Hi everybody!

We have two huskies that can not be more opposite than they are. Our young and active Penny (4 yo) has diarrhea on and off since August.
She always was eating kibble (grain free) since she was a puppy. Always had a perfect stool.
Back in August I spotted her licking jalapeno cream cheese from the trash. By morning she has diarrhea I kept her easy on food for a couple of days and she went back fine.
Couple weeks after she ate some human food again (I think it were olives) and by next day I saw diarrhea again. After that time it kept going on and on. At some point it became mushy with no shape and even blood. I took her to Dr and he gave us Metronidazole 500mg and Zyme. Giardia test was negative. Also recommend to change food. (She had Merrick grain-free Salmon) This time it seams calm down again. In the end of September she has diarrhea again - mushy, almost liquid, we live in apartment and were taken her down every 3-5 hours, she would squat, but do not poop. I started transition to Nutra LID Salmon from Merrick. Nutra seems did well to our second dog - her coat became shiny and poop more firmed and regular, but not to young one.
I added raw goat milk and she loved it! Added Zinc and Probiotic, took refill of Metronidazole 500 mg, but nothing seems help.
Also, every ti,e when diarrhea would start - I will either limit or cut down for food.
In October I was very tired of all of this. I did not give her any food for 24 hr and after that start giving her about 2 cups of rice + 2 cups of boiled chicken (sometimes + boiled carrots). She seems like started getting better and as soon as I tried to give her Nutra again all started over.
I took her to a different vet. She did not see any signs of sickness. She gave her other pills to calm down her digestive system (I forgot the name) that she had for a week along with totally raw diet.
She's been eating Primal Raw Food for about 2.5 weeks. I added a 1/4 of kibble on Saturday AM and PM and on Sunday PM her stool became slightly mushy and she became more needy to go out.
Obviously, no kibble today, but it is totally inconvenient for me.

How come she ate kibble all her life and now it is upset her stomach?
What would you suggest, mates?
Please, give any ideas, thoughts or useful information. I would like to keep her on kibble if there is one.

Welcome to the forum! Sounds to me if feeding her raw and no issues, then she may have either an intolerance or allergy that is in kibble. Just like some humans, an intolerance or an allergy can be built up over time. With Merrick, some people on the forum complained of too much poop. I know that they have been bought out by purina, and well, maybe they have changed their formulas. I also tried it, and Miya has a very sensitive tummy and did not do well on it. If you mean Nutro and not Nutra, Nutro still has a lot of grain in it, even tho it says limited ingredients. It is a good quality kibble, not a high quality. Because of differing views here on the forum because of recall issues in the past, many of us still feed Taste of the Wild, it does not use any grains just potatoes, and Miya has done superbly on it as well as my new pup. The best out there currently is Fromm, Acana and Orijen. Depending on your budget, those are the 4 I would try. You need to stick with one for at least 3 weeks to a month in order to know if it's the food and not transitioning to the new food. If after you feed one of these for that time period, and she still has issues, I would consult the vet about allergies or intolerance and see what specific item in kibble that is bothering her. Good luck, I know this is frustrating. And please let us know how it's going.

Edit: My brain wasn't 100%, so let me clarify.....I believe she has a food intolerance. Food intolerance typically affect the digestive system, food allergies affect the skin. So I would be looking at the ingredients and try and find a common ingredient that has been in both foods. One thing that has worked well for me and both of my girls, is feeding kibble and raw. So maybe you could feed one meal kibble and then one meal raw, this may help keep things more solid.

MiyasMomma wrote:

Welcome to the forum! Sounds to me if feeding her raw and no issues, then she may have either an intolerance or allergy that is in kibble. Just like some humans, an intolerance or an allergy can be built up over time. With Merrick, some people on the forum complained of too much poop. I know that they have been bought out by purina, and well, maybe they have changed their formulas. I also tried it, and Miya has a very sensitive tummy and did not do well on it. If you mean Nutro and not Nutra, Nutro still has a lot of grain in it, even tho it says limited ingredients. It is a good quality kibble, not a high quality. Because of differing views here on the forum because of recall issues in the past, many of us still feed Taste of the Wild, it does not use any grains just potatoes, and Miya has done superbly on it as well as my new pup. The best out there currently is Fromm, Acana and Orijen. Depending on your budget, those are the 4 I would try. You need to stick with one for at least 3 weeks to a month in order to know if it's the food and not transitioning to the new food. If after you feed one of these for that time period, and she still has issues, I would consult the vet about allergies or intolerance and see what specific item in kibble that is bothering her. Good luck, I know this is frustrating. And please let us know how it's going.

Edit: My brain wasn't 100%, so let me clarify.....I believe she has a food intolerance. Food intolerance typically affect the digestive system, food allergies affect the skin. So I would be looking at the ingredients and try and find a common ingredient that has been in both foods. One thing that has worked well for me and both of my girls, is feeding kibble and raw. So maybe you could feed one meal kibble and then one meal raw, this may help keep things more solid.

Appreciate your welcoming, MiysMomma!
Forgot to mention, that she did not have any energy or appetite change - she was as active as always and ate with appetite.

My question is - is transition will be always with a poop change? With this 3 weeks ~one of them would be transition (I used to do 2 days of increasing), so I would have 2 weeks on a new food. Basically these two weeks (of three) - is the time I will be looking at?

Yes, one week for the slow transition and then 2-3 weeks for her body to adjust to the new food. Most people do not give a new food a long enough chance to see if it will really agree with them or not. Most transitions will show a change in poop, hopefully for the better. There is another member here, that has had similar issues, except I believe his dog was like this from a pup on. My girl was like this her first year. With an intolerance I would not expect any changes in energy nor appetite. It all goes to what comes out, lol. My girl has no tolerance to grains, food dyes, and whatever is used to make a bone that has been "baked" safe for them to eat. That last one is a tough one, but I gave her a made in the USA rib bone (so not a raw bone), and yup very loose poop,, she has always been that way, thought I would give it a go since she is older, and nope can't have it. It can be frustrating, because it can be such a minor thing to us, but a huge thing to them. It's also a trial and error thing. I look at every package of anything edible for a dog to determine if she can have it or not.

Thank you!
Right now it taking her about a week to get back to normal poop eating raw. I still giving her 50mg zinc and 1000mg fish oil. I hope by Monday she will be good to try add some dry food. I also was thinking would it be a good idea to let it soak in a warm water first? Or in a raw goat milk?
Thanks in advance!

Yaska wrote:

Hi everybody!


How come she ate kibble all her life and now it is upset her stomach?
What would you suggest, mates?
Please, give any ideas, thoughts or useful information. I would like to keep her on kibble if there is one.

I don't know if this is useful information or not, but here goes: I am 64 years old. For years and years and years, I've had a cast iron stomach and no digestive complaints whatsoever. Fast forward to 3 yrs aga, age 61...suddenly have chronic diarrhea (they actually called it hyper-defecation), stomach pain, plenty of post-prandial distress, lost 10 pounds in 1 month, every time I ate, uncomfortable. Always better on clear liquids. Turns out, I had become gluten intolerant and allergic to beef, salmon, founder and other flat fish and scallops.

Why...who knows. Just is. It happens...my immune system thinks its the NSA or something and is hyper-vigilant.

My rescue had pudding poop for the first 6 months or so (and some impressive diarrhea the 2nd night we had him ) Finally cleared up with a grain free food (4Health than Taste of the Wild).

Since she does ok on raw (which to my mind is both a pain in the neck and needs tremendous attention to detail) and the dry seems to be the problem, I have 2 thoughts - either you may be feeding too much or she's allergic to maybe a preservative, a colorant, a flavoring...I'm guessing probably not a protein unless your raw is only the same protein source all the time.

Also - even when we had the pudding poop, I changed the food abruptly and his poop abruptly improved.

When you add the kibble to the raw, are you reducing the raw proportionately? Probably a dumb question on my part, but I had to ask. Personally, I see no need to soak the kibble as you add it back.

I don't know what to do with this girl.
Her poop is covered with slime, she even stopped to eat raw food what is extremely expensive to keep her on!

She got in a fight with fatal injuries to other party and after she just throwing up everything that she ate. Can that dog got her sick or its just stress?

Can I try to give her dry food even if her poop with slime?

What kind of fight with what kind of dog that had fatal injuries?

How big is your girl? How much kibble/raw are you feeding? How long after the fight did she start throwing up?

Once in a blue moon, Ami's poop will be covered in slime - it resolves in a day or two and I chalk it up to dietary indiscretion.

amymeme wrote:

What kind of fight with what kind of dog that had fatal injuries?

How big is your girl?  How much kibble/raw are you feeding?  How long after the fight did she start throwing up?

Once in a blue moon, Ami's poop will be covered in slime - it resolves in a day or two and I chalk it up to dietary indiscretion.

I had a mistake to let her go out first (instead of I go first and she goes after) and another little tiny dog happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I have no idea what was that dog, something chihuahua-mini cup (or how they called) terrier. Something tiny, annoying and stupidly barking for no reason...
My girl is 65-70lb. That thing was maybe 3-5lb.

She is having 3 patties (0.5lb each) of Primal Raw beef patties a day. She start throwing up on a second day after incident.

Slime has been for last 10 or so days.

Yaska, I love your avatar, beautiful dogs you have. The 3 major things with mucus or slime in poop is parasites or worms and allergies, especially if it continues longer than a day or two, or is accompanied by throwing up. I would ask you vet to give you a dewormer that includes the drug praziquantel, so it covers any type of worm she may have. If after you deworm her with the proper treatment amounts, she still has the slime, I would look into a food allergy, as I believe I mentioned to you in a previous post. Sorry you all had a bad time of things.

MiyasMomma wrote:

Yaska, I love your avatar, beautiful dogs you have. The 2 major things with mucus or slime in poop is parasites and allergies, especially if it continues longer than a day or two, or is accompanied by throwing up. I would ask you vet to give you a dewormer that includes the drug praziquantel, so it covers any type of worm she may have. If after you deworm her with the proper treatment amounts, she still has the slime, I would look into a food allergy, as I believe I mentioned to you in a previous post. Sorry you all had a bad time of things.

Thank you, I will look into that! It was suspicious that she has slime for that long and I actually do not remember doing any deworm myself.. :\

Thank you! I love these girls, but right now since red one started bring up so much problems and became expensive (and plus accident) - we might look for a new family for her and I can not sleep with those thoughts!

I hope you don't have dangerous dog laws where you live - here I think we would have a problem, not sure. I s one of my fears with a little min-pin across the street.

From what I know of raw (not a lot) I think 1.5 pounds is not over feeding...at least its in the range. I don't see how throwing up a day later would be related to the stress of the fight, infectious - maybe a very slight possibility but since this is in the context of ongoing digestive issues, I suspect the throwing up and poop slime are just a continuation and you have not found the problem yet. I guess I would go back to the vet - either she is continually getting into something that you are not aware or something else is going on.

amymeme wrote:

I hope you don't have dangerous dog laws where you live - here I think we would have a problem, not sure.  I s one of my fears with a little min-pin across the street.

She got warning because it is her first time. Otherwise animal service will take her away.

amymeme wrote:

From what I know of raw (not a lot) I think 1.5 pounds is not over feeding...at least its in the range.  

This amount of food to give her I took from package feeding suggestions.

She wants dry food so bad now. During dinner I spotted how grey one dropped one kibble that rolled to red one and red just jumped to it and swallowed right the way!
Usually I transition her removing about 1/4cup and adding 1/4 cup of kibble. But haven't done it for weeks since she never gotten to perfect condition ready for transfer.

MiyasMomma wrote:

The 3 major things with mucus or slime in poop is parasites or worms and allergies, especially if it continues longer than a day or two, or is accompanied by throwing up.

Just checked her medical records, I had her checked for OVA & parasites and giardia in August and results came back negative.

Yaska, specific to worm, often times results will show up negative, and quite often you will not see worms in your pets stools. Miya had a severe case of tape worm, it took my watchful eye to determine that, can show up on their behind and not always in their stool. You may need to do another stool sample or two with your vet. Have you tried mixing raw and kibble? I have had great success with 1-1.5 cups of grain free kibble (I use Taste of the Wild, I recommend grain free, you decide on which), and cut down the raw to 1 patty a day, and see if that will work for her. If after those 2 options and still no change, I would work with your vet on determining what ingredient bothers Penny. It could be as simple as the beef, and chicken, turkey, duck, venison, lamb will suit her better. Having slime/mucus in stool for more than a couple of days, needs to be checked with your vet. If I remember correctly you have gone to a holistic vet, I would stick with that one if possible.....Good luck she is so pretty and in time I think you will succeed.

MiyasMomma wrote:

Have you tried mixing raw and kibble? I have had great success with 1-1.5 cups of grain free kibble (I use Taste of the Wild, I recommend grain free, you decide on which), and cut down the raw to 1 patty a day, and see if that will work for her.

I have tried last week to take away 1/3 cup of raw and add 1/3 cup of kibble and her stomach got upset by evening. Poor girl was whining and crying and tried to poop every couple hours (I had to take her outside because we live in apartment). So I did not give her any dinner, just gave her 1/4 cup of raw goat milk. She recovered in 4 days but her poop has slime. But then she got into an accident with another dog and it's been 6 days since - she did not eat full meal during the day: one time she was nauseous - I cut her food, another day she did not finish so breakfast was good for dinner as well, another day she ate one or another.

MiyasMomma wrote:

Have you tried mixing raw and kibble? I have had great success with 1-1.5 cups of grain free kibble (I use Taste of the Wild, I recommend grain free, you decide on which), and cut down the raw to 1 patty a day, and see if that will work for her.  

I have tried last week to take away 1/3 cup of raw and add 1/3 cup of kibble (Nutro) and her stomach got upset by evening. Poor girl was whining and crying and tried to poop every couple hours (I had to take her outside because we live in apartment). So I did not give her any dinner, just gave her 1/4 cup of raw goat milk. She recovered in 4 days but her poop has slime. But then she got into an accident with another dog and it's been 6 days since - she did not eat full meal during the day: one time she was nauseous - I cut her food, another day she did not finish so breakfast was good for dinner as well, another day she ate one or another.
I bought TOTW but did not have chance to give it to her because I want to be home and see how is she doing.

You poor thing......I would truly get your vet involved, something is not agreeing with her, again could be worms, or it can be something in her food. One thing I do know about huskies, if they "think" it will make them sick they will not eat it. They also self regulate, in that they may go a day or two with out food, and be perfectly fine. I know you really want to stick with kibble, but that may be the thing that bothers her, are you still using the Nutro? If so at this point I would switch to the grain free, avoid the merrick's it may be too rich or ingredient bothers her. I would try something other than beef, and maybe try Earthborn or Taste of the Wild, which should be comparable in price if not cheaper than the merricks. since she is not wanting raw, and it is bothering her too, try the kibble only first. Again I would strongly recommend ruling out worms or an allergy, and with any switch stick with it for 3-4 weeks to know if it really is bothering her. Lastly for the next couple of days, I would go with a boneless skinless chicken breast boiled, with about 2 tablespoons of pure can pumpkin and about a half of cup of white rice, can be mixed altogether, and cut up the chicken into bites. Feed her one breast, s tablespoons and a half cup, twice a day for a few days, you may also add in 2 tablespoons of plain greek yogurt, cut out everything else. see if her stomach feels better and poops get better. Those ingredients are pretty bland, and helps soothe the tummy, firm up the poop, and give back some good belly flora.

It sounds like she might have stress colitis. Inflammation in the intestines can cause her pain, mess up her bowel movements, and be the source of the mucus you are seeing. If this is the case you will need to treat the colitis before you can get back to finding food that works for her. If it is colitis then no food that you give her is going to end well except very bland food. I would do the above bland diet that Renee suggested of chicken and rice, you can also add cooked carrots and green beans for fiber, for a couple weeks to help soothe her system and then start working back toward getting her on the TOTW. If it is an extreme case of colitis you will need to get help from your vet in the form of anti-inflammatory medication to help her system along.

One a side note: I saw that you give fish oil supplement. If you aren't already, you may want to add vitamin E to that routine. Fish oil causes a deficiency in vitamin E. I give mine vitamin E every other day compared to the fish oil I give every day. the vitamin E loss wouldn't be the cause of the stomach woes though.

TwisterII wrote:

It sounds like she might have stress colitis. Inflammation in the intestines can cause her pain, mess up her bowel movements, and be the source of the mucus you are seeing. If this is the case you will need to treat the colitis before you can get back to finding food that works for her. If it is colitis then no food that you give her is going to end well except very bland food. I would do the above bland diet that Renee suggested of chicken and rice, you can also add cooked carrots and green beans for fiber, for a couple weeks to help soothe her system and then start working back toward getting her on the TOTW. If it is an extreme case of colitis you will need to get help from your vet in the form of anti-inflammatory medication to help her system along.

One a side note: I saw that you give fish oil supplement. If you aren't already, you may want to add vitamin E to that routine. Fish oil causes a deficiency in vitamin E. I give mine vitamin E every other day compared to the fish oil I give every day. the vitamin E loss wouldn't be the cause of the stomach woes though.

What a cutie you have (I am talking about red one on a picture)!!

So we just got back from vet. After listening all my stories he assumed that she has problem in large intestine and feeding raw beef not gonna help her.
She got a prescription diet (I/D digestive care with turkey), metronidazole 500mg and panacur C (I feel like i had panacur when was a child... )
So the goal would be to give her less fat and less fiber (I think I remember it right). As from tonight - nothing but I/D, pills and rice and chicken (Because having 70lb dog on prescription diet it is expensive, so I will stretch out her I/D to can a day instead of 3 cans a day).
Interesting fact: our previous vet told us that chicken - is one of common allergens. How come now she is fine having chicken and rice??
Overall vet agreed with my thought that fish might be better for her.

I bought her TOTW but never open it yet. So I will return it. And the rest of raw food will go to other husky meal - she will love it (she loves anything what she can eat ).

We had a fun ride to the vet clinic (it's 20 mi away) - on our way I got check engine light and we drove 35-40mph. So here is a new problem coming up - replacing this car.
Penny, you better feel well immediately, otherwise it is way too much expenses...

I would say that Taste of the Wild is fine for most people, but produces looser stools than what I'm feeding now - Nature's Variety Instinct, Chicken flavor.


I foster rotational rescue dogs often and I've yet to discover a single dog that has not had improved stools on Nature's Variety Instinct after 3 days. I highly recommend you either try this, or the limited ingredient version (turkey I believe is their flavor) of Instinct.

Raw boost freezed dried added formula is not necessary - go with the regular Instinct.

Additionally, try canned pumpkin - 1-2 tablespoon fulls mixed in with kibbles.

It really sounds like your issue right now is with Nutro.

it probably something in the Nutro that is causing your issues. she could have an allergen to what they use to preserve the food. Leo was also prescribed that same stuff when he got into some plant fertilizer when he was a few weeks old, but it made it so much worse. i took the cans back and just stuck with a bland diet of rice and boiled chicken for a few days. then transition him back to his normal diet.

TOTW is very good food, gave it to Leo when he was a under 11 months, then switched to Dr. Tim's Kinesis All Life Stages Formula he loves that food, and my chihuahua Joey also likes it and he is even more finicky do to his old age.