Changing dog food, gradually or straight away?

[MrsPresley]

I had my lovely old dog at the vet on Friday, was really about his leg but while there I mentioned that Cracker gets an upset tummy quite a lot

We did realise a while back that anything with gravy affected him so we cut that out but the tummy upsets are getting a bit more frequent and to be honest it's no fun getting woke up in the middle of the night and having to clean up poo!

Anyway the vet suggested changing his food from his usual Winalot to Chappie, she says it's easier to digest.

But, I forgot to ask her if I should change his food straight away or perhaps give him 1 tin of Chappie mixed with 1 tin of Winlot for a few days till he gets used to it then give him all Chappie.

Any advice? or does it really not matter, just dont want to upset his tummy if at all possible.

General rule of thumb when changing food is to do it very gradually. So, you mix in say a quarter of the new food for a couple of days, see how things go, if all OK, then up to half for a couple of days, monitor again, then gradually up to three quarters and so on. So the whole process would take around a week, if things go smoothly.

Know a few dogs with sensitive tums that seem to do well on Chappie. Is he just on tinned dog food or does he have any mixer/kibble? If he has a sensitive tum a dry food like James Wellbeloved might be worth trying - not full of the usual crap (colours, artificial stuff and so on).

It's also important to make sure dog is wormed regularly and if he has a persistent upset he may have picked up an infection that could require anti-biotics to clear up. So you might want to go back to vet if it doesn't settle down.

Hope Cracker is soon feeling better.

Thank you Scuttlebutter

He does get Wagg mixer as well. I'll try the gradual change then and see how he goes. I dont think he has an infection, cant really say how often he gets like this, sometimes hell be ok for a couple of weeks or lomger then he might be upset for a day or two.

The vet says this is quite common as they get older, Crackers 15, also he has arthritis in his hips and she said sometimes he might find it difficult to squat so doesnt "empty" properly.

But she did give him Metacam and I've to phone her back at the end of the week.