German shepherd - sensitive stomach

[AngieW in Texas]

Our mostly German shepherd puppy is having a lot of stomach issues. She was fine the first month we had her with no problems at all. The vet dewormed her the day after we got her from the shelter at 10 weeks old.

 

She started puppy class two weeks ago. The next day, she had diarrhea. She never had any accidents, but she did wake me up during the night to use the bathroom. The vet got her fixed up with metranazidole and propectalin and dewormed her again. We did a sample and they found one roundworm egg, so that's why we dewormed her again.

 

She missed the next puppy class because I was sick.

 

The 3rd puppy class was this past Saturday. The diarrhea started that night because she woke me up to take her to the bathroom 3 times. I took her to the vet yesterday. They gave me propectalin again and recommended that I give her some canned pumpkin with her food. If the diarrhea didn't stop, they said to just call and I could pick up some metranazidole again. She woke me up twice last night to use the bathroom and she still has pudding-like stool. I just collected her sample to take to the vet and I will be picking up the metranazidole this morning.

 

I find it curious that both times this has happened the night following puppy class. I wonder if it's because of the amount of training treats there, although the treats I was using were mixed with her regular kibble, about 1/4 cup of training treats to 1 cup of kibble.

 

Any suggestions on what I can do for her? She is eating Royal Canin puppy food, which she hasn't had any problems with, although right now she is eating the special EN diet kibble.

[Denisemomof4]

What is EN diet? If she is having this issue only after puppy training, I would not give the treats. It's probably unwise with her delicate tummy anyway.

 

We rescued a puppy who had HORRIBLE diarrhea. We put her on that prescription GI food to give her system a break and then switched to grain free. She is fine now, but was so bad for awhile that ANYTHING other than her special food would give her diarrhea.

[Live2Ride]

Easy start would be to change the diet to one with no corn, no soy, no wheat....many dogs have issues with these. Royal Canin has atleast two of those. Treats need to be the same.

 

Bland smaller meals for now would be good and adding pumpkin. A yogurt could help as well since the gut flora is probably suffering

[BlsdMama]

Our German shepherd will vomit or have diahhrea if he gets anything unusual. (Like compost, but I'm sure that isn't your problem.) :glare:

 

The breed tends to have SERIOUS issues with grains. They do exceptionally well with raw, but I understand if that isn't something you're interested in. (Leerburg site is an excellent raw site.)

 

Call of the Wild dog food is truly excellent. A less expensive grain free dogfood alternative is Costco's grain free food. The quality isn't quite as good as Call of the Wild but it is slightly less expensive.

]

When Legend was a pup to keep his iron up and to keep his weight up, we fed both raw and Innova's Evo. That is awesome dogfood but it is insanely expensive.

 

Raw is the least expensive way to feed a G.S. puppy (though not once they hit 90 lbs) and it is the best for them.

 

As a perk, their stool is VERY tight, firm, and compact on raw food.

[blessed3x]

I would bring her kibble/food as her treats for the training class. Or something that you know agrees with her.

 

Our lab also has a very sensitive stomach and cannot tolerate grain or chicken. We purchased our own for his training class.

[AngieW in Texas]

EN diet is the prescription food from the vet for GI issues. We had a bag of it left over from when our golden died in August. Kylie LOVES the EN diet. She goes crazy for it. It's also very expensive, so I only want to use it for when her stomach is bothering her.

 

I'm betting that it's actually the treats that are bothering her.

 

I bought some liver to make into training treats.

http://www.dogtreatkitchen.com/easy-dog-treat-recipe.html

 

What I was using for training treats was sliced dehydrated hot dog that was mixed with her regular kibble. There was about one cup of kibble mixed with two sliced hot dogs (each hot dog made 40 pieces), but I thought that maybe the hot dog was too hard on her stomach.

 

She has done very well on her kibble. Her problems with diarrhea didn't start until she started puppy classes. She gets a lot more treats during a very short period than she is used to. It was the same treat mix that I normally used, just a whole lot more of it in a short amount of time. What she goes through during puppy class is more than what we go through for the rest of the week.

 

If it was just the training treats, I would have thought that she would get over that in a day or two. I guess with GSDs that once they tip over into stomach upset, they have a REALLY hard time getting back out of it again.

 

I fed my golden Taste of the Wild and Blue Buffalo. I'm feeding our GSD puppy Royal Canin on the vet's recommendation.

 

I am not averse to the idea of doing a raw food diet, but I need more information. Mostly what I see is articles that it's a good idea, but nothing that tells me what to feed and how much to feed.

[gingersmom]

My chesapeake bay retriever can only eat one kind of liver puppy treat. We bought her different ones and within a day her stomach was out of whack. It took us trying her out on different kinds of dog treats before we figured that one out.

 

When her stomach has gotten upset it takes about 4 days of chicken baby food and 3 days of half baby food, half dog kibble before her stomach is back to normal.

 

She gets no pig ears, rawhides or any dog toy that she can ingest.

 

We do put peanut butter on a kong and on her bones as a treat also and that agrees with her stomach.

[Live2Ride]

Our German shepherd will vomit or have diahhrea if he gets anything unusual. (Like compost, but I'm sure that isn't your problem.) :glare:

 

The breed tends to have SERIOUS issues with grains. They do exceptionally well with raw, but I understand if that isn't something you're interested in. (Leerburg site is an excellent raw site.)

 

Call of the Wild dog food is truly excellent. A less expensive grain free dogfood alternative is Costco's grain free food. The quality isn't quite as good as Call of the Wild but it is slightly less expensive.

]

When Legend was a pup to keep his iron up and to keep his weight up, we fed both raw and Innova's Evo. That is awesome dogfood but it is insanely expensive.

 

Raw is the least expensive way to feed a G.S. puppy (though not once they hit 90 lbs) and it is the best for them.

 

As a perk, their stool is VERY tight, firm, and compact on raw food.

 

:iagree:. we feed raw and when we need people to feed for us, we use Taste of the Wild grain free. Their 'waste' on raw is minimal.

 

Feed 2% of your dogs weight. About 10% of that should be in organ meat each week (livers, heart, gizzards etc.) I only give them their organ's once/twice a week and normally it's a chunk of liver appropriately sized for each dog. Our dogs get the following: 75 lb GSD gets 2 1/2 large chicken leg quarters each day, 84lb Dane gets 3, 20 lb beagle 1 large thigh/leg or 1 small quarter, the 40lb Pitt mix 1 large or 1 1/2 small quarters, and the Fiest gets the same as the beagle. I also give turkey necks, beef, pork, deer, etc. Just weigh it out and toss it to them. You eventually get good at eyeballing it. If the dog is getting a little pudgy, cut back a bit, if it's looking a little thinner than you like, add a little more. It's not overly difficult.

Edited November 13, 2012 by CountryGirl2

[kbpaulie]

3 years ago our pup had a bad stomach too. I'd severly limit the treats!!! For a while, at the rec of the vet, we fed her: cooked shredded chicken, white rice, yogurt, cottage cheese and acidepholous (SP?) from the health store. Made a world of difference.

 

I've also heard lots of people talk about canned pumpkin being a big aid for dog digestion.

[Pawz4me]

I'm not anti-raw, but I would think about it and research it thoroughly before feeding it to a still-growing large breed puppy. There are lots of potential orthopedic issues there to consider that can be greatly affected by diet. It isn't something you should jump into willy nilly w/o adequately educating yourself from a variety of sources. There are many schools of thought on various types of raw feeding models.

 

Be wary of liver-based treats. Even dogs with solid tummies can have trouble with those.

 

Two hot dogs in one evening is quite a lot. I do use them often as training treats, but if I fixed two hot dogs for my two dogs they'd be doled out as training treats over a couple of days or more, mixed with their regular kibble and some plain Cheerios. It could be some tiny ingredient like the preservatives in the hot dogs that's upsetting his stomach. I'm fine with almost all bacon, but there's one brand that I can't eat. I get an upset tummy every single time. Obviously there's some very minor something in it that's different than in other bacon.

 

Since his regular food doesn't seem to be a trigger, I'd stick with it for now until he gets well-stabilized before considering any diet change. If I wanted something meaty for training treats I'd cook up some plain chicken breast cut into small chunks.

[LaxMom]

I'd bet on the hot dogs. Our dog has an awful time with any kind of processed, cured meat. My parents had a dog with the same issues.

 

Stick with the kibble. Any piece of food fed from your hand is a treat.

[RoughCollie]

http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/ has good info on many brands of dog food.

 

I'd also make sure none of the treats were made in China.

[AngieW in Texas]

What she actually got was the equivalent of one hot dog along with 1/2 cup of kibble during class. She also got about half of a slice of cheese during that time. Normally 1/2 cup of kibble with 1 hot dog is what's in her training treat bag, but that would take at least a full week to get through.

 

I clearly need to make sure that when I do put a treat in with the kibble that it needs to be a very very very small amount.

 

Chicken is probably going to be the best bet because it is a lot easier on the stomach (chicken mixed with rice is what the vet recommended for my golden when her stomach was unsettled).

[ktgrok]

Sounds like stress colitis. Excitement can cause it. Or it could be the hot dogs. Try something yummy and unusual to the dog but easier on the tummy. You can take a can of the EN food and cut open both ends of the can. Push out the food then slice it into small pieces and bake at 200 until mostly dry. It will make "jerky" type treats. Keep them in the fridge as there are no preservatives. This would give him yummy stuff to work for that definitely won't upset his stomach. (for those wondering its a rice based, easy on the tummy food..think BRAT diet for dogs).

[Cindy in the NH Woods]

Be wary of liver-based treats. Even dogs with solid tummies can have trouble with those.

 

If I wanted something meaty for training treats I'd cook up some plain chicken breast cut into small chunks.

 

:iagree: Our German shepherd dog breeder said to watch liver, and cat food as they can cause diarrhea. Our GSD had diarrhea quite a lot as a pup. Stress, sudden food changes, and exposure at obedience classes often triggered her. Oh, and sweet potato as treats and additive in her dog food bugs her too. She is three now, and rarely gets diarrhea. I hope your pup grows out of it too! :)

 

FWIW, here is what I feed her:

 

Once a day, some cooked fresh chicken, beef or lamb, mixed with some high quality kibble (I like Wellness, mixed with a cheaper brand Iams large breed) I may add a crushed multivitamin to this.

 

Once a day, a can of dog food (Wellness stew, or Taste of the Wild) or a small can of tuna, mixed with kibble. Sometimes I mix in a tablespoon or two of canned salmon with the kibble, but salmon tends to loosen her up so I am careful.

 

When our dog had diarrhea as a pup, I gave her boiled chicken mixed with cooked rice. And I am careful not to exercise her right before or right after a meal. Training treat wise, our dog goes nuts for a pinch of cold cuts like ham, turkey or roast beef. And cooked chicken as mentioned above. :) She could care less for biscuits.

 

Good luck!