Hi! Hoping not to make this crazy long but want to give the best picture of our situation:
We got our dog August 2022 when she was approximately 1 (according to the rescue). She’s at a healthy weight of 46lb. We regularly walk 2-3 miles (45-60min) a day.
We first started feeding her Wholesomes grain free salmon. She pretty constantly had diarrhea, and also in November of 2022 she started eating her poop. We switched her to Purina One Digestive Health chicken and rice and saw a major improvement. However, she continued to be super gassy and occasionally have soft poops (but not as water-y all the time as before) and her stomach rumbles. She continues to eat her poop and it has noticeably gotten more obsessive (like immediately needing to check where it is after going so she can eat it—except I’ve picked it up already). On a whim in the last month I stopped giving her nonfat plain Greek yogurt for her frozen kongs and switched to nonfat plain coconut milk yogurt. Saw huge improvements with the gassiness. No longer burping and farting that smells like actual feces even if she hadn’t eaten poop. The obsessive poop eating ramped up more and anytime she eats her poop she’s back to like GI issues of gassiness and rumbling stomach.
I emailed my vet who agreed it seems obsessive. After describing the GI stuff too, my vet wondered if she may be experiencing inflammatory bowel disease which is causing the pica and GI symptoms. She recommended Natural Balance Limited Ingredient with a novel protein to see how she responds in an elimination diet. We are going to transition her to the venison sweet potato and see how it goes. Is this food good? My vet recommended it but I’m nervous because I did a lot of research on foods when we first had GI issues and learned a lot about how Purina, Hills, and RC are the most well-researched, and this company seems to only consult with vet techs. We’re going to feed it to her to follow the vets recommendations but it has me feeling weird.
I’m of course not sure how this elimination diet is going to go in terms of results, so this is me getting ahead of myself. But I’m also curious about Purina Pro Plan sensitive skin and stomach as a possible future food long-term. I’m iffy on the Natural Balance food long term because it doesn’t appear as well researched and is a smaller bag for a lot more (vs Purina Pro which is high quality and has a bigger bag for less of the price NB is). Has anyone had success with possible (since I don’t know if that’s her issue) IBD and Pro Plan?
We got our dog August 2022 when she was approximately 1 (according to the rescue). She’s at a healthy weight of 46lb. We regularly walk 2-3 miles (45-60min) a day.
We first started feeding her Wholesomes grain free salmon. She pretty constantly had diarrhea, and also in November of 2022 she started eating her poop. We switched her to Purina One Digestive Health chicken and rice and saw a major improvement. However, she continued to be super gassy and occasionally have soft poops (but not as water-y all the time as before) and her stomach rumbles. She continues to eat her poop and it has noticeably gotten more obsessive (like immediately needing to check where it is after going so she can eat it—except I’ve picked it up already). On a whim in the last month I stopped giving her nonfat plain Greek yogurt for her frozen kongs and switched to nonfat plain coconut milk yogurt. Saw huge improvements with the gassiness. No longer burping and farting that smells like actual feces even if she hadn’t eaten poop. The obsessive poop eating ramped up more and anytime she eats her poop she’s back to like GI issues of gassiness and rumbling stomach.
I emailed my vet who agreed it seems obsessive. After describing the GI stuff too, my vet wondered if she may be experiencing inflammatory bowel disease which is causing the pica and GI symptoms. She recommended Natural Balance Limited Ingredient with a novel protein to see how she responds in an elimination diet. We are going to transition her to the venison sweet potato and see how it goes. Is this food good? My vet recommended it but I’m nervous because I did a lot of research on foods when we first had GI issues and learned a lot about how Purina, Hills, and RC are the most well-researched, and this company seems to only consult with vet techs. We’re going to feed it to her to follow the vets recommendations but it has me feeling weird.
I’m of course not sure how this elimination diet is going to go in terms of results, so this is me getting ahead of myself. But I’m also curious about Purina Pro Plan sensitive skin and stomach as a possible future food long-term. I’m iffy on the Natural Balance food long term because it doesn’t appear as well researched and is a smaller bag for a lot more (vs Purina Pro which is high quality and has a bigger bag for less of the price NB is). Has anyone had success with possible (since I don’t know if that’s her issue) IBD and Pro Plan?