While there are plenty of discussions on the benefits of raw and other high grade diets I don't think this is the time to do this with this particular puppy for a couple reasons.

First off this puppy has a digestion problem to begin with combined with being dosed by anti biotics. It very simply may not have the gut flora to handle changes right now. Personally if it were me I'd ride out the current small bag of I/D, by then the puppy will be off the antibiotics, and will have time for a flora recovery. Then start the transition to whatever the diet will be in the long haul.

Second is the vet factor. Vet's are great for hawking hills diets but in case the digestion problems are not 100% resolved by the treatments you need to be able to create a clear picture for your vet of what your dog is actually eating, what it's caloric intake is, and that the diet is balanced and not the thing causing the problem. For instance, say you go with the boiled rice,chicken, and pumpkin diet and your puppy is like any of my dogs/puppies where they pick out the chicken eat maybe a quarter of the rice and do their best to avoid the pumpkin. How much did the dog actually eat and what content was it, how many calories do I think it was, etc? The likely hood that this puppy will get sicker or unstable from eating a bag of hills is next to nothing. Switching around diets in a period of digestion upset on an already thin, medicated puppy however imo is a bad unneeded move. This puppy needs calories, needs time to recover, and needs to not be losing unnecessary liquids before major changes take place.

Glad the puppy is doing better.

I don't know if it makes a difference, but he's on the canned canine i/d. It's main ingredients are water, turkey, rice and egg and according to the vet is bland enough not to upset his tummy. He's on the probiotics to encourage good gut flora that the antibiotics could wipe out.

While those of you that have the time, money and energy to do the raw diet for your dogs, that's awesome. We however, do not and therefore he is on Wellness Super 5 mix puppy food, which is the recommended kibble. We will likely continue with the probiotics as well.

He's doing better, appetite is definitely coming back and we should start transitioning off of the canine i/d back to his kibble over the weekend.

That is great news!

Just wanted to update everyone. The breeder did reimburse us for the vet bills. We ran one more test on the stool and no parasites present, which is good. He is back to his regular diet and is so playful! Housetraining is going pretty well now that the tummy issues are taken care of. His new favorite toy is a stuffed fleece bone with a squeaker. Watching him with it is quite comical. His ears have also started to stand and it's just too darn cute since the tips still flop down just a bit.

Hubby will be home from the sandbox in just a couple days and will finally get to meet the new addition. Our DVD "Your Puppy" should be here as well and we can all start working on good puppy behavior and totally integrating the pack structure although I think he is already doing very well. He seems to recognize me as alpha, which is something I was worried about since hubby's career can take him away for extended periods of time. We had planned to get the puppy as a family upon hubby's return, but am thinking perhaps it worked out better this way.

Any thoughts, comments or suggestions to make the transition to another superior pack member easier on the pup?