[Dori]

Kelly P. You could also look in to dehydrated dog foods. You just add water to them to rehydrate. Some are The Honest Kitchen, Sojos, Grandma Lucy’s. I’m sure there must be others but right now these are the three that come to mind. Both Primal and Vital Essentials make pretty good freeze dried foods that do not need to be rehydrated. Just scoop and serve. Just make sure your dog has plenty of water. You could try adding water to the freeze dried I mentioned but it takes a very long time for them to absorb any liquid. I’ve tried doing that and it just didn’t work out well.

Edit: Forgot to mention that both Primal and Vital Essentials Freeze Dried are both rated 5 stars on this site.

Good luck with whichever you choose. I will just add that I wouldn’t go from homemade or raw and then feed a kibble (Blue Buffalo or any other for that matter). That’s a pretty dramatic switch.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 3 months ago by Dori.

[Dori]

Hi Kim. I’ve been following your story and am sorry for what you are both going through. I know how difficult it is when our dogs aren’t feeling well and not acting like themselves especially when the dog is a senior. I have a 16 year old Maltese and worry about her constantly. You didn’t mention if you ever had a vet do an ultrasound. Hopefully when you take him to the vet you will request that they do an ultrasound and a senior blood panel test which looks for more than the typical yearly blood work. At 13 he should be blood tested every 6 months anyway. I will say that you should be very proud of yourself and take great comfort with the long life you have given your “man” as well as the love. I’ll be checking back on Thursday to see how he made out at his vet visit and hope he perks up before that. Anonymously is correct that antibiotics can cause nausea so that they don’t want to eat. If they keep him on antibiotics for a bit ask for an appetite stimulant also. I had to do that with one of my dogs once. Some dogs get very sleepy on antibiotics as well. Good Luck. I’ll be thinking of you both.

[Dori]

R C If this was my dog, I’d already be at emergency veterinary clinic not here asking for advice. Please get your dog to an emergency clinic as quickly as you can!

[Dori]

LadyJane. Glad to hear all you are doing. I stop flea, tick and heart worm meds quite some time ago. I also no longer have them vaccinated. They are all on raw healthy diets and are all healthier than they ever were. Blood tests always come back great. My three are homebodies also. Their excursions to the outside world are on our own property and on occasion to the vet where I carry them in and out.

[Dori]

Hi Karen, Personally I also disagree with the advice given to you from Anonymously regarding the addition of glucosamine and chondroitin for the exact reasons that Pitlove has stated. There is not enough glucosamine and chondroitin in any food to be of any real relief for arthritic issues. Yes the ones they say contain it do but not enough and also a lot is burned off when the kibble is made. As Pitlove suggested, you can run it passed your vet but I personally would continue to give your dog the supplements.

[Dori]

Kevin R. One of my girls, a Maltipoo, was riddled with food intolerances, sensitive and allergies and also environmental issues. Her dermatologist/allergist here in Atlanta, Ga. at Blue Pearl Georgia Veterinary Specialists suggested that I not do that particular testing nor the skin testing and shots. He told me it would be a very long process and the duration of the injections would probably be long term as she was such a mess. He advised me that the very best way to deal with her situation was to attempt to either do an illumination diet or try to figure out and eliminate ingredients in her diet and also to remove all, or as many, toxins in the home environment. I no longer burn candles, no air freshener sprays, no plug ins. I switched to natural type cleaners. Never ever any type of carpet freshening powders that are then vacuumed up. Hardwood floors are cleaned with a solution of vinegar and water. I also wipe her paws (all three dogs actually) when she comes in from out in the yard. I switched to a landscaping company that only uses organic products. I removed all the lawn in our patio/back area where they play and potty to stone, gravel and flower gardens….annuals and perennials. Just early on this year I had two types of testing done solely out of curiosity on my part because I had spent years “fixing” her issues to see what they would come up with. I did the Nutriscan Saliva test by Dr. Jean Dodds first and I believe the cost was around $250.00. If memory serves me that tests for 20 items. Though the test was informative as it did have things that I had already eliminated from her diet I did find that the test showed that she was sensitive to one of the few foods she actually does very well on. I then heard about a test called Glacier Peak Holistics on an allergy group I’m on. That tests for 200 including food and environment which cost $85.00. It is a food and saliva test. I that test was spot on for every single thing that through the years I had eliminated from her diet. The food that she does well on was not something that came up as a sensitivity on that test. It did come up with with food ingredient that I was not aware of and that was cucumbers. From time to time Katie would itch, not a lot but it was there. Turns out that they must have coincided with times that I shared cucumbers with the girls. I eliminated the cucumbers and she’s never scratched again. I feed all three of my dogs commercial raw frozen diets rotating brands and proteins with the exceptions of the ones that Katie cannot tolerate. For treats they get fresh fruits and veggies. I’ve been feeding them this way for a little over 4 1/2 years. Switching to the raw frozen was how I was able to eliminate her food issues as it was the quickest way to eliminate soy, grains, all fowl, corn, white potatoes, tomatoes, white rice, all night shade plant ingredients which are all pro inflammatory. I got Katie at the age of 9 weeks old and at that early age she was an allergy sensitive mess. It took me two years to go through the elimination process with her. She is now 6 1/2 years old and a happy camper. Quite comfortable and happy in her own skin. I continue to wipe all three toy dogs privates and paws with warm clean wash cloths. I should mention that I also have a “no shoes” policy in our home. No one, including repairmen, etc. enters our home with shoes on. It would defeat all I’m doing by dragging in environmental stuff that’s on the bottom of their shoes. Everyone is perfectly happy to go along with my wishes and as a matter of fact through the years more and more people that I know have gone with the “no shoes” in the house policy. I also purchased one of those iRobot Roombas that is programmed to go on daily and then I do a deep in the wall vacuuming once a week. It sounds like a lot but when it all comes together it’s all really easy and has changed her and our lives around.

Edit: I will add that there are some people that do not believe in the allergy tests that I have had done on Katie nor their efficacy. All I can say is that they really were spot on with Katie’s issues. Both companies will send you the kits that you need to do the testing with detailed instructions, you send everything back to them and typically in a week or so you’ll get an email with the results. You can then call them and they will go over the results in detail with you.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 4 months ago by Dori.

[Dori]

Sorry Kevin R., but I have not taken the time to read the posts and find out what type of dog you have. If your dog is a toy breed or a breed that is low to the ground, sometimes vaginitis is due to their size and breed. When peeing, their vagina touches the ground and is subject to the bacteria in that area. I’ve dealt with it in the past with toy breeds. Having toy breeds and that are short legged one has to wipe them each and every single time they come in from potty breaks. I have found that though it is more time consuming, a warm wrung out face cloth is much more effective in this area than non scented hypoallergenic baby wipe type products. You do have to do it every single time.

[Dori]

I’m assuming you feed him twice a day. If not, please correct me. I would portion his food into maybe four smaller meals so that he’s not trying to digest so much food at a time and that he doesn’t have long periods of time with an empty stomach. I’d definitely switch his water to filtered or spring, reverse osmosis would be great too. You can even buy one of those Brita filter pitchers and use that. You can also, but costs more, of course, add a reverse osmosis filter under your kitchen sink and drill a hole above for it’s own faucet and use that for his water. Yours to for that matter. There’s an awful lot of stuff in tap water that no one should be drinking let alone a dog that his having some health issues. But store bought water is perfectly acceptable. Just you have to deal with all the plastic bottles and the cost eventually adds up though he’s a poodle so he’s not going to drink all that much. I’ve got three toy dogs. Maltese, Yorkipoo and Maltipoo. No dry (kibble) for sure. It takes longer to digest and you don’t want his stomach to have food sitting around in him for that long. I should also let you know, full disclosure, that I feed my three dogs commercial raw frozen foods. I rotate the brands and the proteins with the exception of any and all poultry, fowl. But you shouldn’t start rotating foods with your dog until you can figure out what the issue is that he’s dealing with. Is he vomiting more with the dry food or the canned or does it make any difference at all? Just curious.

[Dori]

Claire P. When he vomits, what’s coming up? Also what type of water are you giving him? Bottled, Spring, Filtered, Reverse Osmosis or tap water?

It is possible that he is sensitive to something in his food. I’d try avoiding all poultry, all fowl, and go grain free, avoid soy, corn, any veggies in the night shade group as though all promote inflammation. Also no white rice or white potatoes for the same inflammatory reason. I’d also switch brands. Maybe try something like a dehydrated food. Grandma Lucy’s, The Honest Kitchen and Sojo’s I believe all make grain free formulas. You rehydrate them with warm water so that will get some liquid into him. You can also try adding digestive enzymes to his meals and probiotics. The brand I use is by Enzymedica as they are vegan and also vegetarian containing no grains, soy, etc. etc. so there very likely isn’t anything in them that could bother him. I have a allergy girl and it’s the only ones she’s perfectly fine with taking in her meals.

Another thought is, are you or anyone in the home giving him store bought treats or bully sticks or anything like that? Rawhide chews? If so, you shouldn’t.

One last thought: Have you given thought to allergy testing. Dr. Jean Dodds has a NutriScan test that is a saliva test. Another one that I have used and is way cheaper ($85.00) is by glacierpeakholistics.com. There’s is a saliva and hair sample test. You order there’s on line, same for the Nutriscan (I think that one was around $250 or $275) they’ll send you what you need with directions. You return the kit back to them and then you’ll have the results usually in about a week by email. If you then have any questions, you can call them and they’ll go over the results with you in detail. I found the tests very useful and only wish I’d done them early on instead of going through years of eliminations.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 5 months ago by Dori.

[Dori]

Hi Mike,
Thank you for going to all the trouble to do so. I knew it wouldn’t appear in the Dog Food Recall area because it’s not a recall. I just thought that anyone that feeds that particular line should be made aware that something was up. Especially troubling at the time was that no one knew why. I noticed today that there is a “rep” from Hill’s saying it was an issue with the labels on the can but that same “rep” said that Hill’s has never had a recall in their entire history. I linked the 2014 Hill’s Science Diet recall for your Dog Food Recall are for that rep.

Again, thanks for going out of your way to verify that something was up. I should have guessed that you were already on it.

[Dori]

Christa P. There is not a single food on that list that your vet gave you that I would ever feed any of my three dogs.

Unfortunately allopathic veterinarians tend to the foods that they sell.

[Dori]

Christa P. Have you thought about feeding dehydrated foods such as The Honest Kitchen. You add water to the food to rehydrate so your dog will get plenty of water and it’s a great food rated 5 Stars on DFA. There are others also but that’s the one I feed on occasion in rotation so can’t give any advice on the other dehydrated food companies. The Honest Kitchen has some grain free foods and grain inclusive. Also they have formulas that you can rehydrate and add your own meats, fish or poultry. Anyway, just a suggestion on my part.

[Dori]

Robin P. Great info. Thank you. It wasn’t originally clear to me from your suggestion about Great Life. I appreciate your quick response.

[Dori]

Robin P. Yes they may get their vitamin pack from the USA but what’s in the pack, where are they sourced individually. Are they just packed in the USA and sourced individually elsewhere? Just as important as where they are sourced is the question of whether they are synthetic or GMO free.

[Dori]

Good point Pitlove. I’d forgotten about the herbicides.

[Dori]

Have you gone on the review side and read through the number of gastro problems so many dogs are having?

[Dori]

That’s why I said what I did in my post Pitlove. Way too much wrong going on. Avoiding it like the plague.

[Dori]

I think we can all agree that none of us are going to now or in the future order food from David T.’s site. It makes absolutely no sense. There is no way possible that he can sell premium foods that we would buy and feed our dogs for the price he claims unless he means the service is $39.00 per month and then the actual food has it’s own price. Also does not make sense. Why would anyone spend $39.00 per month for nothing. He also has on the section of what brands he carries where it clearly states Orijen, Acana and Fromm. Is that just a come on to get one to sign up because now he’s saying in his response to me and others that those are some of the brands he hopes to carry in the future. Well as those are the only brands that most of us would order why would we sign up. None of this makes sense. I will also add that at any point in time were he to be able to offer Orijen or Acana for $39.99 a bag, no way no how would I feed that to my dogs. I don’t trust what would be in the bags or where it came from. Anyway, I’m done on this subject as I think the entire thing, concept, explanations, etc. to not meet any of our standards for food that we would feed our animals. I believe we have given him more than his 15 minutes of fame here.

[Dori]

Well, David T. I just checked out your site to see what brands you carry and for the most part, and from being on DFA for a number of years now, the only quality brands that I saw that you carry are, in order, Orijen, Acana and to a much lesser extent, Fromm. Most, if not all, of the other brands you carry are the ones that most of us stay away from for various reasons.

I’m going to check your site out again because I just started wondering how you can sell Orijen and Acana for $39 per month.

[Dori]

I wish!

[Dori]

Like Facebook is doing, we need not only an Upvote (like) but how about an down vote (don’t like)? Little up and down arrows.

[Dori]

LMAO!

[Dori]

Well, Marie. I’m okay with the jail part as we’ve already concluded that they’ll pay us to get out or just toss us out on our a!@s’s, I just don’t want them to put us separately in solitary.

When I came back a little while ago hoping they deleted my response to the spammer I noticed that they didn’t so then I read the last post on Page 3 and now it looks like I’m screaming at Aimee over something she said to Pitlove. That made me ROFLMAO. As I’ve been know to get myself in trouble from time to time here I thought I should maybe say something before I got called on it.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 7 months ago by Dori.

[Dori]

Hi all! Just so I don’t seem like a real nut job, the post that I was replying to above me was removed as a spammer after I contacted Dr. Mike and Patti S.

[Dori]

OMG!!!!!! SERIOUSLY WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?

Is there no longer a section where we can flag posts on the forum side. Has no one else seen this post?

• This reply was modified 8 years, 7 months ago by Dori.

[Dori]

I would try either a commercial raw frozen food, home cooked or even canned (Weruva) until he gets over the loss of her friend. It’s a difficult time for both of you I’m sure. You can even try a dehydrated food that you add water to or goats milk. Something tasty with a good scent that may encourage her to eat.

If all else fails I would call the vet and ask for an appetite stimulant but I would do that only as a last resort.

[Dori]

I use Standard Process’s Canine Whole Body Support for only one of my dogs and that is because she is 16 years old and has some health issues now. My dogs are commercial raw frozen fed, also at times freeze dried. Their treats are fruits and veggies. Nothing processed so that, in theory, the other two (6 years old) don’t need any supplements so they don’t get any. I only started adding the supplements to my old girl a couple of years ago on a regular basis. My theory with her is that at her age and health issues she could use a bit of extra help.

IMHO, Pet Tabs are one of the worst multi-vitamins on the market complete or otherwise. As I said, just my opinion.

Standard Process Canine Whole Body Support can be purchased on line or directly from Standard Process through a veterinarian. It’s a whole food supplement in powder form, comes with a scoop and for my size dog I give her 1/8 tsp. 1X daily mixed into one of her meals.

[Dori]

Susan R. I may have missed it but why do you want to feed your dog a senior food?

[Dori]

HAHA!

[Dori]

Red, I’m sorry but I can’t agree or accept any of the reasons on your list. There is absolutely no excuse, in my mind, for not getting medical treatment if you have chosen to be a guardian to a companion animal or multiples. It is akin to saying that you will not get medical help for your human children and use any of those excuses. It is one thing to say that you may not be able to feed expensive, or whatever, foods. So that is why you are feeding a, b or c. I happen to believe there are a lot of quality foods that are not all that expensive far better than some of the garbage people feed. I’m a raw feeder so I’ll go no further on that topic.

I know you don’t actually think that homeopathic, holistic, natural, etc. is gobbledygook and just going to take it as you being cute. That’s okay. I use allopathic medicine and doctors as well as integrative and homeopathic medicines with my three dogs. Some work better than others and also, of course, depends on the extremeness of the situation. I also use tissue salts, essential oils, remedies, etc. All in moderation and with a watch full eye. None at the expensive of good old fashioned medicine which I also at times will take with a grain of salt. BUT…..I do get my dogs checked out once every single year, Hannah will be 16 on 9/9 and she goes twice a year. If I find lumps, bumps, drooling or what have you, I’m at the vet like a shot.

As for finances. Credit Card. A lot of doctors will give you a payment plan. Though I may be glib at times about allopathic vets I do believe there are a number of really good caring veterinarians that will help you make a payment plan and their concern is the animal and do no harm. If one is going to the other type of vets, then they should have moved along a long time ago. Okay, I’ll get off my band wagon now.

[Dori]

Wow, I guess I missed the 8/6 one. I just don’t understand this type of guardianship, I doubt many here would either.

[Dori]

ASAP passed a long time ago. The OP post was Aug. 23, we encouraged immediate vet visit and still the dog is not being seen until Tuesday, Sept 1st. I suppose everyone has their own priorities. Any of mine would have been seen on Aug. 23, the day of the original post. They would have been seen by my vet without hesitation. Lumps, bumps, drooling? Yep, they would have said bring her right in. If they said anything different than that they would not be my dog’s vet. I would have found another vet or an emergency clinic to see my dog that day. As I said, priorities differ with people.

[Dori]

Please call your vet in the a.m. and explain to them the situation to see if they can squeeze you in any earlier. It’s always best to get any lump or bump diagnosed. If they can’t, I personally would make an appt. with another vet. Could be nothing, but it could be something that needs immediate treatment. For the couple of days or so before the appointment I would suggest you not give your dogs antihistamines as they may mask the situation.

[Dori]

All Orijen is grain free, so is Acana Singles. The Honest Kitchen has a few grain free formulas. It has for quite some time.

As for freeze dried grain free foods there is Primal, Vital Essentials and I believe Nature’s Logic makes a grain free freeze dried food. I feed commercial frozen raw diet for my three but I do use freeze dried in a treat jar near the back door when calling them in. They consider it a reason to come flying into the house regardless of what they were up to outside. From time to time the only dehydrated food that I will use is The Honest Kitchen grain free fish formulas. Zeal is one and I believe they have just come out with one that has even less ingredients in it, I believe it’s called Brave (?) something like that. I just got an email about it last week or could have been this week. I don’t care for any of the other dehydrated foods that I’ve tried although Grandma Lucy’s is not bad.

[Dori]

Thx Marie. I’ll check out DogAware. There’s only one place that I came across in Georgia but it goes back to 2012 and no info since then. Even at that time you were only allowed to go on a waiting list. Periodically I do a search on line again and keep asking friends but so far no one knows of any.

[Dori]

Yeah, Marie. Prices are really crazy. They’ve gone up in price way more than any of the other commercial raw foods that I use in rotation. Unfortunately, and I know this is incredibly hard to believe, there are no raw food co-ops anywhere in my area. I’ve searched on line thinking I’d be willing to drive an hours or so away but, nope, none to be had. I don’t know how I would feed my three if they weren’t toy breeds.

[Dori]

Chuck. I’m wondering if you’ve checked out Darwin’s on Amazon. They only sell it in variety packs but the shipping is free regardless of the size of the variety packs. As long as your dog doesn’t have any food intolerances with any of the variety packs proteins I feel it’s a good way to do rotation diet. For a raw diet I’ve never thought it was particularly expensive, or should I say any more expensive, than any other commercial raw frozen. It was the shipping that made it unaffordable as far as I was concerned. All other frozen raws that I feed I can purchase locally so I didn’t care for the shipping fees.

[Dori]

MaggiesDad I just checked Allprovide’s site and there has been a great improvement to the site. Unfortunately I will not be visiting your manufacturing site nor ordering your food. Reason being that one of my dogs is intolerant of all fowl. The only food I would have been able to order would have been the beef but after reading the ingredients I see that the beef contains turkey.

One of my pet peeves and one that I find incredibly annoying is when companies label their foods and picture on their packaging one protein actually contain more than one protein. Your Beef Formula is listed on your site as only Beef and Vegetables but when you check out the ingredients I found that the second ingredient is turkey. Why not just label it beef, turkey and vegetables. Many many companion animals are allergic, intolerant and/ or sensitive to not only chicken but all fowl. All of your other products are chicken based. Hopefully at some point you’ll add single proteins to your product line. At that point I’ll reconsider Allprovide as a food in rotation at our house.

[Dori]

Thanks MaggiesDad. I’ll go on the site and check it out.

[Dori]

Hi Tuck M. Sorry for the delay in my response. I just came across your post in my spam box. No, I never went to visit Allprovide because I couldn’t find anything on their site about the general analysis of their food or anything else as to % of protein, fat and carbs. They’re not that far away but I didn’t feel like making the drive for a food that doesn’t have full disclosure on their web site.

[Dori]

Wrong person C4C. You meant me??? 🙂

• This reply was modified 8 years, 8 months ago by Dori.

[Dori]

Hi SUsan S. To have any food put on the review list please click on the link below.

/contact-us/suggest-dog-food-review/

[Dori]

So, Red. I’m gathering from your post that you consider alternative therapies a waste of time and money? Just curious as to where you’re coming from?

[Dori]

He could just be eating too quickly. Are we talking about your Yorkie (avatar picture)? If so, I would first try one of the bowls that are made to slow down their eating they are available in various sizes and you can buy them pretty much everywhere. Elevating bowls for toy breeds are not always recommended as I’ve read in the past that it interferes with their trachea which are already fragile to begin with and also possibly musculoskeletal issues. Let me find the article and I’ll come back and post it here. But anyway, my thought is he/she is eating too quickly and gulping air as he eats. Toy breeds aren’t usually chewers, they like to inhale their food and lots of air at the same time.

[Dori]

You could try Nature’s Logic or Zignature or you could start introducing slowly a few different foods and give thought to a rotational diet.

/frequently-asked-questions/diet-rotation-for-dogs/

[Dori]

Thanks Sarah L. for the reply. I placed an order for the trial size and am going to give it a try. With the raw food recalls of the last few weeks I’m looking for alternatives. I appreciate your getting back to me and will do like wise in making larger batches and freeze. I only have the freezer at the bottom of fridge so I’ll use the Food Saver bags so that I can lay them flat since dear hubby insists we have some frozen people food also. Really, all he wants is some ice cream in the freezer and frozen fruits and veggies for the smoothies I make when fresh is not available.

[Dori]

Hi Sarah. Thanks for the post. I’m wondering how large a batch do you make at a time? I know the instructions on the site call for 2 lbs. of meat so do you just double or triple the recipe, or more?

[Dori]

Just wanted to take a second and agree with pitlove on her recommendation of Nature’s Logic. When I still had kibble along with our commercial raw diet rotation, Nature’s Logic was the only one I was able to use and was really happy with. One of my dogs has many food sensitivities, intolerances and allergies. The millet in Nature’s Logic never bothered her in the least.

I’ve never used Farmina as all of their dog foods either contain some form of poultry or potato which are no go’s for our dogs.

[Dori]

Marie, does Farmina have any formulas that don’t contain poultry? How about that don’t contain potatoes?

[Dori]

Tried it out of curiosity and didn’t have any problems getting to the Fresh Pet site. I don’t feed it nor would I (personal preference) but was curious as to why Leslie was having the problem.

[Author]

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