# First two days of raw diet help



## c00per (May 28, 2020)

Hi all, I have an almost 6 month German Shepard Husky mix. He has had diarrhea and vomiting for about a month. He had previously been fine with kibble but started to just pick at it. We went to ID canned food and he seemed to like that better but it is expensive and we didn't want to keep him on that for very long. I had been researching raw diets for him since we got him but was waiting until he was older. Yesterday we started the diet, we used chicken breast for the muscle meat and wings for the meaty bone. (wanted to stay with chicken for two weeks as long as he was OK on it) His first stool was better than normal but his second(first today) was all liquid again and had a large piece of bone in it. Should we stop the diet? Is this normal?


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

I think it sounds like you have a medical issue that needs to addressed, putting him back on the ID food that he was tolerating until you figure it out.


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## c00per (May 28, 2020)

Jax08 said:


> I think it sounds like you have a medical issue that needs to addressed, putting him back on the ID food that he was tolerating until you figure it out.


We have done multiple rounds of stool testing, blood work, and he did end up solidifying stool at the end of our second bag of dry after we ended the half dry half wet mix. I guess I wasn't specific on that. Still go back to ID?


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

I would. If you have an animal with issues, you feed what works. if you've tested for b12, sibo and epi then I would ask about IBD, which is biopsy. Give his system a rest and let it heal.


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

Jax08 said:


> I would. If you have an animal with issues, you feed what works. if you've tested for b12, sibo and epi then I would ask about IBD, which is biopsy. Give his system a rest and let it heal.


And if you are going to feed a puppy raw, especially one tha tis not digesting his food properly, then find a commercial food. I really like K9 Kravings.


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## Pawsed (May 24, 2014)

I think that you are rushing this. You need to take it slowly and very gradually introduce new foods. Any sudden change in diet will cause problems with stool.

When our dogs were changed to raw, we took 2 months to completely switch them over. They never had a problem, but the time frame gave their digestive systems the chance to develop the bacteria they needed to digest the new food properly.

If I were you, I would put the dog back on the diet he was doing best on and very slowly start to give him small pieces of the raw diet, maybe just a piece of wing. After a week of doing that, give him a whole wing. A week later, give him a bit more, maybe a part of the breast and a whole wing. Keep monitoring the stools and if they start to get soft, decrease the amount of raw. If they are good, you can add a bit more the next week.

Take you time and give your dog's system and chance to adjust. It doesn't happen overnight.

I didn't see any mention of feeding secreting organ meat. They need that as well and it, too, should be introduced slowly.


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## Springbrz (Aug 13, 2013)

Having a dog with life long GI issues and food issues I can only tell you that I'm for both kibble and raw diets. It's about what works for your dog. I did prey model raw and we still had GI issues. Poor poops and vomiting. I tried several commercial diets that seems ok but was followed with refusal to eat, loose poops again and occasional vomiting. 
At the end of a very long road I learned that for my dog once we figured out what foods she couldn't have raw bone was the issue. Whole bones, ground bone didn't matter. She couldn't digest it. So we switched to bone meal powder. Made a huge difference. We also found that for our dog that raw plus kibble worked best. 
As she has aged her needs have changed. Currently we are doing kibble with homemade cooked diet as she no longer wants raw food. 
My words of wisdom is if you have something that works stick with it. I can appreciate the expense issues trust me. Currently my dog can only have beef and lamb for home cooked. Have you seen the price of beef lately and lamb has always been out of reach price wise. Sadly the only kibble she tolerates is a LID lamb and rice of a not so great quality. But it works and that's what we feed. Good luck.


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## c00per (May 28, 2020)

Springbrz said:


> Having a dog with life long GI issues and food issues I can only tell you that I'm for both kibble and raw diets. It's about what works for your dog. I did prey model raw and we still had GI issues. Poor poops and vomiting. I tried several commercial diets that seems ok but was followed with refusal to eat, loose poops again and occasional vomiting.
> At the end of a very long road I learned that for my dog once we figured out what foods she couldn't have raw bone was the issue. Whole bones, ground bone didn't matter. She couldn't digest it. So we switched to bone meal powder. Made a huge difference. We also found that for our dog that raw plus kibble worked best.
> As she has aged her needs have changed. Currently we are doing kibble with homemade cooked diet as she no longer wants raw food.
> My words of wisdom is if you have something that works stick with it. I can appreciate the expense issues trust me. Currently my dog can only have beef and lamb for home cooked. Have you seen the price of beef lately and lamb has always been out of reach price wise. Sadly the only kibble she tolerates is a LID lamb and rice of a not so great quality. But it works and that's what we feed. Good luck.


Any recommendation on getting him to eat the ID food better. He really only eats it if my parents dog is sitting in the room. The two days of raw so far he ate in a few minutes in one sitting.


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## Springbrz (Aug 13, 2013)

c00per said:


> Any recommendation on getting him to eat the ID food better. He really only eats it if my parents dog is sitting in the room. The two days of raw so far he ate in a few minutes in one sitting.


You could put a few small pieces of raw/cooked meat or a tiny bit of liver (raw or cooked) on the ID food. You could also put a small dollup of plain pureed pumpkin, plain yogurt, even a few sprinkles of cheese as a topper. As @Pawsed suggested raw may work but you may have to really slow things down and transition very slowly. Given your pups age I would strongly suggest a premade balance raw or a base mix with meat ( the Honest Kitchen or Sojos are a couple well known common ones )if you want to continue to try a raw diet. It is far to easy to get a raw diet wrong. I spent months doing research. I would also not discount the possibility that your pup has food sensitivities. Very common in the breed. It's tricky finding out what works and what doesn't . Keep a food diary and poop/vomiting diary. It also helps to take poop pictures so you can compare diet with poop results. 

*It is important to rule out parasites, giardia, coccidia, sibo and EPI before playing food roulette.*

Specific proteins are common culprits but not always the problem. With kibbles and base mixes or even some premade raw formulas peas, lentils (any legume), type of fat or type of grain can cause the problems you are seeing provided other medical issues have been ruled out. 

Just to give you an idea: through testing and elimination diets we know our dog can not have the following:
Chicken, turkey, venison, rabbit, pork and all fish (white and salmon). At first she tolerated duck but that eventually became a problem protein so nothing with feathers. 
She also can't have wheat, corn, barley, millet, oats, peas. lentils, peanut butter and the list goes on. To say she is allergic to everything is pretty close. *My dog is not the norm* with her food issues but If you search the forum you see a lot of GSD's have GI issues resulting from food sensitivities.

Our list of safe foods:
Beef, lamb,goat rice and limited potatoes. Not a lot to choose from...but we make it work. 

Quick tip: look at your pups anus. What color is it? if it is pale normal skin color that's a good thing. If it is dark pink or red and possibly inflamed it is a good indicator that a food sensitivity is the root cause of your pups issues. It's not a fool proof method but tends to ring true more often then not.


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## c00per (May 28, 2020)

Springbrz said:


> You could put a few small pieces of raw/cooked meat or a tiny bit of liver (raw or cooked) on the ID food. You could also put a small dollup of plain pureed pumpkin, plain yogurt, even a few sprinkles of cheese as a topper. As @Pawsed suggested raw may work but you may have to really slow things down and transition very slowly. Given your pups age I would strongly suggest a premade balance raw or a base mix with meat ( the Honest Kitchen or Sojos are a couple well known common ones )if you want to continue to try a raw diet. It is far to easy to get a raw diet wrong. I spent months doing research. I would also not discount the possibility that your pup has food sensitivities. Very common in the breed. It's tricky finding out what works and what doesn't . Keep a food diary and poop/vomiting diary. It also helps to take poop pictures so you can compare diet with poop results.
> 
> *It is important to rule out parasites, giardia, coccidia, sibo and EPI before playing food roulette.*
> 
> ...


My only other question or concern would be are the bones he already ate going to harm him. He chewed them up not great but not bad probably broke each wing bone into 5-6 pieces. It’s been about 16 hours since his last raw meal (switched back to ID earlier) and he is acting his normal psycho energy self. Do I have anything to worry about with the bones?


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## Springbrz (Aug 13, 2013)

c00per said:


> My only other question or concern would be are the bones he already ate going to harm him. He chewed them up not great but not bad probably broke each wing bone into 5-6 pieces. It’s been about 16 hours since his last raw meal (switched back to ID earlier) and he is acting his normal psycho energy self. Do I have anything to worry about with the bones?


Not a vet but I would say he is probably fine. Just keep a watchful eye for next day making sure he is passes solid stool (not just liquid), eating and drinking well with no vomiting and his energy remains normal.


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## Momto2GSDs (Mar 22, 2012)

Another good idea when beginning raw is to remove all of the skin and visible fat from the chicken.
Feeding skin and fat would put some of my dogs into diarrhea mode if I didn't introduce it slowly.

I would follow the suggestion of a commercially prepared BALANCED & COMPLETE diet containing organs, until your pup is a year old or so. This will give you time to research putting a complete diet together.

Here are some other choices for prepared raw meals that may be available locally to you from "pet boutiques":
These are all COMPLETE & BALANCED - RAW foods. Your choice depends on what specifics (such as organic, manufacturing practices =HACCP, GMP, or Anti-Pathogen Treatment=HPP, ect.,) are important to you AND the price per pound. 

There are even more expensive products out there.

*Bravo:* Discover Balance Raw Diet | Beef Frozen Raw Dog Food Diet - Bravo Pet Food Find a store: Find a Bravo Retailer - Bravo Pet Food

*Northwest Naturals: * *https://nw-naturals.net/chubs/* Find a store: Store Locator | Northwest Naturals

*Primal: **https://primalpetfoods.com/pages/canine-choose-your-primal* Find a store: Primal Pet Foods: Store Locator Pronto is smaller pieces: Raw Frozen Feline Venison Formula 

*Stella & Chewys: *Venison Blend Frozen Raw Dinner Patties - Stella & Chewy's Pet Food
Stella & Chewy is HPP

You may find other commercially prepared brands in your area, *but *the description *MUST SAY*: meets the AAFCO standard for *complete and balanced nutrition for all life stages*.

Note that when beginning raw
*your dog may go thru a "detox" or "healing" or "herxing" as some people call it, resulting in some unpleasant signs! I have a list if you'd like it.
*your dog may drink less water due to the moisture in the food
*you dogs stool will be different than when he/she was on kibble
*your dog may not defecate as often as he/she normally does.


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