# Doggies having a reaction to Wellness Small Breed



## tut078620 (Feb 5, 2009)

I've got three dogs, a Yorkie, Pomeranian, and Shih Tzu.

I transitioned them for about 1.5 to 2 months to Wellness Small Breed. They were fine and once in a while would have slighly loose stools, but I thought that was because of the transition.

But for the last week or so, they have gone to Wellness 100%. I give them Wellness canned and dry food. I did transition them over to the canned food when I was working them over to the Wellness dry food.

My Yorkie had mucuosy diarrhea and my Pomeranian is incredibly runny, it's like pudding.

As for my Shih Tzu, Monday his stool was okay, but I haven't been able to see how it's been since I haven't been able to walk him due to all the rain. I noticed though that sometimes his stool was loose during the transition and sometimes it was fine. But I know the other two are having diarrhea b/c their ends were quite messy and the Pom went on his bed in his kennel, something he never does.

I've read that this may be some kind of "detox" that they are going through after switching from a low quality food (Science Diet Light and Senior for the Yorkie).???

I was really excited about this brand, it's got all the ingredients I was looking for. It's the only one I've found thus far with both Chondroiton Sulfate and Glucosamin Hydrochloride. I've read that this can help my Yorkie's collapsing trachea issue and my Pom's weak legs. But I also read that this is not recognized as an essential nutrient by the AAFCO.

Has anyone's dog(s) have this kind of reaction before it got better when switching to Wellness? I've got them back on Halo since they were fine with it when I was mixing Halo with Wellness. The store clerk did say that it may be too rich for them and she's had a lot of customers return Wellness due to the diarrhea issues.

Also, any other recommendations? I'm looking at Blue Buffalo Small Breed since it's got the Glucosamine Hydrochloride in it and has some good ingredients. The only thing I'm concerned was that on dogfoodanalysis.com, it said the black malted barley may cause yeast issues. My Shih Tzu and Yorkie have this issue in their eye area and it decreased when I switched from SD and the yeast is something I want to avoid. Also read the lifesource bits are kind of hard and my Yorkie does not have teeth, so I'm bit concerned about that. She eats 3/4 wet and 1/4 dry food. Thanks.


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## 5 s corral (Dec 31, 2007)

why not keep them on the halo if they are doing well on it my 3 had a lot of gas with wellness 
keep us posted 
jamie


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## tut078620 (Feb 5, 2009)

5 s corral said:


> why not keep them on the halo if they are doing well on it my 3 had a lot of gas with wellness
> keep us posted
> jamie


It just doesn't seem to have much meat content. By the ingredients listed, you would almost think it's vegetarian dog food, which I did consider before but I just don't know if there has been enough research about dogs on vegetarian diets. Also, Halo doesn't have the Glucosamine and Chondroiton I'm looking for.

But then again, if it is working for them... SD didn't have much meat content as well, so Halo would probably be fine. I think I'm going to mix Halo with their Wellness and try to see if their stool gets better after their body adjusts to 100% Wellness. *Sigh* Thanks for your reply.


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## Willowy (Dec 10, 2007)

Don't worry about having glucosamine/chondroitin in the food. There isn't enough of it in any commercially available food to make any difference. If you want to give your dogs those supplements, give them a good chewable doggy vitamin (or, if you look up proper dosing, you can use a human version) like this one: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3307+58+19903&pcatid=19903

If Wellness isn't agreeing with them, try Natural Balance or Solid Gold. Blue Buffalo should be OK, but I'm not positive about the yeast issue. There are other good brands to try, but those are the ones that are commonly available at PetCo/Petsmart. California Natural would be good to try, but you have to find a store that sells it. I think their website has a store locator.


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## tut078620 (Feb 5, 2009)

Willowy said:


> Don't worry about having glucosamine/chondroitin in the food. There isn't enough of it in any commercially available food to make any difference. If you want to give your dogs those supplements, give them a good chewable doggy vitamin (or, if you look up proper dosing, you can use a human version) like this one: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3307+58+19903&pcatid=19903
> 
> If Wellness isn't agreeing with them, try Natural Balance or Solid Gold. Blue Buffalo should be OK, but I'm not positive about the yeast issue. There are other good brands to try, but those are the ones that are commonly available at PetCo/Petsmart. California Natural would be good to try, but you have to find a store that sells it. I think their website has a store locator.


I have looked into Solid Gold Just a Wee Bit and it was one of my potential choices. Maybe I will go with that if Wellness continues its problem. Do you know how long it may take for them to get used to Wellness though or any other high quality foods after being on a low quality diet for so long? I've never had this issue when I changed them from different dog brands (Kibbles n Bit, SD, SD Nature's Best, and other similar type dog food) and back then, I did it cold turkey and they didn't get reactions.

Thanks.


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## CorgiKarma (Feb 10, 2009)

Bailey and my mom's dachshund were on Blue Buffalo Weight Management, I just switched them over to Wellness Healthy Weight. They didn't have any issues on Blue Buffalo, it's a good brand.


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## Kathyy (Jun 15, 2008)

Check the calories fed. Wellness is more concentrated than Halo, isn't it? I fed Wellness successfully but couldn't get my dogs on EVO. I didn't know then that too many calories don't always mean fat dogs, sometimes it just doesn't get processed. I couldn't feed my old dog more Canidae for instance, she pooped it out. I fed less and she was fine.


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## trisha2766 (Feb 25, 2009)

I tried switching my girly to Wellness (the puppy Wellness) also and she got diarrhea. But I think I probably switched over too fast, just over a weeks time. I'm trying it again to see what happens. 

Please keep us updated on how it goes with your dogs.


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## 2malts4me (Aug 23, 2008)

My two did fine on the wellness venison wet food, but did not do well at all on the wellness kibble. They had loose runny stools, gas, etc. I'm sure they felt horrible. 

They've never had any trouble switching to any other food like that. We don't even do a slow switch because they will just pick out the one they like and leave the other and they've never had issues like they had on the wellness. 

We switched back to the Natural Balance venison dry and they are doing fantastic on that.


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## dpackleader (Jan 20, 2009)

Last year I lost my 9 year old lhasa apso and about 8 months prior to his illness I had switched to Wellness. Vets said it had something to do with his liver. A few months ago my 3 year old golden retriever was getting sick so I had some test done on him. His liver enzymes were elevated so I started researching on dog foods and ingredients. I decided to stop feeding him Wellness because of the tomato/tomato pomace in their ingredients (not good for dog's liver). After 3 weeks off of Wellness I had him re-tested and everything came back okay. We have a new siberian husky pup and I have been feeding both dogs Innova dry food mixed with Wellness canned puppy food. They are both healthy and happy dogs. Innova's ingredients have changed recently and in looking at the ingredients I do not find anything that I would be concerned about. My dogs are energetic and beautiful. The new formula bag has veggies bordering it. My brothers little dog was also getting sick so I bought him Innova Small breed dog food and he tried it. His dog loves it and is doing great on it. I also suggested that he only buys a bag big enough to last about 2 weeks so it remains fresh. I had looked up what foods can be bad for dogs and that is what I based my search on when I was looking for a good dog food. Common ingredients like garlic and tomato may not be good. So look at the ingredients. Innova took out the garlic in their food (look for the new bag because some stores still have the old ingredients) and the food I buy does not have tomato in it. Good luck.


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## tut078620 (Feb 5, 2009)

Late reply, but thank you for all your suggestions. I was just thinking about the tomato as well because it causes acid reflux in humans - i realized this after i didn't feel so well after eating spaghetti on an empty stomach.

I think I will be switching over to Innova and will use a glucosamine/chondroiton supplement.

And it turned out to be the wellness duck canned food I was also giving them was the root of their diarrhea. 

I am very optimistic about Innova! Gosh, I feel so much better, thanks for all your advice!


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## UrbanBeagles (Aug 13, 2007)

This would not be any detox ... my pups were on Wellness puppy for a few months last summer/fall, and while they looked good & grew very slowly, it was the digestive issues that forced me to take them off it. One pup was having bouts of colitis. The others were going firm, but averaged 4 poops a day. All of them had a very foul smell to the stools, when I opened the door to the puppy room the smell made me gag. And I have a pretty weak sense of smell, too. There was just so much crap coming from 3 little puppers it was getting impossible to keep the yard/puppy room sanitary. That was also around the same time that we had our nightmare with CORE so I have not used Wellness again to this day ...


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## CorgiKarma (Feb 10, 2009)

Can I ask what happened with CORE?


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