Advice appreciated

[Snoopysimaginaryfriend]

Hello everyone.

Our lovely little border terrier boy is 24 weeks old tomorrow. He is a sweet natured little guy, fun loving and so friendly. However, he is prone to bouts of diarrhoea. Generally this will only be one movement and for the most part his stools are ok, not great but ok. We're very strict about not giving him human food and we haven't seen him actually eat anything he shouldn't although he absolutely loves drinking water out of muddy puddles.

He was on James wellbeloved but we couldn't find the pouches so decided to try the wainwright puppy trays which are so highly recommended on allaboutddogfood. Cue diarrhoea, and not just one movement but every movement. He even went in his crate at night which he has never done before. Vets not overly concerned as he is still very lively, still eating and drinking fine. Advised home made chicken and rice which we have started this morning.

I know in all likelihood he will be right as rain soon but I hate to think of him suffering and I've now convinced myself he has colitis (probably from a mixture of googling and pregnancy hormones). We really want to get him onto a good food that will not cause him any problems before May when I will hopefully be on maternity leave, both for his sake and so we can bulk buy because money will be tight.

I guess what I'm asking is has anyone else had these problems with their puppy and how did you find the right food for them.

Thank you, sorry this is so long.

[Deadnettle]

We are currently on food number 5 or 6 with our puppy who is 7 months old.

Sometimes it takes a while to find the right food for a particular dog. Our last dog ate Eden with no problem while the puppy had diarrhoea for 3 weeks on it before we switched food. The food we moved her onto actually has a slightly lower rating than Eden on allaboutddogfood so don't worry too much about that. Its more important that your dogs does well on a food than its rating.

Try to find a food with totally different ingredients to the ones in the food thats making your dog ill. Also, we didn't bother slowly introducing a food when our pup already had diarrhoea, we just changed it completely. It took maybe 3 days if that to see an improvement.

I hope this helps.

[Snoopysimaginaryfriend]

Thanks deadnettle. It's a shame they can't talk and tell you what they need isn't it? We thought we were doing the right thing with the wainwright ( it's just turkey and rice!).

I will have to look into two week samples I think, would that be enough time to show a sensitivity?

I'm looking at him now snoozing on his blanket, he has no idea how much worry he's caused me!

[cissyfuss]

I have a border terrier girl, now 3.5 yrs. she can sometimes have an upset tum due to eating all sorts out on her walk. I think they are prone to sensitivity. However she currently has James wellbeloved for small dogs and is fine with it. It can take time to find the right brand for your dog. Obvs make sure it's wheat free and avoid pork and beef. Chicken and rice for a while to get them back on track is good advice. Hope he sorts out soon. They are fab dogs!!

[Madbengalmum]

Can i make recommendations for you?
Had the same problem for years with my dog and solved the problem with proplan sensitive salmon and rice, turns out lots of dogs cant do chicken/turkey etc.
As she is older we have now discovered orijen six fish, never ever had problems since with either pro plan sensitive or orijen.
Hope this helps.

[BrumpyGollocks]

It might help to avoid foods with grains & additives,they are used as cheap fillers & often cause dogs issues.

Millies Wolfheart is a good choice, no added nasties plus they give excellent advice if ever you need it.

Also a probiotic might help, I think the one I used is called canikur.

[Snoopysimaginaryfriend]

Thank you for all the suggestions.

I had never considered trying something with fish and I will definitely look into a probiotic.

[Snoopysimaginaryfriend]

brumpy where do you get your canikur?

[miserablemoo]

Hi.

My dog is on wainwrights. The turkey gave him terrible runs. When I had to buy him a new bag of food they had no turkey so instead of going for a complete different brand (he has a sensitive tum so knew it would make him even worse!) I got him the lamb flavour instead. Think its a green bag. He's been absolutely fine on that one! So if your not keen on changing the brand maybe try a different flavour. I did change it gradually over a week or so.

Good luck!

[Snoopysimaginaryfriend]

miserablemoo we hadn't even given him the dry food. It was the puppy trays with turkey.

We have previously given him the James wellbeloved pouches with turkey and rice. Is it possible the wainwrights is just too much protein for him?

[notarehearsal]

Fish for dogs only for my terriers for past five years. Absolutely best choice I could have made, I give hardly any treats and no extra food. They now never, ever have diarrhoea.

[miserablemoo]

Sorry

[Shriek]

i bet if you literally gave him 'turkey and rice' he'd been absolutely fine!

and try to keep him away from 'google/pregnancy hormones' in case its giving him colitis.

so many of these foods upset so many ddogs! I would try simple chicken and rice, and then buy small bags of other types until you find something that he's reliably settled on. happy hunting, it sound a nightmare for so many.

[CMOTDibbler]

My dogs are sensitive and can't have turkey. We do Burns pork and potato or Vitalin sensitive. The remains of the many bags we've bought and found they can't tolerate go to our local rescue.

[Ridingthegravytrain]

Mine always got the runs on anything turkey or chicken

Happy on Millie's wolf heart or fish4dogs

Took us ages to figure it out. Poos should be hard, so even if it's not diarrhoea if it's still soft you probably haven't cracked it yet

[Friendlystories]

My boy can't tolerate turkey or pork, it really is trial and error, they're all different and what suits one won't suit another. I worked my way through about 15 different foods including a raw diet before I found one that suited him, it's a bit of a nightmare at the time but worth it once you get them settled on something. Hope you find something that suits him soon

[BrumpyGollocks]

Sorry Op, I went off for a while, I got the canikur from Amazon as at the time it was a really good price for the large size.

[Snoopysimaginaryfriend]

Sorry miserablemoo I didn't mean to sound like I was having a go. I was just frustrated because we were giving him something that claims to have two ingredients and that is so highly rated and it ended up like this haha

It's crazy. With our cats they can eat absolutely anything and be fine, we even have one who decided she would steal a poppadom, no issues at all, but his Royal hairy highness is sooo sensitive

[Snoopysimaginaryfriend]

People that are recommending Millie's wolfheart, I've been looking at their website- what mix do you feed yours?

[Shriek]

are you all talking about synthetised meats found in process produced foods, or real chicken, turkey, pork?

this is madness! 15 different foods!

it is the ddogs or the foods?

ddogs not designed for eating potato, its not good for them.

[Ridingthegravytrain]

No, I'm talking about the food. Chicken and turkey in all its forms

Op I think we use countryside and riverside mix

[MsAdorabelleDearheartVonLipwig]

Well this has been an eye-opener. Monty our 11 month old lab has Millie's. I have noticed lately that although he can do a good solid poo in the morning he then follows it when we're out with lots of squity little runny poos. I don't know whether he's just scent marking or if he doesn't like the turkey & veg that we've currently got him on. It's a big bag and we're only half way through it. Can't remember if he was doing it on the previous bag.

[Snoopysimaginaryfriend]

msadorabelle that sounds a lot like our little guy. His first poo of the day is generally his best poo of the day.

[Snoopysimaginaryfriend]

Well he had a full day of chicken and rice yesterday and it was definitely slightly better. Came down to another accident this morning. It's was smaller so I thought 'maybe we're getting there'. Out we go and the first thing that comes out of his behind looks like chicken soup. He's still running around, drinking and eating. I just don't know what to do.

[MrsPnut]

Our dog was like this, she only had to sniff something different and she had diarrhoea. We finally found that pooch and mutt health and digestion food really helped her, in fact the other pooch and mutt varieties were also good too.

[Shriek]

stick with the chicken and rice till it settled