coughing & gagging after eating rice & chicken....please help!!

[Lorraine & Amos]

OK so I am in the process of switching my 16 week old GD from Performatrin Ultra (a PetValue brand) to Orijen and have been slowly transitioning for the last 2 weeks. So now Amos' poops have been very soft.  Yesterday I added boiled white rice and boiled chicken to his kibble in an effort to bulk it up @ lunch and dinner. This morning he woke up with a hoarse bark and was gagging like he wanted to throw up. Nothing came up except for one little speck of rice.  Wasn't sure what to make of it. It went away after he drank water.  All day today he was fine. Breakfast and lunch was just his kibble mixture. For dinner I added the rice and chicken again to his kibble and he had an episode of gagging and he spit up a small amount of white and clear liquid.  Do you think he is allergic to rice?? I can't imagine he is because he did eat some plain pasta at one time before and he was fine. Could this be something serious?  I'm afraid to go to bed tonight. He only has done this once so far tonight, but the first time he actually spit up something.  Worried!!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Two weeks is way, way too long for a food transition, especially one involving two such very different foods. It's also possible that you are feeding too much, as Orijen is very calorie dense and you typically feed less of it than many other foods, especially those containing grains. And at 16 weeks, it is extremely unlikely that he would be allergic to any food. Food allergies typically develop after a dog has been eating a particular food for months if not years. Eating anything once would not produce an allergic response. 

That said, my guy doesn't do well with rice, either.

I would go 100% with the Orijen and see if the stool improves. Check your feeding guidelines for amounts.

 However, the symptoms you are describing don't like anything that is caused by food of any kind, it sounds a lot like kennel cough. I would have the vet take a look at him. Just do not buy any Rx food, and unless the vet is sure it is bordatella, I wouldn't give antibiotics unnecessarily either.

[Lorraine & Amos]

I didn't realize it was too long to transition. I figured the longer the better. Plus I still have a decent amount of the Performatrin left. 

Curious as to how your guy reacted to rice....

I'm not sure it's kennel cough. The hoarseness disappeared once he started drinking and eating this morning and hasn't come back. He only coughed twice with the gagging tonight when he spit up a small amount. Plus, we haven't really been anywhere public yet, just on our block.

I will see how tonight goes. Right now he is sleeping. 

P.S. He only got the CIV 2 and the Lyme vaccines 2 days ago....maybe the accidents are his payback to me LOL!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Well if the gagging, coughing and hoarseness don;t come back, you should be fine. I don't know why it happened but if it doesn't happen again, I wouldn't worry about it. I would end the transition, though and just feed Orijen.

Rice also made JD regurgitate. He really does better without grain. 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I just realized you had posted about soft stools following vaccinations. Did he get the bordatella vaccine? That could be the cause of this. 

[Susan and Bentley]

Bentley does that a lot.  I was told it's nothing to worry about

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Possible Bordatella (kennel cough)?  You should have the vet check him.