puppy food???

[Lisa Marin]

i have a 3 1/2 month old (30 pound) puppy that has been on the wellness large breed puppy food with soft stools and a bout of diarrhea and upset stomach last week. i am looking to change his food and wonder if anyone has any ideas. My older GD is on the wellness CORE but I understand that is not good for pups! I want to switch his food while he is on his antibiotic to ease the change. Any ideas....Thanx so much!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Lisa, why is he on antibiotics?

I would not switch until he's off the antibiotics, they wreak havoc with a dog's digestive system and a food change would not be a good idea. You won't even be able to tell if the new food agrees with him.

Why would the CORE formula not be good for puppies?

[Lori]

Hi Lisa, Casper too had soft poops while he was eating Wellness. We switched him to Taste of the Wild & that all change for the better! I don't know if they have a puppy line though. Funnily enough, he did lose interest in the TOTW & wouldn't eat for days at a time! So...we bought Wellness again to get him eating - funny critters they are!

Good luck with the tummy troubles - I hope they clear up soon!

[Lisa Marin]

Karen....he is on an antiobitic because the diarrhea was so bad.  The stool sample came back negative but the vet wanted to correct the bacterial imbalance??  We feed chicken and rice and he seems to have better stools. So I thought now would be a good transition time to a new food?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I would wait. My experience with antibiotics has been that it can take several weeks for the dog's digestive system to return to normal, even in a mature dog. The problem with antibiotics is that they kill the good intestinal flora along with the bad. Not really a good way to restore bacterial imbalance. I'd give probiotics, or just plain unflavored fat-free yogurt.

Wellness Super 5 Mix gave JD the loosest popps he's had on any of the many foods we've tried over the years, so I do agree that a food change might be a good idea. You don't need to feed a puppy formula, an ALS formula would be fine.

[Jen & Ember]

This makes me nervous... :( I am almost finished switching Ember ON to Wellness from her old food which gave her the worst gas and she wasn't very successful with firm stool. It was recommended by family/friends and also the vet. She is still in the transition phase, currently on 3/4 new and 1/4 old so we're almost complete. She seems to be doing okay... but stool is a bit loose, which was then compounded by giving Sentinel yesterday which seems to upset her tummy a bit for the 1-2 days after.

Fingers crossed she will do okay!

[Lisa Marin]

Karen...do you mind telling me what kind of food works for your dog? Especially since he had the loose stools with Wellness...

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Jack was on Science Diet when I adopted him, and I immediately switched to Nutro, which I had been feeding for many years with my previous dog. Then came the 2007 recalls and my education on dog food.

We started with the Wellness Super 5 Mix and his poop was very loose and bulky. We then switched to Nature's Variety Prairie, which was better. But then they had recalls and quality control issues.

We then switched to Fromm's Four Star line, and JD did very well with that. I would have stayed with it, but his specialist wanted him on grain-free food, specifically Orijen. And Orijen has proven to be the best food for him...his poop is so perfect, you could almost pick it up with your bare hands, lol.

But every dog is different, and sometimes it takes trial and error to find what works best for your dog. My only caution would be to give any food you try several weeks before switching again.

[Lisa Marin]

thanx karen....i was going to try orijen large breed puppy or the Blue Buffalo large breed puppy...my fingers are crossed!

[Theresa]

We started our dog out with Orijen  Large breed puppy and he always had soft / mushy stools. I was surprised because it was highly rated.  After a while, we started mixing it with Taste of the Wild since it had more fiber (Orijen is a lot of protein not so much fiber) and it has made HUGE improvements.  Originally I was going to switch completely to TOTW but now I might just continue to mix since he's doing well on it.

 

 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

It's interesting. All of the Orijen puppy and adult formulas have 3% fiber. The TOTW puppy formulas have 5% fiber, but the adult formulas vary; some contain 3% fiber, the same as Orijen, and some contain 4%.

[Theresa]

Maybe the protein amount was too high?  IIRC the Orijen has about 42% and the TOTW Pacific Stream we use is only 25%  Whatever it is, adding the TOTW made a huge difference.  I can actually clean up after him.  LOL

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Sometimes it's just hard to know why a particular dog does better on one food than another. I think it's the balance of nutrients and ingredients as a whole and not any one factor.  My guy has firmer poops on foods that contain higher protein. I think that's why it can be so frustrating finding the right balance for your individual dog, there are so many variables.