Jump to content

PrairieProf

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    2,957

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Posts posted by PrairieProf

    How Do You Define Doing 'well' On A Food?

    in Food and dietary discussion

    Posted · Edited by PrairieProf

    Pretty much agree with what others have said. Pick-upable poop, reasonably firm unless it hasn't been long enough since the last time, not excessive quantities. I think the color of the poop is greatly influenced by the color of the food itself, so that wouldn't be a factor unless it was bizarre somehow. No gas or other digestive symptoms. Good energy and I'll say good coat (I can see that might vary between hounds, but Beth has an extremely soft coat so if that changed it would be a bad sign), no signs of allergies. Oh, and the dog maintains a good weight easily on a reasonable serving of the food, doesn't tend to get overweight or underweight.

     

    Also, the hound should have appropriate blood values insofar as those might be affected by food.

     

    The dog should like the food of course, but Beth is not a picky eater so that's not a real factor for me.

     

    We hit all those benchmarks wonderfully on a prescription food that would have some people rolling their eyes at the ingredients. Beth nearly got pancreatitis before that and things have been so much better once I learned that what is central for her is a lower-fat diet as opposed to grain-free, limited ingredient or whatever. She poops about three times a day, sometimes four, but that's because we walk a lot and it stimulates her -- it's a highly digestible food so the poops are very small.

    What Is More Important - Rating Of Kibble - Or How Your Dogs Do On It?

    in Food and dietary discussion

    Posted

    Rating of kibble means NOTHING in any objective sense. Some individuals (with no formal certification in animal nutrition or whatever) come up with a matrix based on their idea of what constitutes good or bad ingredients or parameters and apply it. It's totally subjective, takes nothing into account but ingredients (not sourcing, not safety standards, not whether a food has ever been tested in a feed trial) and has nothing to do with any actual results in actual dogs. Total ideological garbage on the whole.

    Frequent Stools

    in Food and dietary discussion

    Posted

    I really don't think a dog could poop that much unless they are getting what is for their system a crap-load (literally!) of food. If the poop is formed it suggests she isn't having trouble digesting it per se or having other medical issues, so I would really try cutting back. You could certainly try another food but cutting back seems a simpler thing to try first -- and if she gets too much of a different food she's still going to poop a lot.

    Blood In Stool-Or More Like Some Stool In Blood.

    in Health and Medical discussion

    Posted · Edited by PrairieProf

    Also make sure you have Flagyl (metronidazole) on hand at home so you can start giving it at the first sign of GI problems -- that's very important if you have a hound prone to issues. Your vet shouldn't have any problem giving you extra.

     

    It also might be just one of those things that would have happened even without having switched her food. That has happened with no discernible trigger to other IBD hounds on the board. (Merlinsmum is a good person to consult on this, as unfortunately Merlin has had similar issues.)

    Frequent Stools

    in Food and dietary discussion

    Posted · Edited by PrairieProf

    For starters, maybe you might try feeding her less? Four cups is quite a lot for what sounds like a small female. I have a 58-pound girl and she eats more like three cups of the various foods she's been on.

     

    Mine is on a low-residue prescription food and still goes at least three times a day. 1-2 times seems rather infrequent for a kibble-fed dog, so I wouldn't assume that's what you should expect with another.

×
×
  • Create New...