I have a dog who frequently suffers from an upset stomach. She gets up around 5am, frantically asks out for normal poo and to eat grass. Around 7am she will start having diarrhea and her stomach makes awful noises then by lunchtime she is fine and starving by tea time. I have been recommended to give her Milk of Magnesia but from my understanding dogs fed raw need to have a more acidic stomach to kill the bacteria from the raw food. Is it ok to give it to her? And if so at which point would you give her it? As a preventative every night? When she gets up at 5am?

Have you tried giving her a small quantity of food last thing so her stomach isn't totally empty by morning? That would give acid something to work on

Yes, she gets a very small meal right before bedtime.

How many meals a day do you give her? I feed raw and have done so for years and my dogs all get two meals a day. Do you give your dogs a lot of offal as this can cause upset stomachs if fed in large quantities. I usually feed liver with a meal that has a good amount of bone in it rather than with a meat meal that has very little bone content.

You could try splitting her meals into two smaller ones if you usually only feed once a day.

She gets fed Natures Menu Country Hunter Nuggets. She gets fed first thing in the morning, teatime and 1 nugget as we go to bed.

How long has the dog been having this problem for? And how long has she been raw fed for?

I wouldn't use milk of magnesia but would try slippery elm or dorwest tree bark which is much the same.also could one of the meats she is having not suit her ? I would try cutting things out one at a time for a couple of weeks at least. I am assuming she is an adult who has been or raw awhile.if not go back to basics one protein at a time for a couple of weeks watching carefully for reactions

I'd suggest that this is only going to be a 'band aid' solution.   Far better would be to get to the root of what's causing all this upset and fact is not all dogs are suited to a raw diet in my opinion and with respect to those who suggest otherwise.   And a raw diet has to be a properly balanced raw diet.   With our first hound, we fed raw breast of lamb and offal and 'terrier meal' - very much back in the day and not at a time when people went to raw-feeding by any means.   As our numbers increased and my time not as available as before (to be making up a properly balanced raw diet), I switched to using a good quality, meat or fish-based complete food, you may find this suits your particular dog better.   In the UK, Arden Grange's Sensitive, which is fish and potato, has sorted out the residual problems we had with a hound we bought in, coming to us with Giardia at 4 months.   I did try switching him recently to Pooch & Co's lamb and rice but after a few months, his skin started reacting so it was back to AG Sensitive.

Vomiting bile and grabbing at grass would suggest an irritated digestive system/empty tummy and clearly although Milk of Magnesia might help in the short term, it's not going to be a long-term solution, I'd suggest.

She's had this problem since she was around 1 year old. It was very infrequent to start with - maybe once every 3 months. She has only just started to be raw fed in a bid to solve this problem as it is beginning to take over my life! I can't leave her when she's ill which means I can't ever really plan to do anything in the morning because I never know when she will be ill!!

I know lamb does not agree with her, but have not been to identify anything else which makes her ill. If I feed her rice it seems to sit in her stomach for up to 24 hours before she brings it back up. I have tried feeding her sweet potato which used to settle her stomach but not anymore.

Should I feed her differently if she is ill? Most recent vet said absolutely not to change her diet when she is ill as it will make things worse. My old vet was very much for feeding cooked chicken and rice until she was settled, until I finally discovered that it was the rice making her sick every night so swapped to chicken and potato!

Natures menu is a fantastic choice for a complete raw diet, the companys vet Nick Thompson has done a lot of research over many years in natural raw feeding for our dogs, he is also a fantastic vet!

The Hunters menu has a lot of various fruit & vetables and is not over rich in meat, just nicely ballanced.
Have you considered feeding some green tripe every day, this is a fantastic food that is full of good friendly bacteria and helps with many tummy problems!

Where would I get green tripe? Is it the stuff in the Freeflow bags in Pets at Home? How much of her daily ration would you suggest replacing?

Yes the freeflow bags of tripe will be ok, dont try to cook it, it stinks !!
I would offer 50/50 straight away.

There are loads of companies online who sell "wet" green tripe, this is by far the best.
Have a look on the site "They Love it" they have started to sell wet green tripe. I am not sure if they have a minimum order though.

Google wet green tripe too.

Best wishes

Puppylove are u on fb if so I would suggest joining a raw group like barf uk although there are others. There is loads of experience including vets on there who may beable to help.as u have only recently changed to raw I would suggest its not the raw diet at all..has she been thoroughly checked for anything physical ?

Yes, I've had her to the vets many times and they can find nothing wrong. She did suffer from pancreatitis over 2 years ago but recent blood tests came back normal. They have given her antibiotics 'just in case' and hundreds of tubes of pro-kaolin!!

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Jayne Stark says: I would suggest getting some dietary advice. I cannot recommend this dog food enough. http://landofholisticpets.co.uk/ There is a questionnaire to complete before purchasing and the vet is very good at getting back to you.

If she is all clear physically and you want to learn more about raw then I suggest you join a fb group or get one of the raw books eg the dogs dinner by ann ridyard net and concise