[agoldenliferanch]

Hi All,

I've been feeding raw for about 5 months now and I have a question for the raw experts who may be dealing with a dog with digestive issues.

Quick recap, Cooper is my youngest Golden and he's had bowel issues on and off since I got him at 5 months. Prone to diarrhea, we tried many different premium kibbles/cans until we finally converted to raw 5 months ago.

These days, Cooper goes back and forth between being constipated and having diarrhea. Any suggestions out there as to how to deal with this? My other three have no issues and do just fine on this diet.

I've read thru many of the raw threads and while I don't want to debate how I'm feeding raw here (I follow more of the Barf method), I'd be happy to on another thread. Right now, I'm interested in suggestions to help Cooper thrive on the method of feeding. So is there anyone out there who feed raw who has a dog with some form of IBS? We've tested for parasites, he's clean.

Thanks in advance:smile:

 

[RawFedDogs]

I know this isn't what you want to hear but when I first began feeding raw 7 years ago my dogs would have diarrhea the day after they ate veggies. This isn't an IBS or IBD or parasite problem. After about 6 months of raw feeding the BARF method, I met Dr. Tom Lonsdale and after several long conversations with him, I took his advice and stopped feeding veggies. I don't remember my dogs having diarrhea in the 6 1/2 years since. Tom convinced me that no matter how you look at it, their bodies are just not designed to eat plant material. There is nothing in their physiology that would aid them in digestion of plant material in any form.

Since those days I have talked to many other raw feeders who had basically the same experience. It seems many if not most raw feeders began with the BARF style and after research and experience decided to drop the veggies and feed more the prey model style and had problems disappear.

I know you said you don't want to discuss your feeding method but it's not possible to solve your dog's problem without disucssing it. Here is what you might want to do. Keep a detailed log of everything your dog eats. Also in that log record the time and day of each diarrhea episode. I'm betting you will be able to see a pattern pretty quickly.

Good luck and keep us posted.

ETA: My two dogs at the time were Goldens. :smile:

 

[EnglishBullTerriers]

Hi All,

I've been feeding raw for about 5 months now and I have a question for the raw experts who may be dealing with a dog with digestive issues.

Quick recap, Cooper is my youngest Golden and he's had bowel issues on and off since I got him at 5 months. Prone to diarrhea, we tried many different premium kibbles/cans until we finally converted to raw 5 months ago.

These days, Cooper goes back and forth between being constipated and having diarrhea. Any suggestions out there as to how to deal with this? My other three have no issues and do just fine on this diet.

I've read thru many of the raw threads and while I don't want to debate how I'm feeding raw here (I follow more of the Barf method), I'd be happy to on another thread. Right now, I'm interested in suggestions to help Cooper thrive on the method of feeding. So is there anyone out there who feed raw who has a dog with some form of IBS? We've tested for parasites, he's clean.

Thanks in advance:smile:

You could try RFDs way and discontinue the veggies for about a week and if it gets better, try adding one veggie back a week and if it comes back, then just avoid the veggies that cause the problem. Then you can keep your BARF feeding and only avoid what doesn't work!
That is my suggestion! Good luck!

 

[Doc]

I wishd momma wood feed me a all meet diet. I hait dem old collard grains.

 

[Kris L. Christine]

Hi All,

I've been feeding raw for about 5 months now and I have a question for the raw experts who may be dealing with a dog with digestive issues.

Quick recap, Cooper is my youngest Golden and he's had bowel issues on and off since I got him at 5 months. Prone to diarrhea, we tried many different premium kibbles/cans until we finally converted to raw 5 months ago.

Are you giving Cooper a calcium supplement? If so, perhaps which type you're using is having an affect.

We were feeding both our guys a raw diet and supplementing with calcium citrate to balance the phosphorous. They would alternate between constipation and looseness. When blood tests showed too much calcium, I read online that calcium citrate is absorbed 2.5 times more than calcium carbonate. No one ever told me about this difference in absorption and to compensate for it or simply use calcium carbonate rather than citrate. I've noticed that dog foods don't use calcium citrate in their mixes.

Pharmacokinetics of calcium absorption from two commercial calcium supplements -- Heller et al. 39 (11): 1151 -- The Journal of Clinical Pharmacology
Calcium Citrate vs. Calcium Carbonate
Log In Problems

 

[RawFedDogs]

Are you giving Cooper a calcium supplement? If so, perhaps which type you're using is having an affect.

We were feeding both our guys a raw diet and supplementing with calcium citrate to balance the phosphorous. They would alternate between constipation and looseness. When blood tests showed too much calcium, I read online that calcium citrate is absorbed 2.5 times more than calcium carbonate. No one ever told me about this difference in absorption and to compensate for it or simply use calcium carbonate rather than citrate. I've noticed that dog foods don't use calcium citrate in their mixes.

When feeding a proper raw diet, there is abolutely no need to supplement w/ calcium. If your dog showed an excess of calcium in the blood, there is a medical problem with the dog causing him not to regulate the calcium properly. A healthy dog will either absorb calcium into the bones or will excrete it through the kidneys pretty quickly. I think your problem was suplementing with calcium in the first place. It would make sense to me if I was supplementing with calcium and blood tests showed too much calcium in the blood, I would stop supplementing. I don't know what kind of raw diet would require calcium supplements. When you try to do stuff with chemicals that should be done with diet, you often make things worse than they were before.

 

[Kris L. Christine]

You're right, and I seem to learn all these things the hard way. My homeopathic vet, who is a proponent of raw feeding, had told me to balance the phosphorous in raw hamburger with calcium, and Dr. Pitcairn's book did also. Neither said to be careful which type of calcium supplement to use.

Now I am feeding Butter only whole foods with no vitamins or minerals added. It's frustrating how much conflicting information there is. Thank you for the link!

 

[NocturneWolf]

I know this isn't what you want to hear but when I first began feeding raw 7 years ago my dogs would have diarrhea the day after they ate veggies. This isn't an IBS or IBD or parasite problem.

I have to say my experience with BARF was about the same. The veggies would "go through" a few of the dogs and we alternated from loose bloody stools to constipated bloody stools. Coat was very dry, also. All the digestive upstes stopped when I stopped feeding veggies. We still had some constipation but I was feeding a little bit more meat than Billinghurst recommended at that point. Then I heard about prey model feeding and increased the meat consumption while decreasing the bones about 50%. There has been no instances of chronic diarrhea since then. While stools are VERY firm and usually crumbly once dried, I find that the stools on a prey model type diet are darker, softer, much easier to pass & so must be much gentler on the digestive system. Decrease the bone, get rid of the veggies & see if this helps.