As some of you know, Corona has had an issue with multiple infections since about a month after we got her. She started with a very rare puppy anal gland infection, bladder infection. The vet changed her food from lamb and rice to a chicken base food to try and firm up her poop to help her glands express consistently. Her poop was already pretty firm though. From that point on, the diarrhea began and the colitis that followed for over 6 weeks. A hydrolized protein didn't really help to firm up her poop and neither did prednisone for inflammation or an antibiotic. A diarrhea panel was performed and was negative. So it's gotta be the food. She was then changed to a gastric diet, chicken based again, AND put in tylosin. All is perfect again with the stool but She has since had an eye and an ear infection. I've since been informed by breeder that mom and many pups in the line have an allergy/sensitivity to CHICKEN. Ugh. I'm afraid that the tylosin (great for colitis) is the only reason for her firm poop and that the diarrhea will return the second she stops taking it since she is eating a chicken based food. I would like to try and change her to her original lamb and rice. Vet said it's up to me but doesn't sound too encouraging. She seems to be focused on keeping her on a hypoallergenic dog food that costs a fortune! Sometimes, I feel like the doctor takes a complicated approach to things that are really quite simple. Her problems began when CHICKEN was introduced. Even when she was eating the lamb and rice, she was getting CHICKEN based treats which could have been the cause of her anal gland infection. I have to change her food again but my gut is telling me to go with this. Thoughts?
Personally, I would scrap the chicken! It's quite a common allergen in dogs. At least, if nothing changes, you'll know it's not that. And, if it fixes it, bonus. It seems silly not to try it.
You can get hypoallergenic/specialist gastro food without chicken. My dog was left with a sensitive tummy after taking NSAIDs, plus is intolerant of chicken, so he is feed a duck based hypoallergenic food.
I would scrap the chicken as well and for the time being, I would also stop all treats to see if the change in diet improves the tummy issue and use either kibble pieces or something with one ingredient (I use small apple and carrot pieces, but depends on what your pup likes).
I agree with everyone else. If you feel it could be chicken it would be good to eliminate that from her diet. Harley had lots of problems with her tummy when she was little. The vets were really good and did try different food options with us. Some vets like you to buy their hypoallergenic which is usually expensive - my vet wasn't like that luckily. Go with what you think
Poor Corona, agree with suggestions, if you think it's chicken then that's a good place to start. When we rescued Charlie we had him a lamb kibble which I suspected caused him awful tummy problems, I stopped it immediately and put him onto Salmon & Rice, not a single problem since. I never, ever give him any lamb even though he would love a tiny piece on a Sunday xx
We had to take Libby off chicken based food. It just didn't agree with her. She had come to us on the Costco salmon food when was 9 weeks old. Not having a Costco card, I put her on Blue Buffalo Chicken and Rice and we immediately had problems. But then she got worms so I thought that was the issue. All of that cleared up but I moved her to Pro Plan thinking the Blue Buffalo was too rich. Same problems with that. A few weeks ago, we transitioned her to Taste of the Wild Seafood Puppy and everything is completely normal now! I got to thinking that's maybe why she was on a seafood protein food when she came to us. Could be her relatives had the same issues. Taste of the Wild has an adult version of the same food that we will switch her to when it's time.
Mine are on Arden Grange Lamb and Rice which is a hypoallergenic food and not vastly expensive. I tried them on the Arden Grange Chicken and Rice and they had soft poo, didn't suit them at all! I am very happy with the Lamb and Rice.
If you feel you need to take her Chicken, be sure the alternate food is not contaminated with small amounts of chicken. We talked with our vet about a hypo allergenic diet for Tilly and were warned that even a tiny amount of the food she was potentially allergic to would mess up the test. Both of our dogs are on the same food which is a Chicken and Rice base. Tilly has had food reactions to some cheap food a couple of times, but the current diet seems to be ok for her.
Really interesting... I never knew chicken could be such a problem! This is good to know. I cooked fresh for Brogan and a huge staple of his diet was chicken (5 whole ones a week).
I've begun the VERY gradual change to the original lamb and rice that she came home on. One quarter of the last 4 meals have been the new food. So far so good. Last day of tylosin so I'm biting my nails that she doesn't start with poop problems again. The vet suggested that I gradually change the food despite the fact that the current gastric food is CHICKEN based. Not sure about that. But also afraid that if I don't do it gradually, she could get the runs from the quick change over too. Also the last day of her ear meds. Let's hope that's the end of that. On a positive note, we have decrated successfully at night for a whole week now. She was just too long for that 36" crate that was in our room. Now if I could just get her to sleep past 5:30-5:45... baby steps.
Duncan had nonstop diarrhea problems that brought us to the vet for the first 6-7 months of his life that the vet kept having to put him on medicine for UNTIL I read online that a lot of dogs / labs can have problems with chicken based foods and chicken byproduct AND many foods that are lamb and rice the second ingredient is chicken byproduct anyways even though it says it is lamb and rice food! For instance, I asked my husband to go get him lamb and rice food instead of chicken based food from the pet store when I read about it online and he picked up Eukanuba Lamb and Rice Formula large breed puppy food ... the ingredients are listed in this order : Lamb, Brewers Rice, Chicken By-Product Meal ... the THIRD ingredient is chicken by-product meal - I returned the food and searched online until I found Taste of the Wild Puppy High Prairie food, which is a lot less than the digestive/hypoallergenic food they had Duncan on that cost a fortune, but still not a cheap food by any means - rated 5 stars out of 5 on dogfoodadvisor.com and the first ingredients are : buffalo, lamb, sweet potatoes, egg, pea protein, peas, roasted bison, roasted vension, fish meal, salmon oil, etc. - NO chicken or chicken by-product and Duncan has had NO digestive issues since (unless he gets a rawhide or something else and then his poo is a little runny, but nothing like the constant diarrhea he used to have)! I also switched his treats that I was giving him from chicken to something else as well -- so definitely be sure to check the labels and ingredients because almost every food I went to buy that advertised it was lamb and rice or something other than chicken still had chicken or chicken by product as the 2nd or 3rd ingredient - I am not sure where you live, but I have found Taste of the Wild on Amazon and Chewy.com with 2 day free shipping for the cheapest pricing and now have it on auto order so it comes before we run out of food ever! it is great! and we are transitioning him now to the adult version of Taste of the Wild - the salmon version, which also doesn't have chicken or chicken by product in it and he loves it! I hope this helps you! also, I posted nonstop about how sick Duncan was as a puppy he had a urinary tract infection for weeks and weeks when we first got him that needed many trips to the vet, 3-4 courses of antibiotics and a huge delay in potty training, ear infections, eye infections (which he still gets and we have to give him drops all the time after any outside time), etc. but as he got older most of these problems cleared up and especially once we changed his food and for awhile we were seeing the vet so often it became a joke and we were super discouraged, but now I am happy to say that we have not been back to the vet for any problems in about 3 months! I hope this all helps you and gives you some encouragement! I think part of the sickness is just getting to know your puppy and their unique selves and what bothers them etc. and is just part of them being a puppy! that is what the vet told me anyways - she said puppies end up coming in A LOT a lot of the time but then as they get older they grow out of a lot of this and you get to know your puppy and get them on the right food and it all clears up Good luck!!!! let us know how it goes!
@jeanine Oh, also! Here is something we found over the counter that works THE BEST for ears - this solution is for when they are starting to get infected or you can tell they have an infection brewing: https://www.chewy.com/dog/dp/54785?...sCCfpDQ4DUVCDXk3sI4SEaAu198P8HAQ&gclsrc=aw.ds and this for maintenance and cleaning: https://www.amazon.com/Zymox-Ear-Cl...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=TGPKVV7ERTK0VAN03JKN Since we found these online and heard the reviews of people with pets that were constant ear infection sufferers and constantly on antibiotics and expensive ear drops from the vet, we bought these 2 ear solutions online and they have cleared up a couple infections since then and kept him mostly without ear infections altogether - I told the vet about it one time when he was starting to get an ear infection and I cleared it up with this over the counter stuff instead of the constant antibiotics he was on and she was shocked! she looked it up online and got some for her dogs too!
I am VERY embarrassed to say that I did not check the ingredient list on the lamb and rice. I assumed that since she was on that food when we got her from the breeder, and they are the ones that told me about the sensitivity to CHICKEN, that there would not be ANY chicken in it. I checked the treats for any sign of chicken though and made sure not to buy those if there was. Only bought all natural one ingredient sweet potato treats. Ugh. Now I will have to do my research and find a legitimate lamb and rice only in my area. Thanks SO much for the heads up! You probably just saved me a bunch of headaches!
Have you considered feeding raw meat and raw meaty bones? Most dogs have small hard poos when eating raw. Snowie's sometimes pop out like bullets usually followed by a little squeeze and out pops some anal gland secretion.
No problem! I had a TON of headaches with Duncan's digestive issues and the vets would just guess different things and no one ever mentioned the chicken or chicken by product thing until I did a LOT of research online -- then I made sure to check the ingredients because when I did a ton of the lamb and rice puppy food had chicken or chicken by product listed as the second or third ingredient! Taste of the Wild has been a godsend to us and cleared up his issues right away and now it has been almost 3 months of no vet visits - before it was nonstop diarrhea vet visits and tummy medicine/super expensive digestive wet food and me homemaking him meals! Try finding a food that is salmon/fish based or actually lamb and rice instead of chicken or chicken by product being thrown in there as one of the ingredients or another type like duck, bison, etc. I think the brands I ended up looking at were Acana brand, Fromm, Wellness, Blue Buffalo, Taste of the Wild and then chose the one with the best ingredients from there / no chicken by product Like I said even when my husband ended up purchasing a "lamb and rice" specifically formulated product from the pet store the 3rd ingredient on the list was chicken by product meal ! I found I had to either visit a very healthy/natural pet store instead of the big name pet stores or order online for most of the brands that carry the foods that have no chicken or chicken by product, but it may be different where you are - if you have amazon try amazon or chewy.com Good luck!
I think that Charlie's sensitivity to chicken is not from the chicken itself, but something used in commercially mass produced chicken - maybe a food additive or chemical etc. He can eat organic (and I really mean properly organic) home roasted chicken without problem. Run of the mill, mass produced chicken gives him runny poo at the smell of it....
@JulieT Same with Duncan! I think it was moreso the chicken by product meal and chicken meal protein that wasn't whole deboned chicken or homemade roasted chicken because when he would get diarrhea I would home make him boiled chicken and rice like the vet recommended and his poo would firm up and his diarrhea would go away only to return when he would start back on kibble... but even though some of the top food brands don't use the chicken by product and chicken meal and advertise "whole deboned chicken" I just went with kibble foods and brands that had no chicken at all to be safe because I was worried about all the diarrhea Duncan had been through and didn't want all the sickness stalling his growth any more than it already had!
@jeanine I just found my list of foods that I looked into so I can give you more recs to look at and find if they are in your area at any stores or if you can get them online delivered to you Check the websites for these brands and they should have a store locator or where to buy link so you can see if they are in your area! I also did feed raw for awhile when we really couldn't get the diarrhea under control and I was worried about his growth, but to be honest, having a puppy is already a huge undertaking and a LOT of work on top of a full time job working from home with a puppy, so cooking him food everyday or even a couple/few times a week on top of training a puppy, going on walks, full time job, etc. I just couldn't keep doing it, so I had to research and really track down a kibble that would work for him! Here you go - try some of these sites out and see if they make this at any stores near you or if you can get them online and delivered right to your door with free shipping like I do then you don't even have to carry a huge bag to your car! Some top brands also make all life stages food that they say are appropriate for large breed puppies and before I got Duncan I was crazy about making sure that he would be on a strictly "puppy" food that was a top rated brand and low in calcium so he didn't grow too fast and mess up his hips or legs or elbows or anything, but around 7 months when he still had nonstop digestive issues I stopped worrying so much about the calcium content and just looked into what was a top brand/reviewed food that would finally clear up his diarrhea and didn't contain chicken so I even considered putting him just on a regular food that wasn't puppy but then I found Taste of the Wild High Prairie Puppy Formula, but you may want to look into all life stages food as well and consider that if you can't find a puppy formula without chicken in your area -- better to get the diarrhea under control than to spend your days worrying about everything else Taste of the Wild - High Prairie Puppy Formula with Bison & Roasted Venison http://www.tasteofthewildpetfood.co...rie-puppy-formula-with-bison-roasted-venison/ Fromm Heartland Gold Grain-Free Large Breed Puppy Dry Dog Food (the Fromm Gold Holistic lamb ended up having chicken as second ingredient but the Heartland Gold did not have chicken) Nutro Limited Ingredient Diet Large Breed Puppy Lamb & Whole Brown Rice Formula Dry Dog Food (Has chicken fat in it somewhere in ingredient list, but when I looked this up apparently a lot of top brands put chicken fat somewhere in their food/ingredient list and it is different than chicken meal or chicken protein and doesn't bother dogs with chicken allergy, but either way I ended up going with a food that I did not even see the word "CHICKEN") Blue Buffalo Life Protection Formula Puppy Lamb & Oatmeal Recipe Dry Dog Food Canidae Life Stages Lamb Meal & Rice Formula Dry Dog Food Wellness has fish based foods without chicken - but they aren't specific to puppy I don't believe Nature's Variety Instinct has foods without chicken as well, but the only ones in my area were regular dog food "all life stages" so I went with Taste of the Wild Natural Balance L.I.D. Limited Ingredient Diets Puppy Formula Lamb & Brown Rice Formula Dry Dog Food Holistic Select Adult & Puppy Health Salmon, Anchovy & Sardine Meal Recipe Grain-Free Dry Dog Food Acana, Earthborn Holistic and some other top brands have foods without any chicken in them too, but I believe those formulas were all life stages or adult dog foods so that is probably why I ended up picking TOTW I am a nut and I looked up all the different foods on dogfoodadvisor.com too and checked their ratings before deciding as well! I didn't do this because I wanted to end up with the most expensive/absolute best food I could find, but I wanted to choose one that was highly rated, no chicken in it and had adult formulas without chicken so I could transition him once it was time-- but also when people said to me "oh my god it is a dog some of these foods are so expensive I would never pay that much for dog food"-- when you factor in the cost of all the medicines, vet visits, etc. I was more than ready to pay a lot more for kibble each month than to keep shelling out tons of $ for vet visits, medicine, digestive upset wet food, etc. - I ended up being able to get a 30 lb bag of TOTW for about $48.99 - some other brands will run in the $50s-60s but hey it is worth it to have a healthy happy dog without constant diarrhea and vet visits!
