Could you please help me pinpoint digestion issue with my terrier mix, Rosie?
(Raw feeders, while I respect and understand your choices, please don't suggest that we feed her raw as we are not going to do that - I really don't want this thread to turn into a raw/kibble debate.)
Rosie is a rescue dog, a terrier and maybe dachshund mix, is about 2yo, and weighs 14 lbs. We adopted her in February and have had some challenges since then wrt loose stools and occasional diarrhea.
The chronology is this:
1. Rescue people fed her Science Diet, so that’s what we started with on 2/21. Ironically, her stools were absolutely fine on Science Diet.
2. By late February we started transitioning her to Blue Buffalo ("BB")/small bites. Her stools on BB were always rather mushy and hard to pick up. They were also sometimes frequent (could be as many as 4-5 a day).
3. Our vet, who is very versed in good dog foods, told us that the hallmark of a healthy stool is the ability to pick it up whole. This was not normally the case with BB (i.e. that was the exception).
4. On April 30, after roughly two months on BB, she developed out-and-out diarrhea. That night we had to take her outside two or three times. We gave her nothing for one day, then put her on cooked chicken & rice per Internet research and vet instructions.
Vet said she sometimes sees these issues with BB in some dogs, and told us to find a grain-free food with a single-source protein (preferably chicken as it is mild), or a single-source protein with only one grain, not wheat or corn and preferably rice or oatmeal. Once stabilized we were to transition her to that food.
5. I researched per vet instructions and chose Wellness Core/Poultry (grain-free food, turkey & chicken; 34% protein).
6. Soft stools and occasional diarrhea returned during transition to Wellness Core. I wondered if the high protein (high relative to BB and Science Diet) made the food too rich for her. After doing a lot of reading, I decided there was no point in continuing on this path.
7. On May 15 we started transitioning her to California Natural chicken & rice. We did a slowish transition over ten days, and there have been very good periods of firm poops, but on Monday of this week we had a very loose stool and then drippy stuff mid-day. So there we are again.
8. Per the vet, who we saw last Wednesday (left her a stool sample), we should stay the course for 2-3 weeks since it can sometimes take that long for a dog to sort itself out wrt a new food.
Stool sample shows no parasites etc.
If after 2-3 weeks there's no change we are to return to the vet, who will do bloodwork and probably put her on an Rx dog food. I'm leery of an Rx dog food because I understand they are pretty crappy wrt the ingredients.
9. On Tuesday morning I started putting a tablespoon of canned pumpkin in her food, which she ate very happily. By Wednesday evening, her stool was ok - somewhat loose but ok - and then this morning it was fine. Absolutely fine.
So, here we are.
...
I've been mystified by the loose stool on California Natural given how few ingredients it has. Theoretically she should be fine on it, especially since she was fine (wrt stools that is) on Science Diet.
So why does the response change when we add pumpkin?
So last night I did some more reading, and on this forum I came across this post from BoxerMommie:
http://dogfoodchat.com/forum/dry-canned-dog-food/84-california-natural.html#post1525
She wrote, "The one negative with CA Natural is that it is REALLY low in fiber on their Chicken and Rice and Lamb and Rice formulas so dogs that need fiber to either bulk things up (ie not have the runs) or more fiber to get things out (ie not get constipated) it won't work well for them. Also their Herring and Sweet Potato formula is not gluten free so if your dog has a gluten allergy like mine you'll either have to choose the chicken, the lamb, or another food. Unfortunately where I like the food ingredients, my dogs need at least 4% fiber in their food (CA Natural is 1.5% for the chicken and 2% for the Lamb) and my dog has a gluten allergy so out goes to Herring formula. But if your dog doesn't need a high fiber diet and/or doesn't have a gluten allergy it's a good food.
So I'm now wondering, if the pumpkin (fiber) we are adding is helping her with the digestability of California Natural (which has lowish fiber), does that mean that she would do better on a food with a higher fiber content, e.g. Natural Balance?
Or would we be chasing windmills, since Wellness Core has relatively high fiber (4%)? On the other hand, Wellness Core has lots of other ingredients, any of which could theoretically have been a diarrhea trigger for her.
Should we consider the pumpkin, or maybe brown rice added to her food, as a routine solution for the long haul? Or does the fact that she can't (at least so far) digest this food well w/o a fiber supplement mean that it's the wrong dog food for her?
Are we still in a transition phase with California Natural (it's been almost two weeks), and should we consider trying to cut back the pumpkin after she's had a few days of solid stools?
I would appreciate any thoughts you can offer.
Thanks in advance.
(Raw feeders, while I respect and understand your choices, please don't suggest that we feed her raw as we are not going to do that - I really don't want this thread to turn into a raw/kibble debate.)
Rosie is a rescue dog, a terrier and maybe dachshund mix, is about 2yo, and weighs 14 lbs. We adopted her in February and have had some challenges since then wrt loose stools and occasional diarrhea.
The chronology is this:
1. Rescue people fed her Science Diet, so that’s what we started with on 2/21. Ironically, her stools were absolutely fine on Science Diet.
2. By late February we started transitioning her to Blue Buffalo ("BB")/small bites. Her stools on BB were always rather mushy and hard to pick up. They were also sometimes frequent (could be as many as 4-5 a day).
3. Our vet, who is very versed in good dog foods, told us that the hallmark of a healthy stool is the ability to pick it up whole. This was not normally the case with BB (i.e. that was the exception).
4. On April 30, after roughly two months on BB, she developed out-and-out diarrhea. That night we had to take her outside two or three times. We gave her nothing for one day, then put her on cooked chicken & rice per Internet research and vet instructions.
Vet said she sometimes sees these issues with BB in some dogs, and told us to find a grain-free food with a single-source protein (preferably chicken as it is mild), or a single-source protein with only one grain, not wheat or corn and preferably rice or oatmeal. Once stabilized we were to transition her to that food.
5. I researched per vet instructions and chose Wellness Core/Poultry (grain-free food, turkey & chicken; 34% protein).
6. Soft stools and occasional diarrhea returned during transition to Wellness Core. I wondered if the high protein (high relative to BB and Science Diet) made the food too rich for her. After doing a lot of reading, I decided there was no point in continuing on this path.
7. On May 15 we started transitioning her to California Natural chicken & rice. We did a slowish transition over ten days, and there have been very good periods of firm poops, but on Monday of this week we had a very loose stool and then drippy stuff mid-day. So there we are again.
8. Per the vet, who we saw last Wednesday (left her a stool sample), we should stay the course for 2-3 weeks since it can sometimes take that long for a dog to sort itself out wrt a new food.
Stool sample shows no parasites etc.
If after 2-3 weeks there's no change we are to return to the vet, who will do bloodwork and probably put her on an Rx dog food. I'm leery of an Rx dog food because I understand they are pretty crappy wrt the ingredients.
9. On Tuesday morning I started putting a tablespoon of canned pumpkin in her food, which she ate very happily. By Wednesday evening, her stool was ok - somewhat loose but ok - and then this morning it was fine. Absolutely fine.
So, here we are.
...
I've been mystified by the loose stool on California Natural given how few ingredients it has. Theoretically she should be fine on it, especially since she was fine (wrt stools that is) on Science Diet.
So why does the response change when we add pumpkin?
So last night I did some more reading, and on this forum I came across this post from BoxerMommie:
http://dogfoodchat.com/forum/dry-canned-dog-food/84-california-natural.html#post1525
She wrote, "The one negative with CA Natural is that it is REALLY low in fiber on their Chicken and Rice and Lamb and Rice formulas so dogs that need fiber to either bulk things up (ie not have the runs) or more fiber to get things out (ie not get constipated) it won't work well for them. Also their Herring and Sweet Potato formula is not gluten free so if your dog has a gluten allergy like mine you'll either have to choose the chicken, the lamb, or another food. Unfortunately where I like the food ingredients, my dogs need at least 4% fiber in their food (CA Natural is 1.5% for the chicken and 2% for the Lamb) and my dog has a gluten allergy so out goes to Herring formula. But if your dog doesn't need a high fiber diet and/or doesn't have a gluten allergy it's a good food.
So I'm now wondering, if the pumpkin (fiber) we are adding is helping her with the digestability of California Natural (which has lowish fiber), does that mean that she would do better on a food with a higher fiber content, e.g. Natural Balance?
Or would we be chasing windmills, since Wellness Core has relatively high fiber (4%)? On the other hand, Wellness Core has lots of other ingredients, any of which could theoretically have been a diarrhea trigger for her.
Should we consider the pumpkin, or maybe brown rice added to her food, as a routine solution for the long haul? Or does the fact that she can't (at least so far) digest this food well w/o a fiber supplement mean that it's the wrong dog food for her?
Are we still in a transition phase with California Natural (it's been almost two weeks), and should we consider trying to cut back the pumpkin after she's had a few days of solid stools?
I would appreciate any thoughts you can offer.
Thanks in advance.
