I need some advice

[StellaSquash]

I'll start by saying I'm 100% certain RAW is the way to go. I'm only sort of certain it will work well for my GSD.

She is currently being medicated for yet another round of bloody diarrhea. We rushed off to the emergency vet this morning. After bloodwork and xrays, I have no answer as to what caused her bloody stool and foamy vomiting. I've had her on acana/orijen (I buy one bag then the other next time, always same protein, salmon). Last week however I've been trying to switch her to a rabbit protein food to see if that would help with her itchy skin. I don't know if I gave her too much of the rabbit yesterday morning and that's what caused the disruption or not. She's been given a dose of something to stop the stomach ruckus and given fluids. Her bloodwork was normal, xray normal. no fever, no abdomen pain when examined. no idea. She's experienced this before, many times actually but only once was it so severe it was bloody and resulted in a trip to the ER vet. The issue is almost always her food. Hence putting her on acana/orijen, the alleged king of kibble. She's been doing incredibly well for a very long stretch as far as digestion goes. Which is why I blame the recent addition of the rabbit for her troubles.

Anyway, I think switching her to raw would be the best diet. I'm afraid though, given her tricky tummy that it won't be the best diet for HER. I've fed her raw chicken backs, legs from time to time in an attempt to switch to raw but my husband always dissuades me from going on. In fact I had given her a chicken back on Thursday evening and she loved it, but now he's blaming this stomach issue on that. I don't agree, but I can't help but worry. However it hasn't escaped me that whenever we do have these episodes, feeding her boiled chicken and rice is quite agreeable with her.

If anyone that has a dog with an equally sensitive stomach and successfully transitioned to Raw, I'd love to hear about it. If anyone has any advice at all I'm all ears. My poor puppy is lying downstairs drooling (nausea I'm assuming) and just trying to be still. They gave her a shot of something to help settle her stomach and I just gave another med as instructed when we got home. She was given saline injections to help hydrate. I'm hoping very much she perks up soon. She's so totally not herself. Obviously she won't be eating anything at all anytime soon.

[StellaSquash]

so no one transitioned a sensitive stomach dog to raw?

[Mog]

I can't speak from experience, but why not try her out on some chicken thighs, breast meat and chicken liver for a few days and see how it goes. If you're going back and forth to the vet now, can't see it hurting. Since you said she enjoyed the chicken, might be worth to try for a few days.

[JackandMattie]

Originally Posted by StellaSquash

so no one transitioned a sensitive stomach dog to raw?

I'm sorry, I haven't. Mine were all adults and took to it like ducks to water. Our main reason for switching was that I couldn't keep weight on one of mine and he wasn't food-motivated.

I do think it will be tougher to make the switch if hubby isn't on board, unfortunately. I think your first stop will be in settling the issue one way or another, because I'm one of those who think you should feed the dog all or nothing, and don't go switching back and forth from raw to kibble, etc...and especially if she has a sensitive stomach.

That's too bad he's not on board because raw feeding is probably your best best for the skin issues, from what I've seen in testimonials from others. Again, we didn't, and don't have skin issues. On a related matter, I realized I hadn't done it in about a year, and so I tried to clean my dogs' ears out last night. But I barely found any dirt in there, as opposed to the black tar I used to pull out of my weim's ears every month or so before we went raw.

From what you say, it sounds like she's been on three different kibbles (two salmons and then a rabbit), and then also had some raw chicken. That's probably too much switching all the way around to ask her tummy to handle.

Why don't you stick with the boiled chicken and rice for a couple of weeks while you and hubby make a decision about addressing the skin issues with raw. If y'all can agree to go raw, then start from scratch, using Lauri's guidelines: Welcome to the Raw Dog Ranch.

If not, and you have to go back to kibble, try only one at a time (not just one protein, but just one kibble period). And if that kibble doesn't work, and you must switch to find something that will work for both her skin and tummy issues, use the mix it up method...continue one kibble while gradually mixing and switching over to the new kibble.

My dogs have scooped up roadkill and survived, so they apparently have stomachs of iron. Not so, before I went raw I switched kibble suddenly once, and it was diarrhea central at my house. EEwww!

Good luck and keep us posted!

[StellaSquash]

thank you!!

[Natural Beauty Farm]

Going back and forth is harder on a sensitive stomached dog.... yes I do have experience. My old girl was on kibble her entire life and always had some issues. When we brought in a new dog that was RAW fed we decided to switch her over when her kibble ran out. She got sicker until the kibble was gone and then all her issues went away almost over night.
I will say that all my dogs get sick and have awful gas when fed store chicken parts, but are fine and good housemates when they are fed home grown chicken and duck from the yard. just my 2 cents

[StellaSquash]

I don't think I've explained myself well. The dogs have been on Acana/Orijen for quite some time. Many months, year possibly. I buy the salmon regardless of which brand i buy and I only alternate between Acana and Orijen (same company). I haven't attempted to switch them to anything for a long time. I'm only now trying to switch Riley to a different (novel) protein because she's constantly itching. She was getting one scoop of her regular Salmon and a scoop of the rabbit . It had been a week or so of that and things were going very well, until Saturday. She had had perfectly solid small stools up until saturday. The only raw she's had in many months was the chicken I gave her on Thursday evening.

I'm now slightly suspicious the Acana bag might be off... Now my other dog has been suffering some digestive upset. and he has an iron stomach.

At any rate, I pretty much "informed" my husband I'm committed to switching the dogs to 100% raw for at least 8 weeks. I bought 30 pounds of chicken quarters today to try out for a week or two before adding turkey . His main concern is the bones. I understand as I too worried before I spent three years researching but he won't research. I offered him my resources but he said no. So I get to make the decision and I need to just do it.

I very much appreciate the responses!

[Mog]

Make you check out Lauri's site and pick up some OM (organ meat, stay with chicken liver). Quarters alone won't be enough... Also due to age, you should be able to add salmon oil and Vit e.

Look up Blue Ridge Beef and find a local supplier for green tripe. Here's their dealer site by state. Check around, I can get a 2lb chub for $3.10... http://www.blueridgebeef.com/distrib...-pet-food.html
Supposed to be great for digestive systems and dogs love it... but it's supposed to smell very bad Again, all this can be found on Lauri's site.