I know I keep 'harping' on about my puppies bowels - my DH beginning to groan now as it's all `I ever seem to talk about but I am really struggling with this treating business. Think I have just about tried everything now and all with bad results. Using kibble just doesn't 'cut the mustard' for Red. Yesterday, we had some 1to1 training in a field. It was great but the only thing that worked were hot dogs and smackos. Trainer tried some primula cheese and some of a little babybel. Red also consumed a lot of rabbit poo (in field)!!! I got up to her at 3.00 a.m this morning for what is usually a wee and she had a massive poo of a good consistency. This morning was doing some training in the garden and gave her bits of smackos, babybel and cooked chicken. Two hours later she had loads of very runny diarrhoea- fortunately all out in the garden. This is really putting me off training her (and I know we are only just in this important window of opportunity) as I really want to take her out into the fields to do some recall but hate the thought that a) she won't respond unless it's a flavoursome treat e.g. hotdog or b) gets the squits yet again!! I have just ordered some fish treats (remember having them for older dog) but feel I am just buying masses of stuff only just to throw it away. Will her stomach improve as she gets older? I know I have asked you guys for help on this matter before but it's really beginning to bug me now.
Stanley had a funny tummy as a puppy and still does to a certain extent! I'd cut everything out and just try chicken for now. It should be yummy enough to get her interest but pretty bland for her tummy. If that's ok then I'd maybe add a bit of mild cheese and see how she gets on then slowly build from there. *just to add - I'd definitely get rid of the schmakos! I think they would make Stanley poorly even now. He had a jumbone over Xmas and was bad for 3 days
Yes - usually their stomachs become more robust with age. My Tatze has iron guts. I am very careful what I give my pups up to six months old as it's really easy to upset delicate puppy tums. I would keep to kibble and introduce just one type of treat at a time so that you know exactly what doesn't suit. I have started this with Mollie now that she's six months. She's had just kibble and fish cubes until now. I find smackos go straight through her but one similar to smackos called webbox are fine. It's a case of trial and error which shouldn't be started too young, in my experience.
Luna has a cast iron stomach, so I was able to start introducing all sorts of bits at a very early age, but my other two were pretty sensitive as young pups. As Mags suggests, introduce just one thing at a time and give her a chance to get used to it; a bout of runny poo after introducing a new food isn't unheard of and doesn't mean she can't have it, just that she may need to get used to it over the period of a week or so. I actually buy Fish4Dogs kibble to use as training treats for some stuff - it's different to their normal kibble so has some novelty value. Another good one is Ziwipeak, which is almost pure meat, dehydrated. You can tear the pieces into smaller bits. It's quite expensive, but you don't use a lot at a time. http://www.ziwipets.com/ziwi-peak-dog-nutrition/good-dog-treats/lamb-dog-treats
(Can you limit the treats to only one kind? It's impossible to tell which is bothering her when she gets three different things, not to mention "a lot of rabbit poo." This might have little to do with her stomach but be a gut issue. That's what it was with my dog, an adult at the time though. As @snowbunny says, I would also have said, Oban had a cast iron stomach. Till massive, acute diarrhoea that lasted nearly two months. LOng story short, he had Lymphangiectasia. You might be getting some early clues Red's gut is off, blood work might help determine that but honestly, as far as I can tell the gut issue is pretty hard to figure out. Gut issues are now thought by some to be the root cause of itching and other allergy symptoms and for my boy, in hindsight (which wasn't pretty sometimes ) that was the case. No more gut issue = no more itching for him. Red isn't itchy, is she?
Millies wolfheart make lovely training treats, they are semi moist and are easy to break them into smaller pieces or just give a whole one. I used to use Fish4Dogs medium kibble (same as @snowbunny ). then moved to other brands, one I like is Laughing dog baked kibble in wheat free venison.They all love that one! I just buy the 1.5kg bags and lasts for ages. Nice size and they have these with their early morning walk to replace part of their breakfast. With Bramble she has a slightly more sensitive stomach (not so much now..) when she was younger she also has Protexin pro fibre and sprinkled on her food if she had a bout of loose stools.
As I was typing my thread, I actually thought, Red has had way way too many things. To each training session, I have taken just cooked chicken and both trainers have said it doesn't motivate her enough and given her all these different things. I have just had a good discussion with my DH who actually doesn't agree with all this treating and said we never gave Sky (older lab who is 10) anything. I remember we had terrible recall issues with her (she was 5 months when she came to us and I realise now she was only toilet trained and could sit when we got her) for a long time but got there eventually. He does understand though that younger puppies do need treating. We have agreed to just give her chicken for now and bits of her Arden Grange chicken & rice kibble. I will see how the next few days go and then when my sample Fish4Dogs kibble comes, will add that in. I think I need to be clear at training, that I don't want her given anything else. Snowshoe, I have noticed her scratching herself each day but not excessively but her coat looks healthy. Thank you. I will monitor this. Thank you everyone for your help.
Beanwood, I have just ordered some Protexin pro fibre just in case we have repeats of the diarrhoea. I assume advice on quantities is on the container?
Hi yes they are, I can't remember off hand how much I used, but just sprinkled on her food, really did the trick. I think @Boogie uses it too with her puppies
Thank you for your reply. Red has been fine since yesterday morning so a fair conclusion that her stomach was overloaded with either too many different things or one thing disagreed with her. I only gave her her usual kibble yesterday. Today she has had some cooked chicken for some training we have done in the garden but will restrict to just this for a day or two.
Yes - I just put a pinch on Tatze's food each day, but Zaba has the full dose every day as he's very prone to sloppy poos. The GD pups don't get any, we have very strict rules on what we can give them. GDs do use it but only for pups with anal gland troubles.
Homer had Timmy trouble on and off a lot as a pup. We gave him plain boiled chicken breast and rice and a dog probiotic and no human food. Finally, we changed his food to Burns lamb and rice which eventually did the trick.
Duncan seemed to have nonstop stomach issues when he was a puppy up until he was about 8 months old -- the thing that ended up working for us was that we took him off his chicken based kibble food & put him on a fish based food that did not have any chicken or chicken mean or chicken by product in ANY of the ingredients! it took us forever to figure this out and even the food we at first thought was clearly "lamb and rice" had chicken as one of the 2nd or 3rd ingredients! boiled/baked plain chicken breast I would make for him with rice when he would have his bouts of diarrhea did not upset him, but whatever was in the different dog foods did. Since changing him over to Taste of the Wild food with no chicken in it we haven't had any diarrhea or waking up in the middle of the night to take him out! also, we could never give him pieces of hotdog or cheese or anything like that or he would have an upset stomach. The only treats we gave him were the treats our trainer recommended that were just 1 ingredient freeze dried beef liver or something like that - now that he has gotten older and is on different kibble we can give him other types of treats and he is perfectly fine
This is interesting Bridget. It is frustrating all this trial and error and it must have been hard for you sorting Duncan's stomach issues. Red has been on her chicken and rice kibble and roast chicken as her high reward treat for the past few days. I also let her have a few licks of Arden Grange liver paste when training. I also use turkey Forthglade wet puppy food mixed with kibble in her Kong but only allow two maximum a day (reduce her kibble accordingly). She had a bit of a squitty poo on Sunday. She only went twice yesterday so I suspected correctly she would poo when I took her out at 3.00 a.m this morning but that was relatively firm. However, I shall continue to monitor and keep to this for a while. I hope it isn't the chicken based kibble that is affecting her as I bought two enormous bags of it - I always get both dogs food delivered so buy in bulk
Spoke too soon as Red had diarrhoea again at 10.30 so it can only be the things I mention above that are causing this. Maybe it is the chicken or something in the kibble but that is hypoallergenic so I am not sure how to go forward. I sprinkled a bit of Protextin on her lunchtime kibble so will see how things go. Boogie I was wondering why you sprinkle Protextin on Tatze's food when she has a cast iron guts? I suppose with Red it could just be a maturity thing so don't want to start tinkering about too much with her diet. Equally having regular diarrhoea doesn't seem right either
Hopefully it's something the vet can clear up with a quick round of meds and you can go back to all your delicious treats
It's the pro-fibre I give her, to keep up the good bacteria in her gut. I think it keeps her poos nice and firm and 'kickable'. I think Red's night time poos may be due to slightly loose poos? It's very hard to hold on to a loose poo! ,,,
