Could really use some advice, trying to find a dog food that suits is proving to be a nightmare! Royal canin, hills and other similar products have caused expensive vet visits, including anaesthetic to flush out anal glands that the vets and I feel were related to diet, as we have tried several attempts to feed royal canin each time resulting in anal gland issues ;( I have been told about pero Labrador, does anyone have experience with this food? Or have any other suggestions that aren't crazy money Thanks all Kim
Re: Dog food - ok so sorry it's prob a repetitive subject! I had major problems with Harley for months around her diet. After lots of vets visits for diarrhoea and blood, lots of medications, rice and chicken for 6 weeks and lots of advice on here, I changed to Bob and Lush. It is cheaper than the royal canin gastro and it is made of natural products and has no wheat or grain fillers. It has been amazing for Harley
Re: Dog food - ok so sorry it's prob a repetitive subject! Any of the dog foods with natural ingredients and that are wheat and gluten or grain free are usually pretty good. I feed Arden Grange and although it can look pricey at £37 for a 12kg bag you actually don't need to feed as much as some of the cheaper dog foods so it works out about the same. Make sure you do a changeover to a new food gradually - it should take at least 10 days. When you say anal gland issues, do you mean they keep getting blocked and having to be emptied by the vet? A dog should normally empty their anal glands when they have a bowel movement that is nice and firm. What is the consistency of your dogs poo? For instance on a scale of 1-5 if 1 is dry and hard and crumbly, and 5 is water. Ideally a dogs faeces should be 'kickable' and leave very little mark when picked up from concrete.
Re: Dog food - ok so sorry it's prob a repetitive subject! He was having to have his anal glands emptied every 2 weeks which resulted in an anaesthetic to flush them out and lengthy courses of antibiotics, poor boy practically came to work with me for a while!! His poo is I would say a 2-3 out of 5 it does vary, it seemed when he was on RC he would only go once a day and it was very very firm which I thought was a good thing however it seemed he wasn't naturally emptying his glands
Re: Dog food - ok so sorry it's prob a repetitive subject! Hmm that's beyond my expertise then I'm afraid .... From the sounds of it the Royal Canin defiantly agreed with him fine, but I know it can be expensive. How considering something like what Naya uses for Harley, the Bob and Lush stuff, I beleive it's got lots of natural ingredients but she may be able to tell you more.
Re: Dog food - ok so sorry it's prob a repetitive subject! Sorry to hear that you are having problems with this, I can understand how keen you must be to get it sorted out. Would you consider feeding a raw diet? I've been toying with this for a while now, and reckon I'm going to give it a go. If anal glands are an ongoing problem, not sorted on a food which resulted in a firm poo, but not enough poo (that's what I think you are saying about the RC food) then maybe you need to find a way to feed more "bulk" but still get firm poo. A raw diet might be worth a try?
Re: Dog food - ok so sorry it's prob a repetitive subject! I add a small scoop of pro fibre to each meal. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Protexin-Pro-Fibre-Dogs-500-g/dp/B00BEXP5MA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1398845036&sr=8-1&keywords=pro+fibre Callum had lots of problems with anal glands and this sorted them out. So I now give it to Tatze as a matter of course. Her poos are consistently firm and she is very regular. We are in the process of moving to this food as it's a good price and has no iffy ingredients - http://www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk/dog-food-reviews/0296/skinners-field-and-trial-salmon-and-rice
Re: Dog food - ok so sorry it's prob a repetitive subject! I had looked into it but feel it would be too expensive so am in 2 minds about it :-\ maybe I don't know enough about it perhaps
Re: Dog food - ok so sorry it's prob a repetitive subject! Riley is on Skinners Duck and Rice which seems to suit him, he's a sensitive soul in the tummy and skin departments
Re: Dog food - ok so sorry it's prob a repetitive subject! Sam and Millie are on the Skinners salmon and rice, seems to suit both of them even though they are miles apart, breed wise
Re: Dog food - ok so sorry it's prob a repetitive subject! Meg who's 14 refused to eat a couple of weeks ago so I sent off for some samples from dog food suppliers. She absolutely loved fish4dogs small bite so have got bigger bag. She also had quite bad flatulence and since she's been on it that's improved. She was on arden grange for years but then refused to eat it. I tried all other brands like Harringtons, Purina, but she still refused. Fish4dogs is a good food so hopefully she won't go off of that. Keeping fingers crossed .
Re: Dog food - ok so sorry it's prob a repetitive subject! Thanks, appreciate all the replies! Food is a nightmare!!! :-\
Re: Dog food - ok so sorry it's prob a repetitive subject! Just came across your post so sorry for late reply. This is my pet (sic) subject, in days of old, before the 'progress' of all in one feed, we didn't have a problem. We fed our dogs on scraps, tripe, meaty bones, cooked vegetables from the table leftovers and in the vast majority of cases, our best friends were fine. Now we obsess over their diet, passing over our trust to commercial concerns who have, after many years and millions on advertising, put the fear of god in us over what is good or not for our pets. We fret over the problems, but the problems lie in not feeding them what nature intended. We wouldn't dream of feeding our kids the same, mass produced food every day of their lives yet somehow we think it's OK for our dogs. Feed a good quality kibble, the best you can afford and supplement it with raw meaty bones, chicken, tripe, scrap bags from your local butcher / farm shop, cooked vegetables. Just look up the vegetable list that dogs can't digest or tolerate. Introduce all this gradually as we've trained our dogs digestive systems to be over sensitive, then keep up the variety. Your dog will be happier and healthier too. You could go the whole hog but that may just be a step too far for most - a mix of kibble and variety is probably a good compromise, at least to start with, go for 50/50 I know some will take the opposing view and some will say they've had healthy dogs for years on such and such a dog food but man has kept dogs for so long and long before big business came along and told us we were doing it all wrong. It's not more expensive, a little less convenient perhaps but we all love our pets and go to extraordinary lengths to keep then fit, happy and heathy. Do a little research and you'll find it a lot less daunting than you may think. Common sense will guide you! Told you it was my pet subject! Rant over
Re: Dog food - ok so sorry it's prob a repetitive subject! Thank you for taking the time to write this reply! Very much appreciated I will do a bit more research into this and try not to find it scary lol
