[Akari_32]

Guys. I was looking back through the thread, and it’s been a year since I brought Kitty home!! :O this calls for celebration! I think I’ll get him lamb for his next raw meal :3

Speaking of raw, I’ve got an order of 8oz Reditainers on the way from Amazon! Right now, he’s getting 6oz of canned and 6oz of raw, rotating days. He’ll get either Fancy Feast, Wellness Duos or Wellness Sliced/Minced/Cubed (2x 3oz cans) one day, a 5.5oz can of Friskies Special Diet (randomly replaced with Newmans Own, and a couple other brands) another day, 6oz of balanced raw the next, and then another 5.5oz can the next day, and then it starts all over again. I opted to pull the better brands (Halo Vigor, Halo Impulse, and Natures Variety) out and save them for if I ever go away and whoever watches him cannot do raw. There’s probably 8 cans, none of them expiring until sometime in 2016 (I wrote all the expiration dates down on the tops of the cans). Once the rest of the canned is gone, he will be on 100% raw! I’ve got something like 50 days of canned left, so it’ll be a while, but I’m very happy with his coat and teeth improvements with raw only being a few times a week 🙂 Can’t wait till I’ve used all the canned up 😀

[Bobby dog]

Here’s some links that will get you there faster, it’s a long thread now. LOL Read at least the first three or four pages and the links on the first page:
/forums/topic/large-and-giant-breed-puppy-nutrition/

Look for a post dated July 23, 2013 at 1:51 pm for a link to recommended foods. I suggest contacting any company to confirm a food falls within the recommended parameters as recipes can change without notice:
/forums/topic/large-and-giant-breed-puppy-nutrition/page/15/

Here’s a recent article:
/best-dog-foods/best-large-breed-puppy-food/#comment-1760246690

You can also join Dog Food Advisor’s Editors Choice for an up to date list of recommended foods for large/giant breed dogs.

[Nate D]

Thought I’d give an update on my dogs.

I’ve had the one with crystals on Science Diet per the vet for 1 week now. ph is down from 8.0 to 6.5 and holding. I am testing daily. I won’t know if crystals still exist or not until I have her retested next week.
I do not have her just on the Science Diet though. I am mixing in a small amount of the dry with it along with water.
I have been giving the Solid Gold Berry Balance supplement that I bought to my other dog with his food and have been adding water to the dry food. His ph is dropping so it is working. I plan to have both dogs on it once my female is off of the Science Diet.
I’ve been mixing a 50/50 of distilled water and filtered water I get which already has a neutral ph of 6.0.

I contacted a nutritionist with Fromm who said their food’s ph is 5.6-5.8, which is lower then most high quality dry foods, but the actual output will vary. A lower protein, lower carb diet is good. As I had mine on their weight management food I was suggested to try their 4 star whitefish and potato food as it has lower protein and the carbs are within the same range as the weight management. The food also has a different protein source.
I mentioned trying the new gold coast weight management food as it is grain free and was told I could try it, but was suggested the whitefish food due to the lower protein. 23% vs. 25%.
I was told a cranberry supplement like I am now using is a good thing.
In reality the food should be grain free with no starch/potatoes, but just eliminating it doesn’t mean it will help. I will give the whitefish food a shot and see what results I get from it.

Water consumption is the main key and if using dry food add water.
I was told even using wet food once a day can help a lot.

Unfortunately what will work for 1 dog may not work for the other so it’s a matter of finding what will. If one thing doesn’t work, try something else, but the best thing one can do for any pet is water, water, water. If one uses tap water which may have tons of minerals in it, testing it is a good idea. Water is very good, but it can also cause issues if the ph levels aren’t where they should be.

Ph test strips and testing regularly is a must.

[Dori]

Okay so Ginger’s already getting her food soggy so that there really isn’t chewing involved. Hopefully you’ll be able to keep her on the same food since I remember you said it was helping with her arthritis. I wonder why they don’t make a canned version. Well, anyway, you’ll check with the vet as to what to feed when you bring her home and for how long. Poor baby girl Ginger. Once she heals up after the dental surgery I’m sure she’ll feel much better. Being in pain all the time makes life miserable.

Well, your mom may have taken a long time to agree but I guess it’s better late than never.

[Dori]

Cotons mom. Please explain to your husband, if he doesn’t already know it, that Angel Eyes contains antibiotics so it’s a bad idea for anyone to use it. I read somewhere that there is a big controversy on companies being able to add antibiotics to over the counter eye stain ingredients and I believe they are due to be outlawed. I’ll have to figure out where I read this. I read it just in the last two or three weeks. I’ll have to see if I can find the article and post it. Anyway, antibiotics are very destructive to the immune system and should never be given just to remove eye stains. They are not attractive, that’s for sure, it’s simply an aesthetic issue, not life threatening. Antibiotics should only be used for infections that cannot be controlled any other way. They don’t just kill bad bacteria but the good bacteria that is needed to survive. Anyway, that’s my opinion on antibiotics. I’m going to go search for the article.

Here’s one: http://www.aaha.org/blog/NewStat/post/2014/09/03/531874/FDA-targets-tear-stain-remover-products-for-misusing-antibiotics.aspx

Here’s another: http://www.fierceanimalhealth.com/story/pet-tear-stain-removers-still-widely-available-despite-fda-warnings/2015-02-09

Google has quite a few posts regarding the FDA and antibiotics in products for dogs, cats, horses that have not been deemed safe or tested. Also there are articles where veterinarians are not comfortable with the over use of antibiotics just to remove unsightly tear stains that are not, in almost all cases, not a medical issue but an aesthetic one.

• This reply was modified 11 years ago by Dori.
• This reply was modified 11 years ago by Dori.

[jakes mom]

Just wanted to throw this out to everybody. I have a cat, Smudge, who’s struggled with one yeasty ear for years. We’d go to the vet, do the ear drop thing, it clears up, back again in no time. Thru this site (vet never mentioned it) I decided it might be a food issue. I have not been able to figure out what the problem is. Now to get to the coco oil part. I’ve read so much here about the good things coco oil can do so I bought some and Jake and a couple of the cats like it. Not Smudge of course. I went online to read more about it since I had a big jar to use up. One thing I read said that women use it to treat yeast infections. I started using a tiny dab in Smudge’s ear twice a day. It took about a month but no more gunky ear. Now I use it every couple of days and her ear is nice and clean. I’m hoping this is ok? Seems like the best I can do is try to keep the reactions at bay since I can’t find the food culprit. I haven’t seen this use of coco oil mentioned. She won’t eat raw.

[Akari_32]

So I added up all the food thats in there: 130.5 pound. LOL Too bad, at about 30 lbs a months, it won’t last long.

Ugh, so this morning, she filled the sink with water, and put all the dishes in (dishes soaking in bacteria water is my FAVORITE! Not to mention she left the sponge floating in it….) and you can’t do that in our sink because our dish washer was hooked up wrong and everything leaks if you don’t baby it. So guess who got to take everything out from under the cabinet and clean up 3 gallons of sink water from under the cabinet and the floor?? Meeee! Yaaaaaaaaaay….. -_- She moved out, and that crap didn’t happen any more. Moves back in, 11 hours later, water all over the kitchen floor. Fantastic.

I sent you a friend request the other night, and you accepted it! You should know who I am lol I only use one user name. So if you join an other forum, and see an Akari_32, its 99% likely me (I’ve only been on one site that someone already had that username lol).

So I have a question for you guys. Is it weird that I like to hang on to more questionable brands as long as possible to make sure they aren’t going to be recalled or something? Like this IAMS Healthy Naturals stuff, I’ve had for several months. Plans to use it are very close, maybe within two months. I’m not a fan of IAMS, as you guys know, but I got it at a decent price, and picked one that rated well (I believe the flavor I picked is rated at 4 stars). But yeah, just wondering lol

[Naturella]

Zach, yes, just 3 foods really was hard! But fun too, like C4C said!

And C4C, I’m not Zach, but I can remember reading somewhere that an experiment was conducted with people and multivitamin pills vs balanced whole foods and the experiment determined that people get more benefit from the whole foods (vitamin and mineral-wise) than from the pill version. I can try to find the article for reference if someone is interested, but I don’t remember where I read that off the top of my head.

Now, multivitamins are not probiotics and I’m not sure how that will go, and I know Kefir only has like 12-ish strands of probiotic cultures while pills have billions of active dried cultures and what not, but maybe Kefir is more enjoyable to the dog, and it is a natural, real food. But I am curious to see Zach’s response though. This is just my best guess, and I would more often than not try a whole food approach before I resort to pill versions. But I am really interested in the Swanson Soil-Based Organisms though! 😀

[Meghan M]

To second GSDsForever, I emailed Sammy Snacks asking about ethoxyquin and here is the response I got:

“Thank you for your interest in our products. We pride ourselves on providing the highest quality of pet food and treats available on the market at an affordable price. As part of that we hold all of our mills to higher standard than most brands. We provide all of them with clear and concise list of what ingredients are not allowed in our products (of which ethoxyquin is one). We also provide them with a list of suppliers that we don’t allow to sell them ingredient that are included in our products. All of them must agree to these requirements or they would no longer make our products. I also don’t trust anyone else when it comes to the Sammy Snacks and Ancestry brand, that is why we order tests on all of our product. One of the many things that is tested for is ethoxyquin. All of our proteins and fats are preserved with vitamin E (sometimes called tocopherols).

I hope this helps and please feel free to contact us with any more questions.

Thanks,
Matt Frey
CEO
Sammy Snacks Inc.”

I may eventually add this food to my rotation. The only issue I had is the amount of Omega 3s listed. Her current food (Infinia) has a minimum of 0.3%, while the Ancestry has only 0.4%. I’m not sure if that makes it a lower-quality food compared to some of the others, but I did note the other brands had much higher levels: Zignature at 1.0%, Wellness CORE at 0.8%, Victor at 0.7%, and Legacy at 1.4%.

I also looked up Timberwolf’s dog food, and really liked the Wilderness Elk Platinum, the Black Forest Platinum Grain Free, the Ocean Blue Platinum Grain Free, and the Lamb & Apples Platinum Grain Free. I hadn’t heard of this brand before, so I’m glad I was introduced to it!

I found a store nearby that sells Victor, so I think I will start with this food based on the recommendations, along with the fact that it is the lowest protein level out of my top 3 favorites. As long as my dog does well on this for awhile, I’ll see how she does with Wellness CORE, Legacy, and possibly Zignature.

I did have a question, either specifically for GSDsForever, or for anyone who can provide input. You talked earlier about how processing is imperative for digestibility and nutrient preservation. Do you know of any dog foods (either that I have already listed, or outside brands we haven’t discussed) that have good processing techniques and gentle cooking methods?

Again, thank you all so much for your input! I feel a lot more confident about my choices – it is still overwhelming though, because there are so many options! I’m just glad that I’ve narrowed the options down to a few, and I guess now it is just a process of elimination to see how she reacts with some foods versus others.

[GSDsForever]

Allergy & Food: I would try a single novel protein/novel carb source diet, including restricting all treats (can only be that protein/carb).

This needs to be something your dog has never eaten before, ideally both the meat/protein source and the carb(s). You feed this a long while and other monitoring (you and your vet), then slowly add back in one protein at a time. You see what makes the symptoms disappear in your dog.

Heartworm Preventative: There are only so many active ingredients effective in heartworm prevention. Heartguard would have the same ingredient as Iverhart, Ivermectin. Your other option is the main active ingredient in the formerly made Interceptor, which now only is available with other anti-parastitics in the formula.

You do need to use one of them, as heartworm is very deadly & brutal on a dog.

You can also have the main active ingredient compounded for your dog at a compounding pharmacy, in whatever form and flavoring/inactive ingredients (in case of severe allergy to what you’ve already tried) and exactly custom to the weight of your dog.

Dry skin & shampoo/conditioner — Please see my thread I already started on that topic here, asking for help.

[GhoulishGal]

Hello, I have an 18 month old French Bulldog, and I’m looking for grain free foods in the UK. Most of the brands here (like Akela) don’t seem to be listed, and their ingredients read differently than in Canada/US.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

GG

[Laurel S]

Hello – Happy to have found this forum. We have a 5 year old Aussie Mix who is also seizure prone. No medication, and has had about 6 seizures over 5 years, but very serious grand mal variety. I have had good luck with removing Rosemary from his diet as well. As others have said, better safe than sorry. We have also added a supplement called Cholodine that was recommended by our vet. While he does still have seizures, I’m sure there are other triggers that we have not identified that are at work, but at least they are very infrequent since changing his diet.

As far as food, at the time (several years ago) one of the only dry foods I could find that didn’t include Rosemary was Natural Balance Ltd Ingredient Sweet Potato and Fish. Only available near us (Illinois) from Petco. We were sailing along until Del Monte purchased Natural Balance last summer. Since then I’ve been keeping an eye on them closely. Recently I’ve read about several issues with their foods, not necessarily the dry, but feel it’s only a matter of time.

I too, have been looking to make a change. Heard recently about American Natural Premium made in Mequon, WI. They make several grain free options (I don’t think potatoes are considered a grain). There’s also some question whether this food is actually a part of Fromm (also made in Mequon), but for legal reasons they won’t actually claim that, however ANP was a bit more vague about it so I’m curious for sure. Fromm is a very well respected company with no recalls and family owned and operated since i think 1949. American Natural Premium, I believe, is more of a private label, not advertised, etc., and therefore less expensive.

I’m curious if anyone has used either Fromm Grain Free dry or American Natural Premium Grain Free varieties for there seizure prone dogs. Appreciate any and all info. Reading this forum it’s helpful to know others are dealing with the same issues and just trying to look out for our doggies best interests 🙂

[Dori]

I’m looking forward to seeing Sugar in your avatar. Even if you’re on a windows machine you can still go to gravatar.com and sign up and then they’ll walk you through the steps to post picture. I just can’t walk you through it because I’m on a Mac.

As to the foods that I feed, they are all commercial raw foods from companies that I like and trust and all three girls have done very well on all of them. I feed all three girls the same meals. I also rotate proteins within the brands and I also rotate with different brands. All proteins with the exception of any and all poultry (fowl) regardless of how or where it is listed in the ingredients. Nothing with feathers because Katie is highly intolerant. These are the companies I feed.

Primal Formulas Raw Frozen and Primal Pronto Raw Frozen and sometimes Primal Freeze Dried
Vital Essentials Raw Frozen Foods and sometimes Vital Essentials Freeze Dried
Nature’s Variety Instinct Raw Food Only
Answer’s Detailed Raw Frozen
OC Raw Frozen
Nature’s Logic Frozen Raw

Once or twice a week I split a can of sardines in water with no salt (from grocery store) between the three girls.

For treats I give them small pieces of organic (if available) fruits and veggies. Apples and cucumbers must be peeled because they carry a lot of bacteria and are waxed to make them pretty for us. Make sure to not feed any seeds or pits from any fruits as they are toxic to dogs. Of course as I’m pretty sure you already know, no raisins, grapes or onions.

If you want any more info, please ask.

[Dori]

Editor’s Choice List also takes into account the company itself not just the ingredients in the food that’s why you won’t find all five star rated foods. The reviews are on the ingredients, protein and fat and how they all measure up in the food. The EC list is for all that plus the company that manufactures the food. For me, 5 star foods are great but I’m also grateful to know which ones are from quality companies with, most especially, quality customer service and their openness as to their ingredients, where they are sourced, etc. Hope this answered your question a little. You can also read, if you haven’t already, under Editor’s Choice Home they have a FAQ section where they will, no doubt, explain it a bit better than I just have.

[Nate D]

Here’s a quick update after making some phone calls.
My dog will be going on the Science Diet for 2 weeks. I actually already started. Went and picked it up. After that if there are no crystals I was told I can go back on the dry food, I just need to add water to it……or I can mix wet and dry and add water. I’m told the solid gold supplement is also ok once off of the SD.
So I will still use dry food, but will mix it with wet. I just can’t afford all wet.
I’m also looking at switching the dry food to grain free. The big problem is with Doxies it’s not easy finding a food they won’t gain weight from no matter how little food you give them. Fromm Gold Weight Management has been the only food that keeps both of my dogs stable and where they should be. They do have a new weight management formula, but I don’t believe it’s grain free either. I have tried grain free in the past, but they just kept slowly putting on the weight. Even tried Wellness Core Reduced Fat. I kept lowering the amount I gave them, but anymore they wouldn’t have any. lol
I see Merrick has a grain free low cal dry food as well as canned. I’m also looking at Evo and Fromm for canned food. Natural Balance has a low cal food as well, but doesn’t look as good as the others, but it is more affordable. By Nature looks good as well.
The Evo dry looks good, but the protein is extremely high. I tried that route with Orijen and Acana before but that high just made their stools very soft and they farted all of the time. lol Not to mention my females anal glands were over active on very high protein.
What brands of foods are you all feeding your dogs that had crystals?

[Melissa M]

I just wrote a whole long post and I lost it! My female did eat this morning but my male refused. He is hungry though because he drooled while I ate my toast! Very stubborn little guy! My female has nice formed stools this morning which she hasn’t had in a while. That was nice. They both have some deadly gas though! It’s new to their tummy’s so it will pass–literally! My male will not get any treats today (crossing fingers here–one look and this mommy might cave) so hopefully he’ll eat his dinner.

I do know that dry food isn’t much better for their teeth but I just don’t like the wet. My neighbor’s dog is strictly on wet and boy, her breath could kill you!! I just don’t like the look of it and I can already see my two dog’s expressions on their little faces like, you expect me to eat that?? Remember, these two are unfortunately used to eating human food probably more that kibble so they need to be broke of that habit! Slowly, but we’ll get there I hope!

[GSDsForever]

Here’s a “simple” sample homemade, already balanced diet from Dr. Wynn:

http://www.susanwynn.com/Homemade_Diet_Recipe.php

I have a couple grain free ones from her that I can’t find at the moment.

You might also look through, to get started & have a basic framework for balanced homemade diets (with some information and charts about nutrition), from UC Davis Veterinary Medical School/DVM Donald Strombeck’s Home-Prepared Dog and Cat Diets and Pitcairn’s classic book. I have both book from long ago, but HDM said Strombeck’s book can now be accessed online too.

If not homemade, I like DogFoodie’s suggestion of rotation as preventing boredom — also just plain old good for the dogs’ health!

• This reply was modified 11 years, 1 month ago by GSDsForever.

[GSDsForever]

Meghan,

I hadn’t suggested any because I already thought you had quite a good list of foods you found on your own and didn’t need one!

But I will add Timberwolf Organics, a 5 star food here. http://www.timberwolforganics.com/ They make a Platinum line and a Classic line.

The all fish formula (since you wanted to start with just fish) is available in high protein and moderate protein formulas, Platinum and Classic, and both are grain free: Ocean Blue.

http://www.timberwolforganics.com/products/platinum-canine-formulas/ocean-blue-platinum-grain-free-dog-food-formula-24-lbs.html

http://www.timberwolforganics.com/products/originals-canine-formulas/ocean-blue-originals-formula-24-lbs.html

I absolutely love their formulas, particularly the Wilderness Elk & Salmon, Lamb & Apples, and Ocean Blue. I’ve fed all except the chicken formulas. The bison formula was the last to be reformulated for the newer Platinum (higher protein) line, an exclusively GF line, and so I have not tried the new version.

The way I get excellent prices is ordering two large bags at a time (discounted), free shipping + no tax, and taking advantage of “earned points” discounts and sales. Timberwolf gave me $10 off my last order (entirely earned by my previous purchase!), on top of the other discounts. Two large bags of Classic (48 lbs total) cost $89, while Platinum would be $105 (48 lbs total). (Or, in your case with 2 dogs, you could order the 45 lb bags, also discounted.)

It takes 1 week to free ship across country, unless the item is sold out and out of stock in which case it is sold as a pre-order 3-5 weeks in advance. This food is made & shipped very fresh in small batches.

• This reply was modified 11 years, 1 month ago by GSDsForever.

[Dori]

Hi John. Firstly I just wanted to post about Marie’s suggestions. She want be upset with me as she’s a friend of mine and is fabulous at helping others with their canines.

California Naturals does have a Kangaroo grain free but the protein is incredibly low. 21 % to AAFCO standards.

Natures Logic Rabbit contains turkey meal, chicken fat, chicken liver, dried egg product and egg shells (for calcium).

Grandma Lucy’s Pureformance (their grain free line) is freeze dried food. Their foods that do not have any poultry or beef are: Rabbit, Goat and Lamb. (Be forewarned…fairly large poops on Grandma Lucy’s but it does have a good reputation with a lot of feeders).

On to the questions you just asked of me. Since you are already feeding your dogs a raw diet, transitioning to a commercial raw diet will be very easy for you and your dogs if, in fact, that is the route you want to take. Transitioning to raw is much simpler and quicker especially with dogs that are already eating raw. Also because you already feed grain free that will make it a bit easier as their guts are in better and healthier conditions than dogs fed their entire lives on foods that contain massive amounts of carbs and lower quality foods. Now, I’m assuming at this point that the only known allergens are poultry and beef. I would stay away from any and all poultry (all fowl….anything with feathers). Since you say that Bella reacted violently to Bison after only a few hours you’ll be able to tell fairly quickly if a new food is going to bother her. Typically when I first started out with rotation feeding I could tell within 3 days how Katie was doing on it. If she was going to have loose stools or vomitting, scratching, gas, bad breath and everything else that goes along with food sensitivities it would happen fairly quickly so I stopped feeding that food and went on to the next. In your case I would probably tell you to start with one food and if they do well on it then feed only that food for two or three months just to give their guts a bit more healing time and “detoxing” as it’s called. At that time you will already have bought the next food you want to try within that brand if there is another protein without any allergens that your dogs may have. If that brand doesn’t, then move on to the next brand. If all goes well I would then feed that food and start looking for the next protein within that brand you want to try. Every time you are done with one bag you move on to the next. Every time with a different protein within the same brand. Keep a detailed list of the foods you have tried and what, if any, reactions they had. Once you’ve exhausted the different proteins in your first brand then you move on to the next brand and start rotating through their proteins that your dogs can eat. Then you move on to the next brand. Before you know it you may be able to have 4 or 5 foods that your dogs can eat and do well on. You can then continue to rotate within these brands and proteins every time you have to buy a bag of food. You can then start rotating with the different foods you have in the freezer every day, every couple of days, every meal as I do, whatever. I rotate as often as I do because Katie can’t tolerate anything for more than a meal or two. She probably can at this point but since I’ve been doing it this way for so long and they’re all just fine with it and because I wouldn’t eat the same thing for breakfast and dinner I figure why should they. I also can’t afford for her to become allergic to anything more than she already is. In rotating foods if some ingredient bothers her a little or there is a pro-inflammatory ingredient in the food (which I try my best to avoid but not always possible) then she’s only getting it for one meal. Rotating foods for all dogs is, in my opinion, the healthiest way to feed canines but especially for canines with food intolerances.

Please keep in mind that the log (list) is very very important. In keeping a list it will also better inform you if your dog is having an issue with the protein or is it another ingredient in the food. If you feed rabbit and Bella has issues with it and then you move on to goat and the same thing happens, then you have to compare the ingredient labels of both those foods and see what other ingredients do both foods have in common other than the protein. When starting to gather foods for dogs with allergies it’s easy to assume that it’s the labeled protein in the food and keep moving from food to food thinking your dog is intolerant of every single protein. Typically that’s not the case. It’s that we forgot that they could be allergic or intolerant of any other ingredient in the foods. So it’s important…..keep a log of foods you feed and the ingredients in the foods. You can print out the ingredient list from their web sites or you can take a picture of the ingredient label on the bag itself for reference purposes.

“Toppers” by the way is just a term that’s used meaning anything that you would put on top of the food you already have in their bowl. I would suggest you not use any of them at all until you have some foods that you can easily feed to your dogs with no allergy symptoms. You’ll confuse the issue if you start adding other things. You won’t know which or what is causing the symptoms. I do add things to my dogs foods but I did not in the beginning. Had to find the foods first. Then started adding little things to see what the affect would be.

Plain Kefir (you can buy it in grocery stores) acts like plain yogurt in that it contains friendly “probiotic” bacteria that helps the gut. I will add here that my allergy girl, Katie, cannot have kefir, yogurt or cheese. Actually I’ve yet to find a probiotic that doesn’t contain something (yeast, or whatever) that she doesn’t have issues with. She’s too intolerant of them and the craziness starts all over again. Not saying that your dogs will react, but owners of dogs with food sensitivities have to be very careful of every single thing that eat. Their immune systems are pretty much in a weakened state especially until their immune system improves on better foods, less toxins and carbs to deal with. 70% of the immune system is in the gut.

Allergy symptoms can be skin issues and/or digestive issues as is the case with Katie. Once I cleared up all her food issues her digestive and skin issues all disappeared.

Once on line please check out all pro-inflammatory foods, fruits and veggies. Allergies are an inflammatory based issue so you need to avoid those foods as best you can. It’s not always easy to eliminate each and every single one but do your best to avoid as much as possible. That’s also a good reason for rotation. If one of your foods does have pro-inflammatory ingredients your dog will not be getting them for too long a time.

If you find, eventually, that your dogs are not allergic to sardines then you can give them sardines packed in water with no salt added (canned in the grocery store) two or three times a week (as a “topper”) on top or mixed in with the food in their bowls. Sardines are an excellent form of Omega 3 which most foods are lacking. Most foods have plenty of Omega 6’s and not enough Omega 3’s to balance them out. That is true most especially in kibble foods. On the days that I don’t give my dogs sardines I keep a bottle refrigerated of Nature’s Logic Sardine oil. Oils go rancid fairly quickly so it’s best kept refrigerated and also says it on the bottle I believe. Anyway, once I’ve put their meals in their bowls, and on the days I don’t add sardines, I splash a little of the sardine oil on top of their food in their bowls and promptly put the bottle back in fridge and immediately give the dogs their bowls of food. I believe the oil has the dosing on the bottle. Please do not give your dogs salmon oil as we already know that they had issues with the salmon food. Also, salmon and tuna have the most amount of mercury in them due to their long lives. I don’t feed either because of those reasons. Sardines and krill have the least as they have very short lives and very short digestive tracks.

Just for your info I realize that I didn’t tell you what type of dogs I have or anything other than Katie’s allergies. So, Hannah (my avatar) is my 15 1/2 year old Maltese. Katie is my 5 1/2 year old Maltipoo and Lola is my 5 1/2 year old Yorkipoo.

One more thing. I no longer have my dogs vaccinated. I do the titers on the core vaccines. Rabies vaccine in my area is only required every three years. Though recently I’ve learned that the county I live in will accept rabies titers. Very few counties in the country are on board with titers for rabies. I don’t believe that any dog should be vaccinated unnecessarily. Dogs with allergies shouldn’t be vaccinated. Of course, I am in favor of doing all the initial puppy vaccinations spaced out as they should be. Each vaccine should be done separately and not the three in one type. It’s too much of an overload on their systems. After those initially puppy shots which, if memory serves me, ends when they are about a year old. After that having your vet do titers to check their antibodies to the core illnesses will let you know when and if they have to be vaccinated again.

[Jon h]

I think the reason you are receiving so much negativity is you are seeming to conform to a lot of the stereotypes of vegetarian feeders (ie: lack of knowledge of canine nutrition, lack of canine medical knowledge, lack any sort of formal nutritional training and yet propose that they know more than their vet and people with PhDs in the field canine nutrition). Vegetarian diets should only be imposed on a dog if there are medical reasons to do so (ie: some sort of allergy) and I personally haven’t read any cases of dogs allergic to all meat sources so I highly doubt that is a legitimate argument in your case. Now if you are switching your dog to a vegetarian diet because of your own moral reasoning or some ill founded notion that vegetarian diets are healthier than diets that include meat then I would strongly reconsider being a dog owner.

Lets take a quick look at your arguments. First (in regards to your dog being obese before), a dog becoming obese is almost always the direct result of an owner not properly managing their dogs caloric intake to activity level ratio. Not because meat was magically making their dog fat. Switching to vegetarian meals most likely significantly reduced the dog’s caloric intake therefore attributing their obesity to meat is a really poor argument. Second, in regards to your dog always being sick. If their sickness was food related your dog may have had an allergy you were not aware of and switching to a vegetarian diet eliminated that allergen. Saying that this means that vegetarian diets are better than diets that include meat is a poor founded conclusion from your observations.

Third (and this one really concerns me), no… coconut water is not some magic fluid that will cure all ailments, to draw the conclusion that coconut water is such a strong medicinal product that it cured your dog overnight is logic I’d expect to see on late night infomercials, not from someone who claims to know more than their vet about canine medicine.

I understand that this doesn’t directly answer the question you originally asked but I am a strong proponent of making medical and nutritional decisions using science and always in the best interest of your dog (even if it goes against something you believe in).

Some of things you’ve said really concern me. At the end of the day if you can’t have a science based discussion with your vet on why you chose a vegetarian diet for your dog then that should be a flashing red light for you that you haven’t done the proper research and don’t have the knowledge/qualification to be making such a drastic change to your dogs nutrition source….

[John P]

Dori:
I think rotational food might be my best bet at this stage in the game, but I have a few questions/comments for you:
1) How would you recommend introducing the new foods I’m researching to make sure Iggy (and Bella, my other Wheatable) can tolerate them before I rotate in a second, third, and fourth food (and so on)? It usually takes a little while for the itching to show up in either Iggy or Bella. On the other hand, I learned very quickly that bison was too closely related to beef for Bella (she has violent reactions to beef). Within hours, she was incredibly sick. So, I guess my question is how long would you wait before introducing each food and how many foods would you feed at a time when you’re trying out a new one? Would you switch to it exclusively for a short period?
2) I have always made my own treats. This started when I rescued Iggy as a puppy. He was extremely malnourished but wouldn’t eat much of his puppy food at a time. Bella, who is two years older, has never had any problems eating (especially if it’s bad for her — haha), so I had to find ways to get get nutrition into him throughout the day when he felt like eating without necessarily leaving food out all day long. I worked with my super awesome vet to come up with some “recipes”, I played with them to Iggy’s liking, and Iggy and Bella have been enjoying them to some extent ever since. They have always been anti-inflammatory, grain-free, and high-protein, with a good fat-to-protein ratio. I don’t use treats very often, but when I do, they’re always from my own kitchen.

crazy4cats:
Pardon my ignorance, but what is a “topper”?

Pam P:
This is great information! Like I said, I’m new to this site and new to the dog food world beyond what I have found in the aisles of my local pet supply warehouses. Please bear with me as I bombard you with questions/comments as I did with Dori. Here goes:
1) What is kefir? I’m afraid to leave this page in my tablet to go Googling for fear of losing everything I have typed so far, plus I’m betting your summation will be far more knowledgeable than anything I can find on Wikipedia.
2) How exactly do you find out if a company uses synthetic vitamins and minerals? Does a limited-ingredient brand such as Acana use them? I’m guessing something like that would be on the ingredients list, but is there a separate list as one might find on a cereal box? I tried to play around with Editor’s Choice the day I joined, but I couldn’t find the purported ingredient benefits of membership. That could be both a limitation of my browsing device and a limitation of the short amount of time I had available for browsing.
3) Do you mix the oils directly onto the foods before feeding? How do you know how much to give per kg/lb — does someone have a guide somewhere online? Again, this might be something I could search online. My Wheatables both have the soft blonde hair of the Wheaten breed, but it doesn’t have the luster it had when eating the Organix. I realize that could be due to many things besides just what I fed them at the time. I know when I first rescued Bella and before I got Iggy, my old vet introduced me to Dr. Udo’s pet line of holistic products. Do you have any experience with those? I believe he has a vegan oil blend (with several of the oils you mentioned) designed to do just what you said. The only reason I bring it up is it would have dosing guidelines. My worry comes from the fact that Iggy is at risk of being underweight (always has been), and Bella is at risk of being overweight (always has been), so I want to be sure and dose exactly according to what they should be getting.

InkedMarie:
Thanks for the hints! You saved me a lot of headache and searches by pointing me in the right directions. If I can use Dori’s rotational recommendations, I’ll need some novel proteins because so many have already been eliminated due to established allergies and intolerances (mainly poultry). I really appreciate the help!

Melissaandcrew:
Okay, I own several books on Wheatens. They are adorable, but that very adorableness is their downfall, which is why I have rescued two. However, I haven’t ever encountered specific literature on (nor have any of my vets told me about) skin conditions due to intestinal problems. I know about the inheritable digestive enzyme-related diseases. Do those also cause skin problems? If so, what kind? I will Google this further as soon as I can. However, your first-hand perspective would probably help me more than anything else.
Also, thanks for telling me you are also a proponent of rotational feeding, although to a more relaxed extent than Dori. This helps me decide that some form of rotational feeding is the next move for our pet family. I wish I had thought to do this sooner.

Pam P:
Nice to see you again! Thanks for the advice on the vaccines. Iggy and Bella missed their last routine vaccinations because they were extremely inflamed at the time, and the vet didn’t want to risk it. I will mention everything you said to my vet, and we will go from there. She has been extremely good to work with me so far. She got out of vet school right about the time Iggy joined our family, so she knows our history well, and she seems to be more flexible than some older vets.

Thanks again to everyone! I’m sorry I wasn’t more concise. I just have so many questions. If you don’t feel like answering but just want to send me to a website, a link is fine too. I’m off to do all of that Googling I promised to undertake. This community is amazing!

[James S]

A brand new member here…I don’t want to bring up an old subject if its already been discussed, but I can’t find a way to search on this forum to see if a particular brand has already been discussed. Suggestions?

[dana i]

Hi! I’ve been reading this forum all day today, but am overwhelmed by all the choices. I’d really love to hear people’s actual experiences and thoughts– what is on paper does not always match what makes the dogs happy and healthy.

I have two lab mix dogs– both rescues.
Diesel is a 1 year old Lab/Shephard mix who has allergies. 65# dog
Dudley is a 1 1/2 year old lab/Greyhound mix who has gas issues when he eats ANYTHING other than the current food… (even treats) 83# dog

They were both given horrible diets before they came to me.
I have them on Science Diet Lamb and Rice Large Breed formula.

At the time, it’s the ONLY thing that I found that helped Diesel’s allergy symptoms (they are completely gone on this food but when I try anything else it comes back) and Dudley’s gas is now a very rare thing on this food.

However, reading it seems that people don’t like this one and that there may be better out there… And the fact that when I went to buy it today I found it went up in price AGAIN. uugh. Maybe now is a good time to switch…

I want what is best for them, with budget kinda on the mind at the same time.

Right now, it takes us 11 days to go through a 33 pound bag of Science Diet Lamb and Rice large breed formula dry food and used to cost us around $45 a bag but did just go up to about $50.

I’d really love to get them something better. Maybe something that also makes their poop a little smaller too? (I know–wishful thinking? LOL)

Any suggestions based on the gas/allergies?
I priced raw diet– which I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to do, but it’s way out of our price range from what I am reading.

I CAN and will supplement a little bit of our cooked food on top (If I can avoid the gas and allergy issues– that will take a little experimenting)….

I have a feed store 1 mile from my house that sells some food but he’s kinda expensive on some items. I also live near Petco, Petsmart and have Amazon prime… I live in Texas, suburb of Dallas if that helps.

Any thoughts or tips would be greatly appreciated!

[jean v]

I have been a vegetarian for many years and recently became vegan. Why? the more I learn of the cruelty inflicted on animals whether it be for their meat or their milk or eggs, the less I can ethically choose to eat products that are produced through their suffering. This ethics applies to my dogs as well. They have been on a vegan diet now for years, and are all extremely healthy, active and sound. I have been reading all these posts, and trying to figure out if I should feel guilty that I’m “depriving” my dogs of what some people posting have said is their “carnivorous” nature. I can humbly say that I don’t know. I can’t ask them. I know that they seem happy and healthy. If there were a meat or fish based dog food that were made without causing suffering to animals, either in the production or testing, I would gladly switch. But just like there does not appear to be any humane way to prevent suffering to animals, and still consume them or their products, I don’t believe there is such a product made for animals. I would like to hear from others who have successfully raised healthy, active dogs on vegan diets. I see people become quite heated in their opinions when remarking on this site, and I would ask that anyone responding to my post do so respectfully.

[GSDsForever]

But you started this with a concern for digestibility, good absorption of nutrients, stool size, and gas. So I wanted to comment on that.

“I don’t know if having more animal protein versus plant protein would help her digest the nutrients and poop/have gas less?”

In short, no. It is the quality of the individual ingredients, what they are and their grade, that affect digestibility as they go into a formula. You’re also playing a balancing game with some ingredients, between rich in nutrients and greater digestibility. From there, processing matters. It can affect overall digestibility and preservation of nutrients. Finally freshness of ingredients going into the formula and from date of manufacture to purchase and use are very important.

I would highly recommend calling the company of the the foods you’re considering, as well as the one you’ve been feeding (Infinia) and asking for Total Dry Matter Digestibility, plus digestibility of protein, fat, and carbs.

The Infinia is rather low in protein, lower than I personally would feel comfortable feeding. But that isn’t the problem when looking at nutrient absorption and digestibility. But when the protein IS very low, then it becomes even more critical to ensure that it is very high quality and highly digested.

Since Infinia Holistic Salmon & Sweet Potato’s primary ingredients are ones that look good and CAN be highly digestible . . .

Salmon, Menhaden fish meal, sweet potatoes, potatoes

it may the grade of ingredients and/or processing that is problematic.

Fish meal, for example, comes in MANY different grades at VERY different price points to pet food companies. It can be very high ash & bones, leftover carcass material or low ash/high protein & high digestibility and come from good cuts included or whole fish with most bone filtered out, which costs the company considerably more and is harder to source. It also, by AAFCO definition, can be stripped of its oil (which is sold separately at profit, rather than going into the food) or have those precious Omega 3s left in. This formula appears to be very low in Omega 3, particularly for a fish formula, and even though it has been already boosted by plant oil (Canola). Reasons for fish formulas to be low in Omega 3 tend to be the meal has been stripped of its oils and/or use of farmed salmon. Salmon varieties also range greatly in Omega 3 content!

Canola oil is not going to be as digestible and its nutrients absorbed well in order to be used by your dog vs., say, salmon oil or an animal fat. (I personally don’t like canola oil anyway, as it’s not a very clean ingredient. In commercial use, it is generally high heat and chemical processed, damaged, and and contaminated.) Potatoes, sweet potatoes can include skins or not, etc. affecting digestibility and stool volume.

Foods cooked for less time and at lower temperatures preserve more nutrients. And gentle cooking both increases digestibility and nutrient absorbability in ingredients and nutrients AND decreases them compared to raw, depending on the ingredient or nutrient.

Consider how fresh the ingredients are, how fresh from date of manufacture, how it was stored and transported prior to getting to you, and how properly sealed the bags are. (From there, you must also store foods properly.) Actually smell the food.

But just to give you an example of how you can never tell with things like digestibility from the price and marketing/popularity of a product or just looking at the ingredient list of a “better” brand — Orijen’s 6 Fish formula has a pretty poor overall dry matter digestibility for a premium brand and is in fact the lowest among their formulas. It’s also lower than the cheap bulk bags from Costco, Nature’s Domain (by Diamond).

[Akari_32]

Of the foods you’ve listed, I regular use Wellness CORE, of all varieties, and usually the puppy food. My guys love all of them, and I’m very happy with the company.

The only one I personally would not feed on your list is Innova (and their other brands, EVO and California Natural). They use to be owned by Natura, which was a great company, then they sold out to P&G, where they promptly had a major recall when their 3 year contract to keep the recipes the same ran out, and now just recently, they have been sold to Mars. Mars makes foods such as Iams, Goodlife, and Pedigree, and of course they make candy. I’ve already noticed the recipes of EVO have dropped their protein levels by about 10%, and have loaded them up with more legumes.

[Desiree B]

Thank you so much for the suggestions theBCnut! I saw a few posts about Merrick and wondered if they were having issues or if we unlucky and got a bad bag. I’ve looked at a lot of the reviews here on a lot of different brands and it can be a little overwhelming. Especially when I was trying to see which ones were sold where we live. I actually looked at Nature’s Variety along with Merrick and went with Merrick cause it was made in Texas (that’s where we’re from) and when I read about them they seems to be a mom and pop kind of place if you know what I mean. Do you have any advice on which Nature’s Variety we should try first? Again thank you for the suggestions!

[Kelly P]

I have a 8yo Newfie/Golden mix who was dx with hypothyroid approx 4.5 wks ago and started on soloxine. things were going great….he was acting like a puppy again!! Then we ran out of dog food….we were planning on switching from Kirkland Nature’s domain grain free formula after the “recall” issues in Nov….but life got away from us and we had to scramble and he was on another brand grain free for 4 days and then switched him to Whole Earth Farms (Merrick’s entry level food) beef formula. 5 days on the Whole Earth farms….he stopped eating. Today is Wed eve….he hasn’t eaten since last friday. Took him to vet on Mon and had full blood panel sent off. The first vet put him on 1mg soloxine BID…..blood test came back showing he was still hypothyroid…and they want to increase his soloxine to 1.5mg BID. Despite the fact that he is exhibiting ALL the hyperthyroid s/s…like arrhythmias…27lb weight loss in 4.5 wks…etc. We finally force-fed him tonight. I started reading the forums on here….and despite asking my vet if (like humans) there were food restrictions when giving soloxine….i was told he can take with food. Either way….at my witts end. Apparently his CBC and Chem 12 and UA came back normal….and T4 or TSH (not sure what they ordered) came back as hypothyroid. Have not gotten copy of results yet.

Am i dealing with complicated thyroid issues or a food issue? clearly changing his diet has a big part in this….curious about experiences with the Whole Earth Farms brand (got 4.5 stars here). is this just a thyroid replacement issue combined with increase in nutritional quality??

Any feedback appreciated…. I am a nurse educator for an emergency department….I see a homeopathic physician for my own health…..I get human and dog health stuff….but am stumped and broken hearted right now…..

Thanks!

[pets c]

Hi i want you to read some of the very important posts of my blog. The things are very common in our homes and please check how vital role they play in your pet’s life.
1. Apple Cider Vinegar
How Apple Cider Vinegar can be Useful for Dogs

2. Coconut Oil
Coconut Oil Health Benefits for Dogs

3. Kefir
Health Benefits of Kefir for Pets
4. Eggs (there is a debate are eggs good or bad for pets, the article is simply an answer)
Are Eggs Good For Dogs!

Thanks

[aquariangt]

Treat parties for new commands and commands you struggle with are great! Nothing wrong with extra treats for something tough, I often make one little treat last forever (great for stays especially) mixing all those tactics together is great, and it’s good to keep me guessing. For old things I also move into treating every 2-4 times instead of every time, the. Two in a row, then skip a few, etc… When you are getting ready for the good citizen for example, you can’t have treats, so it’s good to get to that point without treats. And I see no problem with giving lots of high value treats for learning things, I don’t only pull them out a couple times in a session.

Unless any of you are planning on coming to Colorado for dog training, you aren’t clients that would normally pay me, so I have no problems sharing 🙂 ( I do however get loads of people mooching for free advice, mostly I don’t care but if it’s intensive, I’ll tell them to setup an appointment. The worst is people who call me about dog training that I don’t know from Adam, and ask me a million questions hoping for free answers, grr…) anyhow, off topic, you all are my internet dog friends so no worries.

Counter conditioning is quite simple, and exactly what it sounds like. Helping your dog not be afraid or anxious in a situation that puts them over threshold, causes fear, or is otherwise a hard position for them to be in. I do this the exact opposite way of what you see the dog whisperer do on tv ;-). I’ll use my sisters Westie for a really basic example with cars. He was terrified of them (can’t blame that eh?) but it was to the point where he would yank, bark, go crazy- unsafe really. So every time a car drove by, we worked on focusing on her, making her a pez dispenser, hand out as many treats as he would take, and reward when the car was gone. Clickers help with this as well. Eventually he got to the point where he could sit and focus without treats, and then click and treat party. Now she doesn’t even have to stop walking, but from time to time gives him a treat anyway. This tactic can be used for a lot of different counter conditioning, and I really like the clicker and having some shaping skills worked in for a lot of it as well

[Akari_32]

She very quickly loses interest in anything that doesn’t giver her immediate satisfaction LOL I’m pretty sure thats why she doesn’t like the Halo chews– because they’re too hard for her to chew, and she doesn’t get anywhere with them, so she gives up. The Denta Sticks are soft enough that she can eat them in a minute or so. I hope that once her teeth are dealt with, she’ll feel better. Just waiting on mom to have her half of the money for it.

I don’t know where I got the idea for it! But trachea is really high in glucosamine and stuff, and best of all, its not a bone, so no hard bone-poops LOL It fits in nicely with the raw meals I already have balanced out in the freezer :p

[pugmomsandy]

I’ve read from others where eating a fish based food causes an odor, even from good brands. Currently my mix does contain some fish, but it’s only 1/3 of their food. You can give the benefits of fish by just feeding some canned sardines (in water or oil, no salt added) a couple times a week.

• This reply was modified 11 years, 1 month ago by pugmomsandy.

[Dori]

Susan. Once again, a dog with an inflammatory illness should not be eating foods with night shade plants. If you know and don’t feed Patch foods with potatoes why not have mentioned that to the original poster.

If you truly have issues with Marie and as you say, you just move along and mind your own business and avoid her then why didn’t you do that here on this thread in this forum? You and Marie are both entitled to your own opinions and experiences as we all are. I try very hard not to go head to head with anyone unless I think and truly believe that someone is giving someone else erroneous information that can forestall a dogs issues because they are here truly because they are looking for help and guidance. My issue on this thread with you is that you didn’t tell the woman that potatoes were probably not a good way for her to go with her dog. After all, you know enough that Patch shouldn’t be eating potatoes.

Personally my issues with you Sue 66, Susan, are when you give advice that can do more harm than good or not really hearing the pleas when someone is reaching out for help.

Mike……if you want to delete my post please go ahead. I try very hard, as you well know, as you all know, not to get into these tiffs. I typically try to mind my own business. But I really could not hold my tongue and I chose not to, knowingly and willingly.

[Dori]

Aimee. And I disagree with you. If you have an inflammatory illness, as I do, and inflammatory illness, as I do, having similar underlying attributes, as I do, the general advice is to avoid pro-inflammatory ingredients and supplements. Aimee you and I go back and forth on many issues but this one happens to be one that I am closely related to and completely informed on. I’m not only speaking of canines or animals but of all. Having an inflammatory illness since 1997 I know of what I speak. I don’t live somewhere in the boon docks and not knowing of what I speak. I have been to the best of the best around the world, not just the USA. All have told me the same thing in different languages as to their knowledge and experiences with inflammatory illnesses. Having a dog with allergies….again, I know of what I speak. I realize that you are well versed and researched on the areas of science which I will readily admit I know very little of in schooling and education. Not my interests. I know what I know from many years of experience and knowledge. Let’s leave this particular issue alone between the two of us. I’m coming from extreme personal experience, you’re coming from it from data. Very very different. I mean no disrespect Aimee as, if you know me at all from our posts back and forth, I have a great deal of respect for you and feel you are probably one of the smartest if not THE smartest person on this and other sites, but this is not an issue you want to go head to head with me. Let’s just drop it right here. I don’t want to stress myself which is not good for inflammatory illnesses and I have too much respect for Dr. Mike to put him in a position that he has to be put in the middle of this particular discussion.

[Missie]

Hello, I’ve been reading the reviews for quite a while now on the site and decided to join the forum. I have a one year old beagle named Maisie. I’m fairly new to the idea of rotational diet or changing up her food frequently. Currently, she is eating Merrick Healthy Weight dry food and occasionally, she will get some canned food mixed in. I have her on the Healthy Weight food primarily because I live in Iowa and we’ve had a very cold winter and I haven’t been able to get her out and exercise how as much as I would like and she’s gain some weight over the winter. According to the vet she should be about 25 pounds and she weighs 28 right now.

Anyway, I’ve noticed with trying different dry foods, she seems to do better during the transitional period (more energy, stools are healthy, non-stinky) than she seems to do once she has fully transitioned to a new food. For example with the Merrick, I’ve noticed her stools are well formed, but her poop is stinky. She hasn’t had any diarrhea on the Merrick, but she’s had a couple of loose stools that I believe was caused by something she picked up on our walks.

I was wondering if there would be any benefits of mixing two dry foods together for her meals? Instead of just sticking to one formula? Like 50 percent old food and 50 percent new food? Would there be any nutritional benefit to this? Or would this possibly cause an upset tummy?

[Dori]

Susan. I too can read and the OP did not mention IBD with regard to her dog in any way shape or form. She talked about her dog being itchy and oozy. Why would you recommend a food that works for Patch for his IBD be appropriate for her Boston Terrier that is itchy and oozy? I’m just curious as to the correlation of your reply and the OP’s problem.

I’m also wondering about your response to Marie. I’m quite sure Marie has quite an active life. What makes you think she’s checking your posts in particular. I’m sure, like all of us, we see threads in the forums and comments on the comment side and want to offer some help if we can. I’m sure that if you re-read your reply to Marie you will see that it was a bit discourteous. There is also no need for yelling as that is what all caps typically means on line.

I also wanted to mention that IBD, Pancreatitis and Allergies are all inflammatory conditions. No one and that includes animals that has any of these conditions should be eating foods from the night shade plants. Potatoes are night shade plants as are tomatoes, egg plants, and many others that can be googled on line. Night shade plants are pro-inflammatory.

• This reply was modified 11 years, 1 month ago by Dori.

[james y]

I just used some puppy wormer from the grocery store. We fasted her for 24 hours and then treated her. Its been a week and shes already putting on some weight. She gets another does this weekend.

Im not really concerned about what the best food is. I just wanted something as good as the frozen food in dry form. One thing i can say about the biljac is theres alot less poo in the yard now and her coat is amazing!

We are on day three of the blue wilderness puppy food. She seems fine, but gassy like when she was on puppy chow. I guess its just something in puppy food

[Susan]

Hi sounds like your girl has IBD, I read on a link now I cant find it, it said you shouldn’t give dogs enzymes especially if they have a healthy gut, there 2 types of enzymes the plant enzymes or Porcine enzymes….I’d stop the kibble, my boy has IBD & has so many problems with kibbles, just finished trying another kibble & he was sooooo ill, bad acid reflux, now has a real sore throat from the acid reflux, vet wants him on just Turkey breast mince mix in 1 raw egg, then I make about 4 loaves & put on a baking tray & bake 20mins…just for 4-6 weeks to give his stomach a rest, I freeze section & also boil sweet potato boil pumkin & freeze, I boil some Quinoa as its gluten free,….he has stop scatching & his red paws have gone & the red under his chin has gone… I’m finding Patch needs a gluten free diet & has real bad food allergies that has caused his IBD & Colitis when he eats something that he’s allergic too, he has his bloody poos cause the food is irritating his bowel..look up gluten free & low residue foods & stick with those foods also don’t rotate too many foods as you wont know what is causing the itchy skin….
I have found foods that agrees with him & give for breakfast & dinner & something else that agrees with him for lunch & a late dinner, he has 4 small meals thru the day, we found this works best for Patch. also use Malaseb medicated shampoo I found to be the best…. Patch does not take any heartworm meds, he cant take any worm meds only Milbemax all wormer every 6months & I dread the day its due he eats grass the next day & feels sick all day but doesnt have diarrhea on the Milbemax, vet said its very mild, Patch can not use Advantage flea spot on… only Frontline plus, as Frontline only penetrates 2 layers of the skin, where other flea spot ons penetrate thru into their blood, Patch nilly died from Advantage…you name it Patch cannot take it, its all to do with his IBD…..
So I have learnt LESS IS BEST….

[james y]

Hello newb here looking for a little info.

First a little background
My 9 month old pitbull, maple has recently been having problems. She undoubtedly had worms and was scratching alot and losing hair. At first i was feeding her purina dog chow and she was doing fine. Then the wife brought home pedigree and thats when the hair loss started. So i instantly thought the dog had mange and began treating her for it. I also read that a raw diet would boost the immune system so i did that too. I fed her venison mostly, with raw eggs and gave her vitamins everyday. She cleared up and we started back with the unused portion of pedigree. Well she broke out in hives!

Ok so the dog is allergic to dog food…just my luck. A vet friend told me to try bil-jac frozen food so i did for a couple weeks. She was doing great on it! we got rid of the worms and shes putting on wieght and her coat is awesome! Although the frozen food isnt very convenient so i just googled best grain free dog food and found this site. I came across a name i recognized “blue buffalo” and this very site said it wss a five star food. So i purchased 20 pounds of the grain free wilderness red meat puppy food. It was pretty pricey, as a matter of fact i figure i could buy hamburger for $3 a pound but its so much easier than having to refrigerate or prepare raw food.

2 days into feeding and she seems to be doing just fine. I dont monitor poo, so i cant say anything about it.

Anyhow now im seeing all this bad stuff on the web about blue dog food….and something about a lawsuit with purina?? Is there any truth to these claims about the food hurting dogs or is it maybe a bunch of hired posters or something? If the stuff wasnt $60 a bag i would just throw it out and go back to the biljac.

[pugmomsandy]

First, pugs are always hungry and are vacuum cleaners. They pretty much eat anything and will seek out anything to eat. You can keep her on puppy food as they usually have more calories and she sounds quite energetic. Also a food made for puppies can be fed to adults as well and puppy kibbles are usually smaller. You want to feed her enough to keep her in a good body condition. There are several “Body Condition Score for dogs” on the internet to look at.

The pretty, best looking package is just marketing. If you look at a bag of Beneful which looks very good, turn the bag over and read the ingredients. You can also read the ingredients in the Reviews. I disregard any packaging art and just look at the ingredient list and guaranteed analysis which are usually in small print on the back or side of the bag. These are actually government regulated. The artwork is not.

I’ve had good experiences with ordering online dog food. I’ve only used Petflow so far but alot of folks use Chewy.

[Mieke v]

Our dog is on Honest Kitchen Zeal for pancreatitis and when researching it for that had read of folks who had lots of success on it for diabetes. I think that was maybe on Chewy.com where I read some of those. Maybe do a google search HK Zeal diabetes? I read on one post where one person’s dog was able to go down to half the medication dosage (for diabetes) after going on the HK. I also read that people w/dogs with diabetes will hydrate the food (HK is a dehydrated type) let sit for 10 min., then put it in a blender to break it up even more. Be warned, it is an uber expensive food! Due to its costs, and I am not sure if any food is good to give exclusively, we now have him on a rotation diet between the HK, Wellness Core (can) and Merrick Grain-free Wilderness (can). However, for us it save at least $500 in vet fees. Not to mentioned saved our beloved guy.

[Mieke v]

Hi Carol,

We also had pancreatitis symptoms in our dog and Honest Kitchen Zeal really did the trick. He was symptom-free almost immediately. I would recommend to let the food sit about 10 minutes prior to serving (or make ahead and refrig.). We now do a rotation of HK Zeal, Wellness Core, and Merrick Grain-free Wilderness. Three months in and he still has no symptoms. There is a website that lists many of the dry and canned foods and the fat content. It also explains about the information given by the manufacturers and how to figure fat content. I can’t speak to its validity, but it was helpful in pointing us to low-fat, high protein foods. Here is the link: http://dogaware.com/articles/wdjlowfatdiets.html In addition to the HK, on our vet’s advice, we did 10 mg of Famotidine with each meal (our dog weighs 55 lbs) for 2 weeks. You can pick it up at any grocery or drug store. Of course, you’d want to check with your vet first to make sure there are no contra-indications and for the dosage. As you probably already know, fasting is a thing of the past with treatment for pancreatitis and several small meals a day for the first days is the current approach. Good luck! It is so hard – I did weeks of research and I am a research scientist by trade! I hope you find something that works well for your little one.

[Aspen A]

Hi, SamD, Aspen here with Steve’s Real Food (for full disclosure). Rotating is good – you wouldn’t expect your kids to eat the same thing all day every day, and dogs should have variety, too. If you can’t afford raw all the time then switching back and forth would be fine, but if you can, completely eliminating kibble would be best – it sounds like you are already seeing the difference in how they react between kibble and raw, and it is because raw is so much healthier. You just want to make sure he is getting all the trace minerals he needs, and if he is a pup with lots of energy, proteins with higher fat content are better to help him maintain his energy and weight. Good luck to you!

[Keith F]

Hi, I have a cocker spaniel who’s about 3 years old and he’s had a ton of stomach issues and is a very picky eater. Our Vet recently had us only feed him rabbit based wet/dry food which really seems to be working. We were using Royal Canin from the vet but I got mixed reviews from a few pet shop owners about that brand so I recently changed over to Nature’s Variety Instinct Grain-Free Rabbit Meal Formula Dry Dog Food which he seems to like but I need suggestions on a wet food now. I looked into the Nature’s Variety Instinct wet version but it’s very pricey and I was hoping not to spend $4.50 a can unless I really have to. I’ve been trying to do research to find a good nutitional mix that might cost a little less and Evangers Game Meats Rabbit came up. I’ve never heard much about them before and I was hoping someone could tell me from a nutitional standpoint if this is a good food to mix with the dry food I already have if there’s any other suggestions out there. Worst case I can stick with the Royal Canin wet rabbit food but I’d figured I’d ask since I’m new to this site. Thanks – Keith

[Dori]

Aimee.
Sorry, I must learn to thoroughly read original posts. I sometimes skim read and I just focused on the part of the dog having stones. I thought he was asking for help with a diet for a dog that has or had stones.

Tom. I agree with you completely on the ingredients in the foods that vets prescribe. I understand that there may be some animals out there that will benefit from them but I’ve had many dogs in my life and have never come across one of them needing one of those diets. Not to say that I haven’t been asked by vets to feed one or another of them through the years. I just politely let them know that I appreciate their advice and I’ll think about it. This vet that I’ve had for 13 years knows that I feed commercial raw diets so none of the vets in the practice or the techs ask me anymore what I feed my dogs. Dr. Susan Wynn is a nutritionist that has seen my 15 1/2 year old Maltese when she was diagnosed with very high liver levels, then a tumor in her bladder and then a mass on the lobe of one of her lungs. All those were discovered early last Spring. At that point Dr. Wynn suggested that I put Hannah on Nature’s Variety Instinct Raw Diet because it is HPP and if Hannah’s immune system was working hard with all that was going on with her she didn’t want her to be exposed to any unnecessary bacteria. I feed a rotational diet with all three of my dogs and Nature’s Variety Instinct Raw Food was already in their diets. I continued to keep with my rotational feeding of commercial raw foods as I have for the last three years. Some are HPP and some are not. Actually most are not. Typically poultry is what is put under HPP and I don’t feed any poultry because one of my girls is highly intolerant of all fowl. I also don’t feed white potatoes or any night shade plants because they are pro inflammatory. April will be a year that she was diagnosed. To the delight of all, she remains asymptomatic to bladder or lung cancer. Her liver levels are back down in the normal range. (The elevated liver levels were discovered in last Spring’s blood work during her annual physical which is what started the initial visit to Georgia Veterinary Specialists where Dr. Wynn practices and was one of her doctors). I did add a few supplements to Hannah’s diet manufactured by Standard Process. She is regularly monitored and her blood work comes back normal. Her titers are all really good also. Her vet and I decided last year that due to the cancer only titers will be done for her for the rest of her life which I pray is for many many more years. Hannah is the picture in my avatar that was taken last year.

[Susan]

Hi Tom, this is the answer, I got from my vet 4 months ago when I kept trying premium kibbles for my dog Patch & Patch would become ill again with his IBD so I had to go back to the vet diets…
why vets back these vet diets is they have proven to the vets that their diets do work, Hills Science Diet, its in their name SCIENCE…..Hills have proven with science & done so many studies & tests on real animals with certain illnesses, that their vet prescription diet does work, vets are into science & what is proven so they believe in their diets, (Poor dogs that are tested) for Bladder problems, Pancreatitis, or IBD etc, they formulate a special diet that you can not buy over the counter at pet shops, that’s why it has a prescription.. don’t get me wrong I’m not for Vet Diet foods, I’m always arguing with vets until John my old vet said all this to me…. Sometimes when your dog is so ill you need these vet diets just to get them thru until your dog is strong & healthy enough to start on a different diet, people seem to think, OH the dog has IBD just feed him more fiber, wrong, dogs with IBD normally need less fiber & there’s no premium dog food out there that has real low fiber 1% as a vet diet has…. some illness do require a vet diet like EPI or SIBO these illness need real low fiber diets & some dogs need a low fat diet & low fiber diet…. Premium dog foods are made for healthy dogs not sick dogs…some people see a weight loss kibble that is low in fat & buy it cause its low in fat, then wonder why their dog was up all night with diarrhea ….normal premium weight loss diets normally have very high soluble fiber to keep the dog full so they aren’t hungry…where a vet prescription diets will be low fat & have the proper fiber in their diets…

Maybe in 10-20year these vet diet companies will start to improve their diets & add better ingredients…I asked a Hills rep about their crappy ingredients, he said they have already started improving their foods with their new Ideal Balance range, I said, yeh but the whole Ideal Balance range is Chicken for protein or potatoes & I said, why you use chicken & potatoes is cause they’re cheap & your still into making profit over the animals health, I said what about the animals that cant eat chicken or potatoes ?? he had no answer… I said why didn’t Hills use sweet potatoes & duck or turkey cause it’s toooo dear & there will be no profit..

[Susan]

Oh, I forgot to mention the fat% in wet food seems lower but when converted to dry matter (Kibble) its high for example 4% fat in wet tin food is around 22% fat when converted, if it was a kibble, that’s why I have to cook, if you live America you have lower fat% in wet food, then I have in Australia.. your best to get 2% fat & under for wet tin food, the Wellness Complete Health Senior has the lowest at 3% fat in the wet, or the “Wellness Petite Entrees Mini Filets” only the ones in gravy are 2% fat..

Have you have a Endoscope & Biopsies done for the Helicobacter? I found with the Helicobacter all the ant acid don’t work…. Zantac worked the best for Patch also, Zantac doesn’t affect the bowel, where Losec affects the bowel & gave Patch bad wind pain & sloppy greenie/black poos…..another thing I’ve just read on Dr Karen Becker site about fiber & prebiotics don’t use kibbles with Prebiotics Beet Pulp, FOS, a lot of vet diets use Beet Pulp & FOS & MOS… for a healthy dog with a healthy Gut, prebiotics are good but for a dog with GI problems Prebiotics can make things worse, another reason Patch was taken off kibble…The link has been put up on the Face Book group…

There’s a group on Face Book called “Dogs with Inflammatory Bowel Disorder” a few dogs on that site have bad acid reflux & stomach problems, the group was called, “Dogs with Stomach & Bowel problems” but the name was changed about 3 months ago..

[Christine U]

Hi everyone,
I seriously need advice.
I’ve been to regular vets and holistic vets.
I have a 4 year old Parsons Terrier/Shitz Tsu mix with bad GI issues. He’s had so many tests and it seems to be food related. We’ve tried so many foods and right now he’s on Royal Canin White Fish and Potato both wet and dry. He still has the occasional ‘gulping’ type issue but no diarrhea or vomiting.
Recently I found Grandma Z’s grain free fish and potato and he loves that and the ingredients seem to be a bit better than Royal Canin.
Here’s my issue. First…I’m ALWAYS open to finding the best food I can for him but we are getting ready to RV full time. My concern is finding his food on the road. Every vet has to order it and it can take 1-2 weeks. I plan to carry a lot with us, but I know there are so many new grain free foods out there. Maybe there’s one I haven’t heard of.
Any tips, advice, recommendations?
Thanks so much!
Christine

[theBCnut]

I grew my own grass fed beef. I’ve read that dog food companies can get grass fed beef because there are cuts that people don’t want if they are paying that much for beef. Also, if it doesn’t sell by it’s “sell by date,” it can go in dog food.

[Akari_32]

Ginger just sneezed on her way up the dog steps, and now there’s dog boogers all over the steps and couch. She sneezes all the time, ever since I got her, but this is the first time I’ve seen any snot come out. Last night I cleaned some mystery gook off the book I had on the couch near where she was laying, and now I can only assume is was dog boogers. Her nose also appears, after this sneezing fit, to now be openly running. She had her head down on the couch just now, and then went to readjust and the couch is wet where her nose was. How long would it be ok to leave this be before seeing the vet? I mean, it could just be allergies, right? But if she’s got something, a doggy cold or whatever, are the other dogs and cat likely to get it?