Dog problems - help please!

[Glutton4...]

My friend's Dalmatian had tummy troubles, so they put her on Pasta and it cured it! My mum has a wheat intolerance, but I don't know why it never occurred to me that dogs could too.

He had us up in the night again, despite going out around midnight. He's had rice this morning, and seems much brighter, but I think the poor old sod is hungry. I'm going to risk giving him a light lunch of rice with a little scrambled egg later, just to cheer him up. At least I'll be here to clear it up

Both Charcoal powder and Arrowroot are great ideas, and I've heard of Enervit, so I'll stock up on those.

Thanks for the advice, all. Will keep you updated.

Regards, G4.X

[OverWyreGrower]

I would always use rice and white fish for tummy troubles. The rice should be cooked as long as possible, and the fish should be steamed...

Sometimes egg and chicken is just too rich.

Chappie is good for poorly tums (it's very similar to the Hills ID food the vets sell)

With regards to reintroducing food, I'd say that you might want to do this over at least a week if your boy has been very ill, with just tiny bits of his normal food added. Y9ou could also try and spilt his food into much smaller meals, then you're not overloading his tummy.

You can also get "Pro-Kolin" paste, which a lot of Lloyds chemists now sell, or through your vet. It's got kaolin and pectin in which act as binding agents and some prebiotics to soothe the stomach lining.

Hope you manage to get his tum sorted, I have 2 Boxer boys and when they have bad tummies, you really know about it. I've had to scrub down everything in my kitchen after a nasty attck. Cleaning poo off your washing machine and cupboards isn't pretty. Mind you, when Max was little, he "decorated" our living room in poo and sick one day. I had to throw away 2 beanbags and a rug...

[Glutton4...]

Thanks for that OverWyreGrower.

Luckily Ted's accidents have been confined to the floor so far. He had the Pro-Kolin pro-biotic paste from the vet and didn't like it - the face he pulled was a picture! However, by putting it on a spoon, and with a little cajoling and making it into a game I got most of it down him - he can be quite gullible really.

Anyway, back to the vet tomorrow morning, and fish and rice in the meantime.

Thanks all for you input so far.

G4.X

[SlugLobber]

Thanks flowerofshona.
Why is rice better than pasta? He's back on rice at the moment, incidentally.

G4.X

Rice is an unrefined food. I would be giving him brown rice, to up the fibre from the husks.

Old animals struggle with the standard foods (which I think are full of s*** anyway). Would YOU eat ash as part off your diet? It's a major ingredient of many pet foods, including the so-called 'specialist' diets.

I replied to a thread recently and gave information on the BARF diet, which I think would be much better (and complete) than just rice and chicken. There's no cooking involved - the less cooked food he eats, the more nutrition he gets. Cooking denatures the protein and causes chemical breakdown of other nutrients, so get good quality raw meat if you can. Best source is the butcher scraps. If he struggles teeth wise, I imagine the butcher would grind them for you (to include the bones and marrow). There are BARF forums and websites to refer to if you're not sure of what to include, but this will firm up his stools if nothing else and make them easier to deal with.

Hope the old chap is ok.

p.s. BARF = bones and raw food. I feed nothing else to dogs and the ones I've known have absolutely thrived on it and their conditions have disappeared (including diarrhoea, sensitive itchy skin, bad breath and flatulence).

[Polly Fouracre]

I also feed my dogs, young and old, on raw meat, bones,wholemeal mixer, rice, pasta, lightly cooked veg, raw chicken wings, garlic powder and cod-liver-oil and have never had any problems with bad bellies.
If this problem has come on suddenly and your dog is old I would be thinking about having your vet. investigate further. I hope he feels better soon.

[kirsty b]

Would definitely be interested in hearing more about BARF. My two boxers are known to have windy moments, the boy more than the bitch as Max is a total thief who will eat whatever he can get his gob around, but Boo is a bit more fussy. She will actually sniff her food first.

I did also read that the wrong kind of food has an effect on behaiour too.
Any links or will a general google bear fruit?

[BrideXIII]

more fruit than you could possibly imagine, and so many contrary opinions it can give you a headache after 3 hours.
In the end, I just went for it, some of the websites/forums are so evangelical about it it's painful to ask a question.
But my mob moved over to a RAW diet at the weekend, Dog and all 6 cats( yes I have gained one) and so far, they are loving it, and seem to be doing really well.
I suggest you google both BARF and RAWfeeding which are different, and then see what you think.

[kirsty b]

I've just been on the BARF website and had a read of that, and I must say it looks very positive.
I work as a cleaner at a local pet supply place and they often have mags laying around, and one of the cats ones had a very interesting article on how a raw diet is good for the animals.
My younger cat has been over grooming herself and makes her skin sore, she is wormed and de-flead, so my next stop was going to be seeing if diet makes a difference.
Trouble will be convincing OH on the grounds of cost etc. Have already found a stockist of some natural food in Newmarket which is only 15 mins away.

[SlugLobber]

It actually works out cheaper, Kirsty, if you know where to look! It was more expensive for me when I was buying them organic stuff, but the butcher stuff I got at £2 per large carrier bag! Two of those kept mine going for weeks! You don't need to feed so much, either, as there's no fillers bulking it out.

I'm not a fan of the Nature's Diet stuff in Supermarkets. My own cat finds it too rich and I've heard the same for other cats, too. When you look at the ingredients, it's alarmingly similar to the standard foods, just higher in *cooked* meat content and in price! Haven't tried the 'Natural Menu' trays, though. Good luck to all you BARFers!

[BrideXIII]

plus they are always 'hungry' never pick at the food or sniff and walk away ( after the intitial convincing them to eat it), no grazing on it all day, and come in when they are called cos they think it's wing time
and no dental problems cos the bones clean their teeth, if you give whole bones, you don't have to though if it worries you too much.

[kirsty b]

There is a really good independent butcher a few iles down the road, who oftem gives me a couple of bones for the dogs when I go in there. I'm pretty sure if I explained what I was after, he would be able to give me a fair price.
Broached subject with Himself, and he didn't dismiss it immediately, so I'm hopeful he'll see the benefits.

[SueA]

How's he doing Glutton4? When we had our boxer if ever she was ill I used to give her just plain boiled rice & fish or chicken poached in water & she was usually O.K. after a few days. I was told not to give her bones especially brittle bones like chicken as they can splinter & cause injuries & or stick in their throats & cause problems.

[BrideXIII]

How's he doing Glutton4? When we had our boxer if ever she was ill I used to give her just plain boiled rice & fish or chicken poached in water & she was usually O.K. after a few days. I was told not to give her bones especially brittle bones like chicken as they can splinter & cause injuries & or stick in their throats & cause problems.

this is certainly the case with cooked chicken bones, or any cooked bone for that matter, also avoid large beef shin bones as they are too hard for a dog, and can break their teeth.

RAW bones, uncooked however are not a problem.
I won't deny, its a bit scary the first time you do it, and they should always be watched whilst they eat, dogs particularly as they are used to 'inhaling' their food rather than chewing, so you can either give if frozen to slow them down, or hold the end while they learn to chew it.

I didn't have a problem with the cats at all, they manage to chew slowly and always leave the bit of bone they can't manage.

[SlugLobber]

Exactly what BrideXIII says. Cooked bones are brittle. Quite amusing that they sell large cooked bones in pet stores, but you won't find the raw equivalent outside a butcher!!

Kirtsy, when I first went in, I just explained to the butcher that I wanted all his scraps - to keep them onside I said don't worry about removing the pork bones. Even raw they're more brittle than other bones due to the intensive rearing, but even so, I didn't have a problem with those, either. I got the scraps free for almost a year, then the cheeky sods started charging me!! I did move butcher, but then found a roach in with the scraps and was put off somewhat!

[shirlthegirl43]

This is turning out rather interesting. How much weight of raw meat and bones would I feed a mini dachshund? Would it cure the problem of him being very smelly (not in a windy or breath way - just BO)? There are only so many times you can wash a dog!