Hello! I'm new to the board. I have a few questions regarding my 4.5 month old Cavi puppy, Pita. Sorry it's gonna be long. We've had her for about a month now and she has had diarrhea on and off since we've had her.
When we first got her we were told to put her on Medical Development dry food, which we did. But she didn't seem to really like it so I started researching different foods out there. We decided to try Innova Evo, but when we first tried switching she had a really bad case of diarrhea. When I asked my friend, a vet asst., she said to try switching VERY SLOWLY. Which worked out okay until now.
We've gotten to the point of feeding her a little over a 1/4 cup (per meal - 2 meals per day) with Innova EVO and a few tablespoons of Medical and her poop has gotten all runny again. Am I feeding her too much Innova EVO?
In my research, I've found that Innova isn't good for puppies. Is this true? Should I switch to Innova Puppy instead?
On another point, I've bought some frozen raw food for her to have as well. She loves it, but it is a bit pricey so we've decided to let her have 1 meal raw and the other dry. Should I wait to incorporate the raw food until I get her settled on a dry food?
I gave her some raw food last night for dinner and she loved it. But her poop was very little (a lot of straining)and very yellow and soft (pudding).
HELP! I don't know what to do and I want to the best for her.

Have you had a thorough stool analysis done? There are some protozoal infections that can be hard to find. A live stool smear is usually the best way to find them. (a "float" is what is usually done for regular worm screenings)

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Have you had a thorough stool analysis done? There are some protozoal infections that can be hard to find. A live stool smear is usually the best way to find them. (a "float" is what is usually done for regular worm screenings)

Yes, I agree that this is number 1. And while it's being done, you can add a couple of tablespoons of pumpkin (canned is fine -- not pie filling, though; just straight cooked pumpkin) to each meal. Pumpkin is great for diarrhea and has no downside, IMO.

My own thought would be that I'd want to isolate the culprit, if the dog has no parasite problem or other intestinal problem, so I would not be going back and forth right now between any two different foods. Can you stick to raw for a few days with some pumpkin added and see what happens (while you are waiting for the vet results)?

Then, if everything checks out OK with the tests, you might want to come back and check out the threads here on how to keep the price of raw low. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

At the very least, you can get some URLs here for sites that compare the quality of commercial foods.

Does this sound like a plan for now?

Thank you everyone who's offered wonderful advise for my baby but I have an update on Pita. She's been on raw food for 4 meals only and her stools are normal! I can't believe it. I'm hooked on raw food. I don't care about the cost anymore, this stuff is great! I'm going to let her stomach settle for a couple of weeks before I try and find a kibble that will work for her. We tend to travel a lot and I would like to be able to offer her food that will be much easier to travel with. I decided to try Innova Puppy rather than the EVO brand. It might be more gentle to her stomach. But Pita is doing great, she's happy and healthy thanks to raw food. Thanks again everybody for all your help!

Hiya!
I had the same problem when we got Elea. She was fed a good kibble and had runny poop for a month straight. Trip to the vets and he said she was fine but the kibble just didn't agree with her. After trying several different kibbles, we switched to raw and that cleared the problem up completely.

Sorry thought of something else. When looking for a dry kibble, I'd look for one with no corn or corn meal.

Thanks for the suggestion. We're going to try Innova Puppy in the new year. She's doing so well on the raw food that we want to let her stomach settle for awhile before trying to find a kibble that works for her.
BTW - Does anyone know of a good dehydrated raw food available in Canada? Also, do any of you notice that dogs on raw food drink alot less water? Pita hardly touches her water dish since we've put her on raw. She still goes potty regularly except for her bowel movements, which are smaller and fewer in a day. She only goes 2x / day and a much smaller amount. I can't get over how well she's doing on the raw food!?!

When I tried Innova Puppy on my dogs they got liquid diarrhea, which didn't clear up until I switched foods back again. I feed Chicken Soup (puppy and adult) and have been pleased with it. ps I also tried Innova adult at one point and stool was never solid. I think it is a very good food, but very "rich" and not all dogs can handle it. And it is very dangerous for puppies to have diarrhea - they can dehydrate very quickly.

molly