I need some suggestions...at a loss

[Laura Deutsch]

Wow...hardly know how to begin. Molly has had intestinal issues since we got her, on and off. She did best on a raw diet...has had numerous bouts of loose poop....have tried many foods. We were not happy with the raw patties because our vet was not happy, it grossed me out, although she was good. We only went with that about a month. Changed her to TOTW Pacific stream which she did great on until the latest recall. we switched to Arcana..her poops were softer, but for a while she was fine. Then in July at the Cape, she ate a critter, as soon as we got there, in the backyard. For the rest of the week, she had diarreah. She doesn't do chicken well, so we did ground beef and rice. Vet put her on flagyl. Then on a combination of that and probiotic - fortaflora and something else, can't remember. Finally put her on   Hill's ID which worked, of course (I know, I know). Pumpkin didn't work either. We finally switched her back to Arcana and she was ok, not great and has had loose poop issues recently again. 

I'm wondering if we should go back to raw, but not raw patties. I know Jane does dry Honest Kitchen I think and am wondering what other people have had similar constant issues, and have not had success on Arcana. Vets will probably say go back to Hills. She's had all kinds of tests.....no problems have shown up. (not recently, but in late July). Wondering if we should take her stool in again

but that's never been an issue. Any suggestions? I don't think pumpkin or sweet potatoes will work this time either. I can certainly try it though. Thanks for your help

[Lindsey & Cocoa]

Why not go back to TOTW?   I quit it after the recall as well and we had to go back because the other foods we tried were instant explosive diarrhea.  Cocoa is doing great on it.... I just stay tuned to the foof group here for recalls and always keep the current bag of food for the bar code.

[Maria, Ton & Zoe]

Did you try ZiwiPeak? That fixed all our Zoe's loose stool problem and pickiness for a while... After 9 months of ZiwiPeak (i was rotating the flavors) she got tired of it and now refuses to eat it, so I had to go back to free feeding on Origen... The loose stools are not there anymore, not even when we switched. Maybe her stomach healed??? But I have to tell you - she had the smallest and most compact stools on ZiwiPeak. I may try to go back to those when she gets bored of Origen :)

[Jill, Woody & Maxi]

We went through many bouts of diarrhea, different foods, meds, etc...after finding this food group,we learned about THK, and have found that the honest kitchen works best for us.  We have our boy on Embark, by THK, his stools have been perfect since!..best of luck..and unfortunately, the vet's recommendations aren't always right...but  you do whats best for you!

[Jennifer & Darwin]

Molly's story sounds so familiar. Darwin (our 11-month old Labradoodle) has had similar GI issues. He has had multiple courses of antibiotics, positive stool cultures for Coccidia and Giardia, GI bleeding from repeated insult to his gut, He is currently on probiotics and Pepcid. After the last bout, we did nearly 6 weeks of boiled ground turkey and rice until he was completely normal. He has done best with Darwin's Pet Food - frozen raw patties. We have tried Honest Kitchen, Stella & Chewy's, Primal raw and many brands of kibble (Fromm, Orijen, etc). Our vet is not a big fan of raw diets, but it seems to work. She has hesitated to put him on a prescription diet at this point. Darwin's raw food is expensive, but if it keeps him out of the vet's office then it will be worth it! I also found that the Honest Kitchen supplement Perfect Form worked (as long as you know that the stool sample is negative).

[Willow and J]

I second TOTW, plus sweet potatoes. I switched around food in frustration when Willow had problems (even rice and chicken doesn't do it for Willow) until my husband pointed out that simple and stable would be the way to go. So we stuck with one food we knew that worked and added sweet potato (Sam's Yams as snack + canned sweet potato as topper). For Willow, sweet potato really makes a LOT of difference.