Diet advice for Brenna

[Maggy]

I don't know what to do with Brenna, her stools were a lot better (in fact the best they've been since I had her) then with no change in diet, stress, etc. her poo went from solid to liquid overnight. I took away her chew hooves and knuckle bones in case those might be upsetting her stomach. The vet put her on some powder I think for the pancreas? and more flagyl.

The vet also recommended low residue food like i/d or eukanuba low residue, but I'm not too impressed with the ingredient lists. Royal canin also makes a diet for intestinal issues, I'm not sure if its low residue or not though.

I would prefer to keep her on the herring & sweet potato if I can, would it make it low residue if I cut back on her food a bit and mixed it in with rice?

I just wish I knew what was wrong, they did a fecal on her and saw no worms or parasites but lots of bacteria. That was a few weeks ago and I had her on flagyl for 2 weeks and she got better but then came down with the runs again.

[syphol]

Have you tried mixing in 2-3 tablespoons of canned pumpkin with each meal? Just like people, dogs can have chronic soft stool with no real cause. Pumpkin acts as a stool hardener. If the vet has ruled out most stuff, I would try this before switching to i/d or eukanuba.. those foods are disgusting!

[Maggy]

I gave her 1T pumkin (not pie filling) when she was in a soft-serve phase and she got the runs the next day.

[Helly]

Low residue means low fiber. Rice contributes a lot of fiber, so I don't think it would help. Pumpkin also contains a lot of fiber. That's why it works sometimes to firm up loose stools. Ditto for bananas.

Some dogs with intestinal problems respond really well to added fiber. Others need a low fiber diet. And the only way to know is to try one or the other. In your case, it looks like adding fiber exacerbates the problem, so lowering the fiber might work.

Low residue foods don't contain much fiber. If you want to try reducing the fiber but still feed the herring and sweet potato food, you might try adding canned mackeral or tuna. Mackeral would be cheaper. If she doesn't have a problem with dairy you could add yogurt or cottage cheese. Eggs are also low residue.

If memory serves me, she's been on antibiotics. If that's the case, go to a health food store and get some acidophilous supplement. That will help replace the bacteria that were killed by the antibiotics. And if the diarrhea continues, ask the vet about C Dif.

[Maggy]

Helly, can you move to FL so I can have your brain at my disposal all the time?

What you said made perfect sense. I don't know why but I thought low residue meant low meat high grains. It also explains why it took Brenna a week or so before she got the first bout of the runs, for the first week or so I was giving her eggs in her food because she was on the skinny side and I was trying to get her to gain a little weight just enough so her ribs didn't show.

Now I have more options to consider.

[eli]

Low residue food

was used to feed all the dogs being boarded at the last vet clinic I worked at. (Eukanuba) Rarely had a stomach upset.

I was thinking pumpkin & sweet potato were both stool softeners.

I like the Whole Dog Journal magazine for food suggestions.
I recently read there that potatoes can aggravate arthritis in some dogs. Interesting!

Erica