Can anyone advise please. My 15 week old TT puppy, which I bred myself has a very sensative tummy and has rarely been without loose motions. The rest of the litter were, and still are fine. She is fit and well and eats well. All this week I have had her on cooked chicken, cooked white fish and Burns puppy kibble (as its supposed to be good for delicate tummy's), and nothing else, but it is still not as firm as I would like. A friend advised adding dry crumbled Weetabix to her feeds as this is supposed to help 'dry it up', but, again to not much avail.
I think I have tried all the obvious things to do. ie process of elimination foods, Changing her kibble. Not all at once but gradually.
I have even started to give them boiled, cooled water now, in case it could be something in the tap water.
Her mum has no problems in this area and can eat anything without a problem.
The puppys problem could be a nervous tummy as she isn't the boldest girl in the world but I am working on this also and she is getting better. I am reluctant to take her to the vet as she is well in herself and managing to put weight on and not look too lean and as vets our way are very good at just sticking needles in for no apparent cause and not really getting to the bottom of things I feel it would be better if I can just get to the bottom (pardon the pun) of this problem
I have never had this problem before so any help/advise will be greatly appreciated.
Anne

Hi Anne,
I'm no expert but I don't think I'd give weetabix as it's quite roughagey. I know this isn't a permanent solution but my Springer has had stomach upsets in the past and the only thing that stopped them was porridge made with oats and water. It's very gentle on the stomach, has anti-diarrhoea properties and oats are very good for the nerves. :)

Kath.

I would keep away from weetabix, and in fact anything made from wheat, soya, maize.  Have you tried giving her a tablespoon of live yoghurt several times a day; she may have an imbalance in her gut flora and the probiotics in this may well sort it out.

If she is putting weight on it can't be too serious.

Hi Anne

When something like this happened to one of mine we eventually found that she was poisioning herself by eating a damp proof course!  Once the cause was discovered and blocked off she still had problems that turned out to be due to an overgrowth of flora in her gut.  This was soon fixed with a very expensive drug and she has been fine since.

I don't imagine this could happen to anyone else but it might give you another idea to work on.

Can I suggest you try her on chicken wings for a couple of weeks - nothing else just raw wings complete with bones, you may see a little blood and bone for the first couple of days but this soon disappears as they get used to their new diet.

If this does work then you could look further into a raw diet

Christine

Thank you for all your advise. I really appreciate your comments.
I will try given her some porridge as we have it each day so I can soon make her some up with just water.
I also like the idea of the live yoghurt. Where would I get that? Is it the same as normal yoghurt purchased in supermarkets, but without the fruity flavours?
And I will also knock the weeabix on the head as I also had some doubts about it, being wheat, but you try any advise your given when your clutching at straws, don't you?
I must say I think there is a slight improvement today, which after she has been on the boiled water for 24 hours now so  fingers crossed it just might be something to do with that. Time will tell as they say.
Thank you all again
Anne

Regular plain live yoghurt you can buy in supermarkets, my dogs love yeo valley but it must be LIVE.  If your dog does not like it (unusual in my experience) then you can get acidophilus tablets from the chemist or probiotic powder from the pet shop.

Hi,

Definately try the live yoghurt, I would also recomend you try him on raw food cause this is very good for dogs with problem tummies.

manda
x

Apart from adding live yoghurt I would not mess about with her food, keep her on the Burns and a little chicken for at least 14 days and if she is still loose then take her and a sample to the vet for a check. Don't give any milk, cheese, grain or treats.

Well, we now seem to have the problem sorted. At last.
It would appear to be either JWB, which she was on and I took her off it. Or the tap water in our area. She is now on cooled boiled water, which I am slowly going to try and wean her off, but at the moment and for the last week or so she has been ok. So fingers crossed we have got to the root of the problem. She's been great on Nutro and cooked white fish but as soon as I introduced a little bit of JWB again, she was loose again, so it definately looks like it could be that.  I shall be keeping her on Nutro now.
Apparantly our local pet shop owners dalmatian can't cope with JWB either. Some reaction to do with the oats that are in it.
So once again, I thank you all, who have been helpful to me.
Hope everybody has a Merry Christmas and all the best for the New Year
Anne

Ah - Commercial foods strike again:) 

Do dogs really have sensitive stomachs or is it rather that humans are feeding them foods they are not equipped to cope with?

Something to think about

Christine

Hi Anne, I'm glad you've got her sorted out. :)

Oh heck and I said oats made my Bess better! That just shows how each dog is different. Oats are specifically included in some hypoallergenic dog foods.  If you're feeding her the  Nutro puppy food just be aware when you change to the adult that the Nutro Choice Adult Chicken & Rice which states "Formulated for Normally Active Adult Dogs with Sensitive Stomachs" has got oatmeal in it. Oats *are* good for the stomach but obviously, only if they're right for that particular dog. :) I don't think any of the other Nutro foods have oats in though, but you can check here.

http://www.nutro.co.uk/dog/index.htm

Kath.

Oats although less "allergenic" than other cereals are still cereals and as such not suitable IMHO to feed to dogs.  Great for horses though :D

Hi Tohme,
I've only started feeding some raw recently and I'm continually learning about canine diet so I don't feel I know enough to agree or disagree yet.  :)

I will say though, that the first time Bess was poorly (vom. and diarr. ), 24 hour starving then chicken and rice didn't touch it. The porridge was a last attempt before the vet and it was nothing short of miraculous. :)  In Bess's case I suppose it was a remedy rather than food and much better than drugs and a stressful visit to the vets.  I've used it straight away ever since and it works for us.  :)

Kath.

Hi My old dog Jack (cocker spaniel) used suffer terrible with the runs I always found plain cooked pasta always worked, my new dog Maisie-Jayne aged 17 weeks also has had the runs only once(staffie) and out came the pasta again and it worked. Worth trying and its cheap good luck
Jo

I have found that JWB goes right through my dogs too, some are just not suited to it and one I bred ended up with colitis on JWB after his owners changed his diet from Nutro (Which I recommend) to JWB.

Just like to add, that I started mine off on BARF at the beginning of the year, Curtis ended up with horrendous diarrhoea and his stomach has never been right since.  Needless to say, they are off of it.  Infact, I haven't seen one dog I know of being fed the BARF way which would make me want to swap to this method of feeding but I see plenty of dog's on "complete's" who look wonderful.

As for cereals, yes, I know they can cause problems but they can also cause problems in a human's diet too, like IBS but we still continually eat them!

BARF is not the "cure-all" for every dog!

Raw food diet isn`t meant to be a cure all, it`s a healthy diet of fresh foods as opposed to processed with all the additives in them, which is what complete foods are. There are some people who eat unhealthy all their lives & manage to saty in good health, tho the majority don`t. The same with dogs.

I`ve seen a lot of dogs gone on to raw diet & yet to see any that hasn`t benefited from it, not least my own 10 dogs who are all raw fed :)

Sorry to hear about Curtis, what where you feeding him when he got the tummy probs?

Christine, Spain.

Chicken wings - fresh from Asda & left for an hour+ to bring up to room temperature.

So you mean he was only being fed chicken wings with absolutely no other foods when he was on the raw food diet?

Christine, Spain.

Hi Christine (Lily M.),
It may be possible that bacteria could grow in that hour but I don't know if that would make a dog ill with them having stronger stomachs than us. I usually put them in hot water for a minute or two (longer if they're frozen) so that they warm up quickly. :)

I do think that different diets suit different dogs though, and it's a case of finding what's right for that particular dog.

Something that's puzzling me is do dogs need carbohydrates?  If you cut out all grains how do you supply them?

Kath.

Dogs do not require Carbohydrates as such (though have adapted to having these as their main source of nutrition to a greater or lesser extent).  They would obtain some from the stomachs of their prey and in their omnivorous scavenging.  They get the roughage in their diet from the fur and bones they would ingest.

Thanks Brainless. :)

Kath.

Carbohydrates provide energy; so do fats.  Carnivores obtain their sources of energy via fats in meat.

As for Lily Munster's dog could also be possible that the dog was actually allergic to chicken :( not raw feeding per se. 

Processed grains are not a natural diet for either dogs or humans, unfortunately they are addictive as anyone who has tried to give up bread, pasta, rice, cakes etc etc will attest :D

Hi

I have a pup with a sensitive tummy and after reading your post about live yoghurt we decided to try it. We have been giving it to her for about a week and we give her a big spoonfull 2-3 time a day and it has really worked. This will now become a regular item on the weekly shopping list and she loves it. Thanks very much.

Nikki

Thanks Tohme, :)

Yes, I have to watch what carbohydrates I eat or I end up with low blood sugar problems,  feeling shakey and weak etc. :(  Perhaps I ought to try BARF myself. :D

Kath.

Hi Lily Munster,

I'm sorry to hear of your bad experience with raw feeding...it does happen sometimes and  certainly, there are some dogs that it doesn't suit.
Murph's been raw fed since we had him at eight weeks old, to some degree or another. At the moment he's on Oscars fish and potato and raw. He's never had diarrhoea on raw food bit I've always given it from the fridge or run under hot water of it's really cold.
There are lots of dogs that are raw fed and look great as there are lots of dogs that are fed on comercial food and look great! I do both but have to say Murph preferes the raw......but then - he prefers anything! he's a lab!! :D

TTFN

Ruth