Food Intolerance?

[Guest RMarie]

James has been on the same food (Kirkland's Nature's Domain Salmon Meal and Sweet Potato) for 5 weeks. We only mix in a probiotic, fish oil, and glucosamine pill at each meal. Treats are at a minimum, because we're still wary of his sensitive stomach. They usually consist of dehydrated bananas and carrots, with some beef jerky, and hot dogs on a very limited basis.

 

In the beginning, the food cleared up his diarrhea and helped his skin. Now, though, he seems to be having issues. His once smell-less poofs are now silent but deadly surprises. His skin has been flaky for days, whereas it used to occur for one day every few weeks. And just now he had inexplicable diarrhea. Are these signs the food is not for him? He gets 2 cups twice/day, with 2 kong-fulls throughout the day. He devours it, so he shows no sign that he does not like the food; I'm worried the food does not like him.

 

Thoughts? Is 5 weeks too soon to judge the tolerance of a food?

[greyhoundgang]

Some questions:

- Glucosamine - what else is in it? Is it 1500 mgs of glucosamine? That is the correct dose for a dog 50 lbs plus. Most pills you need 2 - 6 of them depending on the brand. Get Up & Go has pure powders with 1/2 tsp equaling 1500 mg.

 

- Fish Oil - what else is in it? Has the brand changed? Not all are created equal. I prefer Grizzly Salmon Oil. 3000 mgs daily is dose for a hound.

 

- What new treats is he getting these past weeks? I'd stick with pure protein. Cook up chicken and cut into small pieces.

 

If he did well with the food initially, then I would just give that food. Stop all treats and anything else. then add one thing back in and watch. Then one more thing and watch.

Flaky can happen with colder weather, and the dryness in the air. Is he a black dog? Dander shows up a lot more particularly if you brush him.

 

If he has food allergies - they will show up some weeks after he has started on a food. However, as a kibble Salmon and Potato is a good choice. To really get rid of food allergies, raw feeding is the easiest and best way to go. Greyhound Gang has info at LEARN. MEDICAL. FOOD. I also like Dog Food Project's site for information.

 

For diarrhea, Greyhound Gang has many natural options to help. LEARN. MEDICAL. DIARRHEA.

 

Hope something here is helpful.

[Guest RMarie]

Glucosamine: Kirkland brand (still on the only bottle we have)

2 tablets = 1500mg glucosamine HCl, 1500mg MSM

Ingredients: Glucosamine HCl, MSM, cellulose, croscarmellose, sodium, vegetable stearic acid, hypromellose, vegetable magnesium stearate, silica

 

Fish Oil: Kirkland brand (still on the only bottle we have)

2 pills = 2400mg

Ingredients: Fish oil concentrate, gelatin, water, glycerin, tocopherol

There's also a list of "may also contain." Underneath that list, it says "Contains: Fish (anchovy, sardine) and soy."

 

He hasn't gotten any "new" treats, except hot dog. The treats he gets he's been getting for a while, just in limited quantities. We try to balance practicing our obedience tasks with not over-treating him. We used the first hot dog in obedience class on Tuesday night, because he tends to not want to cooperate as the class goes on if all he's getting are the "boring" treats (kibble, bananas, carrots).

 

The smelly farts started about a week or two ago. The flakiness started on Tuesday. He is a dark brindle, so the flakes show. We haven't bathed him since we got him, although I'm planning on bathing him on Sunday. He was last bathed when he left the track in the beginning of August. I brushed him last night. Up until the weather got cold, I was brushing him every weekend.

 

Like a lot of retired racers, he battled diarrhea, as well as staph infections. He was on some sort of antibiotic for weeks after retiring (multiple rounds of Flagyl and Cephalexin). He's been antibiotic-free for 5-6 weeks. I chose the salmon and potato food in case of allergies to other things. Things were going great, until recently. I thought we had the food thing figured out.

[cleptogrey]

it almost sounds like it might be time to revisit his old friend flagyl. the bacteria has most likely reproduced, it's cyclicle(sp?). i went thru many rounds of flagyl cleaning up my first grey. as i always write- talk to your vet.(use the phone- avoid another $$ visit, just drop a stool sample off). he/she might want a different antibiotic or more of the same. i would boil up some rice(cut down on the kibble, then when he starts to clear up- reintroduce kibble). i don't give my dogs pumpkin or oatmeal- plain old over cooked WHITE rice and 20% beef. btw- if the stool has a wicked racid, nasty odor- it's most likely bacteria.

 

dander- is the heat on? otherwise, ask if he needs another scraping when you talk to your vet.

good luck

[greyhoundgang]

Kirkland glucosamine - 2 tabs will give required dose for a greyhound. However, there are many other ingredients in there which could be causing issues. I'd look them up on the internet. For instance, croscarmellose info on Livestrong. It's not something I'd give a dog.

 

Fish Oil. You don't know what the fish is. Soy is not good for dogs.

With a dog with a sensitive tummy any of these could be causing issues.

 

Hot dogs.

Again, they are loaded with 'stuff'. sometimes not good stuff. Here's some info. I've certainly known hot dogs to cause flatulence.

Just cook chicken and cut in cubes and freeze and pull out as you need them.

 

If you stop these things, and just give the food for a while you'll learn what he is having issues with. You may have the food thing figured out, but it could be the other stuff.

 

Acidophilus pills will help with farts. They will also help replenish his internal flora which was dissemated by the anti-biotics and multiple rounds of them.

As stated in my earlier post, there are wonderful, safe, natural ways to treat diarrhea. Info at Greyhound Gang. I particularly like slippery elm gel. I make it, and keep the fridge, and put in dog's food. I also syringe down the throat when diarrhea is particularly bad. It coats the intestinal tract and reduces the inflammation. Tylan powder is liked by others.

 

I would stop brushing. that will bring up dander. I only wash twice a year when the season's change with a natural shampoo. That way the old hair comes out quickly, and all is well. I never brush. Just pet.

[Brandiandwe]

As a fellow owner of a sensitive hound tummy, I can sympathise. I find (for mine) that fruit isn't the best and that hot dogs are completely disastrous. I tend to stick to simple and steady. But with the hot dogs her intolerance didn't show up for several days.

[Guest mld]

it almost sounds like it might be time to revisit his old friend flagyl. the bacteria has most likely reproduced, it's cyclicle(sp?). i went thru many rounds of flagyl cleaning up my first grey. as i always write- talk to your vet.(use the phone- avoid another $$ visit, just drop a stool sample off). he/she might want a different antibiotic or more of the same. i would boil up some rice(cut down on the kibble, then when he starts to clear up- reintroduce kibble). i don't give my dogs pumpkin or oatmeal- plain old over cooked WHITE rice and 20% beef. btw- if the stool has a wicked racid, nasty odor- it's most likely bacteria.

 

dander- is the heat on? otherwise, ask if he needs another scraping when you talk to your vet.

good luck

 

Totally agree with this!

[Guest RMarie]

As a fellow owner of a sensitive hound tummy, I can sympathise. I find (for mine) that fruit isn't the best and that hot dogs are completely disastrous. I tend to stick to simple and steady. But with the hot dogs her intolerance didn't show up for several days.

 

Hmm, I wonder if that's what it was. Hot dog was the only new thing we introduced this week. If it takes several days to show up, that might explain the delayed diarrhea. James had diarrhea up through early Saturday morning. I fed him small amounts of boiled chicken and rice. He didn't poop again until this morning; it was small, but firm.

 

As far as Flagyl goes, James cannot tolerate it. That's what he was on to treat mushy poops (the presumed cause was giardia, despite repeated negative test results) before we switched vets, and I explained to our new vet how his mushy poops instantly turned to diarrhea when we started Flagyl. The new vet, a fellow greyhound owner, stated that some dogs can't tolerate it and that there is an alternative, so she made a note in his chart for future reference. If his poops get too soft or the diarrhea returns, we'll be visiting the vet for sure.

 

I guess we'll stick to kibble for obedience class. Good thing he likes it.

[Brandiandwe]

When you get things settled, experiment with other treats. Chicken might be good and tolerated as treats, and my sensitive hound adores cheese - just check whether your boy is lactose intolerant first (or the results could be spectacular. And not in a good way). I find that jerky-like treats work best at obedience, or cheese.

[GeorgeofNE]

Wait--four cups of food at meals AND "two Kongs full" of food?

 

Maybe he's just being overfed!

 

That's a lot of food.

[Guest RMarie]

Wait--four cups of food at meals AND "two Kongs full" of food?

 

Maybe he's just being overfed!

 

That's a lot of food.

 

It is a lot of food, but he lost a lot of weight after coming off the track from weeks of diarrhea/soft poop. By the time he came to us, he'd lost 7 lbs, and after over a week with us, he'd lost another 2lbs. And he's small to begin with, so he looked emaciated at almost a 10lbs weight loss. We're still trying to put it all back on him, or at least get him to a better weight. He was getting 3 cups at each meal (and pooping 5-6 times/day), but after he slowly started putting on weight, we cut it back to 2 cups/meal. His poops firmed up nicely and reduced to 3 times/day. Things were going great, until last week...

[cleptogrey]

Wait--four cups of food at meals AND "two Kongs full" of food?

 

Maybe he's just being overfed!

 

That's a lot of food.

 

i agree! try just 4 cups daily and sneak in some extra rice and boiled chop meat and maybe dog biskets. gaining weight can take time, slow and steady wins the race! btw- every time my husband declares that the dogs look thin/starved he ups the food- loose poops and farts. (trust me, my dogs aren't thin). i cut it back(my 76-9# male eats 4 cups per day, 63# female- 3cups)

 

did you talk to your vet yet?

[GeorgeofNE]

If he's "small to begin with" that's REALLY a lot of food.

 

George is a 64 pound male. His listed racing weight is 67. He gets ONE cup of kibble for breakfast and one at dinner. I do feed him a fair number of Milk Bones on our walks (pee rewards!) and he gets about two table spoons of peanut butter Monday-Friday in his Kong.

 

He also gets a 2 mile walk every day.

 

Did you by any chance open a new bag of food around the time this trouble started?

[Guest RMarie]

I called the vet and left a message. She has yet to call me back.

 

The reason I do not think it's an overfeeding issue is because he's been on the same amount of food/day for a while. I would agree if we'd been feeding him only 2 cups/day total then all of the sudden doubled the amount. But, he's been consistently at this amount (actually, slightly less, as my DH just confessed that he was only giving him 1.5 cups for breakfast) for weeks. And no, we haven't opened a new bag. We're in the middle of a bag.

 

Right now, we're only feeding him between 1-1.5 cups of a chicken and rice mixture for breakfast and dinner...and believe me, he knows! Since we cut back his food, I'm debating cutting back his walks (he gets 3 walks/day), but he still seems full of energy. But, I can't help think that less food with the same amount of exercise will cause him to lose weight again. Thoughts?

 

The reason I'm leaning towards a dietary cause rather than a medical cause is now that he's on the bland chicken and rice diet, there's no diarrhea. There's pretty much no poop at all, which is preventing me from dropping off a sample to the vet. I suppose if the vet wants to see him, then she'll have to go fishing for her own sample. Is it normal for the chicken and rice to plug him up?

 

Thanks for all the input. I really appreciate it. I just want my boy to be healthy.

[TheFullHouse]

You might try some canned beef Wellness. Greyhounds are fed mostly beef at the track and usually never have stomach issues. When adopted they are switched to different proteins and none of which are usually beef and a lot of greyhounds have issues. I would try getting some canned Wellness (beef) and mix it with the kibble you would like him to eat and see what happens. When I have problems with my seniors losing weight from lack of appetite I feed this to them (Thanks Diane) and it usually puts them right back on track.

[Guest RMarie]

You might try some canned beef Wellness. Greyhounds are fed mostly beef at the track and usually never have stomach issues. When adopted they are switched to different proteins and none of which are usually beef and a lot of greyhounds have issues. I would try getting some canned Wellness (beef) and mix it with the kibble you would like him to eat and see what happens. When I have problems with my seniors losing weight from lack of appetite I feed this to them (Thanks Diane) and it usually puts them right back on track.

 

That's interesting. I did not know that. I was told they're usually fed a chicken-based diet. We started him on Nature's Domain salmon meal and sweet potato in case he had a sensitive stomach and because we knew he was coming to us with skin issues, so we thought the salmon would help. A co-worker (with no greyhound experience) suggested a red meat diet to firm up his poops. We've never considered canned food, only kibble (for dental reasons, although we're told James' teeth are in excellent condition). That's something to look into.

 

He still hasn't pooped, so we're going on almost 24 hours of no poop. The vet never called me back.

 

I'm thinking our strategy will be chicken and rice with a small bit of green bag (YES, green bag!) mixed in. With how much people on here praise it, we're going to by-pass trying out a million different premium foods and take the plunge.

 

Also, our dog-walker suggested giving him pumpkin, as it treats both diarrhea and constipation. We bought some in anticipation of getting James, but we never used it to treat his diarrhea because our foster parents said it never helped him. Our former vet also told them to stop feeding him pumpkin. Does anyone have experience using pumpkin to treat constipation?