Purina Pro Plan Sensitive Skin/Stomach Salmon

[smt]

Tell me why you love, hate or are indifferent to as it relates to PPP/SSS salmon and rice.  We are switching our new girl over to it and the jury is still out for us.  We are cutting her over slowly, so at what point should we see improvements in her itchiness and a decrease in the quantity but improvement in the quality of her stools?

[Batmom]

It can take 8-12 weeks for a dog's gut to fully adjust to a new food, and you usually won't start to see any skin benefits for at least 3 weeks and probably 6.  Skin doesn't change that fast.  If stool quality is an issue during the transition, (1) slow it down and (2) check with your vet as to his/her favorite probiotic.

 

If your pup was allergic to something in the old food but not in the new food, itchiness too can take 8-12 weeks to resolve.

 

I used to think these things happened faster.  Sometimes you get lucky and they do, but not always.  

[Bizeebee]

We switched to PPPSSS very quickly (no transition period) because our dog had been having worse and worse stools (diarrhea and had started to see red blood) despite being on quite a few meds and chicken-flavored hydrolyzed food. Some kind of IBD and poultry sensitivity is what we assume was/is going on. The vet figured we couldn't get worse than where we were, so she recommended we just start the new chicken-free food. The difference was night and day, almost immediately his stools returned to a much more acceptable consistency and no more blood. Quantity did not reduce much, but he's on a lot of calories (and thus volume) for his issues.

All that said, he had a great coat/breath before and after, his issues were purely digestive. Unfortunately the salmon food makes his poop extra delicious (in his mind) so we're dealing with that a bit, but kind of chalking it up to ongoing gut issues.

[greysmom]

We switched over rather quickly as well.  We're currently dealing with hooks, but prior to that, and with other dogs, it was about 2 weeks to see some major differences in quality and quantity.  If the salmon doesn't seem to be doing it after about 2 months, you can try the Focus kibble as well.  We had good results with the turkey flavor in that kibble.

[cleptogrey]

Great coat, I was able to cut out supplements. 

Reduced food intake. Yup our girl cut her intake by 33% .

Reduced out put, always a plus

Easily available 

PP FOCUS S/R is a different higher quality formular than the variety with shredded protein. Tried the lesser,dogs did not do well on it. Purina sent me coupons for replacement.  No it's hands or buts.

[smt]

So far, we think we like the PP Sensitive skin/stomach.  She has been fully cut over now for a couple of days, and seems to love it.  She just got a dose of Advantage Multi and a Drontal Plus for hooks, so her poop has been pretty loose the past 36 hours, so we need a little longer to see how it will be on the new food.  Her poop was mostly firm on the foster food, but we were feeding her 2+ cups a day and she was pooping like a maniac.  Plus, her itchiness is so bad.  This is likely due to reasons other than diet, but we are hoping that the new food will help with this.  

[smt]

On 1/3/2020 at 9:32 AM, smt said:

So far, we think we like the PP Sensitive skin/stomach.  She has been fully cut over now for a couple of days, and seems to love it.  She just got a dose of Advantage Multi and a Drontal Plus for hooks, so her poop has been pretty loose the past 36 hours, so we need a little longer to see how it will be on the new food.  Her poop was mostly firm on the foster food, but we were feeding her 2+ cups a day and she was pooping like a maniac.  Plus, her itchiness is so bad.  This is likely due to reasons other than diet, but we are hoping that the new food will help with this.  

Bette has now gone through one 30 pound bag of the PPP/Sensitive skin and stomach.  It has been about a month, and so far she does not seem nearly as itchy.  Hard to tell if this is the food, the 2 fish oils she gets a day, the humidifiers that we keep running in the LR and BR, or the fact that she is now 3 months off the track.  Her poops are still pretty unimpressive.  I was hoping they would firm up more.  They were actually better on the foster food.  I am going to cut out the fish oil to see if it helps, and if the stools are still rather soft after that, we may be on to a different food.  She is super food motivated, and we also give her a scoop of pumpkin puree in the morning and a dollop of plain greek yoghurt at night.  She get a very small trachea as her night time treat.  We have a brand new bag of the PPP, so will see how things go progress from the back end over the next month.  Oh, I should also mention that she is in Dr. Ng's hookworm treatment protocol.  We do see a worsting of the consistency of her stool for about 36-48 hours post treatment, but then it returns to its (softish) baseline.  On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being tootsie roll poops, I'd say she is mostly at a 6.  Should I be happy with this, or strive to find a decent quality food that will firm them up to an 8+?

[cleptogrey]

BINGO!!! hook worm treatment. when it's over you will see the difference in everything. it's a lots of drugs

rather than fish oil capsules i prefer using NUPRO supplement. check it out, more than just lineonic acid in there. it's good stuff. but wait until the treatments are over- too much good stuff ain't that good at times.

[smt]

Yeah, we have cut out the fish oil.  We are probably going to try some Olweo Carrots to see if they help to firm up stools.  I should mention, she also gets a canine probiotic with breakfast.  Given the big doses of meds, you are right, it is hard to know just how to approach food/gut/stool concerns.  

[Time4ANap]

At the instruction of our vet, we added both Rx-Biotic and Rx-Zyme to the food of both hounds when we started the hookworm protocol.  Petunia had a horrendous case of hookworms and had bloody, nasty stools for a couple of months until one day they just stopped.  We've continued both supplements as regular add-ins and the stools of both dogs could not be better.  The Rx-Zyme/Boiotic products are available on Amazon and Chewy without a prescription.  They also make the Rx-Clay which many people here swear by for stomach issues

[greysmom]

Also cut out the pumpkin.  For some dogs it just makes soft stools worse.

And you really won't see *any* improvement in consistency until the hooks are totally eradicated, so maybe stop trying to change things until you can confirm they are completely gone.  That means:  THREE separate negative fecal tests, spaced 2 weeks, three weeks, and four weeks apart.

Give her ONE food, a pro/pre biotic, one kind of treat - stop everything else.  Just be patient.  It can take 3-6 months to get those hooks completely gone, but that simply MUST be done first.

[smt]

We stopped the pumpkin, added in Olewo Carrots, and after 2 meals, she has had the best poop since her arrival here 3 months ago. Her other mother says is was "as close to as 10 as it could be."  She has been on Dr. Ng's hookworm protocol now for three months.  We will check her in one month to see where we are, and if negative, recheck in three weeks, then four, per Greysmom instruction.  She gets one 3" trachea at night, a kong with a small smear of peanut butter when we crate her, and her 2 meals of PPP/SSS.  With her meals, she now gets a TBSP of carrots, and in the am she gets a probiotic and glucosamine.  I think we are on the right track and plan to keep her on the current food.  Thanks so much for your input, everyone.

[Hubcitypam]

It did nothing for my colitis boy.  The thing that fixed him was *gasp* IAMS.  I've posted it a zillion times.