Question:
Sorry for the descriptive title folks.

We have been "Slowly" weaning my 4.5 month old Lab/RetX off of Nutro, onto Wellness Puppy. We started out with 3/4 mix of the old stuff with 1/4 mix of the new stuff for at least a week, then onto 1/2 and 1/2 for at least a week..in some cases 2. Anyhow we slowly worked him up to 3/4 new stuff, 1/4 old stuff and just started him on 100% wellness on Sunday. Today at lunch when I took him for a walk, I was a bit freaked out to see that it was runny, but still had some consistency. I'm hoping his little system is just adjusting to the goodness we're now feeding him. We've cut down on the treats for now and the dose of food as well, I'm hoping later on today I'll see a difference. We were feeding him 1 Cup of food 2 times per day, with the exception of supper, when we gave him 1.5 Cups of food (a total of 3.5 cups), he's currently 35lbs. We've cut back his supper portion to 1 Cup for now until his system adjusts.

I'll be keeping a close eye on my little pooch the rest of the day. I'm hoping this is just his system adjusting to his new food.

Any thoughts?

Answer:
So he's getting 4.5 cups total? Not sure if that's too much or not, but if cutting down a bit doesn't harden the stool, a vet visit might be in order. Otherwise, maybe he just isn't tolerating the wellness.

Answer:
A little bit of rice or pumpkin may help!

Cindy

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He's only getting 3.5 cups per day, 1 cup for breakfast, 1 cup for lunch and 1.5 cups for supper. I was going off what the Label said, 3 - 4.5 cups per day for his age and weight. I'm hoping things change, I really like the Wellness, although his little system may not. Here's hoping!

Answer:
3.5 cups might be to much food for right now especially with a higher quality food. My 70 lb lab pup (8 months) only gets 4 cups of timberwolf and much more then that gives him the runs. I would try the 3 cups for a few days and see if that makes a diff. Sometimes though you do have to change food even if it is a good food. Not all food agrees with all dogs (life would be so much easier if it did ).

Answer:
Yeah, I wasn't sure because he's a puppy. Wellness makes the stool soft if you feed too much (from what I've heard).

Answer:
Wellness is an excellent food, but it takes some dogs longer to adjust to it (if they ever do - some dogs just don't do well on it). My dog couldn't take it either (diarrhea), and it took his sister several months to fully convert to it. She's now on wellness adult, and doing great on it.

My dog never did adjust to it. I introduced it SLOWLY and it just didn't seem to matter. Once I hit that 50% mark, the stools would soften right up. He's now 57 pounds, and on O&M Holistic Adult/Go. He eats one and a half cups per day (1 in the morning, 1/2 in the evening), and he does better on that, than he did on 3 cups of wellness.

My friends dog, can eat Go or Wellness without any problems, but mix them together and he'd get the runs. My dog had the same effect with Innova Puppy and California Natural (puppy). Either or was fine, but together was a big sloppy mess.

I would suggest keeping it at 100% (or a little less) and add this product to it.
http://www.eaglepack.com/Pages/HS_Transition.html
It's only about $5, so the price is right and it will likely help (it's a probiotic blend). Also, feeding 3 meals a day will help as smaller meals will be easier to digest. A 16 hour break between his last meal and breakfast will also benefit.

It definitely sounds like he's just adjusting, but puppy tummies can be very sensitive, so more smaller meals, and a longer belly rest at night might just be the trick. 4.5 cups/day is a lot for a little puppy to digest in 2 meals alone.



Answer:
High quality food may sometimes be too rich for some dogs. My dog was on Kirkland puppy food when we got him from the breeder. We have since tried Calif Natural Chicken, Calif Natural Lamb, Royal Canin Lab & Innova. He didn't have much problem with the cheaper stuff except he's growing too fast. Lamb gave him bad diarrhea. He seemed know what's causing this and left food in his bowl (unusual for a lab.) He's now happily on Innova chicken.

You just have to keep an close watch at your puppy and switch to other food if needed. In the meantime, mix in a little pumpkin paste will work like a charm.

Answer:
Thank you all for your suggestions. Yesterday morning and this morning his stool seemed to be somewhat firm, it was later in the day that it became runny. I'm hoping this isn't the case today. Tonight at supper we'll give him 1 Cup instead of 1-1/2 cups, that'll bring him down to a total of 3 cups per day instead of 3-1/2 cups, we'll see how that works out.

Here's hoping.

Answer:
Well I went home at lunch and his stool is still somewhat runny. TKW and Winston, I'm going to buy some pumpking paste today after work and try that, but here's a really idiotic question, which will give you and idea of my cooking abilities... Is pumpkin paste and pumpkin pie filling the same thing?

Obviously Sprocket isn't too hard done by, he's playing and horsing around alot...little buggar.

Answer:
No, pie filling has too much sugar in it. Get the real thing. Pure pumpkin paste.

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Perfect, I'll look for it on my way home today. I would imagine I mix just a few spoon fulls with his food and hope it does the trick?

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That should do it!

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I'd try cutting back a bit more. Like 3/4 at each serving for a day. If it doesn't firm up after that, then you really might need digestive aids and probiotics... (if the pumpkin doesn't work)

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It took my bernese about 3 weeks to get use to her new food (holistic select)after we changed her i also fed her 3 times a day for a week, stopped all treats and cut back on her food by 1/2 cup now she is doing fine feeding her 2 times a day and is get 3 1/4 cup a day. it is a slow going, but hang in there,


Answer:
Well to my surprise, Sprocket's stool was a lot more firm last night, it's still soft but at least formed now and on the plus side, he loved the pumpkin. I mixed a few spoonfulls with his food and he gobbled it down. I was getting worried about him and told my husband (he's off today) that if it continue's, we should really take him to the vet to be sure. I'm very thankful that everyone suggested the pumpkin, somebody from one of the pet stores here said she gives her dogs a tsp of Kaopectate, but my problem with that is it's only masking the problem, I want to make sure the problem goes away on it's own naturally, otherwise I know there's more of a problem and we need Sprocket to get vet attention.

I did cut down on his food at supper, is this a permanent thing? I'm hoping as his stool gets more firm, we can slowly increase his food until he's where he should be serving wise. Is this correct? I know the questions seem idiotic, but like all of us I just want the best for my pup.

Thanks for your help!!

Answer:
Hi There! My dog has problems with his stools all the time! I have been back and forth to the vet without any real diagnosis..In addition he would get sores on his tummy all the time! They looked like large chicken pox but dry?? .Since he was a pup he has been very peculiar with food..I tried just chicken, then just beef, then just pork etc..I ended up with Vet prescribled Hypoallergenic Food! It is a bit expensive but not that much more than the others because I by the largest bag! It is Duck & Potato..This food helped for awhile and now he has the runs all the time! I swiched him now to a GASTRO food vet prescribed! and the main ingrediant is Lamb....(which never worked for him as a pup!) So here we are a couple of months now on the new gastro food and his poops are more often and larger but somewhat formed and not always the liquid! So I am not satisfied but he seems okay...I check him all the time and low and behold yesterday I noticed the red spots are back???? Time for another vet visit!

So I understand all the frustration about food etc! My vet has told me that I can give my dog immodium as well.. and I have used that without any problems...I also use pepto bismal occasionally if he has an upset stomach ( he usually vomits) He does not like that stuff though! He knows what the bottle looks like!


Good Luck...its tough sometimes!

Cindy

Answer:
I did cut down on his food at supper, is this a permanent thing? I'm hoping as his stool gets more firm, we can slowly increase his food until he's where he should be serving wise. Is this correct? I know the questions seem idiotic, but like all of us I just want the best for my pup.

no it not a permanent thing, once his stool go back to normal then slowly very ( and i mean slowly) increase his food to where it should be. that is what i did and if i found that the stool was not right once i increased it i would decress for a little while longer the increased it.
hang in there

Answer:
You're on the right track. If pumpkin works, keep it up for a few days. Believe me, it is much easier to feed you puppy pumpkin than any medication. Keep an open mind that you may have to switch to another type of food if the problem doesn't go away in a few days.

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Things are still going good, but Sprocket is now addicted to Pumpkin...lol You can't even say it without him looking at you and running to the cupboard or fridge. I have to admit, he's had pumpkin mixed in with his food quite a bit lately, I figure it's good for him anyhow, so what the hey!

Answer:
A word of warning: he could be overdosed on pumpkin. I'm not kidding, when our dog had his stomach problem, we stuffed him so much pumpkin that he threw up in the middle of the night. We were just novice dog owners experimenting with our dog. And now I am an expert in doggy diarrhea.

Answer:
The feeding amounts on the bag of food is guidelines only

For example I feed EVO RM the bag says 2 1/2 to 3 cups of food for 60 to 80 lb dogs I have 2 greyhounds one is 68lbs the other 84lbs they both eat 1 1/2 cups of food, if I would feed them what the bag recommended they would end up grossly overweight, a dog with a higher energy level would need more so feedings have to be tailored by the individual dog, the biggest problem is most dogs end up overfed, for shorthaired dogs it is easy to see, last 2 ribs outlines should be barely visible and the top of the hip should be barely visible, with longer haired dogs you should feel their ribs and to top of their hip bones for puppies it is extremely important not to let them get overweight as it puts too much stress on developing joints and can cause longterm problems later on. Don't worry about the amounts suggested on the bag, they are only a guide as where to start once you figured out where you need to be with feeding watch the dogs body to determine if you need to up or decrease the amount fed.

Answer:
TKW, I hope I'm not giving him too much pumpkin, we only give him a few spoonfulls at meal time and mix it in well with his food. I do want to take him off it just to see if he gets the runs again, but on the same note I'm a bit scared.

OntarioGreys, I agree with you on the feeding directions, for Sprocket's size, it seems a little much, for his age and weight they recommened 3.5 - 4.5 cups per day, we're giving him 2.5 at the moment, plus treats, which I'm sure add up to 3 cups total, treats and food.

Answer:
A few spoonful is fine. We used to give half a can and learned the hard way.

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