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Runny poo/sensitive stomach-best dog food?

4K views 9 replies 10 participants last post by  mydogs 
#1 ·
I have a question. Our male german shepherd, 7 months, has had soft runny stools, we've been to the bet every two weeks, tried a bunch of brands, and the only thing that has worked so far is the prescription Royal Canine Gastro Puppy (?) the downfall is, a) it's a prescription, and b) it costs $40 for an 8lb bag that lasts 10 days...we feed our choc lab Canidae, we don't like low end dog food, but honestly, $120 a month for one dog for dog food is a bit much...has anyone had experience? Or have any recommendations on good foods? We've tried, Eukanuba, Science Diet, Blue Buff Basics, Canidae, Royal canine GD puppy, Wellness, and I'm sure I'm missing one...we've also tried using probiotics on his food as well as pumpkin, no luck. And all his tests have came back great...thank you all for any help!
 
#2 ·
We're going through the exact same thing right now with our Shiloh pup. 5 Months, thought it may have been Giardia, so treated for that, meds worked for 2 days, then stopped working the rest of the 5 days. Vet said it wasn't Giardia because the meds wouldn't just stop working... so we tried probiotics, those help the first BM after having the probiotics but don't help the rest... so our next step is switching her food... we're going to be trying Natural's Choice Lamb recipe. She's on Acana LBP right now, but we're having trouble finding a local LBP food that doesn't have grains or chicken as the main ingredient.
 
#3 · (Edited)
I'm wondering if it might be a bout of giardia (or even coccidia). Giardia is very, very hard to spot in a fecal test, so it gets missed a lot. Conditions have to be "just right" to catch it on the slide.

Whipworms can also be very tricky to spot on a slide. I've had many shelter techs miss them, only to have our rescue's vet find them a week or two later. Re-running the fecal test is possibly worth doing. I have known a lot of dogs who had "negative" fecal tests one week who then had "positive" tests a week later upon being re-tested, when we were skeptical of the "negative" result.

With that many food changes, I wonder if the frequent food changes themselves may be stoking this. That's a lot of foods -- how long were you on each one of them? Have you tried novel proteins and a limited ingredient diet long enough (~10 weeks) to see if it's an allergy?

What probiotic did you use? For how long? What about digestive enzymes?
 
#5 ·
We use Loyall Lamb and Rice made by Nutrena/Cargill. We wet through two rounds of treatment for Giardia so I know what you are going through either the hard to clean up stools. Since he has been in that, he has also stopped scratching/corn nibbling all the time and his runny eyes has stopped as well. Success!
 
#8 ·
I know a few folks who have had lots of success with Purina Pro Plan Sensitive Skin and Stomach. Might be worth looking in to. You could do a search here on the forum and see where it's popped up in discussions before. I know I've read a few things about it working for dogs with loose stools when other kibbles did not, or as an alternative to prescription kibble.
 
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