Science Diet Sensitive Stomach

[Guest psdirector]

Hutch had a really bad case of hookworms when he arrived in March. He was so sick! We treated x 3 with Panacur. We've been feeding green bag. On Monday, he didn't eat breakfast and started eating grass. He vomited later in the day and had really liquid poop. He has been vomiting like this every 7 - 10 days. Once he gets sick he's fine and by evening he's normal.

 

His poops are soft a lot of the time and even if they are normal in the morning, they will often be loose by evening. He's always perky and doesn't seem to be bothered by it.

 

I started wondering if the hookworms might be back, so DH took a stool sample to the vet's. No parasites of any kind.

 

Hutch's litter mate,Tibbs, eats the Iams green bag - has not had hooks, perfect poos, no stomach woes. I think he's vomited once since he arrived and then he was fine.

 

 

The vet suggested that Hutch might have a food allergy and suggested putting him on Science Diet Sensitive Stomach. Has anyone else tried it? Did it help?

 

[a_daerr]

It's crazy how quickly vets jump on the food allergy bandwagon! If it were a legitimate food allergy, you'd probably be seeing other symptoms like itchy paws/bum, licking, swelling, skin issues, etc. That being said, dogs can have food intolerances. But if he's going back and forth between normal and diarrhea cyclically, I'd lean towards something else. Hookworms don't come up in fecal samples a lot of the time, so it's probably a good idea to deworm again. Then if symptoms persist, investigate a little further to see if the grass-eating makes him sick. Every so often, my guys chomp grass like cows, then immediately throw up afterwards.

[deboosh]

I've no advice about the food but our girl's tummy gets wonky at times too. Quite often I can hear her tummy gurgling from another room. She will frequently skip breakfast and do some serious grass chewing, more so during the first walk of the day, but she never throws it up. She's been checked and rechecked for worms and all is negative. I had her on Nutro's Sensitive Skin & Stomach kibble as well as a brown rice and tripe mixture I used to make up, but she started turning her nose to it. I changed her diet to raw only yesterday, so am hoping this will calm her tummy as well as please my little miss diva's tastes.

[JJNg]

I agree that it doesn't sound like an actual food allergy, but chronic vomiting and diarrhea can definitely be caused by a diet that just isn't ideal for that particular dog. I've seen some good results Science Diet Sensitive Stomach, and I think it's worth a try.