My dogs been very lethargic this morning. He's drinking a lot of water, and ate most of his breakfast, although with much less gusto than usual. He's gone for some walks, which do perk him up a bit, but is really lethargic in the house. When we took him out he had bad diarrhea.

He's had some digestive issues on and off for the past 4 weeks (since we adopted him). We weaned him onto Acana Prairie Poultry, his old home had fed him Beneful Salmon. For the last week he has been eating just his food, and small amounts of Orijen dog treats (for training purposes), but we haven't seen much improvement in his bowel movements, often he'll have one formed stool in the morning, and then mushy or liquidy shits later in the day.

Full disclosure - he did a little counter surfing last night and ate about 1/3 a meat pie, so that could be contributing to how he feels this morning for sure.

So, my husband is starting to think he's not tolerating the Acana Prairie Poultry, and we're thinking of switching diets. Maybe try Orijen or Canidae, a fish variety maybe.

We're also tentatively thinking about going raw. If we do go raw - should we wait until we have his digestive issues resolved before making this switch? I'm sure the raw advocates will say that making the switch could correct his issues.

The reason we didn't start him on raw right away is because we're going to be relocated in early 2018 for my work, and it's very likely we'll end up in an isolated area of northern Canada. depending where we get sent, food options could be severely limited. but, I could just deal with that hurdle when/if it arises.

Anyway, he's going to the vet tomorrow. Offices are closed today, we're just going to monitor him, keep taking him out for short walks so he can shit. Also, I'll only start to get really worried when he doesn't want to go for a walk, so it's a good indicator of how he's feeling.

You may try switching flavors of acana first. The Prairie poultry has oats in it. You may look for the Pacific flavor. It cuts out the oats and offers a different protein in case the chicken and/or the oats are bothering him. Orijen is pretty rich and high in protein and there's the possibility it could worsen things. I'm not as familiar with canidae and how they break down. Will have to look that one up.

The only reason I would think waiting to swap to raw would be good would be if you think he may havery an allergy to certain proteins and you want to avoid bulk buying something he can't eat. Though just because he has an allergy to a certain protein n kibble for doesn't mean he will in raw. With the move I think it depends on what kind of move you are expecting. If you will be able to move large quantities of food then I would stock up before the move so if you get there and raw is harder to source you havery some time to do it. If money is not a large object you can also look at freeze dried meals like grandma Lucy or the honest kitchen or sojos. They can be bought on chewy and hopefully sent to the new place. I feed grandma Lucy to my white male because he has crazy allergies. I am building up meat sources right now but will be going full raw in the near future when I can get another freezer.

What kind of ingredients are in the meat pie he got into? Things like onions that are ok for us, are toxic to dogs so I'm just wondering if there might be something in that pie that might not be so good for him. The lethargy is worrisome to me.

The liquid poops sounds exactly what I went through with my two when switching their food from Natures Domain to first, Solid Gold, and when that didn't work, Acana Fresh Water Fish. Too high a protein was the culprit in the Solid Gold, it was way up there at like 36% protein. When switching then to the Acana, it got a little better but not much, so what I ended up doing was buying a bag of Natures Domain and just putting a very small amount in with the Acana. And it worked. Both dogs are back to eating just the Acana again. Maybe it just takes longer to transition from a plant based dog food to a meat based one, I don't know. Also, how much of the Acana is he getting per day? With the Acana, I found you don't need to be feeding as much, as you would with other brands. So over feeding will cause the poop issues as well.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

I may try the acana pacifica. Will stay away from orijen.

I'll look into some raw food suppliers that ship their products and see if they ship to remote places... i'd be more comfortable if i could find a good kibble, i could just bring 12 big bags with me up north, and replenish every time i return to civilization. airlines that fly those routes have crazy high baggage limits, and my company will cover shipping goods during my initial move.

i just checked the ingredients list on the pie packaging and it did have onions in it. so, maybe that's why he's being lethargic. he seems to be doing better, though. he's being a bit more active than he was this morning. he's not 100% yet, but theres definite improvement. so, i'm thinking he'll just get over any onion-toxicity with a little more time?

I just fed him a couple tbsp of pureed pumpkin, he loved it, i heard that's great for all kinds of shit problems.

so, he gets 2.5 cups of food a day. he was on 2 cups for the first few weeks we had him, but was losing weight, so we upped his daily intake. will get him weighed tomorrow and see how he's doign.

It'd have to be quite a bit of onion to make him really sick, but maybe there's enough in it that it made him feel not so well, I really don't know. I'm glad he's feeling a little better though!

Here is what vetMD says about onions for anyone that didn't know. A lot of smoked flavored treats will have onion powder in them, which is said to be even worse, so just watch the ingredients list on things bought for pets.

he wasn't interested in his dinner (i gave him a reduced portion), i mixed a little pumpkin in and he went nuts for it - ate everything enthusiastically.

not sure if its a good or bad idea to trick him to eat at the moment.

he hasn't shit since this morning, and that really wasn't a large shit (especially when you consider he had all his food yesterday, and that bit of pie), so i'm hoping he's not blocked up.

sometimes he walks like he's about to shit and I get excited - dog ownership is weird.


he's not so sick that he can't chase a housefly, walk on his hind legs if pumpkin is on offer, or follow us around and beg for pizza.

TwisterII wrote:

You may try switching flavors of acana first. The Prairie poultry has oats in it. You may look for the Pacific flavor. It cuts out the oats and offers a different protein in case the chicken and/or the oats are bothering him.

your diagnoses was correct, Twister. He seems to have an oat sensitivity or allergy. his stools improved as soon as we switched his food (to acana lamb), and he's had a few bouts of diarrhea since then after my folks bought him some dog biscuits containing oats.

Glad you've found the culprit and he's doing better.