Help Needed! Endless Food Roller Coaster, and scared of vet recommendations!

[linwhite]

You know, it's easy to forget that all we know about each other is what we choose to post up here. We don't necessarily know the good, the bad or the ugly about each others lives. I think we may, including me, imagine each others lives to be as good as or better than our own, with fewer obstacles and challenges to over come each day. Unfortunately, that is not always the case so we all, including me, need to work at not judging each other's choices.

 

[Momma2Bullies]

Hey thank you guys for all of the input!
question for those who home cook....what kind of beans? And how do you know how much to feed ( portion size)?

an additional factor where I live is that there are still environmental allergies....grass, leaves, bird seed (LOL- he eats it all and she doesn't so I know this could be a factor)...his chin acne flares up in the afternoon.

[MENTION=959]kazzy220[/MENTION] I have tried RC (disaster), wellness super 5 mix, wellness healthy weight, nature's variety instinct limited turkey and now the wellness duck and oatmeal.

PS love this forum and everyone on it! I am very happy to have this community at my fingertips!:D

 

[cowsmom]

Hey thank you guys for all of the input!
question for those who home cook....what kind of beans? And how do you know how much to feed ( portion size)?

an additional factor where I live is that there are still environmental allergies....grass, leaves, bird seed (LOL- he eats it all and she doesn't so I know this could be a factor)...his chin acne flares up in the afternoon.

@kazzy220 I have tried RC (disaster), wellness super 5 mix, wellness healthy weight, nature's variety instinct limited turkey and now the wellness duck and oatmeal.

PS love this forum and everyone on it! I am very happy to have this community at my fingertips!:D

we are happy to have you here to :D

 

[bullmama]

I use whatever dry beans I have but red kidney are the best for nutritional content I believe.... I like to get the bag of mixed beans too, black beans and pintos are cheap, any lentils will do

 

[Vikinggirl]

Hi, I have also had issues with my 2 babies regarding their food, when I brought them home from the breeder, they were on Royal Canin, they told me it was a good food, I asked my vet, and she also told me it was a good food. My breeder sends you home with a new puppy package with a bucket of Royal Canin, and my vet sells this brand, so they probably get some kind of perks or kickbacks for selling and promoting it. I had read the labels, and had been researching dog foods. That's how I actually had found the EBN site. I didn't like the corn and fillers in the Royal, and my female Blossom has had very pink face, ears, irritated chin, and tears pink eyes. When they were 6 months old, I switched them to Go Natural, a food I was familiar with, I used to have a Jack Russell for 14 years, and had fed that brand to her. I liked that brand because it was all natural, good ingredients, human grade chicken, and it was made in Canada. It is also a 6 star food on EBN , my female Blossom did fine on this food, but my male Bulldozer immediately got mushy poops, and diarrhea , and he started to eat his poop, YUK, I asked my vet, and she said the food was too rich for him, and that he probably ate his poop because the food made his poop taste good. She suggested putting them back on Royal Canin. I switched them back , and Dozer again was ok, Blossom continued with the irritated skin and eyes. I researched some more on the website, asked questions from other members, and was told Fromms was a good food. I switched them to Fromms Gold Puppy, and again Bulldozer got runny, mushy poops, and Blossom, was pooping a lot, big piles, very mushy, and she started to pee a lot. I even thought she had a bladder infection. I switched to Fromms Beef Fritata, and they have been on this food for 5 days now, the first 2 days, poops were a little soft, but Bulldozer is fine now, Blossom also had soft poops, but are now normal , but her skin is still pink, eyes still teary, she had her cherry eye in her right eye fixed a month ago, so that might be part of it, and her left eye developed cherry eye last week, 3 months after the right eye, she is having that fixed on Nov 9th. I think it's too soon to tell if its going to be a good food for her, I will continue to give it to her, and see. Her poops are normal, and it may just take time for the other foods to leave her system, before we see the results. If after a few more weeks on Fromms she is still having issues, I think I will put her back on the Go Natural Grain Free, because she did well on it, and leave Bulldozer on Fromms. I will buy them different foods. It's no different than if you have kids, and one is allergic to a food, or does not like a certain food, you would accommodate and change their diets accordingly. You could try this as well, feed them different foods. I was also talking to a friend of mine, who is a butcher, he has a female bulldog that is 12 years old, I saw him on the weekend, and asked him what he fed his dog, he said he fed her Eagle Pack, so I came home and googled it, and it seems to be a good food as well, only it did have corn and chicken in it, so it probably won't be good for Blossom. If the Fromms Beef doesn't work for her, then I will buy 2 different foods for them. Could be an option for you, hope you find something that works for you, good luck

 

[kazzy220]

Hi, I have also had issues with my 2 babies regarding their food, when I brought them home from the breeder, they were on Royal Canin, they told me it was a good food, I asked my vet, and she also told me it was a good food. My breeder sends you home with a new puppy package with a bucket of Royal Canin, and my vet sells this brand, so they probably get some kind of perks or kickbacks for selling and promoting it. I had read the labels, and had been researching dog foods. That's how I actually had found the EBN site. I didn't like the corn and fillers in the Royal, and my female Blossom has had very pink face, ears, irritated chin, and tears pink eyes. When they were 6 months old, I switched them to Go Natural, a food I was familiar with, I used to have a Jack Russell for 14 years, and had fed that brand to her. I liked that brand because it was all natural, good ingredients, human grade chicken, and it was made in Canada. It is also a 6 star food on EBN , my female Blossom did fine on this food, but my male Bulldozer immediately got mushy poops, and diarrhea , and he started to eat his poop, YUK, I asked my vet, and she said the food was too rich for him, and that he probably ate his poop because the food made his poop taste good. She suggested putting them back on Royal Canin. I switched them back , and Dozer again was ok, Blossom continued with the irritated skin and eyes. I researched some more on the website, asked questions from other members, and was told Fromms was a good food. I switched them to Fromms Gold Puppy, and again Bulldozer got runny, mushy poops, and Blossom, was pooping a lot, big piles, very mushy, and she started to pee a lot. I even thought she had a bladder infection. I switched to Fromms Beef Fritata, and they have been on this food for 5 days now, the first 2 days, poops were a little soft, but Bulldozer is fine now, Blossom also had soft poops, but are now normal , but her skin is still pink, eyes still teary, she had her cherry eye in her right eye fixed a month ago, so that might be part of it, and her left eye developed cherry eye last week, 3 months after the right eye, she is having that fixed on Nov 9th. I think it's too soon to tell if its going to be a good food for her, I will continue to give it to her, and see. Her poops are normal, and it may just take time for the other foods to leave her system, before we see the results. If after a few more weeks on Fromms she is still having issues, I think I will put her back on the Go Natural Grain Free, because she did well on it, and leave Bulldozer on Fromms. I will buy them different foods. It's no different than if you have kids, and one is allergic to a food, or does not like a certain food, you would accommodate and change their diets accordingly. You could try this as well, feed them different foods. I was also talking to a friend of mine, who is a butcher, he has a female bulldog that is 12 years old, I saw him on the weekend, and asked him what he fed his dog, he said he fed her Eagle Pack, so I came home and googled it, and it seems to be a good food as well, only it did have corn and chicken in it, so it probably won't be good for Blossom. If the Fromms Beef doesn't work for her, then I will buy 2 different foods for them. Could be an option for you, hope you find something that works for you, good luck

Don't forget that everytime you change the food you have to give it a good 30 days each time on the new food. That's how long it takes for the old food to get fully out of their system and for you to see any true results from the new food.

 

[Momma2Bullies]

Hi, I have also had issues with my 2 babies regarding their food, when I brought them home from the breeder, they were on Royal Canin, they told me it was a good food, I asked my vet, and she also told me it was a good food. My breeder sends you home with a new puppy package with a bucket of Royal Canin, and my vet sells this brand, so they probably get some kind of perks or kickbacks for selling and promoting it. I had read the labels, and had been researching dog foods. That's how I actually had found the EBN site. I didn't like the corn and fillers in the Royal, and my female Blossom has had very pink face, ears, irritated chin, and tears pink eyes. When they were 6 months old, I switched them to Go Natural, a food I was familiar with, I used to have a Jack Russell for 14 years, and had fed that brand to her. I liked that brand because it was all natural, good ingredients, human grade chicken, and it was made in Canada. It is also a 6 star food on EBN , my female Blossom did fine on this food, but my male Bulldozer immediately got mushy poops, and diarrhea , and he started to eat his poop, YUK, I asked my vet, and she said the food was too rich for him, and that he probably ate his poop because the food made his poop taste good. She suggested putting them back on Royal Canin. I switched them back , and Dozer again was ok, Blossom continued with the irritated skin and eyes. I researched some more on the website, asked questions from other members, and was told Fromms was a good food. I switched them to Fromms Gold Puppy, and again Bulldozer got runny, mushy poops, and Blossom, was pooping a lot, big piles, very mushy, and she started to pee a lot. I even thought she had a bladder infection. I switched to Fromms Beef Fritata, and they have been on this food for 5 days now, the first 2 days, poops were a little soft, but Bulldozer is fine now, Blossom also had soft poops, but are now normal , but her skin is still pink, eyes still teary, she had her cherry eye in her right eye fixed a month ago, so that might be part of it, and her left eye developed cherry eye last week, 3 months after the right eye, she is having that fixed on Nov 9th. I think it's too soon to tell if its going to be a good food for her, I will continue to give it to her, and see. Her poops are normal, and it may just take time for the other foods to leave her system, before we see the results. If after a few more weeks on Fromms she is still having issues, I think I will put her back on the Go Natural Grain Free, because she did well on it, and leave Bulldozer on Fromms. I will buy them different foods. It's no different than if you have kids, and one is allergic to a food, or does not like a certain food, you would accommodate and change their diets accordingly. You could try this as well, feed them different foods. I was also talking to a friend of mine, who is a butcher, he has a female bulldog that is 12 years old, I saw him on the weekend, and asked him what he fed his dog, he said he fed her Eagle Pack, so I came home and googled it, and it seems to be a good food as well, only it did have corn and chicken in it, so it probably won't be good for Blossom. If the Fromms Beef doesn't work for her, then I will buy 2 different foods for them. Could be an option for you, hope you find something that works for you, good luck

Thank you!! this is what i have been thinking too.... maybe they are not allergic to the same things. How old are yours? littermates as well? Mine are, and they are 1 yr 5 months now. Hopefully food thing will be figured out soon. I hate switching foods like this.... I know it takes at least six weeks to see real food impact and so far I have been switching them alot. Layla is doing the best she has since puppyhood , just reddish eyes and tear stains. But Wilbur doesn't seem to be improving at all. I just really do NOT want that weirdo fake Hill's z/d and I know that will be my vet's next option. She is fed up with my "food explorations" that always result in antibiotics for at least one of my guys. She is right.... I don't want them becoming resistant to antibiotics or anything like that.

 

[Texas Carol]

May I make a suggestion? Avoderm has several flavors of grain free food
and is easy to find at PetsMart and is reasonably priced.

Any food change takes about 1 month to evaluate results. All the switching
around is frustrating, time consuming and a pain in the arse!

Brutus is doing quite well on the Avoderm, his bald spots & sores are gone, his
coat is thick, shiny and the white is very white. His pinkness is gone and his goopy
eyes have cleared up!

I would do the Hill's diet only as a last resort. Good luck!

 

[Vikinggirl]

My 2 are only 8 months old, and I have switched them from Royal Canin to Go, then back to Royal Canin, then I put them on Fromms, which we are on now, Blossom, is my white dog, and she seems to have the most problems, her skin on her chin, ears, are pink, and she always has teary, pink eyes. Her poop is normal on the Fromms, and its only been 5 days, so I'm going to stick with it, and see if she improves, and if not, then I'll put her back on Go Natural Grain Free, and keep Dozer on Fromms. I also give them plain unsweetened , unflavoured yogurt, two or three times a week, sometimes with a cut up apple, or plain, they get bananas, I give them an egg once a week, and baby carrots as treats. The only treats that I give them when I'm walking , or training them, are the wellness soft squares, I break them in half, and I give them the wellness cookies, sometimes. I can't give them huge pieces of hard treats, because they don't chew things very well, they just inhale and swallow .lol. Everyone wants to give them treats when we are out, like at Petsmart, or pet value, but I'm careful what I give them . For instance a lady gave me some dried chicken, it was dehydrated real chicken, almost like chicken jerky, but it is so hard, and has sharp edges, so I didn't give it to them. Now I'm glad I haven't given them some of these other treats, because 2 people at my work have had their dogs die of kidney failure from dog treats made in China, one girl has 3 Shelties, and one of them died this weekend, and another girl at work died two weeks before that due to kidney failure too. Very sad, I try to give just natural things to my babies.