Sensitive dog food

[Mol1628]

My dog has an extremely sensitive stomach. If she eats anything out of the ordinary she will have diarrhoea, go off her food and just be ‘off’.

I’ve cut out all her treats trying to find a recent cause. It is fine for a few days then goes back to diarrhoea.

She was fantastic on the wainwrights trays but she’s bloody picky as well and refuses to eat them now. Then when she has an empty stomach she gets diarrhoea as well.

I’m looking for a cheap, good quality sensitive wet food (she won’t eat kibble at all) She currently has step up to naturals tins but there must be something better that doesn’t cost any more?

I’m clueless about raw but if it’s pre made and not expensive I’d be willing to give it a go. Or any decent grain free brands that I can buy in bulk perhaps.

Thanks in advance !

We use Bella and duke they deliver frozen raw food ready to go in convient 500 gram tubs. Our dog weighs 10kg and eats 330grams a day. Other raw companies do similar. But its cheaper than Lilly's kitchen.

Thanks everyone. I’ve got her some butchers to try and I’ll get some chappie too and I’ll slowly swap her. She’s not eating her current food at the moment. She goes through phases of this which makes a stomach upset worse. She will probably enjoy a lower quality food more after all my efforts to find her a high quality one 🙄

Op - don't worry if it's lower quality, if she can actually digest it ok. It's far better to have a lower quality food that she can get all the benefit possible out of, than have a really high quality food that she can't actually digest properly and is only getting a fraction of the benefit of.

My two spaniels, like a lot of spaniels burn a lot of calories compared to lots of other similar sized breeds. They are entire. I have always had trouble keeping their weight up - particularly since I couldn't exceed guidelines on feed amounts, without it causing stomach upset. I had tried them on the "best" grain free foods (the one doesn't seem to tolerate wheat), including an 80/20 feed, thinking they needed more protein and fats in their food (as is generally recommended for dogs on sites like allaboutdogfood). They couldn't hold their weight - they were even worse on the 80/20, than the other grain free high quality feeds I'd tried.

Then a vet told me to give the worse affected one, chicken and rice, until his stomach cleared up. That got me thinking that maybe grain free was taking it too far and really I should just look for wheat free. I found 'Barking heads TLC chicken' it scored less but thought I'd give it a try. I have actually finally been able to fatten up my dogs to be ideal weight instead of on the skinny side. It's because they can tolerate more of it in a meal, meaning they actually end up with more calories (I used a website that calculated calories in dog foods per 100g and worked out what each feed I had tried would give at the maximum I'd been able to feed, and compared it to the amount of was giving them of the TLC - so they were definitely getting more calories, not just a higher quantity of kibble).

Sorry that ended up rather long winded. But it just demonstrates how the right food for an individual dog is not necessarily the "best" rated.

Thanks spaniels you’re right. She’s totally refusing her normal food now. I have about two weeks worth left so leaves me enough for a very slow transition onto the new stuff.

Should I be looking to find a kibble to mix with? Not yet found a dry food she’ll eat on it’s own. Tried JWB, Harrington’s, Wainwrights.

I found mine would happily eat a bit of kibble for crunch when we transitioned to wet. So you could try it if you want as there is nothing to stop you mixing it together.

Thanks I will look for a kibble to suit then. Considering she can’t seem to tolerate any chews I suppose she will need something to crunch on a bit!

It really is trial and error. So mine is fine with wet and tiny bit of kibble but over three meals and not two as that upsets him.

He used to get good quality treats (so think bits of dried animal, trachea, heart, lung etc) but they just didn't suit him. Ironically cheap dry dog biscuits from the supermarket seem fine so he has them on top of his usual food.

I cut out all the treats until we found what suited him normal food wise. Then I introduced one treat and if that was ok then we tried another. It's a pain but we finally got to a place where 80% of the time his poo is hard (20% soft but ok) compared to soft/cow pat poos that he previously had.

This company do trial bags. I don't have a dog but came across them when I was looking for cat food!
https://www.simpsonspremium.com

It’s a pain isn’t it. She loves gravy bones but I found those were causing stomach ache which in turn led to wee accidents in the house. Tripe sticks she loves but if she has too many they give her diarrhoea. She seems to be ok with the wainwrights training treats and wholesome bites. But if she has them on an empty stomach then it will upset her.
She had a pedigree dentastik once and it set her off really bad she didn’t eat for three days.
She has an antler now since she can’t have any other chews, and I think I might try some other similar type things for her to chew on that aren’t food as such.
She loves raw hide (she had a pack of it when she came to us) and she seemed fine but I’ve read how bad of a choking risk it is so I haven’t replaced it.

Have you tried dried sprats as a treat? Mine adore them for training

For kibble we have Burns pork and potato or Vitalin sensitive. Ddog1 will accept it if really well mixed in with plenty of wet, but is very fussy about it

Haven’t tried sprats no will look thanks.

I put a spoonful of new food into her old food and she wolfed it down, after refusing her breakfast this morning which was just old food.
Never known a dog be so sensitive and picky!!

First day was good. Old food and spoonful of new and she ate it. She loves the butchers.
Problem is now she has sloppy poo again and I’m still only giving a spoonful of the butchers with her normal food but if it’s the normal food causing the problem it’s really hard to know what to do.
If only she would eat the wainwrights trays- her poo was perfect on them but she lost interest very quickly. Unsure what to do now.

How often are you feeding? Try little and often for a few days to see if you can get her stomach in a good state.

Maybe start looking at noting down ingredients to see if there is a pattern.

Also possible vet check if it doesn't clear up.

I was doing twice a day still should I try three times? She gets fed about 7:30 and then at 4pm so I suppose that’s quite a gap.
She did get checked out by a vet recently and there’s nothing obvious from an external exam.

It took months for my dog to be finally diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease so if you can't get on top of it I would still go back.

However, things to try first is little and often. After every severe stomach upset we go back to this. I would try four times if you can then maybe move to three a day. We have stuck at three a day as it definitely helps.

Also try a probiotic to help the gut bacteria. You can get them from amazon or vets etc.

Maybe cut out all treats until you find out what she can tolerate for normal food.

Make a note of the ingredients. What was the main ingredients in the trays that suited her stomach? Could you try a food with similar ingredients for now?

I have cut out all treats now.
The trays were the wainwrights rice with meat ones. So turkey and rice, duck and rice. But she just wouldn’t eat them I think they were too bland.
She did well on wainwrights kibble mixed with a wainwrights pouch but they were just too expensive and she also got bored of them.
For now I’ll stick to the new tins and try splitting it into four meals and give nothing else.

Pets at home step up to naturals have wet food in sensitive and light.

My dogs hated kibble but destroy this so it's popular in my house with all 4 of them.

She has the sensitive and light.. that seems to be the worst culprit and she is absolutely refusing to eat it. She has the beef chicken and tripe which she likes but poo still not great on them either.

The sensitive option only comes in chicken and fish. Have you tried that one? The other ones upset one of my dogs tums but switched to the sensitive option and she's fine.

Yeah that’s what she has chicken and fish the blue tins. She doesn’t seem to get on with any of the flavours.

Sorry my post wasn’t clear. She’s tried all he flavours. The sensitive chicken and fish is the one she hates the most. But she’s had bad poo on all the flavours.

Like Bitey's dog, it took a while for my dog's condition to be diagnosed.

Several vets (various locums at my vet's practice) sort of dismissed it as nothing for a while. It wasn't until she was very unwell and blood tests were done that the problem was shown up.

Might be worthwhile asking your vet to investigate further.

Thanks I will definitely keep it in mind. I’m hoping I can sort it with diet- we haven’t had her ages only since September and she was obese when I got her so it’s all been a lot of changes.

What type of dog is she?

We've got two spaniels who are now raw fed due to both constantly having vile poo if eating any cereals.

Even a good gluten free kibble want fab.

I feed both of mine (both about 11kg) for £1.05 a day using Just Natural mince.

Would hate to go back to kibble - they're just so much happier on raw.