What would you do (food issues)?

[Allison]

We've had our awesome golden doodle puppy Elbie for 2.5 weeks now.  The breeder had her on Life's Abundance but as that is only available online, we wanted to switch her to something we could get at our local pet store.  We started her on Nutro Ultra puppy food because the first few ingredients were similar to Life's Abundance and the Nutro Ultra was rated 4 out of 5 stars on dog food advisor.  We switched her gradually but probably not gradually enough because we ran out of the food the breeder sent us home with pretty quickly.  

Elbie has had diarrhea on and off since we brought her home (pudding consistency, not watery or bloody).  She has been active, eating well, and drinking lots of water but the diarrhea was frustrating, especially since she was going many times at night.

Yesterday we fed her the Nutro in the morning but only gave her plain white rice for the rest of the day.  She slept through the night without waking to go to the bathroom, and this morning she had her first normal bowel movement!

So should I assume that the food is the culprit and try something different?  If so, should I introduce the new food gradually or switch completely now?  Any suggestions on what we should try if you think we should switch?

She has an appointment with the vet tomorrow so I will ask her, but wanted to get some opinions from fellow doodle lovers.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

[Allison]

Ugh, I am now feeling really stupid since reading that Nutro is made by the Mars company.  I thought a supposedly unbiased review from the dog food advisor website would be trustworthy.  

We are out of the Nutro and now I don't know what to do after we go back to kibble.  Do I really have to buy another bag of crap food in order to safely transition her to a better food (I'm thinking Acana)?  If so, what the best way to do it?  I looked in the food group and didn't see a post about how to change foods so sorry if I missed it.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

The Dog Food Advisor only analyzes ingredients, they don't take into account the manufacturer or the source of the ingredients. That's why those types of "ratings" sites are not really very helpful.

We do have a lot of info on transitioning puppies in the Food Group, but honestly at this point I would not make any more changes in her diet until you get a diagnosis and get the giardia under control if that's what she has. She has an immature digestive system, and she is most likely going to be given antibiotics; that's going to wreak even more havoc on her GI tract. I wouldn't introduce another new food at this point.

Ordinarily, the best way to transition a puppy to a new food is to start by replacing a small amount of the old food (not more than a quarter of the total) with the new food, and then gradually increase the amount of new food while decreasing the old food over a period of a week. You can just switch cold turkey, and some dogs do just fine with that, but usually when they are older and their digestive systems are healthy. However, in this case, I wouldn't want to buy another bag of Nutro either. I'd stay with the chicken and rice until the stools have firmed up and you get a clear fecal. Then you might consider one of the limited ingredient formulas like Acana's Chicken and Burbank Potato and just go cold turkey.  

[Allison]

Thank you!  That's what I'll do.  Hope she likes the chicken because she isn't a fan of the rice!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Allison, you can try using cooked mashed sweet potatoes instead of rice.

[Allison]

Update--we brought in 2 stool samples yesterday and they called me today to say there were no parasites, worms, or eggs in either sample. I started her on Acana and now her stools are becoming runny again. They were normal for the days she was on chicken and rice. Argh! Any suggestions?

[Leslie and Halas]

Sorry she's having such a tough time.  Maybe go back to chicken and rice, but put a little of the Acana in and slowly transition.  The canned pumpkin (not pie filling) that Karen recommended has always worked well for Halas, too.  So maybe try a dollop of that on top of the Acana for a couple of days and see how that goes.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I would ask them for Panacur anyway. Go back to the chicken and rice in the meantime.