hey all. my rottie has been sick twice in the past 2 weeks. Im assuming its because of over exercise, but Im wondering if its the food. I feed him Innova lrg breed puppy. he's been doing good on that food, then I brought him out for a pretty good workout. 4 days later he's got the runs. vet treated him and he got better with some meds. a week and a half later, same thing. my dad thinks its the food (I say no way, he wants me to switch to eukanuba). I read here to give a bit of pumkin to harden his stool. Im thinking about RAW, but the dehydrated type. Im lost...<sigh>..LoL

Collin,

Sounds like you have had him at the vet recently, so I will start with this:

I would switch to Innova Puppy (not large breed) and then at 4 or 5 months old switch to adult Innova, if you are going to keep him on kibble.

If you are going to go to The Honest Kitchen food with meat added, read up on this site first.....tons of info and sample meal plans as well.

At 12 Weeks my pup got the runs ... and after several weeks of messing around, I found it that it was a WHEAT ALLERGY.

Of course, first I just added rice to his regular dog food. Then I put him on the "BRAT" Diet (Bananas, Rice, Applesauce & Toast) along with his boiled Turkey ... he didn't like the bananas, though.

Finally, the vet suggested that I just do RICE AND TURKEY until he got back to NORMAL. Well, we did that for a couple of weeks and he firmed up some but was still pretty soupy. So I added Pumpkin & Yogurt to his diet along with Rice & Turkey.

All the while I was purusing here ... looking for info ... finding out about JUNK DOG FOOD (like IAMS puppy) and Wheat Allergies/Intolerances. I switched him over to Nature's Variety (Wheat Free) but he didn't like it and I had to keep spiking it with Chicken Broth or Stewed Tomatoes, et cetera. So at $45 for 30 lbs of not so favorite dog food I kept looking. We found Canidae at $32 for 40 lbs, and the pup LOVES it. No spiking required.

Once the Runs started at 12 weeks, I'm going to guestimate that it was 5 weeks later before we got to Nature's Variety and semi solid stools. He did firm up good once we switched to Canidae about a month later.

The 1st two weeks were the worst where he was still on Iams Puppy and he had to go outside EVERY 30 minutes. It was terrrible.

I hope sharing my experience helps you.

Good Luck!

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Poster will start new thread

It really would be easier to just feed him raw. It probably won't cost any more than the better dried foods and be cheaper than the dehyrated. Go get a bag of chicken leg quarters from walmart and give him one a day.
My pups stools are always small and firm. It's amazing!
Once you start you will wonder why you didn't do it sooner.
The yogurt and pumpkin are a good idea until he firms up.

 Quote: Debbie Bruce

Go get a bag of chicken leg quarters from walmart and give him one a day.

Umm...part of raw feeding is about variety. A chicken leg quarter is not going to provide a balanced diet.

Mod delete..... Poster will start new thread

thanks for the input.

now, when you guts say "give him a chicken leg", do you mean to literally opn that bag of chicken an put it straight into his dish? no cookin or cutting? I really would like to start the raw diet but dont wanna mess it up. I dont know if Im gonna have enough time to prep these meals...??

Collin, First in order of importance is that Eukanuba has nothing going for it but expensive advertising. It's in the same category as Iams, Science Diet, and Purina: Crap in a Bag. (Cindy's name for that junk is the perfect name.)

2. Debbie was making a point about how simple raw can be. No, a chicken leg a day is not really a complete raw diet. :> (Although it beats many kibbles.)

3. By "sick," do you mean diarrhea? Or more?

4. What meds? Exactly what was the RX?

5. How old is he and has he been checked for worms? When?

About the runs: Please describe. Pudding? Liquid? Just soft-ish? What?

And then tell us what you are able to do. Suppose you wanted to go with The Honest Kitchen dehydrated with RMBs added. Could you do that? Or would you like to go full-on raw? Or start with THK and move gradually to all-raw?

 Quote: kay mardesich

My 11 wk old Alaskan Malamute puppy .....

Kay, Please start a new thread. What's going to happen here is that people are going to mix up advice to you and to Collin.

Just go here:
http://www.leerburg.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/ubb/postlist/Board/33

and click "new topic" up on top. I know you will get lots of advice, but this is kind of a hijack on a thread that had already been started. OK?

And WELCOME!

P.S. Check your PMs. I am PMing you your message so you can copy and paste into a new thread.