To start off with this might be a controversial post and I don’t want to get my head chewed off. Please remember that I’m just trying my absolute best for my dog and none of this post is meant to promote or discourage anyone from using any of the dog foods I mentioned. I just wanted to share my experience.
So my deer head chihuahua has had dietary issues since I rescued him at 12. He also has a mild heart murmur so I bought him a collar that monitors his vitals so I can keep an eye on it.
I’ve tried tons of different diets but he ended up at the emergency vet twice in our first year together with Hemorrhagic gastroenteritis.
I did some research and read that it was often linked to food allergies so I talked with my vet and we agreed to start him on an elimination diet. We put him on Hills Z/D and his symptoms cleared up completely for the month he was eating just that kibble alone. No vomiting, no more refusing to eat or loose stools. It worked great except a few small issues first of all it kind of made him stink, and it made his poop stink even more. To the point that bagging it up every day made me gag.
Now this is not a big issue. No problem. I live with a pet ferret. I can do stinky if it improves his well-being. The weird thing was though that it wasn’t reflected on his collar statistics like I had expected.
So one thing the collar measures is something called HRV (heart rate variability) which, in very simplified terms, helps you measure your pup’s general well-being. Raised HRV is associated with healthier dogs where as low HRV is associated with pain, stress, illness, or obesity.
While my dog was on Z/D alone and his symptoms were completely gone for the first time since I’ve owned him, his HRV dropped significantly for the entire month. Strange I thought, but we soldiered on with the elimination diet and once we had finished I started looking for a food that avoided the things he seemed to have issues with. Unfortunately what he had issues with was a very long list including literally every meat I had tried besides fish products and as far as I can tell every mainstream grain products besides corn starch. So I decided to try Orijen 6 fish. To get the most accurate results I only fed this kibble for one month to see how it affects him.
Now I know this is a controversial choice and I agree it’s not for everyone but it worked amazing for me. My dog’s mood did a 180 and his activity level shot up and his HRV skyrocket higher then I’d ever seen it before. I’ll post pictures of stats if anyone is interested.
Long story short both of these dog foods solved my problem but somehow Orijen just made my old man feel better. Not sure how much actual relevance this has to anything. I just thought it was interesting.
So my deer head chihuahua has had dietary issues since I rescued him at 12. He also has a mild heart murmur so I bought him a collar that monitors his vitals so I can keep an eye on it.
I’ve tried tons of different diets but he ended up at the emergency vet twice in our first year together with Hemorrhagic gastroenteritis.
I did some research and read that it was often linked to food allergies so I talked with my vet and we agreed to start him on an elimination diet. We put him on Hills Z/D and his symptoms cleared up completely for the month he was eating just that kibble alone. No vomiting, no more refusing to eat or loose stools. It worked great except a few small issues first of all it kind of made him stink, and it made his poop stink even more. To the point that bagging it up every day made me gag.
Now this is not a big issue. No problem. I live with a pet ferret. I can do stinky if it improves his well-being. The weird thing was though that it wasn’t reflected on his collar statistics like I had expected.
So one thing the collar measures is something called HRV (heart rate variability) which, in very simplified terms, helps you measure your pup’s general well-being. Raised HRV is associated with healthier dogs where as low HRV is associated with pain, stress, illness, or obesity.
While my dog was on Z/D alone and his symptoms were completely gone for the first time since I’ve owned him, his HRV dropped significantly for the entire month. Strange I thought, but we soldiered on with the elimination diet and once we had finished I started looking for a food that avoided the things he seemed to have issues with. Unfortunately what he had issues with was a very long list including literally every meat I had tried besides fish products and as far as I can tell every mainstream grain products besides corn starch. So I decided to try Orijen 6 fish. To get the most accurate results I only fed this kibble for one month to see how it affects him.
Now I know this is a controversial choice and I agree it’s not for everyone but it worked amazing for me. My dog’s mood did a 180 and his activity level shot up and his HRV skyrocket higher then I’d ever seen it before. I’ll post pictures of stats if anyone is interested.
Long story short both of these dog foods solved my problem but somehow Orijen just made my old man feel better. Not sure how much actual relevance this has to anything. I just thought it was interesting.