As some of you may have guessed based on my past few threads, I am having issues finding a food that agrees with Abrams that I can afford to feed. So, instead of having a ton of different brands of food sitting around, I thought I'd see if anyone has any good recommendations, because I'm lost.
The breeder was feeding (and strongly recommended) Eukanuba Large Breed puppy food. When I brought him home at 7.5 weeks, I switched him cold turkey to Diamond Naturals Chicken and Rice. He did fine for a bit, then started having loose stool. I chalked it up to being a wormy puppy. Negative fecal. Then I chalked it up to him being hot (as it was WARM outside and we didn't have air). It still continued and didn't improve. His poos pretty much looked like cow patties.
So, I did another fecal. Negative. Did a giardia snap test. Negative. Begged the vet for some Metronidazole to see if that would help (as I was getting sick and tired of cleaning up nasty cow patty poos, and he was getting me up in the middle of the night/early morning to go poop outside). While he was on the antibiotics, his poop was pretty much normal. Started him on some probiotics to see if that would make a difference. Gave it a few weeks to see if it would "kick in", and nothing.
So, a couple of days ago, he had explosive diarrhea all over his crate at 1am. I said, "Fine, enough," and had Mike go and pick up some 4Health Salmon and Potato to see if that would firm up his stool. We switched him cold turkey. He's still on the probiotics.
The past two days he has had normal stool, but now he has RANCID farts. Like, bad. He's sleeping under my feet and I'm gagging about every five minutes due to another fart coming on. I'm happy his stools are normal, but at least I didn't have to smell his gross ones when I'm trying to relax!
The 4Health S&P is an adult maintenance food (which I didn't realize when I purchased it), so he is going to have to eat something else anyway. I just don't want to purchase yet another bag of food to only have it give him horrible gas/diarrhea. Which I realize will most likely happen, but I'd like to make the best decision, so at least if/when the food does disagree with him, it was my best choice and I don't kick myself for spending $$$ on food that isn't needed.
So, he was eating this:
Nasty smelling soft served stools.
Switched to this:
Nice, solid stools. NASTY farts.
Should I stick with something that is grain inclusive (thus trying to avoid maybe a potential potato/pea issue), but fish based? Or switch to something grain free (thus, potatoes/peas), but not fish or chicken based?
Halp?
(If you're going to give me brand name ideas, I need to keep it as cheap as possible. Like, around a dollar/pound. Which limits my options, I know...I've basically been looking at 4Health and the Diamond products at TSC, as the food sold at Petsmart and such is way too $$$ for the quality of the food. I can't spend $65 for a 30 pound bag. ALS is also ideal, because then I can feed it to Cynder, too.)
The breeder was feeding (and strongly recommended) Eukanuba Large Breed puppy food. When I brought him home at 7.5 weeks, I switched him cold turkey to Diamond Naturals Chicken and Rice. He did fine for a bit, then started having loose stool. I chalked it up to being a wormy puppy. Negative fecal. Then I chalked it up to him being hot (as it was WARM outside and we didn't have air). It still continued and didn't improve. His poos pretty much looked like cow patties.
So, I did another fecal. Negative. Did a giardia snap test. Negative. Begged the vet for some Metronidazole to see if that would help (as I was getting sick and tired of cleaning up nasty cow patty poos, and he was getting me up in the middle of the night/early morning to go poop outside). While he was on the antibiotics, his poop was pretty much normal. Started him on some probiotics to see if that would make a difference. Gave it a few weeks to see if it would "kick in", and nothing.
So, a couple of days ago, he had explosive diarrhea all over his crate at 1am. I said, "Fine, enough," and had Mike go and pick up some 4Health Salmon and Potato to see if that would firm up his stool. We switched him cold turkey. He's still on the probiotics.
The past two days he has had normal stool, but now he has RANCID farts. Like, bad. He's sleeping under my feet and I'm gagging about every five minutes due to another fart coming on. I'm happy his stools are normal, but at least I didn't have to smell his gross ones when I'm trying to relax!
The 4Health S&P is an adult maintenance food (which I didn't realize when I purchased it), so he is going to have to eat something else anyway. I just don't want to purchase yet another bag of food to only have it give him horrible gas/diarrhea. Which I realize will most likely happen, but I'd like to make the best decision, so at least if/when the food does disagree with him, it was my best choice and I don't kick myself for spending $$$ on food that isn't needed.
So, he was eating this:
Ingredients:
Chicken, chicken meal, whole grain brown rice, white rice, cracked pearled barley, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), oatmeal, dried plain beet pulp, egg product, flaxseed, natural chicken flavor, fish meal, vit., min., etc.
Guaranteed Analysis:
Protein: 26%, Fat: 16%
Chicken, chicken meal, whole grain brown rice, white rice, cracked pearled barley, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), oatmeal, dried plain beet pulp, egg product, flaxseed, natural chicken flavor, fish meal, vit., min., etc.
Guaranteed Analysis:
Protein: 26%, Fat: 16%
Switched to this:
Ingredients:
Salmon, ocean fish meal, potatoes, peas, cracked pearled barley, egg product, millet, canola oil, tomato pomace, natural flavor, flaxseed, salt, choline chloride, dried chicory root, glucosamine hydrochloride, dried kelp, carrots, apples, tomatoes, blueberries, spinach, dried skim milk, cranberries, rosemary extract, parsley flake, yucca schidigera extract, vit., min., etc.
Guaranteed Analysis:
Crude Protein 25.0% (min.), Crude Fat 14.0% (min.), Crude Fiber 3.0% (max.)
Salmon, ocean fish meal, potatoes, peas, cracked pearled barley, egg product, millet, canola oil, tomato pomace, natural flavor, flaxseed, salt, choline chloride, dried chicory root, glucosamine hydrochloride, dried kelp, carrots, apples, tomatoes, blueberries, spinach, dried skim milk, cranberries, rosemary extract, parsley flake, yucca schidigera extract, vit., min., etc.
Guaranteed Analysis:
Crude Protein 25.0% (min.), Crude Fat 14.0% (min.), Crude Fiber 3.0% (max.)
Should I stick with something that is grain inclusive (thus trying to avoid maybe a potential potato/pea issue), but fish based? Or switch to something grain free (thus, potatoes/peas), but not fish or chicken based?
Halp?
(If you're going to give me brand name ideas, I need to keep it as cheap as possible. Like, around a dollar/pound. Which limits my options, I know...I've basically been looking at 4Health and the Diamond products at TSC, as the food sold at Petsmart and such is way too $$$ for the quality of the food. I can't spend $65 for a 30 pound bag. ALS is also ideal, because then I can feed it to Cynder, too.)