# Is Nutro making my dog sick?



## cockapoolvr (Dec 25, 2006)

My vet told me to put my 4 yr old 30 lb cockapoo on Nutro dry for overweight/under active dogs. 
He likes the kibble, I mix it with fresh boiled string beans and sometimes boiled fresh carrots.
He has done well on the kibble, lost 3 lbs down to 27 lbs in 3 months.
The problem is, is that he has been vomiting approx 3 times a week, sometime more or less. Usually yellow bile, but today it was food coming up.
Dr told me to give him a lunchtime snack to keep his stomach from getting too empty. We give him a low fat cookie then. Dr also told me I could give him a half of pepcid once a day. I hate to resort to medicines, but I have given him the pepcid on occasion. 
I insisted on a stomach xray in January because of this, and the xray showed nothing except a gassy stomach.
Has anyone heard of this kibble making dogs sick? Is there another low fat type kibble that might be better,, and easy to digest?
I just hate to see him getting sick so much. He's always had a sensitive stomach, but not as bad as it is now since his diet / and or Nutro.


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## Pai (Apr 23, 2008)

> Has anyone heard of this kibble making dogs sick?


Yes, Nutro has had many recalls because of their food causing sickness in dogs. In my opinion, as a brand they have a history of poor Quality Control.

You should not have to medicate your dog and do other special things just so he can tolerate food... if there is nothing wrong with him, I would change the brand back to whatever he was doing well on before. If he has a weight problem, just reduce his portions so his weight lowers to where it should be.


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## Erin2854 (Feb 23, 2011)

Has the vet ruled out any underlying illnesses? Assuming there's nothing else going on, it sounds like the food is not agreeing with him. Nutro isn't a great food to begin with. Is it the Nutro Natural Choice Lite that he's on? We just got rid of the entire Nutro line at my store due to the poorer quality. The Lite starts with Ground rice, rice bran, beat pulp and I believe yeast culture is pretty high up there too. They also have " Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex" (A source of Vitamin K activity) which most of the premium brands no longer include as it has been linked to causing liver problems. It's also a pretty grain heavy food. I'm not much of a believer in alot of those lite/weight management foods. They tend to have alot of fillers, be high in carbs and not have much meat. I would go with a higher quality non-lite kibble and cut back on the amount you are giving him, continuing to add green beans. Canned pumpkin is something to think about adding as well. It's low cal and makes them feel fuller longer and is also awesome at helping with digestive upsets. Does he get much canned food? Looking for one thats more of a lean meat and grain free is generally a healthy choice as well. As far as a dry goes, I have heard good things about Wellness Core reduced calorie one. It's a grain free which is a big plus. Hope this helps


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## cockapoolvr (Dec 25, 2006)

He eats no canned foods. 
Right now he's eating the Nutro for overweight/underactive dogs, the one in the brown bag (Nutro food comes in different color bags). Even though the vet recommended it, I'm really thinking of switching now.


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## Erin2854 (Feb 23, 2011)

Prob the Nutro Lite then, that comes in a brown bag. Unfortunately you can't always trusts vets food recs...most know very little about nutrition I'm afraid. Nutro used to be one of the best foods out there...but ALOT has changed and there are much better quality ones to pick from (with less recall history than Nutro). I would def make the switch, esp since its clearly not agreeing with your little guy


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## tecjunkie (Nov 1, 2009)

When I picked up my puppy, they gave me a free bag of Nutro for puppy. It made my shih tzu sick so I switched him gradually to Eukanuba and now Wellness. I would never recommend feeding Nutro to anyone who owns a dog. I told a co worker about Nutro and they switched immediately to another brand. I am glad I was able to tell them my story along with the articles to convince them that this brand is what makes every dog I know of sick. I knew a few others who fed their dogs or cats Nutro and their pets got sick off of it. Another fact is that they are on every food recall list since 2007.


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## brandiw (Jan 20, 2010)

I have heard story after story of Nutro making dogs sick. In fact, my mother had all three of her different age/breed dogs on Nutro, and when they opened a new bag, all the dogs stopped eating well and started vomiting when they would eat. When she realized what was going on, she switched foods, and all the dogs started eating normally and stopped vomiting. My mom called Nutro and complained, and they stated that there was nothing wrong with the food and they didn't want a sample of it or any info off of the bag. They were quite rude to her, telling her she had no proof it was the food that made them sick. I think three dogs of different ages, breeds, and sizes all getting sick when a new bag of food was opened and then suddenly all symptoms clear up when the food was switched is too much to be just coincidence. 

I won't feed any of their products for any reason.


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## xxxxdogdragoness (Jul 22, 2010)

Wow that's something because I used to feed the nutro ultra food & almost switched back to it... Glad I didn't :O.


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## Northern_Inuit_Luv (Aug 26, 2009)

Our dog always had the runs on it...we thought it was normal puppy runs, but when we switched to Eukanuba, it all cleared up on it's own. I would agree with the others and switch to something else. If you still have a problem, then consider medicine...but medicine should be a last resort thing. 

I would recommend looking for a good low-no grain kibble. Kibble made without grain usually doesn't require a dog to have as much per day and they lose weight just from being fed the proper amount.


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## cockapoolvr (Dec 25, 2006)

I'm making the trip to Petsmart this weekend in search of a new food. 
I'm thinking Blue Buffalo, and I'll check out the Wellness. I hated giving him breakfast this morning thinking that I might be handing him something to eat that will only make him sick again.
Thank you sooo much for all your responses.


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## Erin2854 (Feb 23, 2011)

dogdragoness said:


> Wow that's something because I used to feed the nutro ultra food & almost switched back to it... Glad I didn't :O.


I believe out of all the Nutro forumlas, the Ultra is supposed to be (or at least was) the only decent one. It did make the Whole Dog Journal's list of approved and recommended foods last year. Just the Ultra though. However..it was not on the lst this year. Interesting!


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## xxxxdogdragoness (Jul 22, 2010)

Yeah that is interesting & surprising as I didn't know anything about the nutro recall & I'm a member on this forum other wise I would've thank you DF .


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## Fefesquared (Jan 30, 2013)

Did you buy Nutro Ultra in new Jersey?


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## Sparkles123 (Dec 3, 2012)

My dog did the very same thing for a couple of years, yellow bile maybe 3 times a week and the vet said she had acid reflux and put her on daily meds...I was lucky enough to find out about raw feeding and stopped the meds...dog has not thrown up since I switched!
Kibble is poison...read the book..."foods dogs die for" by Ann Martin...a real eye opener!




cockapoolvr said:


> My vet told me to put my 4 yr old 30 lb cockapoo on Nutro dry for overweight/under active dogs.
> He likes the kibble, I mix it with fresh boiled string beans and sometimes boiled fresh carrots.
> He has done well on the kibble, lost 3 lbs down to 27 lbs in 3 months.
> The problem is, is that he has been vomiting approx 3 times a week, sometime more or less. Usually yellow bile, but today it was food coming up.
> ...


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## Kathyy (Jun 15, 2008)

Max had bile vomit often on kibble as well. I suspect it was the high carb content and low fat more than kibble being toxic. Fat sates the appetite much better than carbs. I can even feed him once a day now that he eats a raw nearly carb free diet. He will still have stress related vomiting on occasion though.


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