Advice please! Day 2 of bland diet and puupy won't eat it...

[lyraa]

Sorry, long post warning!
TLDR: what can I mix in with chicken and rice, without ruining the bland diet, to get my puppy to eat his food with meds??

Our 4 month old puppy is on a bland diet of boiled chicken and white rice on the advice of our vet, due to a period of very soft poo verging on diarrhea (apologies for TMI!). The vet has also given some probiotic paste and granofen which I've been putting in his food.

He gobbled up the chicken and rice yesterday - 2 large chicken breasts and equivalent volume of rice over the course of the day - but has barely taken any today. He just looked at it in the morning and walked away, eventually eating some around lunchtime. I wanted to make sure he ate this evening so he'd have his meds, so didn't push it during the day. I've just taken him out for a walk so that he'd be hungry when he got back, and put the tiniest amount of chicken and rice in his bowl with the meds mixed in and he's ignored it again. He's definitely hungry, as he went straight for his bowl, just turned his long, whippet nose up at the contents . He then followed me around the kitchen for 5 mins or so, jumping up at the counters, and has now given up and flopped down on his bed for a snooze!

If it wasn't for the meds I'd think oh well, one day of not eating much won't hurt, especially if he's got a bit of a bad tum, but I want to make sure he gets the medication. Is there anything more tasty I can mix in with it that won't ruin the bland diet? I normally use chicken as a treat, I can't believe he's not eating it! It's his last of three doses of granofen and if he doesn't eat it he won't complete the course...

Thanks for reading if you got this far!

Are the meds in the actual food? Mine can smell some pills a mile off and would only eat them if surrounded in the smelliest cheese.

Just looked it up and yes it's mixed into food.

To be honest I would just try and put a sprinkling of something like cheese on top or anything cooked and smelly as long as it's dog safe. Scrambled egg? Fresh streamed boneless fish?

@BiteyShark - yes there are unfortunately, and no way to pick them out now! They went down fine that way yesterday so I thought it would be fine

Yep - every one of mine have been able to detect any meds in any food. And expertly extract the meds from any enticing morsel that they are wrapped in! My current dog can occasionally be conned with kippers or mackerel. But after many years of efforts, I have found that all too often the magic cure is "throw it down their throat and hold their mouth shut"!!! Once that is done they can have a tasty morsel to "wash it down".

@BiteyShark - replied before I saw your second post! Thanks, I think I'll try scrambled egg then as I know he eats that...

@Moondust001 - ha ha ha! Throw down throat option next time for sure

This won't help with the bland diet but neither of my dogs have been able to resist Aldi low fat paté, the one in the white plastic tub for about 49p. I don't even want to think about which bits of pig are in it for that price but apparently it's irresistible. Microwave a couple of tsp for a few seconds to soften it, mix in the meds and watch them eat it and lick the bowl.

@ThatLibraryMiss - good tip for another time! 👍

You could try adding plain canned pumpkin. Whenever my dogs eat something they should not and get tummy troubles I feed them pumpkin for a day, then add it to their kibble the next couple of days.

Basically the high level of fiber sorts them out so they have solid (orange) poos.

I don't know how hard it is to get that in the UK though (if you are there) but where I live this is like doggo 101 to give pumpkin.

Thanks @user8888 - I don't recall seeing canned pumpkin in the supermarket here, but will keep an eye out for it.
The scrambled egg kinda worked, I mixed it in and he ate a bit, I think he just picked the egg out as best he could though and avoided the rest!
Maybe he knew what was best though as he's just been a bit sick Perhaps the medication didn't agree with him...

Try white fish and mash potato instead. When Ddog was a pup he has runny tummy and lost load of weight chicken and rice turned out to be making it worse. All his food is fish based and grain free even now

@Imiss2019 - thanks, I will try that. I do actually have some white fish in I can give him tomorrow. Fingers crossed...

I think most vets go with chicken and rice for runny tummies but all my research at the time found this was one of the worse things you can give.
Long term we’ve found Millie’s Wolfheart to be great for food do a sensitive tummy

I have had a dog that needed to be on a bland diet with meds for prolonged periods during his lifetime. First time we did chicken and rice and it went ok, but he was a starving rescue pup at that point and desperate to eat anything.

For later episodes we found white fish was the best bet, as it’s smellier and more enticing for them. We bought the bags of individually portioned frozen fillets from Tesco and steamed them in the microwave, really quick and easy to do.

If you do carry on doing chicken, I would oven roast some of it as, again, it brings out the flavour and smell to make it more appetising.

We've been through the same, fussy puppy turning up his nose at chicken and rice and she still has a sensitive tum two years later. I always give meds directly now and will just keep offering different food if she's not eaten for a while. We had an episode of sickness after too much sea water followed by car sick. It's only for a few days and they'll go back to eating eventually.

I had the same problem with chicken and rice - turns out my puppy is allergic to (cooked) chicken and it’s apparently fairly common. Much better poos without grains too. Not sure why so widely recommended!