17 wk puppy won't get used to new dry food

[Rach and H]

Hi Everyone!

This is kind of a long story so I'll try to condense it as much as possible. We got our puppy at 11 wks from a breeder who was giving him Purina Pro Plan dry food. We did some research and decided we wanted to give him a better quality food than Purina, so after a couple weeks we slooowly transitioned him to Blue Buffalo. He got diarrhea from it and after 2 weeks of very loose stools we put him on a mixture of boiled chicken, white rice, a dollop of plain canned pumpkin, and a dollop of plain yogurt. He was on that for 2 days then we followed the advice of our vet and started slowly mixing in dry Nature's Choice puppy Salmon & Sweet Potato formula. It was a lower protein food, less 'rich' than Blue, grain free. We gave him that for about 2 weeks (from 13 weeks old to about 15 weeks old), mixing it with boiled chicken and rice (no more pumpkin or yogurt) and slowly increasing the amount of dry food. He'd be okay with tiny amounts of dry food, but the minute we started giving him more, his poop would get softer or turn to complete pudding-like diarrhea. We followed the advice of ANOTHER vet and took him off the Salmon dry food, and started giving him small amounts of Canidae Pure Puppy Chicken & Rice dry food, still mixed with mostly chicken and white rice.
He has been on the Canidae for a little over a week now. He gets fed twice a day. About half a cup of white rice and half a cup of the boiled chicken. He started off with maybe a tablespoon of dry food, and he's up to between a 1/4 cup and 1/2 a cup of Canidae mixed with the chicken and rice with each meal. His poop has never really gotten 'normal' on this stuff and now that we are giving him a little bit more of it, his stool is pretty soft. I wouldn't say it's terrible diarrhea but definitely not what I'd like to see at this point.
To make matters worse, he threw up yesterday and today. Both times his food was completely undigested. Yesterday it came up after a walk, about 5 hours after his dinner. Today it came up just after going outside to go potty and about 6.5 hours after breakfast. This seems like a long time for the food to just be sitting in his stomach undigested!
He has been chewing on a compressed rawhide bone, but we only give it to him for a couple hours a day and he is supervised with it so he doesn't break off big chunks or anything. I'm not sure if that could be causing it, or if going outside and walking/jumping around could be upsetting his tummy, or if it's all because of the food.
He tested positive for Giardia several weeks ago, and was put on medicine for it, but he was cleared of any parasites at his last vet visit a week ago. The vet does have him on a powdered probiotic-- just thought that might be worth mentioning.
Sorry this is so long, I tried to keep it as brief as possible . Has anyone else gone through this or does anyone have any advice?? I'm at my wits' end on what to do for him. I'm worried that he won't be gaining weight or getting enough nutrients since he's living mostly on white rice and chicken, not to mention the prolonged diarrhea.
I'm thinking about just putting him back on the Purina but I don't even know if he would still be 'used' to it at this point, since he's been off of it for 6 weeks, but when we got him his poop was very solid.
I would really, really appreciate any advice or suggestions. Thanks everyone!

 

[Jinnytee]

If he continues to vomit, I would take him to the vet to make sure that he doesn't have an upper GIT blockage from something he has chewed. Even the most carefully watched puppies manage to swallow all sorts of stuff. The fact that his food was still in his stomach from 6 hours ago does not seem right to me .... as if something was stopping it from passing into his intestines.

Aside from this, the issue with the runny stool ...... you could try changing his kibble. It can take a while, trying different brands, but you will find something that will suit him. I would stop mixing his kibble with rice, if you now know that the giardia is all cleared up. Rice is basically a filler with little nutritional value. Many people on here swear by a tablespoon of pumpkin mixed in with the kibble to make a stool firmer .... so you could add back the pumpkin, which is good for him anyway.

Also- try changing to a different protein based kibble, that he hasn't had before ..... and stick to a grain free limited ingredient brand so that there is less chance of triggering sensitivities.

Hope your little guy is OK

 

[TwoDogs]

I wouldn't switch to another food just yet. He's just coming off a case of Giardia, so I'd take it easy with his gut. He might be free of the parasite, but his intestine wall is likely not fully repaired. Instead, I'd probably go to three feedings a day (not an additional helping, just divide his daily amount into 3 meals). This will put less of a load on his gut at any one time and allow it the couple of weeks that it might need to get back to normal.

I'd get rid of the rawhide. A lot of dogs get diarrhea from rawhide--even dogs that don't normally have a sensitive stomach. It might not seem like that could be the cause, but one of my dogs can't tolerate even small amounts of rawhide so it may be worth it to eliminate it and see if it makes a difference.

I'd also look at how much you're feeding him. If we are concerned about putting keeping weight on a pup, we sometimes tend to overfeed--it's a natural urge. Overfeeding can cause diarrhea though. I couldn't tell from your post how much he's now getting combined with the kibble so this might not be a contributing factor, but it is worth mentioning.

It looks to me like you just might have reintroduced kibble too soon. From your post it sounds like he was only on the bland diet for 2 days before you introduced kibble. If it were me, I'd keep him on the cooked rice & chicken (with a bit of sweet potato or pumpkin) for at least a week before I introduced any kibble at all. See if you actually get consistently firm stools with just that before you add any kibble. If you do then start to add it slowly--like maybe building to 1/4 cup of kibble with each meal by the end of the second week.

 

[Bathel]

To add to the thread... My little girl didn't have firm stools until she was over 1 year old. I would be worried about Liquid stools, but if it is still "formed" into a shape, but extremely soft I wouldn't get too stressed out over it.

Following Two dogs advise would be key. I'd get rid of that Rawhide. They're nasty things anyway. I'm sure others have different opinions, but do a search on the bad side of rawhides and you'll most likely not buy another one again.

I would also do three a day feedings as pups have small stomachs and the larger quantity of food at one time may cause the loose stool. 3 smaller feedings can help (although with my girl it wasn't until we switch to two a day feedings at 1 year that she started having firm stools).