my six month old pug has been suffering from diarreaha on and off for the last 2 months -please can some one help?

we feed him on Hills Science Plan Puppy and before Christmas he had a bout of diarrhea for no apparent reason as we are very strict with his diet and do not feed him anything but Hills puppy food.

He was given antibiotics, Protexin and Hills ID diet by the vet and the diarrhea got better in a matter of days so gradually we re-introduced his normal puppy food - the diarrhea returned straight away!

The vet then wormed him and ran tests on a poo sample which all came back normal.

This led us to believe he has a food allergy??!! so we fed him Hills WD which has increased fiber which worked a treat -his poop was rock hard for 2 weeks so we re-introduced his normal puppy food again. His poo was fine for a week then on Sunday night [after chewing rawhide] the diarrhea returned with a vengeance and im unsure of what to do next?
The diarrhea has mucous in it and ranges from being semi-formed to water.
I am feeding him boiled rice and chicken at the moment with slippery elm bark to sooth his stomach and probiotics... what should i do next?
ive read allot about hypoallergenic diets and i think that is what the vet wants to do next [he has mentioned Hills ZD]... can anyone please please advise as this is getting quite upsetting and very frustrating - for me and my puppy.

Hi poochiepet,

I would suggest if your puppy's symptoms have returned when back on Hill's puppy food then rather than jump to using one of Hill's prescription diets you move to a different recipe of puppy food - possibly a different manufacturer too :)

For eg. if your puppy is intolerant of only one ingredient in the food your are feeding, it is difficult without specific allergy testing to identify what to move onto.  Check the ingredients of the diet you are feeding and switch to a diet which contains a different protein source (i.e. if using chicken move to lamb or fish) and find one with lesser grains (i.e. perhaps rice only with no wheat, maize/corn etc).

The idea is to move to an "exclusion trial diet" which means not only restricting the number of ingredients to make identification of an allergen easier, but also ensuring that absolutely NO treats, titbits, table scraps, chews etc are fed during the same period (normally 8-12 weeks).

I can personally recommend Wafcol Salmon & Potato as both ingredients are rare in other products and it's gluten, wheat, dairy & soya free (common allergens).   Other good brands are Nature Diet (a moist complete) or James Wellbeloved and Burns - although I've not used their puppy diets.   If you run a search on food topics you'll find lots of helpful info and a wider choice - I don't think you should restrict your choice to prescription only diets as they are rarely necessary unless a severe medical condition has been diagnosed and all other dietary routes (i.e. fresh, home prepared, raw etc) have failed.

Best wishes, Teri :)
  

Believing your dog has a food allergy and discovering that he has are two entirely different things.

If you believe he may have a food allergy, get a blood sample sent to Yorktest which will reveal what if any ingredients are an issue.

This is not cheap but if you are insured this will cover it and it will be cheap in the long run as all you have to do is buy food without any of the problem ingredients.  Much better than experimenting with differing foods and guessing and much cheaper than feeding a hypoallergenic food such as Hills, when you may not need to......................

Tohme's right. its better to get an allergy test done and know what the problem is, than to experiment aimlessly, as I did, getting no-where and solving nothing. I got my girl tested, found out what she couldn't tolerate and life is much easier for her :)
Anne

thanks everyone...
also...
how long should i keep him on chicken and rice as my partner is concerned that he is not getting all the proper nutrients while eating this. today is the third day and although the diarrhea has stopped, his poop is firmer at the start of the motion but tends go a little like toothpaste in consistency towards the end...  and is only going potty [poop] about once a day right now where as normally he goes around 3 times!?

Keep him on it until his poo firms up.  If it's firmed up now, then take him off it. 

It's normal for a poo to be firmer at the start than the end.  It's also normal for the first poo of the day to be firmer than later poos.  Sorry for the graphic detail!!

If he's only going once a day, that's actually a good sign.  It means the digestive system is slowing down again and absorbing the nutrients again.  It could also mean you are under-feeding him, but I wouldn't worry about that because he's only been on it for 3 days.

I would definitely consider changing his food and/or having an allergy test done.

yes, i am thinking seriously about not feeding him Hills at all... from what everyone has been saying it seems that no one recommends the brand...

can anyone enlighten me - is Hills full of rubbish? and why does no one on this site really recommend it? as my vet raves about it!!!

Just question why vets rave about it :d

It's not a food that I use though my dogs have never liked it when I've offered it to them.

Molly has been on 3 different foods (Eukanubra & Pedigree PC) & has now been on Hills Science for 6 months & loves it & is doing really well on it!  I don't believe for a minute it is full of rubbish & is as good as any other puppy complete food - otherwise why would pratically every vet recommend it!  I don't doubt they recieve some form of incentive for it but if it was "full of rubbish" surely they wouldn't risk a barrage of complaints by recommending it!   Every dog just like humans will react differently to different types of food, you just need to find the best one for you dog!....

just to clarify - by 'rubbish' i mean the kind of 'rubbish' WE find in our food which is acceptable under British law... like e numbers and by-products - all of which are perfectly edible but frankly not that great for our bodies!

>like e numbers

Don't forget that e-numbers aren't all bad. A fresh, organic orange contains 4 ... grass contains at least 1 - chlorophyll: E140! E162, for example, is the natural chemical that gives beetroot its colour. Perfectly edible - and perfectly safe!

By rubbish i think what people mean is that it is well over priced for the ingredients it contains, probably by £10 per 15kg bag.

My dog was on it and also looked well but I changed her onto a higher quality food about 4 months ago, for the same price I was paying for Hills Science.

poochiepet, if you post the ingredients in your Hills, I'll tell you which bits I personally think are "rubbish"!!

thank you onetwothree the ingredients are:
Chicken (minimum Chicken 36 %;minimum Chicken and Turkey combined 48 %):Ground maize,chicken and turkey meal,animal fat,dried beet pulp,digest,ground rice,maize gluten meal, vegetable oil,dried whole egg,flaxseed, potassium chloride,disodium phosphate,oat fibre,salt,L-tryptophan,L-lysine hydrochloride, taurine,vitamins and trace elements.Naturally preserved with mixed tocopherols,citric acid and rosemary extract.
x

Hi

Well one good thing about it is it looks like it has quite a high amount of meat - the average % of meat in most dry foods is around 25%, so if it does have 48% chicken and turkey combined, that's great.

The ground maize and maize gluten meal is not great, since maize is often a grain which a lot of dogs find hard to digest, which they often develop food allergies to, and which often leads to soft poop.

Animal fat - I always want to know what animal, whenever I read this on an ingredients list.  It's easy for companies to switch and change the source of this "animal fat", so it's always the cheapest, if they make it anonymous "animal fat".  It also makes it hard for people whose dogs have intolerances to some meats to avoid feeding a meat - because they can't identify it.

Potassium chloride is a mineral that is found naturally in many foods and is necessary for many normal functions of the body, including the beating of the heart.  I'm not sure why they would want to add more of this mineral than what is already in their product, naturally.  Most other dog food manufacturers do not add this product.  Not saying it's ominous, I just don't understand.

Disodium phosphate is an additive relating to preserving the food.  It's supposedly safe when fed in recommended quantities.  But again, other foods on the market do not contain this.

Salt - there's no reason to add salt except as a flavour enhancer, so the dog will want to eat more of the food or possibly as a preservative.  It's not great to add salt, but it's not the worst thing in my opinion. 

I have to say, looking at it, it doesn't seem as bad as some of the products in the Hills range - there are definitely worse things you could feed.  I think there are better, too, but that's just my opinion.

thanks so much onetwothree, thats very interesting - will have a good think on this one
x

...i know its different for all dogs but what food would YOU recommend onetwothree?
s
x

I think Nature Diet is one of the best: www.naturediet.net

It's wet and I don't want to feed wet food myself, although I've fed Nature Diet in the past.

Natures Menu is also an excellent wet food, although slightly more pricey than ND: www.naturesmenu.co.uk

The dry foods are a bit harder to sort out:

www.wellbeloved.co.uk   - I think JWB is still one of the best dry foods out there.  I dislike the addition of salt.  I dislike the fact that they have recently been bought by Royal Canin, which is in turn owned by Mars.  This is just because I don't like huge global brand names and prefer to support smaller manufacturers and may not have an impact on the actual food itself.  And I dislike the fact that the number one ingredient is rice and not a meat.  But all that to one side, it's a great food.

www.burns-pet-nutrition.co.uk  -  I think Burns is great, although I would not recommend it for puppies because it seems to be a "lean" food and I've heard of many dogs losing weight on it and I had a puppy which didn't do very well one it.  Having said that, many lab owners seem to like it because labs have a tendency to put on weight and Burns seems to suit them for that reason.  Again, the number 1 ingredient is rice, which I dislike.  The average amount of protein is also only 18% which is very low when compared to most other foods.

www.wafcol.co.uk  -  The only product in the Wafcol range I'd recommend is the Salmon and Potato.  This has 24% protein and the number 1 ingredient is salmon.  Mine are not keen on the taste of this one, but perhaps they're being weird because lots of others here use it and say great things about it.

www.ardengrange.co.uk  -  I prefer their premium range, which is superior to the "Classic" range in terms of ingredients.  Their "Arden Grange Prestige" is 30% protein/chicken, which is great for a dry food.  I wouldn't recommend their "Classic" line.

Basically, although none of these are "perfect", you'd be feeding a good food with any of them, so check them out and make your choice!

Raw hide can cause really bad diarhea in some dogs, I (well blade ) had a bad experience with raw hide over the christmas period, so would definately suggest not giving it again :-)
hoe your boy is better soon
Em