is a powerful anti-inflammatory. It won’t stop from my condition or arthritis to worsen or cure it. But it helps with pain because the join pains are caused by inflammations. You need to look for the supplement with Bioperin in it because the body cannot absorb curcumine without the presence of bioperin (black pepper extract). I am 130 lb., and I started off by 3,000 mg of curcumine/day everyday. After my pain was gone, I reduced my dose to 1,000 – 1,200 mg /day. I give my Dane x Lab. who is 90 lb. 1,000 mg/day, and I haven’t taken him back to the vet for laser treatments. I hope this helps!

[WondrousPups]

I’ve been taking some curcumine suppliment for years now for the pain management for my knees and for my senior dogs with surprising success. I have a condition known as Patellofemoral syndrome, which have no known corrective surgical treatment similar to late stage osteoarthritis. A chiropractor gave a bottle of curcumin suppliment that he has been using for free for me to try. I was like, you are kidding me, right? None of the strong prescription meds worked for my pain, and you think a supplement made of a spice in curry take care of it?!? But it was give to me free from a chiropractor who had been helping me for my paint, so I took it. Within a couple of month of taking it everyday, my pain was completely gone! So some years back when my Dane x Lab. who started to limp the same supplement I was taking. He stopped limping, too.

Anyhow, the reason it works is because curcumine is a powerful anti-inflammatory. It won’t stop from my condition or arthritis to worsen or cure it. But it helps with pain because the join pains are caused by inflammations. You need to look for the supplement with Bioperin in it because the body cannot absorb curcumine without the presence of bioperin (black pepper extract). I am 130 lb., and I started off by 3,000 mg of curcumine/day everyday. After my pain was gone, I reduced my dose to 1,000 – 1,200 mg /day. I give my Dane x Lab. who is 90 lb. 1,000 mg/day, and I haven’t taken him back to the vet for laser treatments. I hope this helps!

[WondrousPups]

Hi Chipy!
I don’t use GreenMin brand, but I’ve been using Chrollera supplement for my three senior dogs for over a year everyday now for the same reason you are thinking about using GreenMin. I looked at different detox products from spirulina , chrollera, GreenMin, combinations of these, and after evaluating efficacy, price, and over-all safety, I settled on chrollera for humans from VitaCost. GreenMin seems to be a very solid product, too.

As for when to give it, I think you probably don’t want to give it with a meal because it can inhibit the absorption of minerals that’s in the food which pups need. I give my pups the supplement by itself between meals.

[Jerold K]

I bought Nutra Thrive Canine Nutritional Supplement directly from the company after I saw an infomercial touting its benefits with a horse called “Sly.” The message in the infomercial was POWERFUL. The ingredients brought “Sly” the horse back to life after he was on his way to dying.! My dog was not dying. In fact he was and is very healthy. I thought to myself this product will just make him healthier. On June 19,2020, I started feeding small amounts to my Jack Russell/ Chihuahua by mixing it in with his other regular food. Within 3-4 days , I noticed that my dog had black diarrhea. I also noticed that he was scratching his anal area with his teeth. I noticed that his anal area was red. I immediately took him off the supplement. I thought everything would return to normal. I did not at that time check his entire body. I thought the redness was confined to his anal area. Then on June 29th, I saw that he had red blotches on his flank and stomach area.( I have pictures, but I do not think I can attach them here.) (I did send the pictures to the company.) I WAS IN A PANIC! I got on the INTERNET and started to research the issue. After my research, I thought it could be ringworm. I took him to a vet and to my surprise, it was not ringworm, but a strong a strong allergic reaction to something. I told the vet about my use of Nutra Thrive. He concluded it must have been something in the ingredients that caused that reaction. I was dumbfounded!
Anyway, the vet gave him a cortisone shot , put him on antibiotics for 2 weeks, shaved his stomach and flank area so I could apply gentacalm on his body throughout the day. He also has a cone around his neck so he cannot scratch his anal area. My dog is not happy! UNBELIEVABLE! The vet bill was $298.99! PRIOR TO THIS EVENT, MY DOG HAD NEVER BEEN TO A VET FOR ANYTHING OTHER THAN TO GET HIS YEARLY SHOTS. I have owned him for 4 years. He is 10 years old.
I would strongly suggest to any dog owner that if your dog develops diarrhea, IN MY OPINION, STOP USING THIS PRODUCT IMMEDIATELY!
I called customer service and asked for a refund because my dog had terrible diarrhea. The girl was very understanding and said she would issue a refund. I had no problems with the company with my request for a refund. I mailed back the jar which was 95% full because I had used very little.
I also sent an E-mail to customer service telling them what had happened and requested that they reimburse me for the vet bill. A person named Aldo replied and stated that he apologized for the ‘inconvenience” that has caused me and my pet. He calls a $298.99 vet bill and the miserable condition my dog finds himself in an “inconvenience.” UNBELIEVABLE! I wonder what he would say if the shoe were on the other foot and it was his dog that had this problem.
And of course he gives the standard line that they always suggest speaking with your “preferred” veterinarian for the best advise. THE INFOMERCIAL THAT I SAW NEVER SUGGESTED THAT! If that is their position then every ad they run should state that the customer should see their “preferred vet” first before they buy the product. Of course if they did that they wouldn’t sell any product because the vet would most assuredly say do not buy the product. The vet would sell them their own product. WHO ARE THEY KIDDING! Their whole business model is to bypass the vet. IF IT WERE OTHERWISE, THEY WOULD TRY TO SELL THEIR PRODUCT THROUGH THE VET!
Aldo never mentioned anything about the vet bill by the way.
The ingredients in Nutra Thrive caused harm to my dog and The company should reimburse me for my vet bill of $298.99! I understand that they do not sell their product to harm pets. That is not their intention. However, when their product negligently causes harm to a pet, they are liable for the damages. If they care about pets like they say they do. they should pay up.
A STRANGE THING HAPPENED WHEN I GOT MY REFUND ON JULY 7,2020. The refund was issued by a company called “California Pet Partners.” I looked up who runs that company. The name I found was Martin Goldstein. Martin Goldstein is none other than DR. MARTY who sells his own line of dog supplements. WHY AM i GETTING A REFUND FROM DR. MARTY FOR A PRODUCT THAT IS SOLD BY DR. RICHTER! STRANGE!

[Patricia A]

There are different types of stones with different reasons for formations. However, hydration is a big key in all stones to prevent recurrence. Helpful article below for Calcium oxalate stones.
Nutritional management of Calcium Oxalate stones

While it can be difficult to completely prevent your dog developing calcium oxalate stones (particularly if they have a genetic predisposition to it), there are some things that you can do to decrease your dog’s chances of developing bladder stones, and to prevent them coming back in dogs who have previously had them.

Keeping your dog well hydrated is vital. This dilutes their urine, which in turn dilutes the levels of chemicals that promote stone formation, and so decreases the chance of your dog developing bladder stones.

You can help your dog drink more water by placing a few bowls of fresh water in different locations around the house. Always make sure the water is fresh and that you change it regularly.

In the ideal world we are aiming to maintain urine specific gravity <1.020. I always encourage my clients to buy a refractometer, which makes it very easy to measure your dog’s urine specific gravity.

The food your dog eats also impacts on the development of calcium oxalate stones.

To decrease the chances of your dog developing bladder stones, you should avoid feeding foods that contain high levels of oxalate such as spinach, sweet potatoes, organ meat and brown rice. Instead, include foods with lower oxalate levels like apples (peeled), wild rice and meats and fish in their diet. It’s also a good idea to boil vegetables and discharge the water before giving them to your dog – this helps to reduce the oxalate levels in them.

Restricting calcium is another strategy for reducing oxalate levels in the urine – a reduction in calcium should be accompanies by a similar reduction in oxalate levels. However calcium restriction should be done very carefully, as too much restriction can be damaging and may lead to health problems including osteoporosis.

Other dietary measures that can be taken to help prevent formation of calcium oxalate stones are reducing dietary sodium (salt) and avoiding excess vitamin D. This is because excess sodium and vitamin D promotes excessive urinary calcium excretion. Therefore moderately reduce dietary sodium, stay away from high sodium treats and do not supplement with vitamin D.

Vitamin C supplements are not recommended because when vitamin C is metabolised and broken down, it produces oxalate – therefore avoiding vitamin C supplements avoids an increase in oxalate levels.

Vitamin B supplements are water soluble and are excreted in the urine. Therefore in all cases of urinary tract stones it is prudent to give a vitamin B complex supplement.

There is still some debate surrounding magnesium and bladder stones. Some studies have shown that magnesium in the urine impairs formation of calcium oxalate stones. But other studies have shown that when given to healthy dogs, magnesium supplements resulted in an increase in urinary calcium levels. So because there is no definite consensus, restricting or supplementing magnesium is not recommended and so both should be avoided.

It’s important to note that not all of the oxalate in your dog’s body stems from their diet. Some is produced naturally by your dog’s body, mainly the liver. Nonetheless, avoiding incorporating foods with high levels of oxalate in your dog’s diet is an important preventative step against calcium oxalate stones.

Including fiber in the diet may reduce absorption of some minerals and so should be considered as part of any dietary changes being made. However, take care not to increase levels too much which can result in overfeeding.

Calcium oxalate stones cause the bladder to become inflamed by rubbing up against the bladder wall. To help reduce this inflammation, you can give your dog fish body oil supplements. However, avoid liver oil as this contains vitamin D which should be avoided (see above).

There are a few veterinary prescription diets designed to (theoretically) reduce the likelihood of calcium oxalate stone.

You can also prepare you dogs food at home using the same high quality ingredients that you eat. There are several health benefits of making your dogs food at home. By feeding your dog a home-prepared diet rather than a dry kibble diet, you can increase the amount of water they are drinking. And as mentioned above, increased water consumption makes urine more dilute and can help prevent stones forming.

A home-prepared diet is also the only way you can truly control what is going into your dog.

If you’d like to try cooking for your dog, the best way to ensure that the diet is meeting all of your dogs nutritional needs is to get your recipe from a qualified nutritionist. Dietary manipulation to address a health problem should be done by someone who will work with your dog.

[Haley N]

Hello! I’m new to this forum and in the process of developing a raw menu for my dog. I’m really here to hopefully get my menu reviewed so I can get a second opinion on its balance. For some context I have a 64 lb medium/large dog, she is quite lazy so I am feeding once a day for 2% of her body weight (1.3 lb). I created this menu since she has a past with allergies, mainly chicken and eggs which makes me avoid one of the easiest proteins out there unfortunately. It’s a process of slowly introducing till there’s balance, any tips and insight would be well appreciated! Kelp powder is a supplement I’m highly interested in including too, does anyone know any places for that? Thanks!
MEAL PLAN
80/10/5/5 Balance over time – 1.3 lb (20.8 oz) a day
Week One (Add meat):
Morning: 1.3 lb (20.8 oz) of Beef
PROGRESS (Monitoring of stools, skin, smell, etc):
Week Two (Add bone): -2.2 lb a week of Turkey Neck-
Morning: 0.3 lb (5 oz) of Turkey Neck, 1 lb (15.8 oz) of Beef
PROGRESS (Monitoring of stools, skin, smell, etc):
Week Three (Add liver): 0.7 lb of Liver a Week
Morning: -BUILD UP TO- 0.1 lb (1 oz) of Liver, 0.3 lb (5 oz) Turkey Neck, 0.9 lb (14.8 oz) Beef
PROGRESS (Monitoring of stools, skin, smell, etc):
Week Four (Add kidney): 0.7 lb of Kidney a Week
Morning: 0.1 lb (1 oz) Liver, 0.1 lb (1 oz) Kidney 0.3 lb (5 oz) Turkey Neck, 0.9 lb (13.8 oz) Beef
PROGRESS (Monitoring of stools, skin, smell, etc):
Week Five (Add Fish): 1.3 lb (20.8 oz) of Fish a Week
Morning: 0.2 lb (3 oz) Fish, 0.1 lb (1 oz) Liver, 0.1 lb (1 oz) Kidney 0.3 lb (5 oz) Turkey Neck, 0.7 lb (10.8 oz) Beef
PROGRESS (Monitoring of stools, skin, smell, etc):

[Lisa V]

I posted about my dog last year, I didn’t not mention that we were on our third round of some type of auto immune disease/PLE/Lymphangeictasia, I only mentioned 2 rounds. He started at age 4 and he is now age 9. I wrote that last year we decided to take him off meds, he is still on Metronidazole twice/day but that’s it. We also give him a B-12 shot once/month. The next day his stools are good. His vet from Tufts said he would die within days or weeks. That was almost 1 year ago and he’s still doing well. I mostly feed him boiled chicken breast and rice (not instant if possible) with steamed veggies (I steam and puree veggies before mixing with the rice). I also cook up some beef or chicken liver and add that to the rice mixture. We used to use a GNC supplement but that appears to have been discontinued it was awesome! His stools have softened over the last few months since that product was discontinued so I’m experimenting again with enzymes and supplements but haven’t found anything great yet, but sometimes his stools are loose and sometimes they are pretty good, they have shape. I supplement a little in the morning with added Hydrolized protein dry food because it has some vitamins and texture that he likes. However, it seems that the more kibble he gets, the looser the stools are the next day. If I kept him on pure chicken, rice, liver and pumpkin he’d probably have better stools. I am home so I try to feed him 3 smaller meals/day, lunch is canned Salmon/mackerel. Maybe go real simple for a few days. Good luck!

[Chipy]

Hi Jessica,

So awesome that you are switching to fresh food! Your pups are very lucky to have you!! 🙂

We switched to home-made meals many years ago and it was the best decision to support our dog’s health. I am happy to share some resources that have been super helpful in guiding us to prepare balanced, home-cooked, and raw meals.

To learn the basics, I suggest you start with this quick and easy Natural Diet Course which contains videos and articles full of information on this subject; https://peterdobias.com/pages/course-rawdiet

This online Recipe Maker will help you build healthy meals for your dogs with the ingredients you have available. It provides guidance on amounts of each ingredient and which ingredients are best; https://recipemaker.peterdobias.com

The key is to offer a variety of both proteins and vegetables and add essential nutrients (non-synthetic, wholefood-based supplements) to help fill in any nutritional deficiencies; https://peterdobias.com/collections/adult-dog-essentials

When it comes to recommendations on where to purchase high-quality meat and bones, it’s difficult to provide specific options as that will vary depending on where you live. I have some general advice that I would like to share and hope you find helpful.

Connecting with your local butcher is a great option, but you can always go to the supermarket as most meat departments have butchers working on site.

Bones that we are looking to feed our dogs are not often packaged for the display shelves. If you chat with them, they might have something you are looking for or can work with you to put it aside next time.

Some people that live in the country connect with local farmers or those that have friends or family that go hunting for a game could potentially give you items that they would discard when they are processing meat.

Pet stores are beginning to carry more natural food including stocking freezers with various bones and brands of pre-packaged, raw dog food. Unfortunately many primarily carry a lot of big beef marrow bones which are very hard and can lead to teeth fractures. On speaking to the pet store owner about what you are looking for, they are more likely to carry alternatives if they know that people want to buy them.

There are many Raw Food suppliers that ship nationwide and you can also try to connect with dog lovers in your area in person or online through Facebook groups etc to see if they have suggestions.

I hope you find the above information useful for your beloved dogs. Wishing you a great rest of the week! 🙂
Chipy

[pugmomsandy]

KH,

Look into a probiotic/digestive enzyme supplement. 22% protein is considered low considering kibble can contain 18-60%, and the minimum to be dog food is 18% for adult maintenance.

I sprinkle in occasionally some Honest Kitchen goat milk+probiotics into my senior’s food or sometimes he eats raw green tripe.

https://www.chewy.com/s?query=digestive%20health%20%26%20probiotics%20for%20dogs&nav-submit-button=

[Kayla M]

Margy,

My small mixed breed dog was given Heartguard and was on antibiotics (Baytril) and went blind overnight (dilated pupils freaked me out!) & couldn’t smell. She was walking uncoordinated, developed dementia symptoms over that week. It traumatized me and broke my heart.
This happened too fast.

She eats real meals (chicken breasts, rice, vegs) everyday, but was also eating a new dog food to cover any missed nutrients, “Purina One Smart Blend” (2 flavors – the salmon and chicken & rice blend) and Purina Beyond small dog (chicken).

She was drinking a lot of water and had UTI and protein in urine (and and also high WBC, RBC- this has all cleared up though after a few months – antibiotics did not help it).

She peed every 30 minutes.
Could NOT hold it for an hour. It was insane. How can a dog pee that much? All they kept checking for was diabetes which was negative.

At first I thought it was from a manufacturing defect of the heart guard (did too much active ingredient get in her chew?? :(. )
or the antibiotics themselves??

Maybe some dogs can’t metabolize certain antibiotics or have a liver issue, that potentially could slow things down and it therefore effects/travels to their brain? (So much water drinking!).

My vet said nothing. We just kept doing bloodwork and urinalysis.

My dog then suddenly developed every Cushings Symptoms (eating), and was finally diagnosed a few months later and put on med.

(I also wondered if perhaps an infection like a virus occurs and if it triggers the bone marrow, and then things go haywire… leading to other issues involving the eyes, pituitary/brain inflammation. (Hence all the drinking and peeing?)

Or maybe if she were beginning to get Cushings, and the antibiotics and/or Heartguard somehow caused an extreme imbalance or could then cross the brain brain barrier leading to the blindness?

The sudden onset of blindness and dementia symptoms was the worst part. For 3 months she didn’t know who I was.
It was rapid.

With a lot of love and care and supplements and her new med she is coming around. (Still blind, but she had a moment where she could see and her eyes are no longer dilated).

If anyone is reading this, I read a lady used bilberry for her dog and it reversed.
It’s too late for us, but it you spend $4 at Walmart on a bottle and it it somehow helps, please try it and report it. (Of course, take dog to a opthamologist. We did to see if it was glaucoma or anything. I wish I could have afforded an MRI and neurologist, for peace of mind to see what was happening. 🙁

(P.s. Ocuglo didn’t help her in any way, we started it that day… and it was expensive for a supplement).

[jamie L]

i am also trying to feed my dogs no dry food, only wet/canned meat and then I add in vegetables, quinoa, rice, etc….trying to keep them off dry food, but am very worried I am not giving them enough of something…I give them an organic supplement with their foods…I rotate supplements, and only pick the highest grade ones I can find with ORGANIC ingredients. So, same question……is canned wet food enough, or do I also need to supplement my dogs with Calcium???

[Natalie R]

Hello y’all, my name is Guinevere and this is my very first post!!! So I’ve been dabbling in and out of feeding raw for years. Im so happy that I stumbled across dogfoodadvisor.com and then greentrip.com. You know to be honest with y’all I wouldn’t have gone searching online for anything but my Dobie has been having the WORST ⛽️!! So yes I figured it out, she needs some tripe or enzymes, but what’s even more exciting is earlier on Craigslist I was looking for feeder rabbits. So now I can sit back take a deep breath and relax.
My poor little puppers have definitely been missing out on important nutrients in their diet. So as bad as I feel about this, its important to realize that I was doing the best that I could and if I knew better I would have done better. So I’m a big believer in the statement “no stupid question”. Well pretty much 😜.
When supplementing with CodLiverOil I noticed on one person’s menu she recommended reduced VitaminA. Ok I got that however like one of the supplements I was looking at , BioFinestCodLiverOil the amount of vitamin a in it is 2500iu. How do I know if that is too much or right where it needs to be? I’m sure I’m going to have more questions but that’s my first. Let me say ahead of time thank you for reading my post and taking the time to answer me.

Guinevere

[Hav mom]

Chip,y I have been using Dr. Dobias products for my dog. I put Green min and Soul food every day along with am
Feel Good OMega and pm meal gut sense.l It has made a great difference in his coat, his health and his teeth and
gums. My vet asked what am I feeding him. I feed him fresh veggies with grouond turkey Dr. Dobias has a
plan meals for dogs, easy to make and freeze portions or fresh very day (if you have the time. But the supplements are
for any food. I also waited for a few months and then did the liver cleanse. easy, peasey, he had no difference in his
attitude but he was more perky and better when he was done in six weeks. He also does not itch any longer and his
eyes don’t cake in corners. So, we are happy with the supplements. I make a large bowl of food at one time with his plan
of recipes. My dog is a havanese, large guy, 20#,he was a rescue 7 years ago and is going on 9 years old this year. Looks
terrific, his blood tests are perfect…cant ask for more. The suypplements are expensive, but I found he only needs
1/2 tsp. for a day of Green min and the rest, so they ususallly last 3 months or so. Dr.Dobias has a chart as to how long
for hyour personaldog the supplement you choose should last before running out. His meal plans are easy and affordable
if you want to do them. veggies, meat that’s it. Hope this helps, and as this is a late post ,(I have been off line for a while, sorry)you may have tried them already–so let me know if you liked the products.

[Caroline D]

Hello, my experience with my three-year-old German shepherd who has IBD and PLE (Protein Losing Entropy), and we’ve been fighting this horrific autoimmune disease for over three years. We are still fighting this disease. His chronic and intermittent diarrhea has not stopped since we got him at five months old. His current weight is 43 pounds, but he should weigh around 85 pounds. He has a considerable appetite in which he gets five to six cups of food five times a day. We had x-ray’s, ultrasound, blood tests (no EPI), and endoscopy. The endoscopy biopsies of the stomach and duodenum examination showed that he has segmental lymphoplasmacytic gastritis. In other words, moderate lymphoplasmacytic and eosinophilic duodenitis with mild lymphangiectasia. Unfortunately, this year the diagnosis was changed to severe IBD along with PLE. We tried several grain-free diets over the past three and half years (i.e., Fromm, Taste of Wild, Wellness, Acana, Honest Kitchen, K-9 Natural, and Ziwi Peak), including the prescription diet Royal Canin Hydrolized Protein kibble as well as the formulated home-cooked diet from Just Food For Dogs. We tried antibiotics, Tylan, and Metronidazole. Steroids, Budesonide, and Prednisone. We give him bimonthly B-12 shots since his Albumin levels are low. We’ve attempted herbs under guidance of a holistic vet: slippery elm, psyllium seed husks, chamomile flowers, chia seeds, fennel seed, rosemary leaf, marshmallow root, dandelion root, burdock root, ginger root, ox bile, apple cider vinegar, Plantain, Aloe Vera, colostrum, Tumeric, and pumpkin as well as digestive enzymes, pre-biotics, and probiotics. We tried AnimalBiome Gut Restore supplements. We tried stem cell therapy, which failed because the vet could not extract any fat. My dog has 0% fat as well as 0% muscle. His organs are slowly deteriorating from this horrific disease. We currently have him on a home-cooked diet recommended by a holistic nutritional veterinarian along with supplements and bi-monthly B-12 injections. But to no avail, he still has chronic diarrhea daily and no weight gain. We’ve tried everything medical, scientifically, and holistically. The only hope we have is to try stem-cell therapy again if he can gain fifteen pounds. I genuinely believe that stem cell therapy is the best solution for my dog. Even though it was a little late for my dog to have stem cell therapy because of a lack of knowledge from several of my local vets, I still have a little hope. I will add CLA to his cooked food since this is the only supplement I have not tried that Christi G. recommended; what do I have to lose. I pray for my boy every day to gain 10-15 pounds so that he can get the life-saving stem cell treatment again in Southern California. He is such a happy, tail wagging, playful, energetic, and beautiful boy; I cannot give up on him like the vets in Nevada, they said to euthanize him. I won’t until he stops thriving.

[aimee]

Hi Antonia,
Hopefully you have some more information to guide you.

I’m guessing the Royal Canin is canned diet which is why the protein looks so low.. To Copare diets you need to compare on a calorie basis… what percent of calories comes from protein… fat … etc.
Here is a tool to do that https://secure.balanceit.com/tools/_gaconverter/

Your vet may be able to create a recipe for you from the site Balanceit.com. It is run by a vet nutritionist and has appropriate supplements to balance the diet.

What food was your dog eating before she became ill? Know what she was on in the past can help you decide how to modify going forward.

[Margaret F]

I ordered and recently received the Nutra Thrive supplement for cats. I was extremely disappointed in what minuscule amount of product was in the jar; an approx. three inch depth contained little more than one-half inch of product. The next disappointment was realized when I noted the date of manufacture was over one year ago (400 days!), even though their website says that due to high demand it may take 5-7 business days to receive order. If it were in such high demand the date of manufacture should be from last month at the earliest. I did call their customer service number and after being on hold for 24+ minutes, was again disappointed with my experience. Rep claimed that the product is good for two years before losing effectiveness. Bull caca! I will not waste anymore time on this order and will instead refute the charge. If they want their minuscule product back they can come and pick it up.

[Karin K]

I’ve been using Nutra Thrive since January for my 5 cats and 3 dogs. It is somewhat challenging to administer it on the dry cat kibble, and I’m pretty sure none of my cats get the recommended amount since I just sprinkle some of it on to the food set out for them. I also notice that some of it just ends up as a greenish mess on the bottom of the bowl that I am unsure about trying to re-feed. However, I do notice that 4 of my cats have a shinier, smoother coat. Otherwise, I have not noticed much of a difference, but the improved coat is a good sign. Two of my three dogs’ coat has improved, though these two also started hacking – in reading others’ reviews that seems to be more common , and I would love to see some explanation for that. What I don’t like about this product is the outrageous price – I take enough supplements myself to doubt the cost justifies the product. It will definitely lead me to discontinue use and find something less costly, especially in a financially challenging time. And my reason to dislike this company is the inefficiency of the website: without consumer login there’s no way to manage one’s orders. So when I cancelled one of my orders (to place a subscription instead) I did so by contacting customer service on the site, as well as contacting them by phone. Now I’m being told that their records do not indicate my cancelling this order! What a scam! Again, I don’t know that all this hassle justifies the product – I will definitely start my search for something else. Years ago I feed my dogs supplements discussed in Dr Pitcairn’s book on natural health for pet – it might be time to go back to that.

[Ken M]

I thought I was aware of most supplemental nutrition on the market but just heard a new one to me, Hokamix. https://www.hokamix.com/product/hokamix-skin-coat-vitality-powder/ Anyone here use it and if so, why and what effect did it have on your dog(s).

[Chipy]

Hi Kat,

Sorry you are going through this with your Great Dane 🙁

Probiotics are essential to support your dog’s digestive tract and immune system, however the extreme heat that kibble and canned food must undergo guarantees no live microbes would survive. So please don’t waste money buying pet food that claims to include probiotics for dogs. The process of manufacturing pet food is simply too extreme for delicate living microbes to survive.

It’s best to do your research and look for a high quality probiotic supplement. We use an organic probiotic supplement, GutSense that was specifically formulated to match the intestinal microflora of dogs (it is also dairy free and includes prebiotics).

GutSense®

During times of acute digestive upset it is recommend to double the dose, and this has always worked for our dog along with a home-prepared diet. I have included a few other articles below that Dr. Dobias has written about digestion that may be helpful:

https://peterdobias.com/blogs/blog/11015037-11-steps-to-treat-acute-or-bloody-diarrhea-naturally

https://peterdobias.com/blogs/blog/11015049-the-surprising-link-between-diarrhea-back-injuries-and-too-much-exercise

I hope this is helpful for your Great Dane. Wishing you both the best in good health! 🙂

[Md Mahabub A]

The whole world depurated veterinarian reviewed for the best supplement for dog in 2020 for canine support, joint healt, pain relief etc.

[Rhonda F]

My dog was dead within hours of being given this supplement. My husband ordered it online and paid $142 for it and proceeded to follow the instructions. On the third day, when the dosage was increased, my dog immediately became lethargic and began vomiting profusely and having horrific diarrhea. He previously acted normally — eating, drinking and active — but he had been losing weight over the past month, so my husband decided to try Nutra Thrive. When our dog died, my husband emailed Nutra Thrive 3 times, telling them what had happened and asking for a refund. He has yet to receive any response.

[JIm M]

I saw the video also. The thing I could not get out of my head was the fact that you add this wonder supplement directly onto the food the doctor says is killing your dog!? That alone makes me call B.S. on the entire thing. It sounds too much like the other wonder supplement Dino vite which has killed dogs .

No thanks.

[Lori H]

Hi Lindsy,

I totally know how you feel, I was in the same situation as you about three years ago with my dog Buddy. You might want to look at the following website. My dog Buddy (long hair Chihuahua, Dachshund and Pomeranian) has been through a lot. He is now almost 13 and during his life he has had surgery on his spleen, surgery for bladder stones, been diagnosed with Diabetes as well as Cushing’s and I was also told by my vet that he was suffering from liver failure and was preparing me for the fact that Buddy was going to die. The liver failure diagnosis was over three+ years and today, he is healthy, happy, looks amazing and has energy. It has been an amazing turnaround. I basically had to get him healthy myself. My vet did not support my decision to do what I did, but he is healthy and that is all that matters! I switched vets because I did not believe that the prescription food was helping him, it was killing him. There is not one whole food or much nutritional value in prescription foods. I remember asking my prior vet in an email what the difference was between the labels which consisted of a bunch of names I could not pronounce and he never got back to me, that is when I realized that the industry needs a checkup.

If anything, read what Rick has to say on his website. The change in Buddy’s food as well as the supplements, changed his life. Rick has had success getting dogs and cats healthy!

http://www.doglivershunt.com

Following is my dogs personal story:
https://www.doglivershunt.com/buddys-story.html

I now believe wholeheartedly that most vets know nothing about nutrition. They are told to carry a line of food in their offices by one of the large pharma/dog food companies because most of these companies go out and recruit at the vet universities across the United States when vets are in school and provide them with a kickback when the sell either Science Diet or Royal Canin in their clinics, up to 40%. My vet wanted me to have Buddy on Hills Science Diet for the rest of his life! He smelled, was overweight and totally miserable while on that crap. I looked at the ingredients and thought to myself, there has to be something better out there. There was not one thing on there that was considered a whole food or ingredient that comes from the natural world!

I was at my wits end as well and thought that I was going to lose Buddy, but I was not willing to give up so I did a Google search and found an amazing person who brought Buddy back to the healthy dog he is.

If you choose to go with his program, it is not cheap, but I believe that over time, I will save money by not taking Buddy to the vet time and time again because I don’t know what is wrong and having a battery of tests run and racking up bills in the thousands, I have been there!

He was slowly weened off of his processed food Science Diet U/D and placed on a diet of fresh veggies and meat based on a very slow transition to follow with Rick’s help.

I suggest reaching out. I think Rick saved Buddy’s life.

Good luck on your search for information and I hope you find a solution.

If you have questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out. I am happy to talk to you. I have helped three others with their dogs and I truly believe Rick knows what he is talking about. I put my trust in him and I now have a healthy, happy dog. Lori

[Larisa B]

I am in the same boat at David C with the customer service of Nutra Thrive. I am glad to see Ultimate Pet eventually responded and will refund.
While taking the supplement my 14 year dog developed a urinary infection. She had never had any urinary problems prior to using the product. I have emailed the company three times before my 90 day guarantee refund date was over, with no response.

[Lindsy O]

Hi all, I have a 10 month old black lab/retriever mix who had a bladder infection about 2 months ago. After antibiotics, it was found he had crystals in his urine.

My vet put him on Royal Canine Urinary S/O and it has been nothing but problems since. He is always starving, he stinks (I bath him almost every second day to keep the stench away), he is always peeing and drinking excessive amounts of water.
We have his mother, who was on the gastro Royal Canine and was not doing well on it (not gaining weight). We switched her to blue buffalo dog food (it is a non dairy, no gluten more “holistic” dog food), and she has been thriving on it. We have been feeding her the recommended amount for her targeted weight and she looks so healthy, and with the royal canine brand she was so thin, you could feel her spine. She did not look healthy when she was on it, and he does not look healthy right now either. It looks like we do not feed him because he is so thin! When he reality, he is suppose to be eating 3 1/2 cups of food a day, and we have him on 6 to try and get his weight up.

I have been trying to convince our vet to let us try another brand of urinanry food, as we cannot get one without her consent, and she won’t (she sells the royal canine and only the royal canine). When she told us our girl needed to gain weight, I asked if we could try another dog food and she got snippy and said “Just feed her more, she’s a hard to keep dog”.

My question here is, I don’t think the royal canine is working well for my dogs. He is always starving, to the point he starting eating her feces to get more nutrients. If I were to switch to a brand that is not meant for urinary problems, is there anything I can do to try and prevent crystals? At this point, he has figured out how to get the garbage can over because he knows there is food in there, and he is starving all the time. He is a little ninja, and he is eating food other then the special urinary blend from the vet. She has told us we just need to put the garbage can away (we have no where else to put it), “watch him better” etc etc.

I Should also mention, when he had the crystals we were living in a house with very very hard water. We have since moved to a town with a special water filtration system for the taps.

I have seen tips on soaking the food in water, and getting cranberry supplements. I wanted to try the blue buffalo with him, and then bring him in for a urinary test in a month to see if he still had the crystals. Any other tips??

[Jim J]

Hello, we were in the process of creating a dog food for our local animal rescue. We’ve been working on the formula, but are admittedly not nutritional experts. We wanted to make sure it was safe and healthy before we had it manufactured. Any advice or opinions on the ingredients would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much!

28% 16%Protein Fat
RECIPE ANALYSIS:
Crude Protein, (Min) ……… 28.00%
Crude Fat, (Min) …………… 16.00%
Crude Fiber, (Max)………….4.00%
Moisture, (Max)………………10.00%
Calcium, (Min)………………..1.20%
Phosphorus, (Min) ………….1.00%
Omega 3 fatty acids,* (Min) …..1.00%
Omega 6 fatty acids,* (Min) ……3.00%

* Not recognized as an essential nutrient by the AAFCO
Dog Food Nutrient Profiles

RESPONSIBLY SOURCED INGREDIENTS: Chicken, Chicken Meal, Grain Sorghum, Millet, Turkey Meal, Chicken Fat (Preserved With Mixed Tocopherols And Citric Acid), Whole Ground Flaxseed, Coconut Meal, Quinoa, Natural Flavors, Salmon Oil, Potassium Chloride, Chia Seed, Chicken Cartilage (source of natural chondroitin sulfate and glucosamine), Sea Salt, Apple Cider Vinegar, Cod Liver Oil, Kelp Meal, Choline Chloride, Calcium Carbonate, Dried Beet, Dried Cranberries, Dried Pumpkin, Dried Spinach, Dried Tomatoes, Inulin, Dried Blueberries, Dried Chamomile, Dried Turmeric, Zinc Amino Acid Complex, Vitamin E Supplement, Zinc Sulfate, Iron Amino Acid Complex, Ferrous Sulfate, Copper Amino Acid Complex, Copper Sulfate, Vitamin A Supplement, Manganese Amino Acid Complex, Thiamine Mononitrate, Calcium Pantothenate, Riboflavin Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Manganous Oxide, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Ethylenediamine Dihydroiodide, Folic Acid, Sodium Selenite, Calcium Iodate, Rosemary Extract, Taurine, Lactobacillus acidophilus Fermentation Product, Lactobacillus lactis Fermentation Product, Lactobacillus pantarum Fermentation Product, Bacillus subtillis Fermentation Product, Aspergillus oryzae Fermentation Product

[Chao L]

This is the first time I write a review for a product that we can’t find much info online. At least we don’t know which comment online is real. But this is real!! As soon as I put the powder one scoop for each cat (as recommended on the bottle), they Smelled the food and walked away. My cats are not picky on food at all. I tried both on wet food and dry food. They wouldn’t eat the food. For wet food I chose feline natural and ziwipeak, dry food Fromm. My cat breed is one 3yr old rag doll, one 3yr old ragamuffin and one 1yr old domestic from shelter in case you are wondering. All three cats from different breeds wouldn’t eat the food after I mixed the powder in. What are the odds! The only one time that they ate a portion of the food with the powder is after I turned the AC to a colder temperature than usual for a day (sometimes pets are not that hungry in warmer conditions). They went to the wet food and started eating. But they only ate a portion of it, didn’t finish the meal that they normally would without the powder. As soon as they are done they went straight for the water! 3 of them. They don’t do that usually after eating the wet food. I even tasted myself the powder is very salty/umami flavored (just like MSG). This is completely unnatural for a pet supplement to be that flavorful. Highly doubt what’s inside that chicken stock flavor. Unless someone test it out in a research paper saying it’s safe for pets I’m not giving it to my cats any more. I know this is a review place for dog Nutra Thrive and I don’t know if the umami/salt flavor is any different than the cat Nutra Thrive powder but thought would be better to bring up the issues or concerns that I have so far. I read a lot of comments above saying their dogs energy level went up after eating this product but that also aligned with my suspicion, which the salt level is very high. Every animal will get hyped once they consume too much salt. Just like the effects of caffeine.
No I wouldn’t recommend this powder at least cat version to anyone.

[Debra D]

Not really sure what the best food for dogs is – raw, homemade, commercial?? Nutrition is a very tricky science – for humans and animals. But, I do know what is cost prohibitive – Dr Marty. Seriously – $30-50 for a 16oz bag. That doesn’t even feed my dog for a day, according to his weight. So that’s a minimum of $45 a day to feed my guy this food.
How can Dr Marty possibly suggest that this is an affordable way to feed your dog? That is what is agrivating to me – don’t market a product as affordable when it clearly is not.
I want the best for my dog, but I’ll stick with the mixture that I’ve been using – commercial dry (won’t mention names, but has seemingly decent ingredients) mixed with some raw meat (grass fed) or egg , some veggies and omega supplement. He also loves fruit. We buy organic for ourselves (fortunate to be able to afford that, but doesn’t come close to $45 a day) so, that’s what he gets too.

[Linda C]

I am concerned as I just received my product and noticed the manufacture date was Oct 2018, almost a year and a half ago. I work in a medical clinic dealing with supplements and understand efficacy (how long the product is good for). I called the company and they told me it was good up to 18 months after manufacturing. I was told they had no new batches other than the Oct/Nov 2018 batch. They refunded my money and told me to keep the product. In these unprecedented times, I think a company should inform their customers rather than try to unload a product by advertising it on sale.

[Tom S]

My dog is on long-term doxycycline, and we were advised by our vet to look for dog food without iron supplements as they can react with his medication. But all the foods we’ve looked at either contain an iron supplement (iron proteinate, iron amino acids, etc) or multiple different liver components.

The dog is a 2 year old male white lab, 100 lbs.

[STEFANIE]

Hi Eszter, and everyone else:

First of, hope everyone is doing fine and staying at home. We are facing difficult times, but Im sure we will all get by in a couple of weeks (or months, depending on the evolution of a number of facts that right now are very unpredictable). Here in Brazil, and in my city Rio de Janeiro, the government has imposed rigorous restrictions, which part of society has been collaborative, and another part is just simply not aware of how serious this is. All in all, we have started our quarantine in a very early stage, and we are all hoping this will bring us a positive outcome in the medium-long turn.

As for your dog Eszter, I am very glad he has overcome all of these surgeries and is out of risk. In our case, my Border Collie (Maui) had a really really hard time with the post-surgical phase – we really did not know he would survive at all. He had aprox. 75% of his small intestines removed (basically all of his jejunum and ileum – only his duodenum was kept). In Brazil there were no registered cases of survival for dogs/cats that had this amount of small intestines removed, so he is really the first recorded case here – which is a victory, but was REALLY hard since we had NO IDEA of how to handle the first couple of months.

Since his ileum was removed, we did in fact suffer with his fesses. In the first two months, he went to the bathroom on average 20x a day, in practically liquid form. He lost A LOT of weight since the first surgery (he had 3 in total), and after his 1 month hospitalization, he only weighted 9kgs! (he started with 17kgs). He was practically skin and bones.

Now, it has been almost 2 years since he was released from the clinic, and since then we had a LONG JOURNEY. But this is a story of success, and now Maui is VERY strong. He weights 21kgs, all of his vitamins are great, and he goes to the bathroom 2 or 3 x a day! His stool is still very mushy.. the first one of the day, we can collect, the other 2, is king of a puree.. which makes is hard, however, since he got his ileum removed, there is almost no expectation that his stool will someday get back to being 100% “collectable”. He does ingest and absorb most of the good vitamins, what is the best part and it very clear since he is healthy, strong and his exams are all good.

It is hard to say exactly what will be best for your puppy… since every case is singular, but in our experience some things were essential for this positive outcome:

1) cooked Home food instead of kibble: We cook it weekly . Daily portion is about 1.2kgs (separated in 3x of 400g each). In summary each portion contains 1/3 meat without fat (in Brazil we use a meat called “Patinho” and “coxão mole” and “lagarto” – all red meat. We tried giving him chicken, but it led to 3 or 4 infections or gastroenteritis, so we never tried again. Fish was also ok, but I though he did not gain weight); 1/3 carbohydrates basically sweet potato, cassava, and a little of parboiled rice, and 1/3 vegetables: carrot, chayote, zucchini, beets, spinach or kale, string bean…

2) Pancreatin: With every meal, we give him a capsule of Pancreatin. Humam type (https://www.amazon.com/NOW-Pancreatin-10X200-250-Capsules/dp/B000776KK0)

3) Food supplements: With every meal, we give him a serving (In Brazil, we use the brand called Food Dog : https://www.petlove.com.br/suplemento-vitaminico-botupharma-pet-food-dog-adulto-manutencao/p/destaque?sku=1949715&utm_campaign=GS_&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIsrKigKmx6AIVghGRCh3VlQutEAQYAiABEgLdP_D_BwE)

4) Probiotics: it really depends on your dog which type is best, and the amounts…

5) B12 vitamin replacement: in the beggining every week, and now he takes the shot every 1 or 2 months;

6) Metronizadol (in Brazil, called “Flagyl”): Initially I think he took 400mg per day. Now he takes 250mg every 3 days – which is still a lot, but it keeps him from getting intestinal infections.

I think this is it. If you wish to send me an e-mail, please feel free. I had great help from Karen and Abby (they are part of this forum too). We exchanged many many emails, info and experiences since both of our dogs had similar problems – this was a HUGE relief for me and I am very VERY thankful for all the help I had from them.

Wish all of you the best,
Stefanie and Maui
email: [email protected]
instagram account: @brotherscolliebr

[Monika F]

What a sham! I bought the pro power digestive supplement cost about 60$….it’s a small jar that is half full….I just got it today and it really pissed me off…..Dr whoever ought to be ashamed of themselves for taking advantage of people who are trying to care for thier 4 legged children….it is not worth the price..such bs

[Chipy]

We have been using the 4 Essential Supplements (GreenMin, SoulFood, GutSense, and FeelGood Omega) for many years and our dog loves them!! 🙂 He is super healthy and we are very grateful for Dr. Dobias.

Dog Essentials

These natural supplements are like wholesome food, the body recognizes them as such and only absorbs what it requires. As every dog has slightly different nutritional requirements, it’s best to provide a wide variety of nutrients to support the body. Here is what we add to our pup’s home-made diet:

GreenMin, as a source of plant-based minerals, amino-acids, and super greens
SoulFood, as a certified organic multivitamin with additional organ support components
GutSense, as a source of dog specific certified organic probiotics
FeelGood Omega, to supplement Essential Fatty Acids (omega 3s)

In a perfect world, a wide variety of food would keep your dog’s body nourished and no supplements would be required. The problem is, due to intensive agriculture, minerals and nutrients do not get recycled back into the soil, leading to a lack of minerals in the whole food chain.

https://peterdobias.com/blogs/blog/15072565-how-many-supplements-are-too-many-for-your-dog

I hope this helps. Please be sure to do your research and only choose the highest quality products for your dog.

[Chipy]

So awesome that you are switching to homemade dog food! Your pups are lucky to have you!! 🙂

It was the best decision for our dog and I love to encourage other dog lover to do the same. We use an online Recipe Maker to create healthy meals and add synthetic free, whole-food based vitamins, minerals, probiotics and omega oil supplements to fill in any nutritional gaps:

Dog Essentials

https://recipemaker.peterdobias.com/