I have a nine month cocker spaniel and since I have had him, he has had cowpat or diarreah type poos.  When I got him from the breeder he was on Royal Canine, which I changed over to Hills puppy because that is what I fed my previous cocker.  He had the runs continually and took him to the vet who carried out loads of tests on him and everything came back clear.  The vet then put him on Hills prescription diet which thankfully agreed with  him and kept him on this for 8 weeks and decided to change over slowly to Burns puppy and alas he has had the runs again.  Today I went back to the vet who has put him back on Hills prescription for another 8 weeks but surely he can't stay on this continually. If this is possibly the case and he needs to stay on it permanently then so be it, but it is costing me about £12 a week. Can someone give me some suggestions.

Many thanks.

Try Wafcol Salmon and potato or even supa dog sensitive.  All stocked at pets at home.  Good luck

Warm regards Susan

Hi, this sounds exactly what I went through with my english setter a few months ago; around the time she was 4 or 5 months old. My vet did all sorts of tests all of which showed nothing, and I was feeding her Hills Prescription for ages with no improvement. What an expense :(  In the end, I put her on tinned Chappie after a number of recommendations that it is very good for sensitive tummies. I have to say I wasn't too happy about it as it is at the very cheap end of the market and I didn't feel on that basis that it could be very good. However, despite the pong (!), things improved and I eventually changed over to Nature Diet, which Rosie is currently on and poos are perfection itself. The whole experience made me quite neurotic about poos, but what really matters is how well your dog is in itself. Even at her worst she was still happy enough in herself though.

We never knew what it was that started all the problems, but all I can say to you is what we did with her diet and fortunately for her it worked. I posted almost an identical post and had LOADS of help from people.  Hope things improve.

Hi, from what you describe it sounds like he is allergic to some ingredients. 

There are 2 routes you could take here, and I know which one I'd recommend...

Firstly, the best thing to do, in my opinion, is to go back to your vets and say that you want the vet to send a blood sample off to York Labs.  York Labs are based in the UK and they test the blood samples of pets to determine which food items they are allergic to.  They will then give you back a list of ingredients to avoid, and you will be able to search around for the food most suited to your dog.  Some vets might doubt the whole York Labs thing, because it is new and because they don't think you can test for food allergies, but the results of the lab show otherwise.  If you insist, your vet will send a sample off.

Secondly, you could just try various different foods to see if there is a food which your dog is ok on.  This will take longer, possibly be expensive because you will need to buy various different foods, your dog's runny poos will come back again while you're experimenting, and when you finally find a food which is ok, you will never know what the ingredients are that he is allergic to, and will always be worried about feeding him new foods or treats for the rest of his life.

So I'd advise the first option!

PS - This advice is assuming that he has been wormed recently?  With Drontal + wormer?  (The most comprehensive wormer which kills the most worms.)  Worms can also cause runny poos.

Also a Giardia infection, a protozoa can cause prolonged problems of this sort, and this parasite can be treated with a regime of Panacur wormer over a longer than usual period (I think 5 days), so having the stools analysed is worthwhile. 

A Campylobacter infection is also a possibility and some quite specific antibiotics are needed.

If he is good on the prescription diet and not on the other read the ingredients as obviously those in the prescription dioet agree with him and those in the other two foods you have used do not.

What ingredients have the two foods in common that he did not get on with, and are these absent in the prescription diet.

All you need then do is find a food without the possibly sensitive ingredients and something along the lines of the ones in the prescription diet.  There are quite a few available.

As has been mentioned Wafcol do a number of exclusion diets, as do other companies, and a lot cheaper than the vet diet.

Thank you for all your replies and I will definitely take on board the York blood test.  The strange thing is, that I have another cocker who is 3 years old who is a little overweight and I feed her Burns High Oats diet and Bentley my 9 month old,  often eats out of her bowl if I turn my back for 5 mins. but when he is on the prescription diet he is fine, he doesn't have much though.   Unfortunately, I can't feed him this food because he is only 10 kg and is tiny I wouldn't put him on a food for overweight dogs.  I also find because he has been on the prescription diet which isn't for puppies he has hardly grown, do you think this is a major factor or he is just going to be a small cocker.