Help Needed! Input needed on stomach issue/food

[cowsmom]

My gut is definitely telling me to try something besides this which is not working. Thanks!

ok help me out here im reading this thread and its kinda confusing to me. is the only problem you are having with the food the dogs stools? if so it could just be all the changes you are doing in the diet. when i had sarah on kibble i would get spooked and change her kibble in an instant. not really good for the dogs digestion. its very hard to find some bullies the right kibble. ive learned to find a protein they tolerate and work out from there. 2 or 3 days is usually not enough time to know if a kibble is going to work or not and especially if they are taking meds to. if you want help with another kibble then im always around

 

[Deestar]

Yes, the only issue she's having is the soft stools.

It all started a few months back when I wanted to switch her to a grain free food because she was having kind of soft stools on Wellness. She had a horrible itching/redness reaction to the grain free (Hi-tek). I suspected it was the potatoes so I got her back on the Wellness. Then I slowly transitioned her over to the NVI because the stools were still soft on Wellness. After adjusting for over-feeding, it seemed for a short time that all was well on the NVI but after a few days of firm stool it was back to loose. A week of raw feeding gave her diarreah and she lost weight. I transitioned her back to Wellness because, while the stools were loose, they were not as bad as when on the NVI. It does sound like a lot of switching but it was spread out over a month or so.

So she's been on her current food for a while. The 3 days was referring to the experimenting with stretching the meals out to 12 hours apart. That didn't seem to help like I hoped it would. So now I'm back to suspecting it's the food but am really nervous about making yet another switch. At any rate, I think I should wait the week until she's done with the meds because I think they can affect the stools too. This morning's stool was really soft and it's usually the firmest one of the day.

On the bright side.....the vet said her weight is perfect and that she's in fantastic condition. :D

Thanks so much for the help!

 

[cowsmom]

[MENTION=4441]Deestar[/MENTION] yes meds can definently affect the stool so i would not do anything until they are done. it could explain the soft stool in the am. also you have to look at water content. are you soaking the kibble with water or adding any water to the diet as that can cause loose stools also. i have heard this from wellness that it causes loose stools in alot of dogs so its not new. going from wellness to nvi would be a bit of a shock to the system as they are very different foods. what wellness are you feeding may i ask? you know wellness has grain free foods you could try called wellness core. what proteins have you tried?

 

[Deestar]

I'm not soaking the kibble because she drinks a good amount of water on her own. She's on the Wellness Super5mix Chicken now. The NVI was salmon. In the past she's had some lamb.

 

[Deestar]

We went back to the vet yesterday for the follow up visit. She's been off the meds for 5 days now. Still having loose stools. Pancreatitis test came back negative, will get Giardia results back in a few days.

A few days ago I started a transition to Nutrisca Lamb and Chickpea. I made it 7/8 cup of the old food (Wellness Super5mix Chicken) and 1/8 Nutrisca. Last night I increased the ratio to 3/4 Wellness and 1/4 Nutrisca. Today's lunch time stool was very, very loose. I guess it was too soon to increase it so tonight I'll go back to the 7/8 - 1/8 ratio. If that doesn't work I seriously don't know what to do next.

 

[Deestar]

So, I MAY have reason to think there is light at the end of the tunnel. I say MAY because I've been there before where I thought we were home free only to have a return of the mushies. So, I'm trying to contain my optimism until more time has passed.

Over the last 2 days she's had a few nicely formed stools. Not super firm but a lot better than the gold colored soft serve of the last several weeks. We're still transitioning......down to about a 50/50 ratio of Wellness/Nutrisca.

Since the Nutrisca doesn't have pro-biotics I ordered a bottle of capsules. The instructions say 1 capsule for dogs up to 40 lbs. and two capsules for those 40 lbs. and up. Of course Lucy is right at 40 pounds. Lol. Would 1 capsule be enough? 1 capsule = 500 mgs.

The Gardia test came back negative.

Thanks!

 

[bullmama]

So, I MAY have reason to think there is light at the end of the tunnel. I say MAY because I've been there before where I thought we were home free only to have a return of the mushies. So, I'm trying to contain my optimism until more time has passed.

Over the last 2 days she's had a few nicely formed stools. Not super firm but a lot better than the gold colored soft serve of the last several weeks. We're still transitioning......down to about a 50/50 ratio of Wellness/Nutrisca.

Since the Nutrisca doesn't have pro-biotics I ordered a bottle of capsules. The instructions say 1 capsule for dogs up to 40 lbs. and two capsules for those 40 lbs. and up. Of course Lucy is right at 40 pounds. Lol. Would 1 capsule be enough? 1 capsule = 500 mgs.

The Gardia test came back negative.

Thanks!

Good news so far, keep us posted


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[cowsmom]

aw i hope this is the ticket for you. i would start with one capsule but it really wont matter if you give her 2 wont hurt nothing.

 

[Deestar]

Thanks!

 

[Deestar]

I'm declaring this one a case of chicken intolerance. Getting down to the end of a nearly two week long transition and she's had 6 nice, firm stools in a row.

Maybe this explains why she got diarrhea on the raw diet? On that she had nothing but raw chicken.

Another question, just for future reference.....if she was indeed sensitive to the chicken, is it odd that the only symptom was the loose stools? She didn't have any redness or itching, no watery eyes or anything.