I apologize in advance for the length. I have a tendency to become very detailed about things when I want to be sure there's a clear understanding of what's going on.

A few days before I was due to pick up Suka, the breeder contacted me to say he'd contracted whipworms. She had given him his first treatment and would need the second treatment in 3 weeks. She gave me the option of leaving him with her until after the second treatment or taking him home and doing it myself. I chose to take him home because it's not the first time I've dewormed puppies.

He's had diarrhea the entire time he's lived with us. I gave him the Immodium pills the breeder gave me to help solidify his stools, but it took more than a day for them to start working. Then his stools would firm up, but it would only last a day before they were runny again. So I started giving him canned pumpkin, and that helped to firm up his stools for a couple of days, but then they'd become runny again.

I figured this had something to do with the whipworms, so I decided to start his second treatment a day early. The breeder warned me the medicine might give him diarrhea again, so I decided to mix it with Kaopectate (I did research before I gave him these medications, including the Immodium the breeder gave me). The Kaopectate went a long way in firming up his stools, but when they became runny again two days after the deworming treatment, I wasn't surprised.

Now it's been 3-4 days since the treatment, and he still has diarrhea. I spoke to the owner of his littermate, and she said their puppy had diarrhea a long time too, but it cleared up after the second treatment. They didn't wait three weeks to do the treatment, though. They did it after two weeks per the advice of their veterinarian.

So now I'm wondering if Suka's diarrhea is because of the whipworms or if it's because of the dog food I'm giving him. The breeder fed them American Natural Premium Original Formula, and since I bought him for Conformation, I decided to purchase American Natural Premium Exhibitor's Choice. It has added fish oil to make show dogs' coats really healthy. But I'm wondering if there's something in the formula Suka is sensitive to (perhaps the fish oil? I've read it can cause diarrhea in some dogs).

I'm thinking about changing his food to something else to see if it helps. He has a veterinary appointment next week and I'm bringing in a stool sample to make sure there aren't anymore worms or something else going on. In the meantime, I'd like some advice/peace of mind in regards to this. Is it likely the food he's been eating the past month is too much for him, or is it more likely he's having issues with worms? Also, I free feed my dogs. Is it possible he has diarrhea because he has access to food all day? Will feeding him once in the morning be better? Help!

Jessie, after your vet visit, something you might want to try is limiting his food to mealtimes. One of the challenges with Husky's is to determine what food and feeding schedule is appropriate for each (blasted!) dog. Typically, Huskies who are overfed / allowed to free feed have loose stools.

I have two. An Alaskan that I free feed because he self limits - he nibbles his way through the day and might eat a cup every day and then he'll eat two to three cup in a day. He's slim, healthy and seems to be doing fine on what he eats.
I also have a Sibe who came to me with a food posessiveness that got me bit a couple of times. She would (and will) eat anything she can get her teeth on. Typically she gets fed a cup in the AM and another in the PM but the couple of times she's managed to get into Avalanches food she ends up being 'loose'.

So I'm not a freed feeder because my dog is very food driven and would eat everything in her path and get very over weight. I feed Cora a cup of kibble a day at 10 months she also gets 5 milk bones a day when she comes back inside of her potty breaks(I've done this since puppy hood but with smaller treats and I wanted to keep it up) so to most people Cora eats very little but she is the perfect weight and she is the perfect feel/size according to my vet. So you could try feeding him less since he is a puppy he obviously needs more then one cup of food but maybe try taking his food down a quarter of a cup or half a cup and see what happens! When Cora eats to much her poo is very soft. But I think it's also likely Suka still has worms.

Good luck

I don't suspect that it is caused by the food formula or the added fish oil (unless there's a salmon allergy). It doesn't seem like the amount of fish oil added to this recipe is so great that I would expect to get diarrhea from it. The other recipe did have added probiotics which would help sooth an upset tract that was being bothered by the worms and the other formula doesn't have that. Free feeding can cause diarrhea as Al suggested so I would start there after you have ruled out a reinfestation of the worms. If no more worms and regulating doesn't help then I would swap back to the other formula and see if that helps. If it does you might try giving fish oil capsules so that you can control the amount being taken in.

Thank you for the advice! Since his veterinary appointment isn't until next week, I'll start by putting him on a feeding schedule. My other dogs are doing incredibly well on the Exhibitor's Choice (my Chihuahua's fur color and shedding improved significantly), so I'd like to keep them on it, if possible. If the feeding schedule doesn't work and the stool sample comes back clean at the vet, I'll buy a puppy food just for Suka in the hopes that it'll help.

I have to believe that the food may be the issue. Your current food is quite high in the fat department and quite low in the fiber department. Fish oil is important, since you are not adding oil on top of his diet I don't believe that is the issue. This food ranks high on dog food advisor, 3.5-4 star, however, it relies a lot on grains, a ton of grains to be honest, most huskies don't do well on grains. When you look at food bags some things to keep in mind, especially for puppies, they need about 25% protein, good base is 23-27% range, they need moderate fat 14-17% range with 15% being a good number, and they need fiber to offset the fat, 4-5% fiber is needed. What you are feeding is better, imo, than what your breeder selected, but I do think it's a tad too high in fat too low in fiber and too much grain. the other and more obvious issue is free feeding, over eating creates over weight dogs, and also establishes pudding poop. Feeding twice a day for pups over 6 months old to one year I recommend, so they are less likely to be always hungry. Feeding a meat base, rather than a grain based food may help in his appetite, for him to be happier. Most huskies eat 20-25% less than what is recommended on food bags, so at 6 months old twice a day and about 3 cups max per day of quality food should be sufficient, how old is he so I can better give you advice on how much to feed. Lastly he may have a chicken issue, since this is the only meat in the one you are feeding. Chicken issues are fairly common, and doesn't mean that every pup in a litter will have issues, some do some don't. Lots of trial and error is going to happen for you and I am sorry for that.

So firstly stop free feeding and give twice a day if over 4 months old, if you want to continue with this food, which may actually be the real reason of issues, then add a tablespoon of pumpkin daily. I hate recommending that tho, because you are not really addressing the real issue. I would recommend Acana or Fromm and make sure it is not chicken that is in what you are feeding, that is grain free, potatoes many dogs do better on than actual grains. Ask more questions if you need more clarity....

Wow, Miyas, that's amazing information, and so much more than I was able to get anywhere else! I had never considered fiber content before, and I definitely agree with you that it seems incredibly low now that I've looked at it.

Regardless of whether or not he's still struggling with worms, I'm going to buy him a new puppy food in addition to putting him on a feeding schedule. Hopefully he doesn't have worms and this is all it takes to get his diarrhea under control.

Should I also consider adding FortiFlora to his diet for a month, or would that just hide a problem if there continues to be one?

Also, it just dawned on me that our American Eskimo has also had diarrhea lately. He's 5 years old and house trained, so I never noticed it before until we were going on a walk yesterday evening (we normally let them out in the yard). I know my Chihuahua is doing fine in that area, and he's the one that's had a huge improvement since being on Exhibitor's Choice. I'm thinking it would be a good idea to switch dog food for Suka and Jack and leave Romeo on the current stuff.

I'm so glad I asked on this forum! It would've taken me a lot longer to figure out what's wrong if I'd been doing this on my own. I never made a connection between Suka and Jack's feces before now, and it's clear the food is the problem.

My daughter and I stopped at Petco this evening. I met a man there who was very knowledgeable about dog foods, and he spoke with me for awhile helping me find the right food for my dogs. After a few minutes of going over the options, I selected two small bags (puppy food for Suka and adult food for Jack). I went with small bags because if it doesn't work for them, I didn't waste a ton of money on a 40-lb bag. So hopefully this will help with the diarrhea in addition to the feeding schedule.

Jessie, I'm apt to put my foot in my mouth - I have a habit of doing that - but there are entirely too many people around who know everything there is to know about everything and in reality have opinions with little basis in fact.

Would you mind my asking what you finally decided on? I've been reading along on this thread and I'll simply express my concern that diarrhea that's lasted this long has the potential for causing damage ...

I don't mind if you ask. The man sounded like he knew what he was talking about, so I hope I didn't make a mistake. I bought Wellness Core grain free puppy food.

Jessie.....I am back online....Wellness is a good product...quality and imo better than what you were feeding. Al, poster above does give updates about recalls, so just be watchful, I am not positive if Wellness is still being manufactured by Diamond, I will say many of us feed Diamond products, as in Diamond, Taste of the Wild, Nature's Domain, to name a few. It is very high in protein, but many dogs, like my older girl does real well on high protein. So feed him the Wellness, and I hope he improves. If not let us know and we will help to find one that will work. Since it is high in protein low in carbs, you will want to try say 2-2.5 cups a day, most of us feed way less than the package. My 6 month old eats 2.5 to 3 cups a day of TOTW, she eats a lesser % protein then the one you got, she doesn't do well on high protein, so that is why she does eat more than I recommend to you. How old is Suka?

Our ready reference dog food reference site ... DogFoodAdvisor.com gives the Wellness Core overall a 5 star (out of 5) rating so I'd guess that he did know what he was talking about.

I've got more than a bit of a reputation here that I have to live up (down?) to = that of being a bit of a curmudgeon, but that's fine by me.  I just like to help people make the choices that are best for them and their dog ... and it looks like you did well.

ETA: So after that comment, I did have to go check. Wellness is manufactured by WellPet inc but until 2014 it was manufactured by Diamond brand. There was one recall that I can find, quickly, of Wellness in 2012 and none since they started to manufacture their own.

Al...the original food wasn't a bad food, but really not geared for huskies nor puppies, and the odd ball ingredient for me was cheese, yup cheese, never heard of cheese in dog food, since most dogs, especially puppies are milk lactose intolerant. haha. I just don't think the original food was truly appropriate for puppies. And in many ways thinking it is much better for little dogs, I think I read somewhere, that little dogs require less fiber, which makes sense with that food....

So says the resident curmudgeoness ..... sheesh woman, would you let me post before you have to come back so quickly?!?!? LOL!!

Cheese???

Lol, Yes Al, cheese....kinda blew me away when I seen that, they had chicken meal and chicken fat bunch of grain, then cheese.

Jessie, forgot to answer your question....the forti flora, if you have it already then sure it wont hurt. Kifir(spelling?) or greek yogurt will work just fine as well, a tablespoon or so for both of them. Just read an article on the whole probiotics for pets, and well, most do not have all the things they claim, and after processing often times not any better than the yogurt or kifir I just mentioned. So I wouldn't blow money on getting any.

Miyas, I used to feed my dogs Taste of the Wild. The feed store down the road sells it. I can’t remember why I stopped buying it. I think it’s because my dogs got too skinny. I actually had my cat on the feline version up until a few days ago, and she went on a bit of a hunger strike because she hated the food. She lost a lot of weight. I wanted her to use up the bag and then I’d never buy it for her again, but when it became clear she was eating just enough to survive and losing way too much weight, I caved and bought Blue Wilderness for her. I know they had a bunch of recalls not too long ago, but it’s the only cat food that she really likes and maintains a healthy weight on. I always have to make sure I measure her food while on it otherwise she gains too much weight.

Suka is just over 3 months old now. I honestly didn’t know the American Natural Premium contained cheese. I guess I didn’t look at it that closely since it was the food the breeder recommended, and most of the ingredients looked good to me. I don’t give my dogs milk products because they always get runny stools from them, and now it makes sense why Suka and Jack would have diarrhea from that food if it really does contain cheese!

I do not have the FortiFlora in my house. I was going to buy some if you thought it would help, but it seems they won’t need it after all. This morning, his stools were already firming up (not sure about Jack yet – as I said, he’s house trained). Suka went to the bathroom on the dining room carpet (we’re still working on house training with him) and I didn’t have to scrub it afterward like I normally do. But I did notice there was a lot of mucus in it, and I saw a long white line of something. It looked like thick string but there weren’t any fibers to it that I could see. I’m kind of grossed out by worms, so I honestly didn’t look at it too closely. He JUST had a deworming treatment Thursday through Saturday, so… maybe he still had worms and the last of them are coming out? I’m so glad I’m bringing him to the vet Tuesday so I can figure out if worms are still an issue or not. I’m just glad the diarrhea is finally clearing up after one meal of the new food. Crossing my fingers it stays that way!

Al, I love the Dog Food Advisor site! I refer to it often and actually recommend it to other people. Unfortunately, it’s really hard to find some of the better quality foods listed there in my local area. I’m glad to hear Wellness Core got 5 stars because I didn’t think to check it before I bought the bag.