Recommendations for a Sensitive Tummy Who's Tried Everything

[Krista, Angel, and Toby]

Hi.  Angel is my picky eater with a sensitive tummy.  I use probiotics and enzymes for her.  She is currently on Natural Balance Venison and Sweet Potato, but recently both she and Toby have been vomiting it up.  Toby, despite him being a puppy, is not as big of a concern as is Angel, as he eats everything and his poos are always fine.  I feel like I've gone through every "good" food in the market and have yet to find a permanent winner.  The closest thing I've come to has been Phaesant and Brown Rice from Evanger's, but after looking at the company online, I am reluctant to continue to use the product.  

Angel seems to do better on poultry than red meats.  Does anyone have any suggestions for commercial foods that are feasible for sensitive tummies?  (And yes, I have tried homecooking.  Of course Angel liked it, but the nutrition was off, as she'd always try and eat wood outside.)

Thanks!

[Kendra K. Rhoton]

I feel you... Remington vomited ALL the time when he was a puppy. The vet told us to put a tablespoon of yogurt in his food and it seemed to help... although I've heard this really should make no difference. We recently switched our food to Wellness White Fish and Sweet Potato. This has helped with stomach issues immensely!!! No more vomiting every day... but we still have vomiting issues. I've heard that some dogs have an intolerance to things in the food. Does the food have wheat in it? The vet thought that might be Remington's issue. The food we use now does not have wheat and like I said it seemed to help the problem. I don't have any more suggestions... but I know how discouraging it can be and its NOT fun cleaning it up either! Good Luck! Hopefully you get some good suggestions!

[Sally, Ditzy Mitzi & Sgt. Pepper]

My daughter's dog also has a sensitive stomach and her vet suggested duck as easiest to digest. He tolerates duck and sweet potato mixes well. Good luck.

[Lynne B]

I went through this with Beck, I tried everything and finally settled on grain free Taste of The Wild, I recently switched to the Costco grain free that is made by the same company as TOTW and he is doing just as well on that. If/when you switch make sure you do it over a period of 3-5 days, gradually adding the new food to what they are used to eating. if you change foods too quickly the dog will probably get sick just due to the change.

[Melissa]

We have Buddy on California Naturals. You might have tried that, but it is all natural and we give Buddy the Lame and rice. They also have Chicken and rice formula. He loves it so much we use it for training treats. Good luck!

[Tammy & Gracie]

I don't think I would blame wood eating as a nutritional imbalance. Some dogs just like to eat "stuff". My Gracie loves to eat sticks and such, She always has, both before and after homecooking. She seems to think it is a sport! Have you seen the various discussions in the Food Group by Jane and Guiness? He has/had tummy issues that were much improved with HC.

[Mommy2Max]

Max just went through a bout of colitis. I started out on the rice and chicken per my vets request but, that never helped. Dr. Becker (holistic DVM) & her vet nutritionist Beth Taylor suggests turkey and pumpkin (or sweet potato) and that helped Max after about 2 weeks of loose stool (Pheeewww). Actually, I used Plato's dehydrated sweet potato and canned low sodium turkey found in the "tuna" section. I also added phytomucil, probiotics and enzymes/prebiotics ... slippery elm bark and activated charcoal can also help.. and of course one needs to try and find out the cause.

That is a temporary fix until the GI gets a break.

Their feelings on food is that RAW is best, followed by a balanced home cooked meal, followed by a human grade no grain canned diet (Nature's variety/Before the Grain as examples) .... Their least favorite option is kibble although they do realize that it's a convenience factor for many. They urge people to do their research on kibble and you can get a lot of good advice on this forum about premium kibble. They are also very weary of an unbalanced cooked diet and came out with a book showing how to balance a cooked diet properly but, it is work. Again, this is their opinion.

Their book gives recipes to use without bones for a cooked diet - plus several supplements that must be ground up and calcium. It also gives RAW recipes with bone - plus the supplement mix.

It looks like the no grain, human grade canned may be a good option for you. I don't know the consistency of all of them. Max won't eat a loaf style food. He LOVES shredded and ground textures. He is lucky that he is WAY cute. ;P

One other option but, this is controversial, is to buy frozen commercial RAW patties and lightly cook them. If the patties have bone meal, eggshells, calcium supplements or use finely ground bones (Pepperdogz - Primal RAW) some people say it's okay to lightly cook them and it won't harm them. Others say never to cook bone despite the size. I'm talking about commercial RAW balanced food and not whole bones from an animal carcass.

~Danielle

[Mommy2Max]

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2010/07/21/13...

Here is Dr. Becker's list.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

What we have to remember about cooked versus raw foods is that there is almost no difference nutritionally between raw foods and cooked foods. Yes, there is some small loss of nutrients when foods are heated, but if that were a problem, how would any of us be here? We need protein, vitamins, minerals, ettc. just like dogs do, and yet we cook much of our food (all of our protein, basically, is cooked), and dieticians will tell you that most Americans get too much protein in their diets, nonetheless. So clearly, not much protein is lost in cooking.
I understand the raw bone thing, because you can't safely give a dog cooked bones other than marrow bones, which are inedible, so if you believe that dogs need bones in their diet, raw would be the only way to go. But otherwise, I don't agree with much of this Dr.'s thinking. Our dogs were never wild, nor their parents, nor their grandparents, nor any labrador, poodle, or golden ever...all of these breeds came way after dogs were domesticated. So what your dog might eat or thrive on in the wild can only be pure conjecture. Nobody can eat grain as it grows, except for ruminants like cows...humans couldn't eat it, either. Yet we know that whole grains are very beneficial and healthful for humans. So just because dogs in the wild didn't eat grain, that doesn't mean they can't benefit from it. They couldn't eat it. Our ancestors ate raw meat, too, I imagine, if you go far enough back, lol. But that doesn't mean it's what we should be eating for good health.

Krista, the commercial food that has worked best for FG dogs with sensitive tummies is the original formula California Natural, either the chicken or the lamb formula. I would not go with the new grain-free version of the California Natural line, it is full of pea protein & other fillers. I just did an analysis of it in another discussion here, and it's too low in protein and too high in fillers.
However, if the vomiting is a recent development, and both dogs are afflicted, I would have them checked by the vet. That isn't from the same food they've been doing fine with; there may be a virus or other issue going on.