# My Husband Changed Food Too Fast



## Emily1970 (Apr 15, 2011)

We have 2 five month old labs and 1 3 month old Vizsla. They were on Taste of the Wild, but were having problems with excessive thirst and going to the bathroom too much, so my husband decided to switch them to Blue Buffalo. Without doing it gradually. He thought that since they want to eat sticks and everything else that it wouldn't hurt. They all love the food, but the Vizsla has the scoots, one of the labs had the scoots and bad gas, but seems some better today, and the other lab has refused to go poop so far today. They are all acting and playing normally. The lab that hasn't went poop yet today is very stubborn, and we've had 7 inches of rain in the last week, and he is not liking the wetlands we call a yard. I'm not too worried yet. They all have gas. This is only the 3rd day, is this anything to worry about yet?


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## aBlueDog (Feb 14, 2011)

WOW you have your hands full!

You are switching from a grain free to a grain food. Sometime they don't tollerate grains well. I would worry that excessive thrust and bathroom is medical not food related. Can you define further what you see as their excessive thrust and bathroom too much? They are puppies and its common for them to need to use the bathroom every 30-45 mins when young, depending on water in and food in.


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## Emily1970 (Apr 15, 2011)

Every time we would fill the bowl, they'd drink it all. These are all fairly new puppies in our household and we have had them to the vet frequently for shots, etc.. They tested positive for giardia and started meds yesterday for that also. They go about 6 times a day. Large amounts. The vet had actually suggested switching foods and was trying to get us to put them on Hill's which I've heard nothing good about. She suggested putting a dollop of yogurt on their food and thinks maybe a lot of their symptoms are related to the giardia. They're all what I guess you'd consider "water dogs", so I know that they can tend to want to play in the water and drink more just for fun, but they were drinking constantly. They're all acting fine and their playing hasn't changed. But they're very gassy. Whew!


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## aBlueDog (Feb 14, 2011)

Well they are sick... are they pooing 6times a day? or peeing? Because 6times for pee is not a lot by any standards. When our girl was younger we would go though about 4 bowls of water a day. 

Are you measuring their food or free feeding? How much food are they getting and how many times a day? 

I would stay FAR away from Hills. TOTW is actually a pretty good food. I can believe your vet would suggest switching foods when their stomachs are already upset


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## Emily1970 (Apr 15, 2011)

Pooing 6 times a day. They pee too many times to keep count. We feed them twice a day. The labs believe it or not are already HUGE at 5 months and we feed them about 1 1/2 cups twice a day. The Vizsla we feed between 3/4 and 1 cup twice a day as he is MUCH smaller. If we free fed them, the labs would eat until they bust.


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## SOKAIBA (Aug 17, 2010)

I have a 10 month old that is 75# and I only feed 3 cups a day total. He was only eating 1 1/2 to 2 cups at 5 months. You are probably feeding too much, that can cause excessive movements. The feeding scales on the bags are set for dogs that are active the entire day, or that work all day.


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## Emily1970 (Apr 15, 2011)

Wow, thanks! We have always been confused on how much to feed them. They act like they're starving constantly and a lot of the guidelines showed we weren't feeding them enough. I think we just have a lot going on with them right now. In addition to the giardia, the Vizsla had developed a staph infection on his belly and has to take Simplicef for 22 days. He's only a few days into it and the spots have already cleared up. Maybe the meds they are on are adding to the stomach upset too??


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## SOKAIBA (Aug 17, 2010)

Mine thinks he is starving too. I feed him 1 cup three times a day and it seems to help with some of the cravings. I would drop their intake by a 1/4 cup every 4 or 5 days until their bowels are under control. As long as you can feel ribs and can't see more then the first 2 (the Viszla may show more with the tighter skin) their weight is ok. Meds can deffinatly play a part, but my guess is on the over feeding. Good luck.


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## dogclass (Feb 16, 2011)

Interesting. I adopted my dog 2 months ago, and he also had Giardia. We didn't treat it, since the vet said unless it's a huge problem, it can go untreated and it'll pass on its own.

He was on Fromm brand dog food, and then I slowly added TOTW (sierra mountain fomula). TOTW works for a lot of people on this forum, but for my dog, it made him drink like twice as much water. And the poop, although it wasn't soft, there was a lot more of it than when he was on the Fromm.

I've since switch out of TOTW. Have you noticed how a few of the grain free dog foods have salt pretty high up on the list? I dont' understand why that is. For TOTW, there's more salt than blue berries, for example. For Canidae Pure Land, the salt is like the 7th ingredient.

Anyways, good luck with your dog. I'm not totally convinced that grain free is all that great, since there's still a lot of carbs from sweet potatoes. I don't know that sweet potatoes are that much better for a dog than brown rice or barley. Unless the grain free food is somelike like Orijen, where the carb content is dramatically less, I don't see grain free as all that much better than food with rice and barley. Allergies are an exception of course.


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