[My3Dogs]

For the past week, we have been feeding Tucker boiled chicken I ground up in the food processer mixed with mashed sweet potatoes. We started mixing the puppy chow back in to see how things went. He started getting diarrhea again. He had an appointment at the vet this morning to get his second set of shots (DHLPPC minus the lepto and bordetella) . The vet also gave us Panacur to give him, 3 syringes to be given for three consecutive days. We also changed his food. We are feeding him Nutro Natural Choice Small Breed Puppy Formula. They want us to give him 1.5 times the normal amount because he is a little underweight, as I suspected. He is 10 weeks old today and he weighed 4lbs 15oz. The vet said he definitely does not have any chihuahua in him. Being just about 5lbs at 10 weeks (and that's being underweight) he definitely is not going to be under 10lbs as an adult! And frankly, that's perfectly ok with us Milo is 18lbs and I know Tucker won't be any bigger than that. They are already total BFF's!

He seems unhappy this afternoon after having his shots. The vet said he might be a little sorer than some because he doesn't have much body fat. Poor pup! Going forward we are going to scrap everything the foster family told us and move forward with what we know now. So hopefully the new food does better for him. The vet wants us to discontinue sweet potatoes but I'm not sure I want to do that, I don't want him to go back to having horrible diarrhea

A pic of my poor pup, tired out after his vet visit and some play time!

 

[Kendalle]

Keep in mind vets don't always know food like they should.

Many push science diet, with out reading apparently. Some have never heard of nutro, taste of the wild, and the raw diet is sometimes completely foriegn to them.

Hes a cutie!

 

[My3Dogs]

Do you disagree with the Nutro?

 

[Kendalle]

Oh no, its a great food! what i'm saying is don't 100% trust your vet on food. Especially if they are older, I don't think vets take a class on food brands and nutrition in their school and many trust science diet, plus science diet pays them to push it. Pet owners really need to do their own research on foods.

 

[My3Dogs]

Ah ok. We are really lucky, we've had our vet for 15 years and love him to bits. He is only about 40-45 years old and he is really great (in our opinion) He suggested the Nutro so that's what we went with. Hopefully it works ok. Right now Tucker is back to having diarrhea every 5-10 minutes which is loads of fun. We are giving him water by syringe to make sure he stays hydrated.

 

[My3Dogs]

Still going strong with the diarrhea. Even so, Milo and Tucker are inseparable. They love each other even more than we thought they would. It's awesome!!

 

[Sasami]

I'm pretty sure Nutro has grains...did you check the ingredients? With him being underweight I'd just feed him what isn't making him sick right now (the chicken). Could you try chicken necks or another chicken cut that includes bone?

Nutro is a decent food but it's not a great choice for food-sensitive dogs IMO. My dog (the one with the food allergies) had diarrhea on it.

 

[My3Dogs]

The problem with feeding him what isn't making him sick (the chicken/sweet potato mixture) is that he is not gaining on it. I was under the impression that cooked chicken bones were bad for dogs, so I don't think that I want to feed him that. I guess in the morning I'll have to go back to the pet store and try yet another food. I don't see how we are going to get through this, he's pooping literally every 3-5 minutes.

 

[Sasami]

Yes, cooked chicken bones (cooked bones in general) are dangerous. Raw chicken bones, however, are probably some of the easiest bones to chew and digest (I guess quail would be easier, ha).

He's not going to gain weight if he's sick, either, though . Besides, he should gain weight back slowly.

If you try another kibble, get one with as few ingredients as possible and no grains. It doesn't seem like he's allergic to chicken, thankfully (although I know some dogs don't do well with processed chicken, strangely), so something like regular Wellness CORE, Innova EVO, or Orijen would work.

 

[My3Dogs]

How would I give him raw chicken bones? He can't even eat tiny kibble without it being softened with water first. I have no idea how much to feed him of something like that either. I have never heard of or seen any of the foods you have listed, I will look around tomorrow to see if we have anything like that around here.

 

[Sasami]

How would I give him raw chicken bones? He can't even eat tiny kibble without it being softened with water first. I have no idea how much to feed him of something like that either. I have never heard of or seen any of the foods you have listed, I will look around tomorrow to see if we have anything like that around here.

You just hand him the meat, he'll figure it out . Some dogs are picky but honestly, all of the dogs I've had in the house have caught on pretty fast! :lol: Chicken necks, wings, and backs are all cheap and boney cuts you could try. If he's a gulper (inhales his food, although it sounds like he doesn't), wings or backs would be better since the necks are kind of small. Then again, he's a pretty small dog! My current foster dog is about 10 lbs. She's underweight, too, but only needs to gain another pound (I've had her for a few weeks so she's gained a little already). She gets one wing, a couple of necks, or one small chicken back as a meal. Since you have a puppy, feeding the necks might be convenient since you could split his daily ration into meals (puppies seem to do better when fed multiple small meals a day as opposed to one huge meal...or at least in my experience).

The foods I listed are pretty common, especially Innova (since it's now owned by P&G). Even chain stores like PetCo are carrying brands like Innova and Wellness now. So they shouldn't be difficult to find. Which brands have you seen for sale? There are plenty of other grain-free foods, the brands I listed just came to mind first . They're all brands the foster dogs get when they're not on raw.

 

[My3Dogs]

I hate to be the asker of stupid questions, but are dogs not susceptible to salmonella? I am so unsure of what to do at this point. How would he get all the vitamins and nutrients he needs?

 

[Sasami]

I hate to be the asker of stupid questions, but are dogs not susceptible to salmonella? I am so unsure of what to do at this point. How would he get all the vitamins and nutrients he needs?

I gave you a bunch of links in the last thread. I'd skim them when you get the chance because a lot of these questions would be answered .

It's very rare for a dog to get salmonella poisoning. They have short digestive tracts and a very acidic stomach. They're designed to eat raw meat so their bodies can handle the bacteria MUCH better than us humans . The bacteria either die or get shed in the feces.

Actually, there are more cases of dogs getting salmonella from kibble (it is true that there are more dogs here eating kibble but the fact is, kibble is no safer).

If you decide to do a raw diet it'll take some reading. Just feeding chicken for a bit to get your dog stable again is different than deciding to feed him just raw. I was just suggesting the raw chicken since it's so easy to digest . Just the raw chicken isn't much of a balanced diet but feeding it for a couple of weeks would be fine. If after that you decide to feed just raw, you'd need to work in more variety (including organs). The links I originally gave you have a ton of info on that.

I know it seems weird, I was apprehensive at first too so I understand! But keep in mind that kibble is a fairly new thing (and started as a way for companies to get extra profit off of by-products of the human food industry that they would have thrown away) so technically, raw feeding is the norm and kibble is a new fad :lol:.

Of course, I'm not really trying to push a total raw diet on you since it's something that should be researched. I just think raw bone-in chicken would help your pup's digestive system calm down .

 

[Kendalle]

taste of the wild is grain free as well and is sold at tractor supply companies.

if you start feeding kibble i would mix it in with the chicken and sweet potatoes as changing completely can cause upset tummies as well.

 

[Dragonrain]

Yeah I really think right now you need to feed him the fewest numbers of ingredients possible - the more different things you feed him, the more his sensitive stomach has to deal with and the more likely that something in the food will bother him and cause diarrhea.

I would either feed him raw, or a grain free kibble. If you're interested in raw you should research it, but it can be a great diet especially for dogs with a lot of food sensitivities. If you're not confident about feeding him raw you prepare yourself, there are some prepackaged raw diets on the market that you could try. Or you could look into home cooking for him - which is basically just cooking his meals with fresh ingredients instead of feeding commercial kibbles. These types of diets will take some extra research on your part but may be something worth looking into since you are having so many issues with Tucker.

At the very least, for now, I'd try a grain free kibble and see how that goes. If you really can't find a good grain free kibble in a store near you, you could order it online. There are quite a few online pet supply stores that carry a huge selection of different dog foods.

 

[My3Dogs]

Thank you all very much for all of the info and support.

Sasami, I will take a look at the links when I can. I'm sorry if it seemed like I was being lazy. My mom suffered a massive heart attack a week and a half ago and between taking care of her (she lives next door), Tucker, and trying to keep up with everything here at home with my children, husband, other animals, etc I don't get as much time as I'd like these days to do a lot of looking around.

So, I am back to doing boiled chicken ground up in my food processor mixed with sweet potatoes. I also think I figured out the dehydration worry, I saved all the water I boiled the chicken in and have been giving him that and he devours it. I kept all of it and I'm going to keep giving it to him every time he eats. He has drank a ton, I'm glad! I am going to keep him on this for a bit. I bought this grain-free food to start working slowly into the food but not until he's doing better.

Is he getting all the vitamins and nutrients he needs while eating the chicken and sweet potatoes? Is there some kind of supplement he needs or will he be ok? I did try to do a search on that but I got conflicting stories so I'm not really sure what the correct answer is.

Edited to add: Our pet store did have Innova, but no EVO or any grain free. Same with Wellness. No grain-free version. I found a couple of other brands of grain-free, but the one I ended up picking had the most natural ingredients and more of them in the beginning of the list.

 

[Sasami]

I'm glad you found a grain-free food . It's a bit low in meat content but looks fine otherwise. Salmon is usually easy on dogs' stomachs, too (or for my dogs, anyways!).

Nah, you didn't seem lazy. I just reminded you about the links so you could look stuff up without having to wait for me to reply.

A dog isn't going to develop a vitamin deficiency in just a week or two on chicken. The only issue I could possibly see is him not getting enough calcium since you're not including bones right now. Then again, maybe the sweet potatoes have enough . I'm not sure but I know they have some. Most prey model raw feeders start their dogs on just chicken and don't add variety for a week or two. If it makes you feel better, I've had fosters who just got raw chicken (necks, wings, backs, and thighs) for a week or two. No issues at all. I would only be concerned if the dog got JUST chicken and no organs for more than a few weeks. Even then, I'm not sure how quickly the dog would develop any deficiencies...it would probably take a couple of months.

 

[My3Dogs]

Thanks again, Sasami. I really appreciate all of your input and suggestions.

He is definitely already doing better. Last night he was up "pooping" (I use quotation marks because it was more like dripping liquid from the behind!) all night. He didn't have anything to eat from 7pm-9am and then I went back to the sweet potatoes and chicken. He had a couple of bad poops afterward but since then he's had two more meals and lots of chicken water and he's sleeping like a log. If anything, he's digestive tract and his lil bottom has to be happy for a little break LOL

 

[My3Dogs]

Ok, another update on Tucker!

Yesterday we got some more Centrine from the vet to try and curb the frequency of his poops. He was literally trying to go every 3-5 minutes with just drips of liquid coming out (sorry to be graphic!) I continued with the ground chicken and the mashed sweet potatoes and he was firming up a little bit, but not nearly as much as he needed to. This morning I started mixing little bits of the grain-free kibble in and throughout the day continued doing that and he is moving toward a better consistency. The frequency is way down and he is feeling MUCH better. Over the next few days I'm going to try to transition to pure grain-free kibble. He looks and feels so much better today. He doesn't look nearly as ribby and thin. He's getting so tall! I can't believe they told me he was going to be 7 pounds or less. We are guessing closer to 15-20, maybe more. He's such a lover, so happy to have him even after all we've been through! LOL

 

[Sasami]

I'm glad to hear he's doing better!