Hi, all. I feel like a newbie again after being very active on this site/board for years, but haven’t posted for about 5 years - guess I have a lot of reading to catch up on! We have Nettie, a 12-yr-old GSD rescue who is the picture of health (not counting hips) thanks to raw feeding, assorted supplements and lots of advice and support from this site.
Things were carefree and humming along fine until. . . a new 8-week old puppy was added to the family - Yikes!
“Tiger” is a brindle Mountain Cur/GSD/who knows what, rescued with 2 litter mates from an abandoned house in beautiful Barstow. We’ll have to wait and see what he turns into and how big he’ll get. Tiger and Nettie get along great so far.

I’ve been doing raw food for close about 20 years (3 different GSDs) and have never had a problem. Started the pup with kibble and a couple weeks ago, added a second small meal of ground chicken - maybe too early?. Yesterday, after about a week to 10 days of that diet, the pup got sick, spitting up, lethargic and very dehydrated. Vet pumped some fluids in him (saline?) and said no more raw food - she thinks he probably picked up something from the chicken. Vet recommends Wellness, Purina Po Plan, Hills/Science diet “Balance’ or Royal Canin. Hmmm.

I spent years of study and work fine tuning Nettie’s diet to deal with, and finally eliminate, her severe allergies, so I’m turning over the new pup’s dietary design to my wife to resolve.

Comments or suggestions welcome.

I wouldn't entirely rule out the chicken but the vet is showing a complete lack of nutrition knowledge with her food recommendations so she's not the one I would go to for food questions. People start raw at weaning so it's not really a question of too young. I'm not a raw expert but hopefully one of our raw feeders will post soon.

Congrats on the new pup! Nothing like a pup to make an old dog feel young again. It's always fun to see which ancestor those mixes take after.

Hi Mike,

Welcome back! The new pup sounds like an interesting mix.

I would also be skeptical of any nutrition advice from a vet who recommended Purina or Hills.....

Were you feeding raw chicken that you bought already ground? If so, it may have been contaminated with pathogens - who knows what dubious bits o'bird they grind up and put in those packages. Like you I'm a long-term committed raw feeder - 5 dogs over the years now, including my current 5-year old GSD that I got as a 12 week old puppy and fed raw from the start (full disclosure: he came from a breeder who also fed raw, so I didn't have to transition him from kibble). I used this Ed Frawley article as my guide: http://leerburg.com/feedpups.htm.

I based my puppy diet on lots of chicken wings, backs and necks, lean (80/20 or better) ground beef, chopped beef heart and beef liver, the occasional egg, and raw vegetables that I put though the food processor. I did pay attention to the supplements and the proportion of meaty bone to muscle meat specified in Ed Frawley's article - I remember being worried about providing the right calcium:phosphorus ratio for healthy bone development. I didn't feed any dairy products, but based on the breeder's advice I also added a scant 3/4 tsp human-grade bone meal to the muscle meat and organ meals until he was about 6 months old. The pup did great, ate like a vacuum cleaner, was never sick and is now a very healthy and athletic adult.

So I would encourage you to give transitioning to raw another go once the pup is healthy again. Maybe stay away from ground chicken unless you grind it yourself so you know it's clean. Has he been checked for worms and other parasites?

JMHO.

Sarah

P.S.

You want to be extra-careful with food hygiene for puppies and dogs unaccustomed to raw - scrub chopping boards and dishes, refrigerate promptly, don't feed anything that might be slightly off or otherwise contaminated. I find that dogs accustomed to a raw diet can eat all sorts of garbage with no ill effects, but for more sensitive puppy digestive systems you have to be more scrupulous.

Again JMHO.

The average vet USUALLY knows little about nutrition or training.

Nutrition classes taught in Vet school are often taught by, guess who, dog food companies.

Their "obedience training" usually consists of learning how to handle a dog in the examining room.

Hi Mike. I see you got some good advice from Sarah on the raw diet. I understand you'd like to get your new pup on a raw diet as you've been doing for so many years with other dogs. I just wanted to offer a couple of comments because I'm a kibble feeder, and if -- IF -- you end up having to do kibble with this pup (hopefully just for a short time), of the brands your vet recommended, the only one I would consider feeding my own dogs is Wellness. IMO, and based on a lot of study and research I have done, Wellness is a high-quality brand; the others are not.

Here is a site that is comprehensive and fairly up to date where you can look up various brands of kibble you might be considering, if it comes to that. I rotate between several brands, but I stick with the four- and five-star rated ones. (And even among the higher-rated foods, some may agree with a particular dog better than others.)

http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/

That sounds like a very interesting pup you've got!