First time posting on here and first time GSD owner (I’ve always owned Labs, HUGE DIFFERENCE). I have a 2-year-old pup named Butters and I’ve had him since he was 6 weeks. Ever since I got him I’ve feed him Blue Wilderness Bison recipe, first puppy formula then adult. He’s had random rounds of loose or spongy stool, we are very outdoorsy and he tends to get into random wild food and water. But recently the vet is thinking it’s the Blue and has recommended changing his diet. She recommended Iams, but I just feel I’d rather use a higher quality brand. I’m looking for recommendations within the same price range as Blue, I’ve heard of TOTW, Diamond, but am looking for ideas from owners that have been in similar situations.
You might also consider a decent pro-biotic. The vet prescribed theirs which failed, but found this and it worked great:
Wholistic Pet Organics Digest-All+
Targeted Enzyme Blend
Plus Prebiotics + Probiotics
Finally, I believe that you should reconsider your cavalier attitude toward "wild food" - there's a huge potential for a variety of nasty parasites that could cause everything from loose stools to much worse. Maybe I'm just too careful?
If you do your dog food it has to be a gradual change by adding the new food little at a time and increasing it by small amounts each day. Honest kitchen perfect form is good to use during the switch to help soothe the digestive track and help with soft stools. Gut sense and Sunday sundae is a good probiotic to use. I feed Fromm grain free four star line for my adult dog and have no issues with soft stool.
We had food sensitivites here as well and my pup had constant loose stool and diarrhea from the time we brought her home. You will get a lot of different answers about food but bottom line is you'll have to eventually find out what works best for YOUR particular pup. We switched gradually to a LID food. Nature's Variety Instinct Limited Lamb formula.
We also give a pre/probiotic and I second Sunday Sundae. It has worked wonders for us. Good luck!!
Since the pup has been outdoors and in water a lot, have you wormed him. You could use panacur.
For food it depends on how much you want to spend. Some good foods are Victor, Dr Tim's, Fromm, Taste of the wild, etc.
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