[Marisa J]

Hi I work at a pet store and have a hand full of customers with Shih Tzu’s.

If your dog has a sensitive stomach I would recommend adding goat’s milk (a universal milk) into your dogs diet. This will not only aid in digestion but also add hydration too! Some brands even added spices into the goat milk for added benefits.

If not goat’s milk I would encourage you to find a good probiotic powder for your dog. This will help with the sensitivity of your dogs stomach.

Merrick is good brand and Duck is a cooling protein (this will help with any inflammation). I would recommend after 2 months switching through Merrick’s formulas to help your dog become accustomed to other proteins and amino acids.

Other brands that are high in protein and low in carb (easier to digest) are Zignature, Orijen, Farmina, Acana, and Essence.

If your dog has a sensitive stomach I would also try introducing freeze dried treats. These treats are a lot easier to digest than biscuit treats. I only give my dogs freeze-dried raw treats.

[Marisa J]

Hi, I work in a pet store and lots of my customers have had concerns with DCM. Therefore I have done plenty of research on it to help out these customers and for my pets sake as well. It is a topic that I am very knowledgeable. I recommend reading the whole FDA article or at least skimming through it. There are two documents, one is all the cases and one is the FDA’s study. The results are inconclusive at the moment and many brands are working together with the FDA to further investigate.
From reading it I can tell that there are many factors that the FDA left out like affordability (who can afford the vet bills for these tests? What food are they feeding if they can afford? Are they feeding a more expensive kibble or a cheap one at Walmart?), genetics (what breeds are more likely to have which diseases? How many of this species is in the USA (out of 77 million dogs), metabolism (how can a dog digest a kibble diet compared to dehydrated, canned, freeze dried, or raw? How bioavailable is taurine in kibble?), what diets were these dogs on (a majority were on kibble only, some had a mixture, I think 1 or 2 were on raw, and couple had dehydrated foods).
In the end, out of the 500 some cases of dogs with DCM a huge section were fed kibble only diets. So, if anything I would link it more so as a kibble problem than a grain free vs with grains. With the research I have done looking at scholar articles, brand studies (of course always reading between the lines because brands what to do a study to help their brands cause), blogs, and websites, I have noticed that grains cause more inflammation in dogs than peas as they are not as easy for dogs to digest. They force the organs to work a little bit harder. If you notice too, no raw diets (at least that I have come across) have grains in them, only fruits and vegetable, and meat.

There are many other diseases like cancer, liver problems, kidney disease, and pancreatitis that are a lot more common than DCM. DCM affects a small amount of dogs (less than 600 out of 77 million dogs in the US). But if you do decide to feed grains. Please watch out for smelly ears, itching, and hot spots. As grains, along with chicken, are a very common allergy in dogs (since they are put into a lot of foods due to their low cost).

[Marisa J]

Hi I work in a pet store and study dog and cat nutrition at work and at home. Duck is a cooling protein that helps with inflammation but so is whitefish, alligator, red snapper, and there are a few others as well. As far as your concern with DCM; it is a topic that I am very wildly knowledgeable in and talk to many customers about. I recommend reading the whole FDA article or at least skimming through it. There are two documents, one is all the cases and one is the FDA’s study. The results are inconclusive at the moment and many brands are working together with the FDA to further investigate.

From reading it I can tell that there are many factors that the FDA left out like affordability (who can afford the vet bills for these tests? What food are they feeding if they can afford? Are they feeding a more expensive kibble or a cheap one at Walmart?), genetics (what breeds are more likely to have which diseases? How many of this species is in the USA (out of 77 million dogs), metabolism (how can a dog digest a kibble diet compared to dehydrated, canned, freeze dried, or raw? How bioavailable is taurine in kibble?), what diets were these dogs on (a majority were on kibble only, some had a mixture, I think 1 or 2 were on raw, and couple had dehydrated foods).

In the end, out of the 500 some cases of dogs with DCM a huge section were fed kibble only diets. So, if anything I would link it more so as a kibble problem than a grain free vs with grains. With the research I have done looking at scholar articles, brand studies (of course always reading between the lines because brands what to do a study to help their brands cause), blogs, and websites, I have noticed that grains cause more inflammation in dogs than peas as they are not as easy for dogs to digest. They force the organs to work a little bit harder. If you notice too, no raw diets (at least that I have come across) have grains in them, only fruits and vegetable, and meat.

But if you do decide to feed grains. Please watch out for smelly ears, itching, and hot spots. As grains, along with chicken, are a very common allergy in dogs (since they are put into a lot of foods due to their low cost).

[Marisa J]

I would try goat’s milk since it has tons of probiotics in it and helps rebalance the gut. It will make sure your puppy is has more good gut bacteria than bad gut bacteria. It will help with the loose stool along with hydrating your puppy as well. As far as a diet, I would try something that is complete and balanced like a dry food (without corn, wheat, soy, by-products, and grains), dehydrated (without grains), freeze dried, or raw. Ideally raw food is the best diet for dogs and kibble is the least freshest food.

[Marisa J]

If you are looking to switch over to a food without chicken and has grains I highly recommend Farmina or Inception. These foods are amazingly high in protein from animal meat and low in carb for a grain diet. I would highly advise you stay away from grains as the research I’ve done has shown that it is harder for their organs to digest, however, I understand with the fear of DCM. But the results are inconclusive, as I have read both 70 page articles on it. Its more so a kibble problem it looks like than a grain free vs with grains. Also, there are far more common diseases like pancreatitis, cancer, kidney disease, and liver disease.

If you want to switch over to grain diet watch for any symptoms of smelly ears, itching, or hot spots as your dog may have a grain allergy as well.

Fromm cannot tell you the amount of protein in their food from animal meat. Their bags are also high in carb as they use high glycemic index foods like potatoes. If you really want to add grains into the diet please look into Inception and Farmina Ancestral Grains.

[Marisa J]

I follow breeders on social media and many that feed raw will give their puppies the deer, rabbits, chickens, ducks, pheasants, etc… but will remove the skin/feathers. They do not freeze the meat but they deworm their dogs once every year sometimes I’ve heard twice. I also know people who will feed ducks and quail whole, feathers and all. I preferably like to freeze the meat for 3-5 weeks to kill of bacteria but I’ve seen people go about it differently. If you know the source of the meat and that it doesn’t have worms I think you will be okay.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 1 month ago by Marisa J.

[Marisa J]

Hi! I work in a pet store and feed a raw diet for my dogs. I would try switching up brands of where you get the raw. Do you buy it from the grocery store or a pet store or hunt for it? Try switching up brands! If your puppy still wont eat the raw try adding bone broths on top. I really like the frozen bone broth from Primal! I’ve had some customers relate it to “crack” for their dogs.

[Marisa J]

I work at a pet store and I can tell you I’ve only ever had one dog deny Farmina so far. And the dog was fed raw and they were looking to find a kibble. So, when going from something so fresh to something cooked and not fresh it’s pretty hard.

Farmina is awesome though! They are a high protein kibble and low carb. They are from Italy so the standards there are much higher than any USA dog food.

They produce bags to vendors orders. So it’s nice to know that these bags are not sitting on a shelf waiting for dust.

They also press fruits and vegetables together and spray this on their kibble for a vitamin supplement. So no random vitamin E supplement purchased from the market. And I think this is why so many dogs and cats love their food.

They also cold press their ingredients into the shape.

Farmina is an awesome kibble! Their bags range in price too depending on proteins and flavors too.

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