Can a Dog Grow Out of a Food Intolerance?

[Amy, Cubbie & Ollie]

We got Cubbie at 5 months old and from day 1 he always had “soft serve” type stool and would throw up at least once (often more) per week.  The vet recommended switching to Royal Canin (and that was before I found DK so I went along with it).  That didn’t help him and for almost a year we were frequent visitors at the vet’s office.  I did some online research and read that rice can sometimes help a dog with a sensitive stomach which Cubbie definitely had.  One night at dinner we gave him some plain white rice and within a few hours he was throwing up and we ended up at the vet the next morning for another check-up and fluids because the poor little guy was dehydrated.  At this point the vet recommended the Rx food, but I took one look at the bag and saw corn as the first ingredient and declined.  I put Cubbie on the Natural Balance Limited Ingredient and it was like night and day.  He didn’t care for the food that much, but it didn’t make him sick.  I ended up doing an analysis in excel by listing every ingredient from every bag of food that we had ever fed him and the only common ingredient (that wasn’t a protein) was rice.  I knew protein wasn’t the problem because his new food used the same protein as some of the other foods.  For the past 2  years we have avoided foods with rice and treats with rice flour like they are the plague and he has done well.  It has been difficult especially at treat based training classes but we haven’t had any major issues.  My question is this, can dogs out grow a food intolerance or is this something that we will have to watch out for indefinitely?  Ollie is a chow hound and I have read in the Food Group that a food with healthy grain might keep him more satisfied but I really prefer to just feed 1 food to both dogs unless I had to make a change for health reasons.  Any insight would be appreciated.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I don't know for sure, and I will try to research this when I have a chance. You might try cooking some plain white rice and giving Cubbie a small amount with his food for several meals to see what happens. That still may not tell the story, though, because he may not be sensitive to whole rice, but might be sensitive to rice gluten or rice flour. JD's IMS says that with food allergies (NOTE: allergies are very different from intolerances), a dog might not react to plain cooked chicken but might react to something involved in processing the chicken for commercial foods, because the nature of the protein is changed. I think if Cubbie is doing well with the elimination of rice from his diet, I would not play around with that.

There are some grain-free foods that are lower calorie and require you to feed more of them than others. You might look into that. Also, Acana has a new limited ingredient food that contains steel cut oats, and no other grains. There may be other foods out there that contain grains in the form of oats or barley, but not rice, that might also help fill him up more. 

There must be some small treats out there that don't contain rice. Dehydrated liver treats are pricey, but they don't contain anything but liver. Lamb lung might be another idea.

[Amy, Cubbie & Ollie]

We have a nice supply of rice free treats here at home.  The problem comes when we are out at a training class and I have to constantly remind everyone that he can't have any treats but his own.  Although given what happened with Guiness, that might not be a bad thing to do anyway.

[Jen, Lachlan, and Declan]

Lachlan has some issues with apparently digesting some grains and it doesn't take much to throw his digestion off, so I've taken to being pretty militant about both dogs getting treats that I don't provide. The trainer I've been using for classes, when I walked in with Declan for his first day at puppy class, just smiled and said "your treats only, I assume." Then after what happened with Guiness, eek! I've become paranoid about it!

Another treat idea to possibly add to Karen's list is freeze-dried chicken. You can buy it in large bags. It's not cheap but my boys love it, it's nothing but chicken breast, and because it's dry it's easy to carry when I'm working with them. Karen, any drawbacks that you know of with these treats? These are what I buy.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

OMD, Jen, you have no idea how helpful this is!!!!! Jackdoodle can't have any treats except plain chicken, and this will make him so happy!!!! Thank you!

[Jen, Lachlan, and Declan]

Yayyyyy! Anything for Jack, Karen! Reading that made me grin from ear to ear!!!

[Amy, Cubbie & Ollie]

I have bought those treats before in the cheese flavor but hadn't seen the chicken ones yet. thanks

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Thanks, Jen.  This is very helpful to me too with Guinness.  I've been using my boiled chicken broken into little pieces, but it's messy and not very transportable.  I'll give these a try.

[Lisa Marin]

I have posted more than once about my now 7month old puppy, Tucker. He has had diarrhea since the day we brought him home at 9 weeks. To make a long story short I found the miracle food for him. I too felt that it was the rice but came to realize that he had a hard time digesting potato. I have switched him to Natures variety LID turkey with TAPIOCA. After the first feeding the diarrhea has stopped and his poop is perfect! I can even give him fruits and veggies as toppers. I have also read that the montmorillonite clay in the food had been prescribed for dogs with IBS. So, I am not sure if it is the potato that he could not tolerate or the clay in the dog food but I am a very happy doodle owner with a have a very happy and BIG doodle boy:) 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I think Tucker's case is different from Cubbie's. Cubbie only has GI issues when he eats food containing rice. It sounds like Tucker has trouble with other foods as well.

Montmorillonite clay is prescribed for dogs who have diarrhea from chemotherapy treatments. It's a pretty powerful additive in that sense. I'm going to hazard an educated guess that it's the clayy and not the absence of potatoes that is making the difference for Tucker.

Potatoes are usually extremely well tolerated by most dogs, even those with GI diseases, including IBS and even IBD.