Cockapoo diet issues

[Milknosugarta]

We have a 1.5 year old dog, and have struggled to find food that agrees with him. He is currently having another "episode" which the vet said may be due to his food or could be a virus.
Has anyone had this problem with their own Cockapoo? Any food recommendations?

I have a cocker who has had bouts of IBD all his life.

We settled on wet food fed 2/3 times a day but more frequently (up to every hour) when ill.

Any treats like bones or other longer lasting chews never suited him.

What are you feeding now or have tried?

Have you tried an elimination diet? The simplest thing to do is to raw feed, as the ingredients included are v simple with no hidden fillers/grains/etc. Start with fish and slowly try the different varieties (chicken, beef, lamb, etc) over time, keeping a note on how he’s doing. Watch treats and chews too - they all need to be in line with the elimination diet.

(Make sure the food you’re using is complete. Naturaw is a good example but there are lots of brands.)

You can also get probiotics for dogs. If the vet thinks it could be his food or a virus then either way his gut might benefit from help to rebalance.

Our dog cannot digest the protein in chicken. It took us ages to work this out as most 'sensitive' type food contains chicken!

When we found out we mentioned it to our vet... and she THEN told us many dogs are the same. 🤷‍♀️

He has had 3 days of prescription royal canin gastrointestinal food, promax medicine ( which is supposed to re-balance his gut). Prior, he had been on Naturo sensitive canned, and been more or less fine on it for about 6 months. 3 meals a day. No treats. Before that (last "episode") he had Chappie for a while on recommendations and was fine. Doesn't tolerate dry food, although was on Royal canin puppy when we got him at 10 weeks.
Now thinking this is a cockerpoo issue and will be life long. 🙁 It's like trying to find the holy grail food to settle his stomach and have normal poos. I get the feeling the vets see this a lot.

Have you considered a good quality raw, poultry free diet (80:10:10)? Chicken can cause issues for lots of dogs. Raw food is very easily absorbed - our dog does the smallest, firmest poops now because all the food is used and so there isn’t much waste (she’s not a cocker poo). The Barf UK Facebook group has an excellent guide of how to start on raw, and a list of trusted suppliers. Best of luck - whatever you decide to go with.

Having been through years of this I just keep on his normally tolerated food during any episode and just feed every hour for two days, then every two hours for a couple of days after etc until he is back to his 'normal'. The little meals means his stomach gets a bit of a rest to recover.

Thanks dogsandgin, going to have a look at that.
Liesdonot, what do you feed if I may ask?