Food problems.

[Diane Farmer]

Scarlett is a double doodle, she is 10 months old and we have had her for 3 months.  The breeder was feeding her puppy food from tracker supply so we kept her on that, her stools were loose so we tried Rachael Ray's just three lamb and rice, her stools were still loose.. She got a bacteria infection from eating canadian geese stools and had diarrhea. the vet put her on medicine and Hills prescription diet i/d. after finishing her meds we went changed Merrick chicken and brown rice.  Everything seemed fine then the diarrhea came back, I took her to the vet and they didn't find anything wrong with her.  But put her back on meds and the Hills precription diet i/d food and we were weening her off the prescription food and mixing with the Merrick chicken and rice, after switching her to Merrick chicken and rice completely her diarrhea is back...Does anyone have any suggestions.  The vet is putting her back on the Hills presciption diet.  Help!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Perfect Form is fine, but it's not a probiotic and won't take the place of the Gentle Digest. I purchased it from my local privately owned pet boutique store, but if you can't find it locally, I'd order it on-line. It's made by Ark Naturals, their website might have a store locator.

Personally, I would stop the Hill's entirely and just feed her homecooked until you get the Honest Kitchen.

How much food she needs is based on her weight. What does she weigh? 

[Diane Farmer]

I made Scarlett the boiled chicken with sweet potatoes, so far so good.  She likes it,and stools look normal a little orange hahaha thats the sweet potato. We started her on the gentle digest.   Just wondering how long I should give her the gentle digest. And going to pick up some Embark today.  Thank you for all your help and support this has been so helpful to get your feedback, I REALLY appreciate it!

 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Try mashing the sweet potatoes up a little more; the orange coloring is most likely from undigested sweet potato. The finer you mash them, the easier it will be for her to digest them. I'd keep using the Gentle Digest through the transition to the HK. Once you have consistently good stool for a couple of weeks, you can discontinue it if you like. Please keep us posted.

[Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty]

Diane, ignore everything your vet is telling you about nutrition and follow Karen's advice. Karen helped me with Sophie, who basically had similar issues as you did (giardia, constant diarhea, etc. you can research my past posts here and see they sound a lot like yours). The vets are clueless about nutrition, and the clinics make commission off the food they sell you. that is the main reason why the recommend it but they will never tell you that. Dealing with vets about nutrition is one of the most frustrating things about dog ownership. Do yourself a favour and disregard anything your vet tells you about food and follow Karen's advice, you won't be sorry.

 

Sophie is a picture of perfect health now, except when I give her a bully stick or similar, she can't have those and that's that. I did home made food until she cleared up and then slowly switched her to orijen and never looked back. Panacur was the only thing that worked for her in terms of cleaning up whatever bad bacteria or parasites were causing the issue. Antibiotics, frequent and abrupt food switching, and stress are all contributors to diarrhea.

 

If the issues persist, go see a specialist as it sounds to me like your vet isn't helping at all, and might be making it worse.

[Jill, Woody & Maxi]

I agree 100%..throughout everything we have personally gone through..nothing has been more frustrating than having a vet tell me about nutrition, and then try to sell me hills I/D...garbage.    Karen, Jane, and many other DK'ers have a TON of excellent information, unfortunately, b/c they went through similar situations..sometimes when I'm at the vet, I wish I could bring them with me for advice!