Over the past week we have been transitioning Quinn from her puppy food that she's been on for the past 8 or do months to the same brand puppy food, but grain-free (we decided to change to a protein source other than chicken to see if it helps with her itchy skin). After one day of 50-50 old/new food, she got diarrhea, and had a bit of blood in it and cried when going. Over the weekend we did a bland diet and she was back to herself yesterday evening, and back on her old kibble with a bit of pumpkin. Could a diet change cause that sort of reaction? We are debating on a vet visit today (closed yesterday) but now she seems fine...
I think its pretty common to get some loose stool with a diet change of any nature - even if its more treats than usual. Some dogs are very sensitive. The blood would be a bit unusual though - I would definitely run it past your vet. Guessing if its all beck to normal now, then less of a worry. Transitioning one food to another maybe needs to be slower anyway, maybe doing it over 7-10 days. I think previously I started with a 25%new/75% old for a few days before the 50/50. They do worry us so, these dogs of ours.......
Yep, we're going through that with Libby at 4-1/2 months. Trying to keep her on puppy food but I'm not wondering if it's too rich. Fecal tests are normal and she acts fine otherwise. In the process of moving her away from chicken to a seafood based food to see if that helps.
Yes, we did 3 days of 75% old food/25% new food, which makes it strange. We will likely go to the vet, we usually do just to be on the safe side.
Do check the ingredients to see whether your feeling that the puppy food is too 'rich' might be right. Do you mean too fatty? Or too high in protein? So do you want to feed more fat? Or more protein? We hear a lot about people wanting to move puppies away from puppy food early. The fact of the matter is that if you buy a reputable brand of age and breed appropriate puppy food it should be appropriately formulated for your puppy. Which means it should promote steady growth (not fast growth) and have the right levels of calcium (i.e. not too high) and so on. Generally, the traditional advice of moving a puppy off puppy food early is bad advice. These days anyway - when there are a lot of good puppy foods around.
The last couple days, we are blending the prescription food with Taste of the Wild Puppy Salmon and it seems to agree with her much more. I've taken her off the anti-diarrheal. No more chicken. If the Taste of the Wild continues to be a good option, I can move her to the adult version of the salmon food when the time comes.
