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Hi all,
First, I'm new here and have read a lot of threads over the last few days. I have two puppies, a Shepard mix (9 months old) and a Daschund/Cocker mix (10 months old). One is a rescue and one is a shelter pup and I love 'em both.
I've been experimenting with food and have run into some obstacles. I started with Innova Puppy dry and both dogs had bad gas and diarrhea no matter how much or little I fed them. Yes, I transitioned them slowly from their previous food to a new food. Nothing against Innova, on paper it's great food and I know a lot of dogs respond well to it. Mine didn't, in particular my Shepard mix.
When the Innova didn't work out, I started adding some Beneful puppy to their food (just because I wasn't sure what the next move should be so I bought a little as interim food) and the more they ate, the less gas and loose stool problem I saw. But I knew that wasn't a permanent solution.
So now I have them on Wellness Super 5 Mix "Just for Puppy". It's okay. They don't LOVE it, they like it and the gas is gone but the occasional loose stools make an appearance.
I also feed them gently boiled, unseasoned beef and chicken meat from time to time and some treats (Innova or Vitality biscuits mostly). I've done this since day 1 with them so that has been constant. But I'm still seeing loose stools now and then, and diarrhea from time to time, especially in the Shepard mix.
Now here's where it gets weird. At separate times, both dogs have contracted giardia, most likely from our wonderful local dog park. Both times, my vet put the afflicted dog on Metronidazole and gave me some Hill's Prescription Diet i/d canned dog food (6 cans) and told me to feed that to the afflicted dog as it was "easy to digest".
Okay, this was before I read about Science Diet and clearly understood the poor regard most dog people hold for Hill's products. All I know is that both times, I gave most of the food to the sick dog and a little to the other just to keep it from feeling left out and from raiding the sick dog's food bowl. So they were both getting some at both times during these giardia infestations.
Amazingly, I've never seen my dogs so energetic and playful and with such perfect, soft (but not runny) stools. The first time I thought it was a fluke. But the most recent time, I saw the same thing in both dogs as long as they were eating this food.
Everyone says Science Diet is crap, and I've read that Prescription Diet isn't much different than their "over the counter" Science Diet version, but the dogs love it and seem like they have a new level of vitality on it. When I stop feeding it to them, they kind of slow down and the intermittent diarrhea returns.
I don't want to hear from the raw food proponents. That is not for me at this point. I am interested in hearing from people who have very objective reasons for liking or not liking Hill's dog food, and their reasons why. I want to feed my dogs high quality food but at the same time, I can't argue with the results I see in them when they eat this Hill's stuff. I'm not sure what to do here. Any insight is appreciated.
BTW, both dogs are giardia free now and eating the dry Wellness puppy food daily. They are much better on this than the Innova, but not as energetic and playful as when they were both eating the Hill's stuff. I'm baffled.
Thanks.
Jay
First, I'm new here and have read a lot of threads over the last few days. I have two puppies, a Shepard mix (9 months old) and a Daschund/Cocker mix (10 months old). One is a rescue and one is a shelter pup and I love 'em both.
I've been experimenting with food and have run into some obstacles. I started with Innova Puppy dry and both dogs had bad gas and diarrhea no matter how much or little I fed them. Yes, I transitioned them slowly from their previous food to a new food. Nothing against Innova, on paper it's great food and I know a lot of dogs respond well to it. Mine didn't, in particular my Shepard mix.
When the Innova didn't work out, I started adding some Beneful puppy to their food (just because I wasn't sure what the next move should be so I bought a little as interim food) and the more they ate, the less gas and loose stool problem I saw. But I knew that wasn't a permanent solution.
So now I have them on Wellness Super 5 Mix "Just for Puppy". It's okay. They don't LOVE it, they like it and the gas is gone but the occasional loose stools make an appearance.
I also feed them gently boiled, unseasoned beef and chicken meat from time to time and some treats (Innova or Vitality biscuits mostly). I've done this since day 1 with them so that has been constant. But I'm still seeing loose stools now and then, and diarrhea from time to time, especially in the Shepard mix.
Now here's where it gets weird. At separate times, both dogs have contracted giardia, most likely from our wonderful local dog park. Both times, my vet put the afflicted dog on Metronidazole and gave me some Hill's Prescription Diet i/d canned dog food (6 cans) and told me to feed that to the afflicted dog as it was "easy to digest".
Okay, this was before I read about Science Diet and clearly understood the poor regard most dog people hold for Hill's products. All I know is that both times, I gave most of the food to the sick dog and a little to the other just to keep it from feeling left out and from raiding the sick dog's food bowl. So they were both getting some at both times during these giardia infestations.
Amazingly, I've never seen my dogs so energetic and playful and with such perfect, soft (but not runny) stools. The first time I thought it was a fluke. But the most recent time, I saw the same thing in both dogs as long as they were eating this food.
Everyone says Science Diet is crap, and I've read that Prescription Diet isn't much different than their "over the counter" Science Diet version, but the dogs love it and seem like they have a new level of vitality on it. When I stop feeding it to them, they kind of slow down and the intermittent diarrhea returns.
I don't want to hear from the raw food proponents. That is not for me at this point. I am interested in hearing from people who have very objective reasons for liking or not liking Hill's dog food, and their reasons why. I want to feed my dogs high quality food but at the same time, I can't argue with the results I see in them when they eat this Hill's stuff. I'm not sure what to do here. Any insight is appreciated.
BTW, both dogs are giardia free now and eating the dry Wellness puppy food daily. They are much better on this than the Innova, but not as energetic and playful as when they were both eating the Hill's stuff. I'm baffled.
Thanks.
Jay