Hi everyone,

I just signed up on this forum. I have a 1.5 year old Siberian Husky. He's extremely active. This past December he had Giardia, so we got him on meds to get rid of it. Soon after, in January, in his stool test to make sure Giardia was gone, we found a larva. We put him on meds again and he's not parasite and worms free. However, he continues to have diarrhea (mucousy and a little bloody stool). I took him to the vet again and the vet believes its due to his diet. They put him on the Hill's I/D Digestive Prescription diet. It seemed like he liked the canned food a lot and his stool has gotten solid. However, the food is extremely expensive, and a few other husky owners (as well as one who works at a vet clinic) said the I/D Digestive brand is not good for him because it is low calorie and he won't be able to gain weight as well (hes severely underweight - about 42 pounds). They recommended Blue Buffalo Freedom (Grain Free) Chicken and Rice Recipe. Does anyone have any suggestions for an affordable kibble that would allow my Tyler to gain weight, eat well, and continue to have solid stool?

Thank you so much for any insight and advice!

I'm going thru a similar situation with my girl right now. She didn't have giardia but was having similar issues as yours, but developing them from recurrent UTI's. My advice to you is to stay away from anything with chicken. I've found my girl might be sensitive to chicken and turns out, many dogs are. Lamb, I've learned, is much more easy on the stomach so maybe find something with lamb. My girl refused to eat that Hills diet ID food. She didn't even touch the canned version. For my girls needs, I've decided on Solid Gold food for her, I'm switching it today so I don't have any feedback for you. But for now, you can add some pure pumpkin to your dogs food (not the pie filling, it's pure canned pumpkin) to firm up its poop. There are a few very knowledgable people on here who can advise you better on which brands of food to look in to, so stay tuned for more posts.

Thanks Jimmy. The food I fed him before was lamb and he kept getting diarrhea with that, so I don't think lamb is good for Tyler. I'll try pumpkin and hopefully that will give enough fiber to solidify his stool. Please let me know how the Solid Gold food works for your husky. I'll keep you posted on my end as well!

Have you heard anything regarding the Blue Buffalo Freedom (grain free) recipe?

Mishka, I fed Blue Freedom grain free as a puppy, she liked it! And it's chicken too so I don't know where her sensitivity to chicken came from (if she has one...she basically doesn't really like chicken). Blue has had some lawsuits against them though so as a brand, I'm not sure they are trusted as much as they once were. Anyways, I fed Freedom, Mishka liked it AND it seemed to clear up that puppy poop that all puppies seem to get. When she turned a year old, I put her on Natures Domain and it's good food as well, I use the salmon sweet potatoe recipe, however, with her recurring UTI's, a friend of mine suggested it may have too many carbs and making her kidneys work harder. Many of the high end brands had even more carbs so Solid Gold is the only one that seems like it'll be better for her. With her UTI, she had gastroenteritis and those symptoms resemble giardia a lot, so the vet did give me a prescription for hills diet ID (ridiculously expensive, especially for, in my opinion, the nutritional value) and I bought cans and a small bag of kibble and she wouldn't touch either. She just finished her antibiotics last week so I'm going to switch her food now to solid gold with a small amount of pumpkin to ease the transition. And for sure I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks so much for all that info. You are trying the Solid Gold Hund-N-Flocken (Lamb, Brown Rice & Pearled Barley Recipe), correct?

No, not enough protein. I think it was Barking at the moon (or something like that) or there was another having to do with being super protein (sorry, my mind is a blank right now but before I leave I'll be looking it up, haha)

Oh. Barking at the Moon (Beef, Eggs & Peas)?

Yeah, that one. The other is called solid gold high protein (I think) and I was wanting to go with the salmon

Ok. Thank you!!

Hi Poohcub..................the solid gold flavor you mentioned is super high in carbs, most huskies do not do well on grains or high carb foods. Most here have great success with Taste of the Wild, 4 Health , Nature's Domain, even Diamond, all grain free varieties. Every dog is different. The hills is carb heavy, and some dogs do ok on it short term to get their stomachs back to normal, but long term, nah it isn't really good. If your dog is in a constant soft stool dilemma, I would feed the pumpkin as Jimmy suggested, and add in greek plain yogurt, do not use the kind with artificial sugars tho, they can be deadly. Or you can look for a probiotic such as Fortiflora. Goats milk is another item that can help the tummy. Quite often the parasites and antibiotics create a great place for bad gut flora and wipe out the good, so you want to add good gut flora to get rid of soft poops. Probiotics need to be given 2 hours away from antibiotics in order for them to work.

Renee, which solid gold flavor is high in carbs?

The hoden flocken or whatever it is spelled

Ahh, ok. Thanks Renee

Hi Renee. Thank you for that. I actually was feeding Tyler Diamonds Natural Chicken and rice formula before giardia and he seemed to lose interest in that (not sure if it is because he was sick or just got bored of the food). But I just tried pumpkin and he seems to love it. I'll definitely keep in mind the greek yogurt for probiotics if he continues to struggle with maintaining solid stool.

I know I'm late in the game here but wanted to throw out there that I like to start off with a grain free limited ingredient diet for sensitive stomachs and build from there depending on the dogs progress (how well he/she tolerates ingredients). For weight gain, heavier (higher fat) meats such as lamb or beef/bison are going to put on weight faster than lighter meats such as poultry or fish based diets, I consider venison a mid-range meat (not too light, not too heavy).

I also agree with Val on the meat proteins. If money is not an issue I will say that Acana has a nice line of limited ingredient food think it's called singles. Fromm also has a 4 star line that is designed to switch proteins with out slow transitions. Eartborn and Victor are also excellent foods. As far as huskies they typically do not do well on corn, rice, wheat and soy based foods. So they do need a grain free food. Budget wise the ones I mentioned earlier would fit a tighter budget than the ones I just mentioned. I would look for a beef/bison flavor using potatoes or peas. If still unsure then ask give us what brands you are looking at. I also would stay away from anything Blue makes.

You might also want to try Go! Sensitivity + Shine formula as an alternative or rotation feeding subs, it is made from salmon which i think huskies love the most. It is also formulated for those with sensitive dietary needs.

There’s also the Fit + Free formula which boasts a higher meat content made from turkey and trout.

Hope this helps.

Here are the ingredients:

Salmon meal, oatmeal, potatoes, whole oats, de-boned salmon, canola oil (preserved with mixed tocopherols), apples, natural flavour, flaxseed, quinoa, calcium carbonate, potassium chloride, sodium chloride, dried kelp, vitamins (vitamin A supplement, vitamin D3 supplement, vitamin E supplement, inositol, niacin, L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (a source of vitamin C), d-calcium pantothenate, thiamine mononitrate, beta-carotene, riboflavin, pyridoxine hydrochloride, folic acid, biotin, vitamin B12 supplement), minerals (zinc methionine complex, zinc proteinate, iron proteinate, copper proteinate, zinc oxide, manganese proteinate, copper sulphate, ferrous sulphate, calcium iodate, manganous oxide, selenium yeast), dried chicory root, L-lysine, dried Lactobacillus acidophilus fermentation product, dried Enterococcus faecium fermentation product, dried Aspergillus niger fermentation product, dried Aspergillus oryzae fermentation product, yucca schidigera extract, dried rosemary.

Chiming in on the probiotics and the pumpkin.

Keep in mind that pumpkin can send your pups stool either direction...toward loose or constipated. For the huskies I would suggest 1T increasing up to 2T and you should see results pretty fast. But you can do too much and send the dog right to the other extreme.

I like Kefir for my probiotic for the dogs. Kefir is a sour-tasting drink make from cow's milk fermented with certain bacteria. Its probiotics will impact the intestinal tract. It is also a great source of probiotic bacteria and yeast. I find it in a Liter or quart bottle and pour over food. I find it lasts longer in the refrigerator than yogurt. So in short Kefir from the store is a probiotic drink made from a mix of 4-10 strains of bacteria and yeast and is approximately 2-3 billion cfu per gram, it usually isn't true kefir grown from grains. Greek Yogurt is a single strain and is approximately 1-2 billion cfu per gram.
Yes keep an eye out and avoid the "diet" artificial sugars!