Sorry if it sounds a silly question to you.

I have been told off from a Vet that feeding my dog oatmeal. I read a few articles from Internet claim that oatmeal would be a healthy food to feed dogs. So, what is actually truth?

Also is rice any good for dog apart from it has high carbohydrate?

First off, I would like to ask why you are feeding rice or oatmeal at all. It has a place in some situations and isn't necessarily bad but isn't something a dog needs or should be eating as a staple.

Hi Val,

Thank you very much for your attention =)

My 4 years old boy is having problem somewhere in his digestive system, I believe it is more likelihood on his lower tract, and the history is:

3 weeks ago I found a bit fresh blood in his stool and he also seems having difficult pass it out, we went to the vet and been given for 10 days anti-biotic, 4 days anti-inflammatory and vet has emptied his swollen infected anal gland as well.
(He is on raw diet, frozen chicken portionds, so fairly much as his main with a bit organ but no Veg. So I thought maybe adding some fibre to help passing it out)

After the course of the antibiotic, we went back for re-check, and have been given 10 days Flamditine for soothing the gut and reduct the stomach acid as he started loss his appetite and vomiting a few days after the antibiotic course.

Last Friday was the 10th day and improvement is little, the format of the stool isn't ideal and found a bit of blood. I dilemma to taking him to the clinic on Friday as his de-wormer is just a week behind, so I thought that would be the cause, and phoned to the clinic and recommend to bring him down to re-check but not in urgent.

The next day (Saturday) I drug him a Drontal Plus after the morning bathroom break and give a small amount of oatmeal, found an improvement in stool is made.

Today, definitely stools are improved at both morning and afternoon sample, still on the pasty side but no mucus nor blood was found. However, the appetite isn't normal and I can't tell because of the warm weather (16-18 oC / ~60-65F), body or both.

Basically there's reason feeding oatmeal.

Sorry for the long winded reply

I am having a bit of difficulty understanding the situation (guessing English is not your first language here) but I think I have a good enough sense of what you're dealing with.

First, I am still not sure what your reason is for supplementing oats but I assume that it is just a supplement. My guess is that you are trying to help get the stool back to normal, however I cannot tell if you are doing this as a temporary measure get back on track or as a long term solution. Oats as a temporary way to soothe the stomach sounds fine, but I wouldn't look at them as a solution to whatever the problem is.

If the oats are helping then great, keep using it if it works. But ultimately you need to figure out the root of the problem, address it and move on. If you've figured it out already and are fixing it, wonderful. As of your last post, I am not sure if you and your vet are sure of the cause. I would be concerned as to why the difficulty passing stool in the first place...was it the infected anal glands? How long have you been feeding raw? Is it possible something is out of balance with the raw diet you are feeding? As for the decrease in appetite, I would imagine an upset stomach, or feeling ill at all, would hamper anyone's desire to eat. Anyway, oats may help the digestive tract but they aren't a solution to the underlying problem which would still need to be addressed.

Hi Val,

Very true, I am just using oatmeal at the meanwhile to sooth the bowl at the moment. Also English isn't my 1st language   But thank you for trying hard to understand me, much appreciate.

As I read somewhere said husky ain't very tolerant with rice so, that also make me to think would oatmeal slightly better than rice.

I am not too sure either the Vets (I think, they aren't.) what is the problem. However, I could lay back a bit as I don't see any more blood from it, apart from the form is in a solid paste but I would not worry to much from now, as the diet was higher fibers than before he usually has.

Now he is eating the frozen chicken portion again, although he gets little bit grumpy with it.

Normally, he is having a few bit of frozen chicken portion roughly I would say there is about 500g and some tripe, heart (5%) and liver (5%). Rarely would have veg or fruit, as I thought they don't need these, but I think I got a wrong idea.

Val, how do you introduce yours to eat raw? as mine don't take organs in raw, he prefers cooked.

You are correct, they do not need fruits, veggies, or grain on a prey model raw diet.  You didn't mention how much bone he's getting, but I'll assume close to the recommended 10%.

As for oats versus rice, my boy cannot tolerate rice but he does just fine on oats. (I used to feed The Honest Kitchen dehydrated raw and some of their formulas contain oats.)

My boy doesn't always like raw organs. Sometimes I chop up a small amount of organ and mix it in with his mostly meat and bone meal.  Another option if your dog won't eat raw organ is to try dehydrated or freeze dried organ as an alternative.  Also, searing the meat just a bit is preferable to cooking it all the way through if your dog will take it that way.  I personally prefer to use freeze dried organ as a raw organ substitute since all my dogs happily gobble it up when they are sometimes less than enthusiastic about raw organ.

Hi Val,

Thank you being support at all the time and he don't seems has clear up all the symptoms, so at the moment I am collecting his 3 days smelly samples and would run a test on it and hopefully will have a better idea.

Good luck, hope you get it all figured out soon.

I just wanted to say I hope your boy is feeling better and the vet figures out what is going on!

Thank you Elise,

We would see the vet (hopefully this vet would be more experience than the pervious ones) on Monday. Bless he could shed some light on the case. I think I am beginning much more sensitive than the past after I have lost my Grizzly recently.

Oh dear, the lab test result has return and been told it is Giardia. It has been given 4 different medications 10 days antibiotic, 5 days wormer, 5 days for the other two soothing gut medicines.  

Hi, Does anyone know would diatomaceous earth would help for get rid of Giardia?