Labradoodle & Goldendoodle Forum
Possible ibs ? Having troubles with dog gaining weight and he seems slugngish in Less u get the ball out he's alert and not dosile.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle on
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Sarah I finally figured out the feeding calculator on the big dog natural website and their calorie requirements are WAY too low. Personally, I wouldn't use this food at all, but if you are set on it, you need to feed WAY more than what they are recommending. Any dog would starve on those amounts.
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Let me give you an example of how far off their calculator is. At 35 lbs, Oliver would need a minimum of 700 calories per day just to maintain that weight, and he would need 875 calories per day to gain a little weight. The big dog naturals feeding calculator says he needs 396, which is just a little more than half of the minimum he needs. That's a slow starvation.
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Permalink Reply by Sarah Bakker on
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Hi Karen
Thank you for taking the time of sharing your knowledge. I would like to be apart of the group if I still can ? This food I have him on isn’t either working or absorbing .. I’m open for advice what to do . He’s so skinny and breaks my heart. I’m going to try and get some blood work today . Vet recommended a biochem test to start first with him. Last year he has a full blood panel which reflected his folate was a bit low but that was it. After reading a bit more about ibd if i remember it mentions folate being low .. ? Anyways love to join the group. Thank you !
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Of course you can be a part of this group, lol.
The full blood panels with chemistry that vets run in house will not show you much regarding IBD. Jack's blood panels were all fine. It's the GI Panel that will show it. The GI panel only measures three things: Cobalamin, folate, and a ratio called TLi. It must be sent out to either TAMU or IDEXX and takes about 5-7 days to get results. It also costs about $200 just for that one test. Any abnormalities in either folate or cobalamin levels indicate possible digestive disease. Many GP vets are not even aware that this blood panel exists, so you need to ask for it specifically.Today, call and check your local CVS pharmacy for a human probiotic called VSL#3. It will be in the pharmacy refrigerator. You want the capsules. Start Oliver on one capsule per day.
Then, I would switch Oliver to a limited ingredient diet immediately. I would not do a slow transition, I would just switch him. Personally, I would try Wellness Simple Solutions Salmon & Potato kibble. Buy a small bag, just in case it doesn't agree with him. The feeding directions will be easy to follow. Use the amount for a 40 lb dog.
I may be able to give you other food choices if you can give me a list of the exact kibbles and any other commercial foods you have tried. I need the exact formulas, not just the brand name. i.e. not "Acana" but "Acana Pork and Butternut Squash".
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Yikes ok... yeah it has been a bit confusing for me:/ how much would I need to give him to get to 40 do you think ? I don't want to go back to kibble realizing what he's facing now ...:( I would love to make him food but we live way out in the country and also time it's hard to make our own food... do you think this raw is overpriced and find something else or stick to this one ?
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Sarah, I have a dog with Inflammatory Bowel Disease, which was diagnosed via endoscopy. IBD, not "IBS", which is Irritable Bowel Syndrome and is really only a nervous stomach. IBD is an immune-mediated, incurable disease which is fatal in 20% of cases, and requires lifelong management with diet/meds/supplements. My guy has been well-managed since 2012, not an easy feat, as most of the members of the IBD Dogs support group I'm a member of struggle constantly. I tell you this to give some credibility to my knowledge and advice on digestive issues in dogs. I have helped many, many dogs here on DK and with our rescue group who struggled with digestive issues., some of them very serious. I would like to help you and your dog as well.
I will tell you that many dogs with digestive issues cannot tolerate certain kinds of raw diets. There is nothing magical or curative about raw food as opposed to cooked food, and I have the science to back that up.
There are other alternatives for dogs with these issues besides "raw feeding" and kibble. There are commercial raw products that work really well for dogs with sensitive stomachs, particularly Honest Kitchen. Believe it or not, there are also limited ingredient, single novel protein kibbles that would work for your dog. I know you think otherwise, but what have you really tried? My guy gets a combination of an LID single protein kibble and homemade food, which is easier than you might think, because if at least half the diet is commercial nutritionally complete food, the homemade food can be just cooked meat, fish or poultry and something like sweet potatoes. If you would like to explore some of these options, you can start a new discussion in the Food Group.
There are also some beneficial supplements that would help your guy. Probiotics are very important for dogs with digestive issues. Omega 3 fatty acids are also very important, and most raw diets are lacking in this.
I am just not comfortable recommending feeding amounts for the food you are currently using, as the website does not provide enough enough info and clearly, what they do provide is dangerous, IMO. Your dog needs more calories and more nutrition, more food, period. He's basically being starved with his current diet. I also don't know what exactly are your guy's issues and what testing has been done to determine that, which is important in choosing a diet.
I'm happy to help if you would like to start a new discussion in TFG.
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Permalink Reply by Jarka, Monty & Auggie on
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Sarah, I would definitely trust Karen and go by her advice. I've been on DoodleKisses long enough to know the wealth of knowledge she has about dog food. And yes, she helped me as well when I was struggling with Monty's food habits.
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So I played with the calculator and set it at 5.5 and says 868.5 so guessing I would need to do almost 2 cups for his call intake? Am I seeing that correctly ???:/
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e did do a gi panel a year and half ago. Would I still need to consider that again ?
Also we did have him on a kibble called pulsar that comes out of Canada . Not sure if this was a single protein food but it seemed he did ok on it when we had him on it before we switched to this raw food.
http://horizonpetfood.com/index.php/pulsar/
Also wouldn’t his stomach be ticked if I switch him all of a sudden on another food ?:/
Also I did get a probiotic for him called garden of life - primal defense. I guess from what I learned from my friends that works with dogs is it helps clean the walls of the digestive track so helps absorb his foods and also creates good bacteria back in the gut
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Well, the info your friend who works with dogs gave you is wrong about what probiotics do (Clean the walls of the digestive track? Um, no, lol.), and the probiotic she recommended is not a very good one. VSL#3 was the subject of a $100,000 study of digestive disease in dogs at the Iowa State vet school and that's what you need, period.
The Pulsar food is okay, but not what I would recommend for a dog with digestive issues. And a quick switch is what works best for dogs with digestive issues, and who are not doing well on the current food. Plus, if he does have IBD, combining a new diet with the old diet is going to cause a reaction to any new food you introduce.
GI panels need to be run every year. In fact, after JD's diagnosis, we had to run them every couple of months for a while. Why is your vet recommending a CBC/chem panel? If you're going to do blood work at this time anyway, you want the GI panel in addition to anything else.
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