# Is my dog allergic to chicken?



## JRider (Feb 23, 2008)

Our Saint Bernard turned 7 last September. We had been thinking about moving her to a different, higher quality +7 dog food since. We have been giving her cheap Purina Dog Chow for a while, and she does ok on it. But her coat never really seemed as full and shiny as it should, and she did seem to get bouts of itchiness.

When we were in Costco a couple weekends ago, I saw the Kirkland Premium Dog Food for +7 dogs. I checked out the ingredients, and was surprised to see no corn, or wheat what-so-ever; basically no fillers at all. The main ingredient is chicken, followed by rice. I did some research when I got home, and learned that a lot of people are very happy with the Kirkland food, and it has been rated very high by several reviewers. 

I went back to Costco to pick up the +7 Chicken and Rice bag. I introduced it in to her diet slowly, probably not as slowly as I should have though. She was running out of the Dog Chow, so the first day it was about a 3-1 mix of Dog Chow to the new stuff. And after about a week, it was basically only the new food. 
She seemed to do fine the first week, but over the past couple days (about 2 1/2 weeks in to the new food) she has developed diarrhea. It's lasted about 36 hours now. It's not real runny, more like a pudding consistency. 

Obviously, I'm under the suspicion that the new food is causing the upset stomach. But now that I look back on other times she’s had diarrhea, it always seems to be after she’s eaten chicken. We got some chicken jerky dog treats that she didn’t do well with, and she got in the trash before and ate chicken, and that gave her diarrhea as well. She always has had a finicky stomach; she ate one shrimp that fell on the floor and had diarrhea for two days. She’s 130 pounds too!

After doing all this research, and actually seeing that the main ingredient in the Dog Chow is corn meal (never really paid attention before), I’d like to get her on a better food. I’ve noticed that with the new food, she seems more energetic, and her coat has become very nice looking. Other than the puddingy poop, she seemed to be doing well. 
So my question is this, should I take back the food to Costco (gotta love Costco) and try the Lamb and Rice Kirkland kind, or should I just go back to the Dog Chow. Is it possible that because there is a lot more chicken in the new food (Dog Chow’s chicken is listed as poultry by-product [whatever that is], and is second to corn) that she may have problems with chicken? I feel bad feeding her the Dog Chow after finding out what is in it. After looking at the ingredients compared to the Kirkland brand, I’m very concerned with the quality.

Sorry about the long post. Any advice is welcome. Thanks!

P.S. The reason I’d like to go with the Kirkland brand is for one, like I said, it seems to be a good quality food. But secondly, we shop there often and it is very reasonably priced.


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## 5 s corral (Dec 31, 2007)

hi 
i have heard that the kirkland is a good food i would try the lamb and rice and see how that works 
jamie


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## briteday (Feb 10, 2007)

I would also suspect that if your dog has been on a grain heavy diet until now it will take a while for the system to rebuild the digestive enzymes necessary for a different mix of ingredients, i.e. without a lot of constipating grains. You can try giving a bit of something constipating like canned pumpkin (not pie filling, just plain pumpkin). Or you can just wait a week and see if it gets any better.

I wouldn't be worried that the dog reacted to chicken jerky. I've never seen one that wasn't manufactured in China, and we all know what happened to dog food that had Chinese ingredients in them. In fact, there is a warning out on some brands of jerky that dogs have died from kidney failure. I think I saw it on the FDA website.

And raiding the garbage will almost always cause gi distress. So I wouldn't chalk that up to being allergic to anything either. Most garbage is loaded with bacteria and covered with other things that have been dumped over it.


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## JRider (Feb 23, 2008)

Thanks guys. I gave her some plain yogurt yesterday evening, and didn't feed her until this morning. She hasn't had any problems so far; I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I picked up a smaller bag of her old food, as much as I hate doing it, and I'm going to try to reintroduce the new food again. But this time, I'm going to do it over a course of 3-4 weeks. 

She's always had a finicky stomach, so I'm hoping it's just the richness of the new food that she's having trouble with. Like you said, her stomach has been used to all that filler for so long, it will probably take time.

Thanks again guys!


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## Equestiana (Aug 8, 2007)

My dogs had similiar problems over a food change, they get runny stools. Since then i've been feeding a touch of yogurt with every meal and it really has done wonders for their stools!
We're in the middle of changing their food from taste of the wild (didnt do well on grain free) to Canidae. For the first time they have had solid poops during a food switch.


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## JRider (Feb 23, 2008)

Equestiana said:


> My dogs had similiar problems over a food change, they get runny stools. Since then i've been feeding a touch of yogurt with every meal and it really has done wonders for their stools!
> We're in the middle of changing their food from taste of the wild (didnt do well on grain free) to Canidae. For the first time they have had solid poops during a food switch.


What do you mean "didn't do well on grain free"?


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