# Can wet food cause diarrhea???



## fluffy1893 (Apr 21, 2018)

Hello. We have an almost 6 month old shepherd mix, who for the last week has been having frequent diarrhea in his crate and around the house. He was previously house and crate trained, minus the rare excited pee dribble. At first we thought it was health related. The vet checked him out and he is not dehydrated, does not have worms, parasites or infection. She suggested it might be behavioural. I'm wondering if it could be food related. When we got him from the rescue he was being fed Purina Puppy and Dog Chow mixed with wet food and warm water. We had no choice but to switch right away, and we picked Performatrin Ultra Grain Free Large Breed Puppy. He was on this for a month, hated eating it, did not gain weight and it caused 7-8 loose stools a day, not diarrhea but still really loose. The vet recommended Pro Plan Focus Large Breed Puppy. He loved eating this food, poops were great, but still didn't gain weight. So after a month on this the vet recommended switching again. He has been on Iams Large Breed Puppy for a month now, loves the food, has been gaining weight well and we thought doing well...which is great because really didn't want to switch food again on the poor guy. This past week though he has been having diarrhea frequently. Like, none of his poops are formed or normal, all just liquid. We have always mixed a few tablespoons (usually 3-4) of wet canned food into his kibble, and the brand of wet food has not changed. Its Presidents Choice Extra Meaty. The only thing that changes is the flavour...I'm wondering if wet food could be the cause of his diarrhea this past week???


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## Sabis mom (Mar 20, 2014)

You could be looking at a Giardia issue, you could be overfeeding or he could have gotten into something.
Any time I hear a struggle to gain weight I think overfeeding first. If you are having to fight to put weight on, unless he is in danger I would not worry if he is a bit thin, some dogs just are. A vet suggesting that diarrhea is behavioral isn't right. 
So to clear up the diarrhea try a fast and then some boiled, skinless chicken and rice in small frequent meals for a few days to let his digestive system rest


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## Momto2GSDs (Mar 22, 2012)

Yes, a change in "canned" food could cause this. 
Different flavors.......Different ingredients.

Did you just open a new bag of kibble? Sometimes they can be bad, so take that into consideration too.

Did you give him new treats?

I would fast him for 12 to 24 hours, water or bone broth only, then, I would do as Sabis Mom said by using Boiled Boneless Skinless Chicken or Turkey breast (rinsed well) then shredded, mixed with Long Cooking White Rice.

Prepare the White Rice (not instant) as follows: Cook the rice with about 2 times the amount of water suggested. The cook time will take almost twice as long but will make the rice super digestible. Adjust stove heat towards the end of cooking time so as not to burn.

Ratio mix should be 2 cups rice to 1 cup chicken.

Feeding should be divided into about 4 smaller feedings per day. You could even add 1 Tablespoon of PLAIN Canned Pumpkin per meal.

Adjust amount of this mix fed per day for your size dog.

After a few days of normal stool, transition with small amounts of your kibble mixed with Chicken/Rice mix, taking a few days to change eventually transitioning out the Chicken/Rice mix. If stool gets loose during the transition, go back to previous amount fed (where stool was solid) and hold at that amount for a day or so until his gut gets use to it. Then increase again. This is called "bowel tolerance".  


Instead of adding canned food, just add some really warm tap water to his kibble and let it set for a few minutes to get the aroma effect going for him which entices them to eat. 
You may have a dog with a sensitive gut, which is VERY common in GSD's, so be careful with what you introduce to his diet.


If diarrhea doesn't clear up, have vet do an ELISA test for Giardia as Sabis Mom suggested.


Moms


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## fluffy1893 (Apr 21, 2018)

We have been feeding the same kibble for about a month and it is just been a week that we have noticed diarrhea, so we haven't changed his food. I did wonder about the wet food simply because, yeah, different ingredients with different flavours. I wasn't sure if that little amount could affect his stomach though. I guess it seems like a little amount to me, but a lot too him.
The bag isn't new, opened about 2 weeks ago. I don't think it is over feeding because it has been the same amount this week as it was last week. The vet suggested behavioural because he gets plenty of opportunities to go outside. And I know puppies have the urge to go shortly after eating so we do take him out 30-45 minutes after eating. Someone else suggested it could be the excitement of being outside then coming inside that is causing diarrhea, because it does seem to happen within 20 minutes of coming inside, not always but frequently works this way.
I will call the vet when they open and ask if she did a Elisa test, thank you!!!


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## Sabis mom (Mar 20, 2014)

Thanks Moms! I forget that not everyone knows HOW to cook chicken and rice, since it's a staple for most long time dog owners. Lol.

OP the only reason I am suggesting Giardia is because your location says Northern Ontario, where it's fairly common. I don't always jump right to it as I don't think it's quite as common as people think. 
Should be heading for Northern ON myself in a few months. Might pick your brain. Lol.


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## fluffy1893 (Apr 21, 2018)

Sabis mom said:


> Thanks Moms! I forget that not everyone knows HOW to cook chicken and rice, since it's a staple for most long time dog owners. Lol.
> 
> OP the only reason I am suggesting Giardia is because your location says Northern Ontario, where it's fairly common. I don't always jump right to it as I don't think it's quite as common as people think.
> Should be heading for Northern ON myself in a few months. Might pick your brain. Lol.


The vet did not do an Giardia test...so if he is still having diarrhea by Friday morning she will.

By all means pick away!!!


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## Sabis mom (Mar 20, 2014)

fluffy1893 said:


> The vet did not do an Giardia test...so if he is still having diarrhea by Friday morning she will.
> 
> By all means pick away!!!


I think I will be somewhere north of North Bay and south of Timmins, lol. Have contacts around Kirkland Lake sooo... Taking the motorhome and will be living in that for a year or so I think.


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## Garry125 (Apr 17, 2018)

I had an issue with my puppy. Untill I put her on probiotics and I switched her to taste of the wild. So nice to see soild stool now. She was tested for everything came back negative. I'm taking her off of the probiotics because the food has it built into it.


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## Shane'sDad (Jul 22, 2010)

Garry125 said:


> I had an issue with my puppy. Untill I put her on probiotics and I switched her to taste of the wild. So nice to see soild stool now. She was tested for everything came back negative. I'm taking her off of the probiotics because the food has it built into it.


I own 2 male adults....one super picky eater and one who will eat anything but has had a loose stool since 8 weeks...we thought it would go away as an adult...it didn't...over the years he's had many different tests done....we tried different kibbles ( all I'm sure had grain in them ) ....mixing in.different combos of chicken-turkey-rice and canned food.....stools remained "loose".....we finally decided it is what it is.
Our other picky eater slowed down eating recently to the point we were concerned he was slowly loosing weight.....I started a search for another brand of kibble...grain free.....many well thought of brands (Fromm, Canidae and more)...also tried Taste of the Wild ( I didn't have a lot of hope-because it wasn't as expensive as some).....my "picky" eater loved it and a side benefit was the other dog w/chronic loose stools for the first time had a fairly normal firm poop. Your pup may not even like the taste of TOTW and very well may have another health issue going on as your Vet does more testing.
Many forum members here rate TOTW as a middle of the road food.....I believe that's true...because it's certainly not the priciest food on the market--for me though..... it "fixed" a picky eater and firmed up the poop of another dog

I don't think wet food is your issue--we've always mixed water or broth in with whatever kibble we feed


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## Sunsilver (Apr 8, 2014)

I'm in Ontario too, and giardia was MY very first thought!

When I was living in Sundridge, both my dogs got very sick after falling through the ice into a beaver pond in late spring. Metronidazole and Clavamox fixed them both up pretty quickly! The vet never even bothered to test their poop for the parasite after I told him what had happened. He just KNEW, given the timing, that that was most likely what the problem was.

But giardia can be picked up from other places, too. It's pretty common.


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## Magwart (Jul 8, 2012)

Re Ontario -- 

An interesting tidbit I learned from talking to an vet in Colorado: there's giardia all over the state, in the lakes, ponds, and rivers. He practices in a recreational area where most people are out with their dogs every day, and dogs swim in those wild places. If you see a body of water there, you'll probably see a dog in it with an owner close by! And yet this vet almost never sees a case of giardia, except in dogs that are visiting or just moved to the area. The local dogs simply don't get it much....despite lots of his patients having lots of time swimming in water with giardia. Strange! 

His theory is that they've built up some natural defense by life-long exposure -- one not presently known. Or maybe it's that they're a very healthy population (the dogs are like the people in CO -- longest lived, most physically active population in the entire U.S.). The independent dog supply store there sells more boxes of THK than bags of kibble (and the kibble-fed dogs are mostly eating Fromm and Orijen)....so this is an unusual, small population of fit, well-fed dogs that accompany owners hiking at elevation, mountain biking, etc. Lots of them are mixed-breeds from the local human society, and they bring stray dogs up from Indian Reservations...so it's not local evolution in action. Something's happening after the dogs get acclimated.


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