I'm hoping you can give me some insight or ideas as to what I can try for Ginger...

I've been having a difficult time regulating her diet to where she doesn't have soft poop

It all started when I gave her a couple of small chicken biscuits with glucosamine = bad diarreha! That was about a month ago.

Since then, I've only given her the food she has been on (Taste of the Wild Salmon), and whatever treats she used to eat prior to this incident.

At this point, if I mix in 1 tablespoon of canned pumpkin and 1/2 teaspoon of Plant Enzymes & Probiotic (powder form by Animal Essentials) in 1 cup of her food (she eats morning and evening) AND give her 2 tablespoons of plain yogurt mid-day, she's good! Her stool is normal.

I've been trying to wean her off the powder probiotics for the past 2 weeks by giving her 1/4 teaspoon but then half of it is regular and half is diarreha or sometimes it'll be very soft with form...

The vet says they do not see any ingredient in the probiotic powder that should not be given long term, and that Ginger could have a more sensitive upper GI tract than most Huskies...

My question is: 1) Does anyone have any ideas as to what I can do to wean her off the probiotics or are you familiar with this product and is it safe to keep her on it? 2) I heard that some dogs just don't do well on grain free diets so what do I feed her?

Hey everyone this is my friend from our HH&MM group and she just got Ginger a few months ago. i asked her to post this on here as i did not have any good suggestions for her. I hope maybe you all can offer up some ideas.

Hi cmanding!
I am not familiar with the product, but I can't imagine why it would be harmful to her, other than the fact it possibly could become mandatory since her tummy would become so adjusted to it- not sure if that is a common thing. Grain free diets do have a high protein level that just isn't cut out for some dogs- a grain free diet with not a huge percentage of protein is Natural Balance, which has a fish formula if you know she does well on fish. If you try that and it works out, I'd think it'd just be the protein level that is an issue. Another option is dehydrated raw foods- The Honest Kitchen, Grandma Lucys,, Addiction, Ziwipeak, there's quite a few brands.. they don't have an extensive list of ingredients and you feed human-grade meat/fruits/veggies + theirs vitamins and supplements in them. It's a great alternative to feeding home cooked food or raw.

All dogs are different, and sibes are definitely dogs that can have all sorts of genetic backgrounds as their breeding is not always stellar due to irresponsible people.

The probiotics you are using are basically supplementing the dog's digestive system. It doesn't mean that grain-free is the way to go for you, but it also doesn't mean that it ISN'T as it could indicate that your dog is still sensitive to something.

What if you just fed the kibble and the probiotics. Is there a change in his stools? Have you tried just feeding her raw or boiled chicken with some scrambled eggs? I'm curious to see how she would do on just raw.

Heather made some awesome suggestions and she knows her stuff when it comes to dog nutrition, so take what she says seriously! But I might try feeding her actual raw for a few days to see if she can handle that well without a supplement. If she can, then you at least know in which direction to run.

ETA: Welcome to the forum!

We had a hard time with sniper when we first got her!! She was on Science Diet for awhile and we switched her to Blue Buffalo. It took awhile but her tummy got use to it. Grain free was the only way for us to go. so then i converted my pug to it as well. good luck! please have patience...its a long road but its worth it in the end

I would try like Tori said either feeding a raw meal or a cooked meal (always recommended is boiled chicken and scrambled eggs when you do a cooked meal for a sensitive tummy) for a day or two and see if her poo is firm that way, just to give her a clear stomach.

Thanks Ladies!
Ginger was on Taste of the Wild (the salmon flavor) and was doing well on it. I gave her these chicken biscuits with glucosamine in it when it went bad.

I still have her on TOTW and thought maybe I should try something with rice in the dog food, so I tried Canidae Lamb and rice. I made a half and half mix of TOTW and the lamb and rice kibbles and she seemed to be have done OK. Soft but it had form. I then tried another sample bag of Canidae Chicken and rice (half and half mix) with TOTW, and not good.

Have you heard of a reaction to chicken? I can't believe she would be sensitive to chicken because when we first got her, we had her on Science Diet for a couple of weeks before we started feeding her TOTW, and Science Diet has chicken by-products.

I'm going to try some salmon (since I know she did OK on boiled salmon when we first adopted her) and scrambled eggs and see how that goes.

I'll keep you posted...
Thanks for the adivse!! I really appreciate it!

Claudia and Ginger

Dogs can have chicken allergies for sure. I've heard of it before.

How long had she been on the TOTW before things went poorly? Kibble takes 2-3 weeks to settle into their stomachs so it's possible that she's not doing well on the TOTW if she hadn't been on it that long.

But yeah- I would still try the raw diet for a few days and see how she reacts. Raw settles in right away, so you'll know almost immediately if she does well or poorly on it.

She's been on TOTW for about 6 weeks. If it is a sensitivity to chicken I would think I would have saw it when we put her on Science Diet when we first got her...maybe it's the higher protein content from chicken ??

I'll try salmon and eggs tonight and see what she gives me tomorrow.

Thanks again!
I'll keep you posted...

I mean- some dogs just do not do well on TOTW and there's not much you can do about that, so it could just be that, but you have a lot of issues playing into this. I always recommend just limiting your playing field and rebuilding from there. The salmon egg idea is a good foundation, so definitely let us know how it goes. If he does well on it, you can reintroduce a kibble or something on its own.

Sometimes you also get bad bags, so it's all a guessing game. Frustrating, I know, but you'll figure it out We had about 2 months of not knowing what was going on with Koda. It's totally nerve wracking!

My lab/pitbull mix has a chicken allergy, so yes it happens haha (i feed a raw diet to my two)

So, I had to go to the vet today to get her booster for one of her vaccinations, and we talked about her diet and diarreha...and they gave me a prescription low fat, lower protein diet to try. From what I can tell, this dog food does not have corn, soy, wheat or grain...but the protein does comes from chicken so I'm a little worried about that....I think I might just go with the salmon and eggs tonight and see how her stool is tomorrow...

What food is it?

The food that the vet gave me is Royal Canin Gastro Intestinal Low Fat dry dog food. The vet also said that I could just give it to her with the pumpkin and yogurt and see how she does...But it does have the protein coming from chicken and when I tried to give her a 'chicken and rice' dry dog food (Holistic brand) she went back to all diarreha even if it was 1/4 to 3/4 of TOTW.

So, it could be TOTW is too rich (too much protein and/or fat) and maybe an intolerance to chicken protein...?

She did OK when I tried 50/50 of TOTW and Canidae Lamb and Rice dry dog food....

Ok, it's 5:50pm...and I just fed her: 2 oz. steamed salmon and 2 scrambled eggs. She licked her bowl clean - and I mean CLEAN - AND she sniffed around to make sure she didn't drop anything on the floor!

She pooped mid afternoon, so her bowel has been somewhat emptied...I'll let you know tomorrow what happens...

FYI, I would never let a vet tell you what to feed- vets know only the minimal amount about nutrition. Royal Canine has a lot of fillers and grains in it, I would not feed it. All the Purina, Royal Canine, etc foods IMO are horrible quality. At my work we feed Purina EN to guests.. all get diarrhea so horrible- and it's "designated for boarding facilities to keep from vommiting and diarrhea!"

First few ingredients:
Rice, chicken meal, wheat, barley, natural flavors, dried beet pulp, brewers dried yeast,
chicken fat,

Rice and wheat- a LOT of sibes are allergic/sensitive to both.
Meat should ALWAYS be the first ingredient, not rice, corn, wheat, etc. Natural Balance has sweet potatoes as their first ingredient, not sure why they suddenly made the potatoes overpower the meat source, but since potatoes are a great carb it isn't as much of a concern.
"Natural flavors" is unclassified, it leaves you guessing what these flavors exactly are.

It's possible that the TOTW is too rich, but I'm hesitant to say that. Of all the grain-free foods out there, TOTW Pacific Stream has one of the lowest percentage counts of protein out there. It's even 10 percentage points lower than the other two TOTW flavors. I'm not saying it's not the food, I just think that the protein count seems unlikely to me based on which grain-free food you are feeding.

Keep us posted tomorrow on how she's doing. If her stools firm up, I think you should start with integrating some plain kibble back into her diet. You said that she wasn't doing well on even just straight TOTW, correct?

thanks for breaking it down, Heather and Koda!

I did not open the vet diet bag of food....and instead, gave her the steamed salmon and scambled eggs for dinner...2 oz of salmon and 2 scrambed eggs to be precise

she did OK on straigh TOTW...it was between firm and soft form.

stay tuned...

This morning, 5:30am (yep - she had to go), WE HAVE NICE POOP!!!

So here's yesterday's breakdown of food and bowel movement:

Early Morning: diarreha (soft, no form - not liquid)
Morning: TOTW mixed with 1 tblsp pumpkin, 1/2 tsp probiotic powder
Mid-morning: 1 tblsp plain low-fat yogurt
Mid-day: Belly Bone (helps keep teeth clean and made with yogurt for probiotics)
Mid-afterfoon: mild diarehha (mostly soft, no form / some soft, with form)
Evening: 2 oz steamed salmon and 2 scrambled eggs
...and then 5:30am next morning we have nice poop! (not too firm, not too soft - easy to pick up!)

So, for the next few days (3 to 5 days?), she'll have scrambled eggs and steamed/boiled salmon again, I will stop the probiotics and pumpkin altogether, and if her bowel movements are still regular, at the end of the week, I'll slowly start to add back her TOTW.

If there's something else I should do/follow, please let me know! I welcome the information and advice!

Thanks everyone for your advice and support! I really appreciate everyone's input!
(...and I will be returning that Rx dog food the vet had me buy!)

Awesome! I'm not surprised by your results at all, and it's good to know that it's some supplement that is causing her poor stools and not the ingredients. After a day or two of this, I might try doing one meal with boiled chicken. If she can handle that, then you know it's also not a chicken allergy. One chicken meal should not hurt her even if she is allergic.

I agree to try transitioning her back to the TOTW without supplements at the end of the week to see how she does. It's possible, like I said, that your girl just doesn't do well on TOTW for one reason or another. If this is the case, I would first try another grain-free fish formula since she does well on fish. Wellness Core has a great fish formula, as well as Acana and Orijen. However, all their protein counts are going to be higher than TOTW, so be wary of that.

Again, it's trial and error Always revert to a raw/natural food (like the salmon and egg) to calm your dog's stomach and then reintroduce one thing at a time slowly to find the problem. It takes a while, but you're doing great!

Congrats

Thanks Koda!
I will try boiled chicken at the end of the week and see how she does. This will definitely let me know if she has some intolerance/allergy to chicken. Does it matter if it's chicken breast or thigh meat?

I'll keep an eye out for the brands you mentioned if I need to change food brand.

Type of chicken doesn't matter, just clearly make sure it's deboned Unboiled chicken bone (ie- raw, uncooked) is actually okay and quite healthy for a dog, but boiling the bone or cooking it in anyway will cause it to become brittle and splinter, which is why so many people see chicken bone as dangerous.

got it!
I'll try chicken toward the end of the week and see if she tolerates it and if not, at least I'll have confirmed my suspicions.

thanks!

so far so good!...
hubby took her out for a walk and potty break within the last hour, and she had another normal bowel movement with a small amount amount of diarreha at the end...

.