Golden Irish Food Recommendations

[harryboy]

Hi, we adopted a retriever cross from Spain a few months ago, she appears to be crossed with a red setter.  From the go we have had problems with her tummy, she will eat anything but her poo has always been soft, smelly and lots of it.  Recent tests on a sample have come back negative from several types of bacteria, worm etc.  She was put on a course of antibiotics and given Hills ID Gastrointestinal, for nearly 2 weeks we have had solid poos, no smell and no flatulence. Vets advice was to change her back onto her normal food (CSJ she wouldn't touch it) or to introduce a new food, which we did Wainwrights Fish & Rice mixed with some of the pate in their range, whilst on the antibiotics, 3 days off medication and tonight we have another cow pat.  Its seems there is a cycle in that she is fine when the food is first introduced, but as though her system rejects/gets used to it and the soft poo cycle starts again.  She does itch and loses quite a lot of hair, she is fine in herself and always asks to go outside, so although there is a lot of poo she is clean.  Anyone had similar problems and any food recommendations, really not keen on the raw food diet and she does have a problem with chicken. Even less keen on the cost of the science plan given that the ingredients are awful.

[Tinyplanets]

Hello and welcome to the forum, I am sorry your dog is having problems. It is difficult to know what to recommend without knowing what is causing the problem.  It isn't uncommon for  antibiotics to cause stools to be loose but if she has been off them for a few days, that should have settled. If your dog has issues with chicken, could she  be possibly be sensitive to other ingredients too? It might be worth trying a food with very few ingredients and seeing how you get on. Something like Forthglade springs to mind. At this stage I would still be consulting with your vet to see if they can try to figure out what is causing the problem. Then it will be easier to search for a suitable diet.

[harryboy]

HI Thanks for your reply.  She was fine whilst on the antibiotics, firm poo and normal coloured the opposite to most dogs on them I'm sure.  The vet has suggested a dry food fish based so we have her on the wainwrights but we have only had a couple of soft poos so maybe its early days and we need to give it more time. Its quite possible she managed to eat cat poo whilst our attention was elsewhere (her favourite snack if she can find it) so this doesn't help. We are adding fresh white fish to the wainwrights from tomorrow and we have pro-kolin to use as recommended by the vet if she continues to be loose.  The vet isn't keen to go up the allergy testing route just yet, just wondered if anyone else had similar problems. In the early days with her we put her onto rice and boiled chicken which was catastrophic and any treat we gave her chicken based had the same issues.

[Dottie]

Hello and welcome to the forum. In the absence of any disease, intolerance could be the problem but it is a case of finding what this/these are.  You already know that he cannot tolerate chicken so that's a start. I agree with Tinyplanets in that a wet diet would be best, maybe grain free. They tend to have plain, simple recipes and are easier to digest. If you are minded to try something like this and need help using the filters, please ask.