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My American Bulldog mix has a history of occasional stomach upset that causes excessive drooling that I have to use Pepcid to treat. I thought it was pretty random, usually occurring 1-2 times a month. But I’ve noticed that it tends to happen as we get towards the end of a large bag of dry food (my vet had suggested rotating every 1-2 bags). Rotation helped a lot, as did avoiding chicken.
It seems that issues starts once we’re a few weeks into a bag of food. Picking up stools yesterday, I noticed that they were pretty soft and one had mucus inside. Both dogs have been going to town on eating grass, but that’s pretty normal for them (and I don’t use any chemicals on my lawn or garden). Could it have something to do with sticking with the same formula for too long? I’ve been rotating every 2 bags, but maybe I should rotate every bag instead…
My vet also suggested Purina Pro Plan Focus Adult Sensitive Skin & Stomach Salmon & Rice Formula .
Do any of the ingredients look suspect?Salmon, barley, ground rice, canola meal, oatmeal, fish meal (source of glucosamine), animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols, brewers dried yeast, salmon meal (source of glucosamine), natural flavor, sunflower oil, chicory root inulin, salt, fish oil, Vitamin E supplement, niacin (Vitamin B-3), Vitamin A supplement, calcium pantothenate (Vitamin B-5), pyridoxine hydrochloride (Vitamin B-6), folic acid (Vitamin B-9), Vitamin B-12 supplement, thiamine mononitrate (Vitamin B-1), Vitamin D-3 supplement, riboflavin supplement (Vitamin B-2), menadione sodium bisulfite complex (Vitamin K), biotin (Vitamin B-7), potassium chloride, zinc sulfate, ferrous sulfate, manganese sulfate, copper sulfate, calcium iodate, sodium selenite, L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (Vitamin C), and choline chloride
Dogs eat grass because they are nauseous, they are trying to induce vomiting. It is not normal to eat grass. I would try to stop them.
I would talk to your vet about prescription food/therapeutic diet. That is if the Purina Pro Plan Focus doesn’t do the trick.
Also, more diagnostic testing may be indicated to get to the cause.
Visit this site (link below), use the search engine to look up various topics, nothing is being sold at that site.
Have you tried buying smaller bags? Maybe he is hyper sensitive to the food at the bottom being stale or rancid. My dogs love eating grass and there is nothing wrong with them. I am on a DCM Facebook site where thousands are switching to Purina ProPlan Sensitive Salmon with excellent results. I feed mine Purina PP Large Breed Weight Management and I couldn’t be happier. Good luck!
Eating grass is a red flag that something is wrong with the dog!
The only dog I ever had that did that (more than just once in a blue moon) died young of an aggressive form of cancer.
I am talking about a span of dog ownership over 30 years.I tried Purina Pro Plan Focus Sensitive, meh, it’s okay. I prefer Fromm.
I think the Purina Pro Plan is a bland food so it might work for your dog.
I would continue to work closely with your vet. Best of luck.
I already discussed grass eating with my vet. Some dogs just like to eat grass he said, his dogs included. However, he cautioned that if you have a dog that normally does not eat grass, then eating grass is a sign that the dog has a stomach issue and is trying to induce vomiting.
My mother’s dog never ate grass. But all of a sudden she’s eating grass, vomiting, eating more grass, vomiting, licking floors/carpet…
She needed surgery because she had an intestinal blockage. Turns out she was sneaking in the back room and started to literally eat the fibers of a throw rug. The vet saved the contents of her stomach. It was unreal how much stuff was in there. It literally looked like she had swallowed a mop head.
But my dogs have always eaten grass. Actually, my 1 dog always ate grass from the time I adopted him. When I adopted my other dog 6 years later, she never ate grass (she was 14 weeks old when I adopted her). She would follow my older guy around and do what he did. She started to copy his grass eating habits. Now they go out together…it’s amusing to watch.
And yes, they’ve also eaten it with an upset stomach to induce vomiting or I’ll notice it in their poop.
But sometimes they’re just hanging out in the backyard running around and playing and wind up wandering over to some taller blades that the lawnmower missed and lazily chew away.
My vet said it’s fine as long as their blood results are good and they appear to be eating fine. And when my big guy has an upset stomach episode I can tell by his body language that it’s going to be a bad night for him
Not quite sure what I have all figured out since my question was about whether eating the same food for long periods of time can cause stomach issues.
If it’s about the grass eating, I added it to specify that in addition to eating grass to induce vomiting when their stomachs are upset (which for my 1 dog is 1-2 times per month and the other almost never has any issues), my dogs usually eat grass daily. Which is something I had the vet check out and confirm that they were healthy and it was fine.
But thank you for the Fromm recommendation! Is there a particular Fromm formula that works best for you?
https://www.gofromm.com/fromm-four-star-nutritionals-salmon-a-la-veg-food-for-dogs
Both are doing well on this as a base. The terrier was fine on Classic Adult but my other one with allergies does best on a fish based food. It is easier to have them on the same food. I don’t “rotate”.
I do change up the toppers and add a splash of water to meals.
Hi Christie, what food are you feeding? what are the ingredients? And did you notice any change in kibble size or color? What foods did you start your rotation on? Sorry for all the questions but they maybe relevant.
Also, drooling is a sign of gas and upset. Mucus can occur with food intolerance.Christie I would like to also know is chicken in the formula’s you are using? Sometimes food intolerance is just what it is. Some dogs and people can tolerant the offended food for a little while and than can’t. Some can not tolerant it at all even in small amounts. Another words, if a dog has a food intolerant to chicken, they may tolerated for a couple of weeks than boom diarrhea. Some may tolerated in very small amounts. Are you feeding anything in between? Just trying to rule out some possibilities. There is a rule of thumb I use, rule out minor things first. Or the brand you are feeding is somehow going rancid fast. Let me know what brand you are feeding.
Low-fat beef first and second grade – a good solution for meat diet. Mutton and rabbit meat, taboo on pork. Well absorbed by most dogs, chicken, turkey and offal. Meat is not crushed, and cut into pieces of medium size. The fish menu is best made up of the gifts of the seas and oceans, they have fewer bones, and besides, there are no parasites in frozen fish.
Well digested by animals and are a source of nutrients – proteins, trace elements – dairy products, especially cottage cheese. Taboo on too fatty foods, but they should not be completely fat free.
Joanne – right now they eat Merrick Classic Beef Recipe Kibble with Merrick Big Texas Steak Tips Canned as a topper (I split the can between the two of them).
I usually buy the biggest bag and then if there haven’t been any issues, then I buy another and then rotate afterwards.
The previous rotation was Canidae Multi-Protein All Life Stages Kibble. Both dogs hated it…I had to sprinkle a bit of cheese on it just to get them to eat. It was a total waste.
Before that it was Instinct by Nature’s Variety Be Natural Chicken & Brown Rice
The rotation before that was Blue Buffalo Adult Lamb & Brown Rice Formula.
The rotation before that was ProPlan Large Breed Senior Bright Mind (I had my 4 year old dog finishing the bag of Blue Buffalo Lamb). Surprisingly, my big guy wasn’t a fan of the Purina ProPlan formula, so I only used the 1 bag before switching.
I started to keep a record of when his drooling episodes occurred, to see if there was a pattern.
3/2- Purina (chicken) , 3/9 Purina (chicken) , 4/11 (turkey), 5/15 Canidae (multi protein)/Be Natural (Chicken) during transitioningI may have missed one or two in between, but they only seem to occur 1-2 times per month.
I’m pretty sure he had an episode while on the current Merrick Beef and Green Peas w/ Ancient Grains
I avoid chicken now (which is hard because it seems like so many formulas list chicken as a secondary protein ingredient).
I try to stick to beef or fish since they don’t generally add chicken. I also try to limit potatoes because my vet told me that they can be hard to digest and lead to stomach upset. I’m not quite sold on Merrick using Peas as their 3rd ingredient. I’d prefer it to be lower on the list.
I have a storage container with a lid to help keep the food fresh. I used to dump the food in directly, but I learned that it’s better to keep it in the original bag and put the bag inside the container in case any issues with recalls come up so you can check the bag for the manufacturing info. The only time I noticed ‘bad’ food was a bag of Purina Pro Plan from like 9 years ago when my dog was a pup. I didn’t notice until the container was almost empty, but it was infested with Pantry Moths and larvae/worms. Unsightly but harmless.
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