Puppy food help! Food for sensitive stomach?

[Bisou]

My puppy Bisou has had giardia and she was eating Wellness puppy food. Even when I added rice she had pudding diarrhea she did not seem able to stop it. Now I've been giving her pumpkin and chicken and rice and her diarrhea is gone. The vet wants me to put her on hill's i/d. I am having a hard time figuring out what to do. I would like to try another puppy food. Did anyone have a puppy who couldn't tolerate Wellness but is ok on something else? She was on eukanuba before that and did ok but I was told that was not a good food. Help! It is so confusing!

[Suzann, Rosey & Bandit]

go look in the food group.  there was a discussion just a couple of days ago about this exact same thing!!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

The Food Group

 

I don't think you can judge how well your puppy tolerated the Wellness food when she had giardia at the time. The diarrhea was caused by the giardia and not the food. No commercial food would have helped at that time.

That said, different dogs do better on one food than another, and sometimes it takes trial and error to find what works for your dog. There is absolutely a puppy food or ALS food that will work for your puppy. There are lots of choices, and all of them are much better than Eukanuba or anything from Hill's. I would start with the recommended foods list in The Food Group.

[Bonnie and Kona]

I completely agree with Karen. Our puppy had giardia, we went through the same process you did. Once the medication was on board the diarrhea went away and he is doing well on Arcana.

[Bisou]

I'm not even sure if the giardia is gone but I just put her on chicken and rice and pumpkin and she doesn't have diarrhea but she had it on the wellness so it was clear she couldn't tolerate that. There was a long list on the food group so I was hoping someone else had trouble with wellness and then had no trouble with something else. Thank you for your help.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

If she had/has giardia, she would have diarrhea on any commercial food. The chicken, rice & pumpkin diet is very different from a commercial kibble. There are two separate issues here, the food itself, and the illness.

Every dog has had trouble with one food and no trouble with another. And even with the Wellness, one dog might have trouble with one formula and do fine with another. It depends on whether the food contains grains or not, which animal proteins it contains, and several other factors. It isn't the brand that isn't tolerated, it's the ingredients themselves.

But the first thing that needs to be done, before you even think about changing foods or trying to choose one, is to make sure that the giardia is gone with a fecal test. If she still has giardia, she is not going to be able to tolerate any kibble. And there will be aq transition period when switching back to kibble from homemade food and the recovery from the intestinal parasites.

[Bisou]

Thank you for your help

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

Personally having dealt with Giardia several times with our dogs, I would suggest you remain of the chicken and rice and pumpklin  until you are a few days past giving medications and slowly add the wellness back or until you have a negative fecal which could be a few weeks. I think it was 3 weeks after the meds that my vet retested. Giardia is hard on them and giving them easier foods to digest and pass is helpful during a bout of it. The Hills I/D is something so inferior to the chicken and rice that it is just not even worth considering.

So....is she on meds? How long has it been? When is her next fecal test?

 

[Pam and Ginger Snap]

My puppy came home on  Eukanuba, lamb and rice for puppies, and has had no problems.  But  I read here that it is not good food.  Now I am concerned.   Should I be?

 

 

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

Check out the food group and the reommended foods and you will learn so much about what are considered good and not so good foods. Eukanuba is definitely considered not so good as there is much better out there to choose from. My son has had his lab on Euk for years and just switched to EVO and can't believe the difference in even the texture and smell of the EVO. He said the Eukanuba even feels greasy and fatty compared to the EVO. Just an opinion,

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

That greasy, fatty smell and feel is from the application of rancid animal fat sprayed on the Eukanuba kibble to make it appeal to dogs.

[F, Calla & Luca]

UGH! Our dogs have such good taste in people how can they have such bad taste in food : )

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

The kinds of problems that are caused by foods like Eukanuba don't show up right away. But I would not feed their products. I don't have time right now to do an analysis or explain about the problem with the source of their ingredients, but I would switch her to one of the foods on our recommended foods list. The ingredients in Eukanuba are of poor quality, some of them contain preservatives that are known to have long-term harmful effects on dogs (and people), and they are purchased through food brokers from third party sources in third-world countries, which is how more than 2000 dogs lost their lives in the 2007 recalls. Eukanuba was one of the worst culprits in that debacle, which claimed the life of one of our member's dogs, and permanently damaged several others.