Not sure if this should be in feeding but anyway,

My goldie seems to have the runs an awful lot.  He has just been to vets and been given antibiotic course and jab which have cleared it up and he is being fed just plain rice for 7 days on vets advice.

Vet not sure what cause is, apparently no blockages, temperature fine etc..

He is currently fed wafcol special 21, a sensitive food, but has also been on james wellbeloved which didn't seem to suit him either.

Vet has sugessted Chappie, would the dry chappie be ok or does he mean the tinned, I forgot to ask?

Also, anybody strongly disagree with feeding this?

Hi Tim

Can I make a suggestion - go and do some reading, for instance Ian Billinghurst's "Grow Your Pup With Bones" and then decide what to feed.

Whilst I think many of his claims are well OTT, much of it makes a lot of sense :)

Many of the Wafcol foods have flour as their main ingredient..........................

You can go around from pillar to post changing dog foods but it will all be guesswork and meanwhile your dog's health could be suffering.

You can go two ways with this.  You can do an elimination diet, that is feed your dog one ingredient only eg rice and see how he supports it and gradually bring in other single ingredients until you find out what your dog is intolerant/allergic to.

Alternatively you could have him allergy tested which is quicker, more expensive but productive.

Presumably tests have been done to eliminate Giardia, campylobacter, salmonella, e-coli etc (although these are not always conclusive).  The main protagonists of food intolerance/allergies in dogs is wheat, corn(maize) however they, like us, can have multiple problems with any and all foods.

Once you have completed a course of antibiotics it is essential that you put your dog on a course of probiotics for at least a month in order to repopulate the gut with friendly bacteria.  The easiest way to do this is via a multi strain tablet via Holland and Barrett; live yoghurt is also useful although it will have only one strain of bacteria and not as many as tablets/powders.

Tinned Chappie seems to suit many dogs as it is fish based, not sure what else it has in it though? 

HTH

My Gordon Setter is easily upset bowels wise - we changed onto Burns and he has been fine ever since, only gets runs now if he eats something else, ie cheese for treats etc, so for treats and training I make up a liver cake, dice it up and freeze it, and just get out what I need for the day. It has been very much a process of elimination re what upsets his stomach and what doesnt, but think we have it all sussed now - good luck!!!!

Don't know if your in the UK or not but if you are living outside of the UK, it may be Giardia (Beaver Fever).  My pup went through a long patch of having an upset stomach.  We tried feeding him plain rice with boiled chicken for a week.  In the end, our vet told us he had Giardia.  Dogs pick it up from drinking contaminated water.  Wild animals do their business in the rivers and then dogs drink the water thus causing the problem.  They have no other side effects.  They eat as normal and their temperature is also normal.  There are antibiotics available to treat this. 

I don't know if Giardia is a problem in the UK or not but it's just a suggestion.  Good luck with the problem!

Chappie seems to suit dogs with a stomach problem and the rescues out our way use it a lot. It does smell really really strong when you open the tin so get a clothes peg on your nose if you decide to try it :) Burns are really helpful with sending you samples so you can try the varieties and can deliver to your door or supply local independent pet shops. Poor boys, hope you find a solution soon.

I can sympathise with you as we went through the same with my Border Collie.  We did try loads of foods and eventually he has managed to settle on Burns.  Unfortunately though he is a bugger for nicking the cat's food and will then have the runs for another week.  He also gets the same with Bonios and the like so we use the keltie biscuits that Burns do as well.  Unfortunately it is trial and error.  Our vet thinks he is allergic wheat or gluten which does explain alot.  Just keep trying. 

My Bearded Collie has a sensitive stomach. Anything unusual she eats can give her a bout of the runs.  couple of weeks ago it was some deer poo she ate when we took her to a local park !
My recipe for getting her back to normal - that has always worked so far is
1. Nothing but water the first day
2. Boiled chicken and rice mixed half and half with tinned Chappie (chicken & rice variety) for the next 5 days.
3 . Gradually re-introduce her normal food by mixing it with the above mixture over a couple of days.

I suspect the tinned Chappie would work on its own, but I can't get it out of my head that it is just so cheap - so I add some proper meat just to ease my concience.