What A Difference A Food Can Make!

Today is day five for Murphy on his new food, and he's a completely different dog. I would never have imagined that he could be this good. As you all may remember Murphy has been on every quality food, a few "second tier" foods, and even in desperation the RX food. We tried home cooking for months. Throughout all of this he continued to have stomach problems....soft stools, diarrhea, constantly "gurgling tummy", and just feeling lousy much of the time. On Saturday I moved him to Honest Kitchen freeze dried raw (gluten and wheat free). His stools immediately firmed up....they are perfect. He seems to feel so much better....no more early morning vomiting bile and way more active (a good thing?????). He has stopped "scooting"....no more anal gland problems, at least not yet. I've taken him off the Pepcid and the Probiotics, which he's been on daily for several weeks, and now he's fine without them. I've found that I can add fresh chicken, turkey or beef to the Honest Kitchen with no adverse reaction. It's all wonderful, but it makes me wonder why. I had been thinking that his problems were an intolerance to the protein source...clearly not the case since I've now tested them all. So, I have to think his food issues were one of two things. Either his body can't handle gluten or it's the fact that this food is "mush"....it looks like baby food. Although I do add fresh meat, it is cut in very tiny pieces and then mixed with the "mush". I'm tending to think it may be the gluten. Even when I was home cooking, I was mixing in rice, barley or whole wheat pasta. I'm so hoping this the end of the "food saga" with Murph (I hope I'm not going to be disappointed and this is temporary). We always joke about how obsessed we all are with "poop", but it makes such a huge difference. He just feels so much better now...I can tell just by the way he's acting. The added bonus is that he absolutely loves it. He cleans his bowl and then pushes it all over the kitchen to be sure he's gotten every last drop. Guinness is not too fond of the stuff, so I'm going to keep him on his home cooking for now. Anyway, it's so nice to finally be able to share good news in this group....who knows, maybe I'll be able to "retire" from the Food Group.

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Permalink Reply by Jane, Guinness and Murphy on June 18, 2011 at 5:29am

I'm glad the TOTW is working for you Laura. I will be interested to see what my Vet has to say when I tell her about Murphy and the Honest Kitchen. That's interesting about the salmonella concern....I'm going to research that a little more, although there would have to be a real risk before I would take him off of this food now (and I doubt that's the case).

Permalink Reply by Laura Deutsch on June 18, 2011 at 5:46am

yes. actually the last two days, her second poop of day was pretty soft. have our fingers crossed. we had her on vital essentials,raw patties, which was recommended by th Pet Route and our trainer. We;re thinking we might have to mix it together. It's very hard to go against our vet.

Permalink Reply by Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle on June 18, 2011 at 9:01am

The commercial raw products are much safer than plain old raw food in terms of bacteria. Nature's Variety has had recalls, but there have been no issues with HK, Ziwi Peak, Stella & Chewy's or any of the other higher end products, at least none that I'm aware of.

Permalink Reply by Jane, Guinness and Murphy on June 19, 2011 at 5:43am

Definitely none with Honest Kitchen....I checked before my guys took their first bite. LOL

Permalink Reply by Susan and Sasha on June 18, 2011 at 6:16am

Hi Laura...

I'm so glad that TOTW is working for you...and hope that Molly continues to do welll on it.

It's interesting...but I I just read an article about the salmonella concern too!

It said to never feed dogs raw food becaise of the concern for "people" getting salmonella from the dog...not the dog getting salmonella.from eating the raw food.

Something about getting it from their salivia...and from touching their bowel movements...etc.

This was an interesting...

Sasha is on Orejen...so I wasn't worried about it...although I did have a question about the raw marrow bones that I give to her.

I wasn't really concerned about it...because they are on the recommened list here at DK...so I was comfortable with it and was going to just going to ask the question later today. (smile)

I give Sasha the raw marrow bone for only one day...then I boil it...so that it kills any germs and she can have her "prize treat" around for a long time. Lol...

I know how difficult it might be to do something different from the advice your Vet is telling you.

I faced that too when changing from puppy to adult food for Sasha.

Our Vet wanted me to change her over at a much earlier age than I was comfortable with...and I had to make that decision for myself.

I did research...listened to what my Vet had to say...and then made what I felt was the best decision for Sasha.

It's the very same think that I do when making a decision when I go to my own doctor.

I do understand that it is difficult thought...

Keep us posted on how Molly is doing oon TOTW.

Wishing you the very best with it...

Permalink Reply by Jennifer and Jack on June 18, 2011 at 6:33am

Jack was on Natural Instinct Raw Food for a while, He hated it. I really wanted him to like it because well, it was before DK and I was on my own and I read that it was so good for him. His poops were small but I think that is because he hardly ate anything.

I have added raw chicken and previously beef to Jacks diet. I had my rear end handed to me on a platter when I told my vet this. She chewed me out and told me I was going to cause Jack to get bloody stools and parasites...I don't think vets have a clue about nutrition,

I know a lot of people do really well on the raw diet, (their dogs) I am just so happy for you that Murphy is now doing better, what a relief that must be for youa..

Permalink Reply by Jane, Guinness and Murphy on July 17, 2011 at 6:32am

I wanted to close out this discussion since Murphy has not been on the Honest Kitchen for a month. He continues to do great on this food....yes perfect poops every time. All his anal gland issues have also cleared up. I've also got Guinness on the HK for one meal a day....I still home cook the other meal, and he's even doing great with it too. I feel incredibly lucky that I found this food. I still don't know exactly why this one works and none of the others did, but at this point I guess it doesn't really matter. I so appreciate all the help that I got from the Food Group (especially Karen), as I went through all those months of struggling with Murph's tummy issues.

Permalink Reply by Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle on July 17, 2011 at 8:05am

I'm going to edit that first sentence, because I'm sure you meant to say Murphy has now been on the HK for a month, lol.

I'm so glad it's working for him!

Permalink Reply by Allyson, Peri & Taquito on July 18, 2011 at 1:56pm