Has anyone had to change their puppy's food?

[Penny & Wrigley]

My puppy was on Rx food.  I have been in the process of transitioning him from that to TOTW.  It went okay until we got to a 50/50 mix and last night he woke up with diarrhea.  

Has anyone else had food issues?  Do I just keep going and see if it works itself out?  I added some pumpkin this am hoping that would help.

If I switch, do I go cold turkey to a new food or mix the one that's causing problems with the new one?

I'm so frustrated with these food/poop issues :-(  

Just in case anyone asks, he did has worms at 8 weeks but he had 2 negative stools after deworming and did great on the Rx food.  Normal poops for the entire time we were on it.

Trying to figure out the next step and thought some of you might have gone through similar challenges.

[Lindsey & Cocoa]

Just want to say how I understand what you are going through.  I have had my puppy 6 weeks and we have delt with this the whole time.  She did not have worms but a litter mate had Giardia but she tested neg.  When she is on the RX food she has great poops as soon as we take her off it goes back to watery mess.  we are on the RX food AGAIN for another week for 1 last stool sample. It his sample is negative I am going to start trying different food formula's.

The RX food has Turkey as the meet so I think that is going to be my first guess.

[Penny & Wrigley]

Thanks Lindsey!  Your puppy is so cute!!  I am out of Rx food now and the vet I go to is closed on the weekend so I'm just going to move forward through the weekend and add in some pumpkin and maybe some rice.  I was so excited when he was on the Rx food because he had totally normal poops.  His poop has never been watery but gets soft and not formed and the need to go woke him up in the middle of the night.  Mine has tested negative for all the usual suspects several times so this is all just so frustrating!  My husband doesn't understand why it stresses me out.  Sorry you're going through this too!

[Lindsey & Cocoa]

Aww thanks your wrigley is adorable.

 

I am nervous and excited to get off the RX food.  I want to move on and try to find an answer but I know as soon as we stop the runs are going to come back.  I am just praying its nothing to serious and just fixed with food or another round of antibiotics. The vet just wanted her on it for a few weeks to give her insides a break since weeks of this irritation were not good on her.

Sorry your husband doesnt understand :(  Mine is just as frustrated as I am about this.  

 

When she was on regular puppy food you could tell she was not feeling good. She could not sit still to nap and was beyond gassy... not to mention some days of going poo 16 times a day and with bloody stool :( 

[Tricia]

Bridget is almost 6 months old. We got her at 9 weeks and had already planned on feeding TOTW. The breeder sent enough of the food she was on for about three days. I started from feeding #1 by adding a little TOTW to her food. I continued until her original food was gone and she ate only TOTW. We never had one food problem. I also added some pumpkin in 1x per day. I slowly incorporated a few different toppers. She enjoys peas the best! She also likes green beans and baby Lima beans. Breakfast I add nothing. A small lunch and dinner are where I add toppers. We alternate two TOTW flavors at one time. The following time we buy food I switch flavors. I don't feed lamb, because I don't eat baby animals, so I choose not to feed her that. She does like the Bison/Venison, fowl, and salmon varieties. Bridget is a perfect weight(says her Vet.) She is growing well and full of energy. She has had absolutely no food issues on TOTW. I was very impressed with everything I had read on it, and am glad I chose it. Good luck :-)

[Helen & Kirby]

Kirby had a lot of problems when she was little.  My trainer suggested probiotics.  It worked!  No more poop problems.  I use 4 in 1 Probiotics, from First Choice Naturals. (They are online) (Other brands didn't work for us)  I still give her a little scoop with her food everyday.

[Penny & Wrigley]

Thanks Helen!  Did you just give a scoop 1x per day?  There's a green and orange.  Did you buy green?

[Helen & Kirby]

Yes, I think I started out giving her about 1/2 scoop, once a day, in her morning meal. Add a little warm water to mix it up.   It has directions according to the weight of the dog.   The one I use has the green label, called 4 in 1 probiotics.

I tried different foods, raw food diet,  etc.  It seems that the puppy food was too rich for her, and the vet says to take large breed dogs off puppy food earlier than you would small breed dogs. Kirby was having all kinds of problems- poop problems, and a terrible urinary tract infection. 

I also started cooking chicken and rice to give with the dry food. Even now  I cook up a big batch of ground chicken and rice every Sunday for the week, and still give her about a scoop of the probiotics with her morning meal.  She is just over two year old --Whoops I guess I shouldn't be in the puppy group any more!  (But she is such a puppy!)  and yes, your dog is sooooo cute!

[Amy Lounsbury]

Hi, your pup is SO cute!!  We were bad, bad puppy parents and didn't do our homework right away so we originally were giving Sammy Iams food, which I found out was pretty much garbage.  He never really liked it and wasn't eating very well, and his poop was formed but he was going about 5 to 6 times a day.   I did some research and decided to try Blue Buffalo, slowly mixing in to make sure he didn't get any tummy upsets. I did it over two weeks because I was so afraid to make him sick.   He absolutely LOVES the food, and never had any digestive issues, thankfully. He only poops twice a day like clockwork now.   I wonder if maybe your pup just happened to have diarrhea for a reason other than the food, if he had tolerated it up until then. 

[Sue and Buddy]

We had some problems with soft poop and Buddy when we first got him. The breeder sent us home with some food, but it was one that is not available in my town. We ordered some online and then began to transition to Blue Buffalo puppy lamb and brown rice. I used pumpkin for a couple of weeks and that helped. I used about a teaspoon per meal.  I also gave him probiotics a couple of times. I use Culturelle which can be found in a chain drug store or big box store. I just opened the capsule and sprinkled it on the food. I'm a believer in probiotics especially if they have had antibiotics.

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

Penny, I really would suggest you take your question over to the Food Group here on DK. They are the experts and you can get some excellent suggestions as to what to try and how to make any changes.

Puppies are notorious for having loose/soft poops. We had issues too with that problem (although Lucy never had what I'd term 'diarrhea'). We transitioned to many different foods (with little change, or change for the worse) and eventually settled on Fromm's (both dry - a mix of Chicken a la Veg and grain-free Beef Frittata, and their canned Shredded Chicken), with a little Stella & Chewy's Freeze Dried Raw. Lucy has always been a very finicky eater, and this combo is appetizing to her as well as keeps her poos just the right firmness. She's no longer a puppy though, and its possible she would have grown out of the loose stools on her own, without any food changes.