What brand of dog food do you feed your dog?

[donaldbuzz&minnie]

We adopted our shih tzu when he was 8 years old. (This was about 4 years ago.) When we first brought him home he developed diarrhea almost immediately, even though I fed him the exact kind of food he'd been eating before we got him. I took him into the vet, who gave him prescription dog food. It didn't help. We tried everything before finally realizing he couldn't handle chicken, which ironically had been an ingredient in both his original food and the prescription food. We've had him on Fromm's ever since. He can eat all of their varieties except we don't give him any of the ones with poultry, for obvious reasons. (The small amount of egg protein in each of their formulas doesn't bother him - I called Fromm's and they explained why that is, but I've forgotten the explanation.) He also gets small amounts of people food - beef, pork and salmon - and hasn't had any problems since we eliminated chicken.

Good luck - I know how worrying this can be!

 

[wishesuponastar]

We also use Kirkland Brand dog food.

Ditto, been using Kirkland brand for 9 yrs

 

[goofy4tink]

Interesting connection after boarding. Is there mucous in the stool?

I know that my golden came home from boarding in a very bad way. Cost us thousands to get him healthy again!!! It was summer, I think there were way too many dogs since it was the 4th of July. He came home with bad diarrhea, really bad. Nothing stopped it. Giardia and other stuff. It took months to get him well again. Will never use that kennel again!!! The current one is terrific, with zero ill effects.

 

[sksjasams]

We also have a shih tzu/bichon! And we also feed him Fromm's! He has always had a sensitive stomach.

We had him on Diamond Naturals Small Breed for quite a while, but they changed their formula without any notice on the bag, and our dog got terribly sick. Amounted to a huge vet bill trying to find the cause, only to eventually find out his food formula had been changed.

The vet prescribed Royal Canin Low Fat GI canned dog food. I initially got it for when he was sick. He loves it so much though, I put a spoonful of it on his dry food every meal.

Regarding the Fromm's, I tried several different flavors and with all of them he would still randomly have a day here or there with vomiting. I ended up going with the Fromm Whitefish and Potato and that has been the winner. He very rarely has an upset stomach anymore.

 

[ReneeA]

Our 7 month old Redbone Coonhound puppy get Diamond puppy formula. She has a sensitive stomach & it's the only one that hasn't caused loose stools.

 

[katie01]

We also have a shih tzu/bichon! And we also feed him Fromm's! He has always had a sensitive stomach.

We had him on Diamond Naturals Small Breed for quite a while, but they changed their formula without any notice on the bag, and our dog got terribly sick. Amounted to a huge vet bill trying to find the cause, only to eventually find out his food formula had been changed.

The vet prescribed Royal Canin Low Fat GI canned dog food. I initially got it for when he was sick. He loves it so much though, I put a spoonful of it on his dry food every meal.

Regarding the Fromm's, I tried several different flavors and with all of them he would still randomly have a day here or there with vomiting. I ended up going with the Fromm Whitefish and Potato and that has been the winner. He very rarely has an upset stomach anymore.

Oh my gosh, really?! Do you know when Diamond Naturals switched? I'm assuming you saw my follow up posts that Diamond Naturals is what both my dogs eat, and it seems like since March they've both had looser stools, and they both got sick after boarding, but I had also sent them to that person's house with a brand new bag of Diamond Naturals. I'm wondering if there is a connection here too...

 

[Wendy31]

Our Keeshond, who can have a sensitive stomach, eats Blue Buffalo Freedom.

He also likes carrots & watermelon for treats.

Off-topic - If he thinks he's getting "left" somewhere, he gets incredibly anxious & will get sick - which is why, whenever we go out of town, he has to come w/ us & we have to find pet-friendly accommodations. He's a great traveler thankfully!

 

[Pea-n-Me]

So mucous in the stool, as our vet used to love to tell me with one of my dogs who had colitis, is related to inflammation in the bowel. The question is, why is there inflammation. Is it from the food, the stress of boarding, something he picked up at the kennel, something else, etc. Sometimes hard to tell. But when there is inflammation of the lining of the bowel, it doesn't work right, so water doesn't get absorbed well, and stool comes out wet, i.e. diarrhea. If it's an acute episode, he used to have us withhold food for 24hrs, then start in with rice and chicken (or beef, whatever) or prescription canned food and gradually add his regular food back to the mix. When it's become chronic, you really need to try to figure out the cause and aim for reducing the inflammation in the colon, if possible. For some people it's eliminating certain foods they know causes diarrhea in their pets, like the pp's who mentioned chicken or other things their dogs react badly to. You could try changing the food gradually if you want to try a new brand. You said the dog has been to the vet, which is good. You might want to follow up again if it continues. Good luck, I know it can be hard to deal with this problem. P.S. Many dogs have diarrhea after boarding, some facilities apparently advise people to withhold food for a while for that reason. It doesn't even have to be infectious, necessarily (although my dogs have picked up things from both a kennel and a groomer before), it can just be from the stress of the experience if it's a sensitive dog.

 

[WildGinger]

Freshpet Select Chunky Chicken and Turkey --it is in the refrigerator. We love it. It has really helped our dog stools. She used to always have runny stools.

 

[sksjasams]

Oh my gosh, really?! Do you know when Diamond Naturals switched? I'm assuming you saw my follow up posts that Diamond Naturals is what both my dogs eat, and it seems like since March they've both had looser stools, and they both got sick after boarding, but I had also sent them to that person's house with a brand new bag of Diamond Naturals. I'm wondering if there is a connection here too...

Katie, I looked back thru my emails, and that was in July 2014, so quite a few years ago. You never know, it could still be the food though. Try googling Diamond Naturals and look for posts about people having problems with the food recently. Good luck helping your dogs get well!

 

[Hisgirl]

Used to feed 4 health but then it smelled funny and our dogs didn't want it. Used to feed diamond till our lab had elevated liver levels and they were always have recalls. Used to feed Blue Buffalo but again, constant issues with recalls. We are currently feeding grain free Earthborn Holistic. We buy it at Tractor supply and so far no issues with recalls or picky eating. And now the news about grain free. We can't win. I know a lot who feed raw, but that has its own issues and with two 48 pound dogs, that's not gonna happen.

What we DON'T feed is junky crappy grocery store food. We spend about $59 per 35 LB bag. And we subscribe to instant recall notifications.

 

[Gary M]

Sophie eats Nutro Salmon and Lentils dry food. She's a black lab mix. She also gets dog treats and some scraps. Sophie loves to eat.

 

[VictoriaT]

Lots of shish tzu/bichon owners here, count us in that group! We have a very picky dog, who gets bored of his dry food very easily. We switch up bags, with Wellness, Solid Gold, and Blue Buffalo. Harley gets a little soft food, generally Blue Buffalo, in his morning dry food. He eats that right up. He also gets cooked egg or boiled chicken mixed in sometime if we are out of canned.