1 week into home cooking

[Shannon Querry]

And what a difference it has made! We started last Wednesday and Fleury still had 2 looser stools on Thursday and Friday but then she didn't have a BM for 2 days until Monday morning! And when she did it was this perfect little poo! LOL!!

 

So now I'm trying to figure out where to go from here. Right now she's getting 2 cups total of a mixture of chicken and rice with a few dollops of yogurt on top each meal. I just bought a bag of The Missing Link w/glucosamine yesterday also to start adding to it. Do I now start adding a veggie in to see how she tolerates it?

 

I want to make sure she's getting everything she needs since she's still so young, anything else I should be adding to her meals. She won't be a year old until May.

 

Thank you all again, this is such a fantastic board!

[Lynne Fowler-Oodles of Doodles]

It sounds like you are doing everything right. I would add in a little veggies, now. Green beans, peas, carrots, are well tolerated. Sweet and white potatoes are good to add. I like adding a few Crasins and dried wild blueberries, also. A cooked scrambled egg will be well tolerated, also. Go slowly, add one at a time and you can even change it up every day. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Isn't it awesome when you see those perfect little poops after struggling with loose stools? I know just how you feel. Those first few weeks on home cooking we had a "party" every time Guinness pooped. The little bit of extra work is so worth it when you see how well they do on this diet. I think you'll find that that she just keeps getting better and better. Guinness actually had no problem when I introduced the veggies, but I went slow. I started with just about 10% of the meal being veg and worked up to about 20 -25%. I always know if I've given to much, because the stools will get a little softer, and then I make adjustments. As Lynne mentioned I also add blueberries and craisins...just sprinkle them over the tablespoon of yogurt that I put on top of his night meal. I stuck with the chicken for the first two weeks, but then added beef (I use inexpensive stew meat or ground beef on sale). The stew meat does have to be cooked quite a while so it is soft enough for them, but Guinness loves it. The rice gets a little boring for them, so I change it up with whole wheat pasta, sweet potato or couscous. Lentils are great tool. I'm not sure exactly what's in "The Missing Link"...is it a supplement? That might influence your "recipe" and what supplements you give. I'm so glad this is working out for you!

[Tammy & Gracie]

Welcome to the Dark Side! I would start adding new fruits and veggies now. Gracie eats any and everything. Carrots, green beans, apples, squash and potatoes (especially sweet) are good. I would just add them in small amounts daily to adjust her digestive system rather slowly. You can increase them as she tolerates. After she adjusts the sky is the limit! The main ones not to be fed are onion, grapes, raisins. I used Pitcairns book as a starting point for this endeavor but I make my own recipes at this point. .I find Gracie's poops are more well formed if the veggies are cut very small. I run them through the food processor till grated but not pureed. Most, I saute for just a few minutes in olive oil but you can steam or cook them anyway you like.

[Shannon Querry]

Well I think I spoke too soon :( I took her to doggie daycare this morning and the one girl mentioned that on Tuesday Fleury had explosive watery diarrhea while in the play yard!! She said it was a couple of times but of course she went right on playing. We've not had that at home at all this past week, just a little softer stool a few times. *sigh*

It just so happened that the vet called me this morning and the outside lab they use is offering a 2 week free diarrhea screening so we're going to do that. The free testing doesn't start until the 15th but I'm just going to keep on giving her the chicken/rice/yogurt combo and maybe some ground meat and rice.

I'm just so sad for her :( She is SUCH a good girl and I hate that she's having problems. She's lucky she ended up with us!! LOL!!

Thanks all for your help, again! :)

[Tammy & Gracie]

I know some dogs at the dogpark seem to have diarrhea there pretty often. We've often discussed how it seems to be related to excitement. Stick with simple food for awhile longer.....

[Shannon Querry]

I'm going to stick with the chicken and rice combo for now and maybe we'll get some answers from the stool check. No one noticed any diarrhea today at doggie daycare but she's got gas something awful right now so I'm fully expecting something to happen tonight. Poor girl :(

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Maybe a little pumpkin?

[Shannon Querry]

I've not been able to find pumpkin for weeks! And boy she really loved it too! :) Someone mentioned that the local feed store had a canned pumpkin for animals so I'm going to check that out and see if ours has it too.

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

If you can't find pumpkin another good source of fiber is sweet potatoes and they love it as much. You can puree it as well as needed. I add lentils A LOT. As in I cook 2 bags of dry lentils a week for 2 60-70 pd doodles. They get a cup to a cup and a half morning and night if I'm not using dry kibble. Green beans seem to be very safe and easy on the digestive system. Also I read that Activia is even better than just plain lowfat yogurt. Been using that as well.
My one doodle gets diarhhea after going to daycare or even to just the vet, so stick with what you're doing for now, but know that you may have a bout of loose stools when she gets stressed or excited. Just a nature of the beast sometimes I guess.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

No Activia...it's flavored, which means corn syrup, and other junk. Plain yogurt is better.

First five ingredients (for the strawberry flavor): cultured grade A reduced
fat milk, strawberry, fructose syrup, sugar, modified cornstarch.
There is no plain version.

[Shannon Querry]

I bought 2 cans of the "animal" pumpkin even though it was $3.99 a can!! I'm sure it will be much cheaper to go buy some sweet potatoes :) She'll eat anything so I'm sure she will love them. I actually started adding some green beans in yesterday because her stool was totally normal. She was all over that! We're leaving her at the kennel tomorrow overnight into Monday so I fully expect mega loose stool on Monday :( Oh well, I'm going to send her with her gourmet meal and know that I'm doing all I can with that!! And I've been using plain yogurt after Karen had mentioned that about the Activia. My husband got the rest ;)

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Stress definitely plays a role.
Regular human grade pumpkin in the grocery store is about $3.99 a can, too, at least around here. I wonder what the difference is in terms of quality between the "animal" and the "human".