Switched To Raw And Now Won't Eat

[Nwtdiesel]

Hi, I have a 23 month old all white with a few brown spots on his face EBD named Diesel Williams. He's my buddy and follows me all over the house and is always next to me. When I got him about 6 months ago he was eating Purina dog food. I knew there were better options so I did a lot of research and I decided to go raw. We waited a month or so till he felt comfortable at his new home. After he seamed happy and normal I put Diesel Williams on a BARF diet of raw chicken, intestine, carrots, wheat germ and extra virgin olive oil. I bought all the raw from the local butcher and I was spending $70 a week on his food. We had everything ground and would portion everything into 14 bags and freeze it all. We fed him morning and evening. I slowly did the change from kibble to raw over a 2 week period and he adapted well. His stool was big and hard and he actually lost 3lbs of body weight pretty fast. He looked very good after going raw. As time went on he started getting red bumps all over his legs and he would itch and bite them. His stool started getting soft and small. I started eliminating and changing one thing at a time with his BARF diet. I replaced the carrots with broccoli, eliminated the oil, eliminated the wheat germ, tried apples, but no matter what my wife or I eliminated/changed he wouldn't get better. I watched him close when he went outside to make sure he wasn't eating any thing in the backyard. He stays indoors 23 hours a day only going out to take a break or go for a walk. After not finding anything, we switched to raw beef from the raw chicken and it got worse! He got the squirts and he wouldn't eat at all for two days. I finally bought some Blue Wilderness and he scarfed it all down and is happy again. As much as I hate to we will probably stay with the Blue Wilderness because trying to go raw was such a horrible experience. My wife wanted to kill me because it was such a pain to try this and try that and buy this then buy that. What did I do wrong? I feel so bad and feel like I failed. Today was the first day he went on the Blue Wilderness, I'll keep you guys posted with what happens. I just took him for a 3am walk because he was giving me the signs he needed to go outside. Stool wasn't hard but wasn't the squirts thank god.

 

[aprilemari]

Hi, welcome to the forum, you can find many many things to help you and your bulldog here. I'm sorry that the food switch isn't going smoothly. English bulldogs can do great on raw foods, especially since they have sometimes odd allergies. It could be that Diesel is both allergic to raw beef and raw chicken. With the chicken especially you have to be sure to purchase non enhanced (non water/salt treated) raw meat (which is what a butcher would sell, unlike many grocery stores). Loose stool may indicate that there is not enough bone or too much organ, but the hives are what tells me that protein source does not work for Deisel.
We didnt switch to prey model due to lack of freezer space at the time, and I just didn't trust myself yet. I once gave Lola some pork ribs after she had been on commercially available raw and she vomited pooped bone chips all day, so scary. Our commercially available raw ends up being less than $70/week actually (NVI raw frozen duck) and does not need any additional supplementation. I will tag our expert raw feeder for some more help [MENTION=3354]RiiSi[/MENTION]

You could also consider hunting for the perfect kibble food for him, perhaps start with a different protein source from blue wilderness, and identifying allergens in the food from there. There are great resource articles on the homepage here on food ratings.

 

[RiiSi]

So sorry this is happening, sounds agonising to you all. If you want to continue with the raw feeding I suggest starting him on elimination diet. That means giving him only one type of protein, preferably one that he hasn't had before, for so long that there is no bad reaction. Then start adding one ingredient at the time to his diet and wait to see if there's an allergic reaction, two weeks or so. If there is quit giving that and wait....Then add another....etc. Also, if Blue Wilderness suits him and he likes it, why not continue with it.

 

[Nwtdiesel]

Thank you for your replies! I only went with raw because of the benefits I read about. I want my pup to live long and healthy and happy. I want to keep him in shape and do not want him to get obese. I was looking forward to the healthy skin and less hair loss. I thought raw might help with all these things I wanted for him. I have been doing a lot of reading about Fromm foods as well.

For now I'll keep him on the Blue Wilderness and see how he does. If he gets allergic to it I will go to Fromm and see how that does. Right now we just need a break from all the work, time and $ it took to try and figure his diet out. It killed me to see him just sniff his raw food and walk away. Do you guys think this is a fair/reasonable choice for now? I'll keep you guys posted over the next couple weeks. Thank you for your replies!

 

[Nwtdiesel]

Here are some pics of Diesel.

 

[RiiSi]

Raw is great, but it doesn't work for every dog, so don't feel bad at all. There's lot of great kibble brands too and Blue Wilderness is good food. If it doesn't work you may be better of trying something that has limited ingredients, so you could get some idea what is causing the problems. Looking good anyways!

 

[Nwtdiesel]

Diesel is still taking in the BW and happy. Man I'm about to throw away 11 lbs of good butcher meet :/

Ugh. Oh well.

 

[aprilemari]

Keep it for treats or birthday snacks? . For a long time I wished Lola would just eat kibble, any kibble. I think it's slightly more economical and clean and convenient. Oh well! Thankful that both our dogs eat well!

sent from my droid mini

 

[Nwtdiesel]

Diesel is eating all his Blue Wilderness, cleaning the whole bowl!

His stool is hard and looks good. No biting at his legs and no bumps yet...

What the hell! If that's what he wants I'll keep feeding it to him and see if he gets any allergies in a week or two. I'm glad he is happy now and back to eating.

 

[Nwtdiesel]

He's snoring away lol