# Raw feeders: What do you feed your dogs if they have diarrhea?



## Michiyo-Fir (Jul 25, 2009)

This occurred to me since my dog started having diarrhea. She's going to get chicken and rice for her next meal.

But what do all the raw feeders feed when their dogs have diarrhea? Do you feed rice as well? Or is it strictly no grains?


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## FEDACE (Sep 11, 2009)

I was told Pumpkins from the Can......


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## Foyerhawk (May 7, 2009)

Nothing but water for 24 hours, unless it's a puppy- then boiled chicken and rice.


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## RBark (Sep 10, 2007)

I'm confused. Is your dog on raw already? My understanding is your dog is sick from the poisoned meat he ate.


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## Foyerhawk (May 7, 2009)

I've never heard of a dog getting food poisoning, and I've fed raw for more than a decade.


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## RBark (Sep 10, 2007)

Foyerhawk said:


> I've never heard of a dog getting food poisoning, and I've fed raw for more than a decade.


Not food poisoning. Poisoned meat. Her dog is having diarrahea and vomiting from eating a poisoned raw meat it found in the middle of a field.


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## FEDACE (Sep 11, 2009)

RBark said:


> Not food poisoning. Poisoned meat. Her dog is having diarrahea and vomiting from eating a poisoned raw meat it found in the middle of a field.


OMG,,, my dog did a similar thing.... Ate some rotten food off the ground while i wasn't looking. Severe Vomiting and Diarrhea. Only thing you can do is take the dog to the Vet ASAP. Dog needs Antibiotics fast and anti-emetics as well. and you will need to give the dog some Pedialyte to replensh her fluids and electrolytes.......


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## Michiyo-Fir (Jul 25, 2009)

RBark said:


> Not food poisoning. Poisoned meat. Her dog is having diarrahea and vomiting from eating a poisoned raw meat it found in the middle of a field.


Actually it most likely wasn't poisoned meat, just meat and it was completely cooked. But since it's pork (my dog can't eat it) and it was found in the field...and she probably ate quite a big piece she's having diarrhea and vomited a little today.



RBark said:


> I'm confused. Is your dog on raw already? My understanding is your dog is sick from the poisoned meat he ate.


No my dog isn't on raw. I'm just a little confused because I thought people feeding raw were against feeding grains and cooked meat? That's not the case?



FEDACE said:


> OMG,,, my dog did a similar thing.... Ate some rotten food off the ground while i wasn't looking. Severe Vomiting and Diarrhea. Only thing you can do is take the dog to the Vet ASAP. Dog needs Antibiotics fast and anti-emetics as well. and you will need to give the dog some Pedialyte to replensh her fluids and electrolytes.......


I did take her to the vet. The vet says she's fine and gave her a pill. Told me to fast her for 24 hrs and feed a meal of chicken and rice which I did tonight. 

Actually Nia really doesn't like rice, she hardly eats it after 24 hrs of no food! She picked out the chicken lol.


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## RBark (Sep 10, 2007)

What raw feeders do is varying. In general, I will fast a dog. But I see nothing wrong with giving it grains or raw veggies/fruits.


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## FEDACE (Sep 11, 2009)

OK then it is time for I/D canned food for several days. Dogs love it,, it is almost like a treat. It is made up of Eggs, rice and is very bland canned food.. very easy on the stomach..... YOu can only get it from your Vet...


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## RBark (Sep 10, 2007)

FEDACE said:


> OK then it is time for I/D canned food for several days. Dogs love it,, it is almost like a treat. It is made up of Eggs, rice and is very bland canned food.. very easy on the stomach..... YOu can only get it from your Vet...


Science Diet is poop in a can.


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## BoxMeIn21 (Apr 10, 2007)

My raw fed dogs get fed raw food when they get the runs...but they never get the runs, really.


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## Michiyo-Fir (Jul 25, 2009)

Oh mine doesn't usually get the runs either, it's only because she ate things off the ground that she has the runs.

I probably wouldn't feed SD, I'm just going to do chicken and rice for one meal and next one will be back to dog food if she doesn't get anymore diarrhea.


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## FEDACE (Sep 11, 2009)

RBark said:


> Science Diet is poop in a can.


I am talking about the prescription I/D can food, not the generic stuff. this was especially designed to be easy on the tummy...... and for temporary purposes, it works really well.


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## Shaina (Oct 28, 2007)

Depending on the severity I tend to either let them skip a meal to rest or do a very light chicken and oats meal, possibly with a bit of pumpkin and/or plain yogurt.

It also depends on the cause. Eating putrid meat or something they are severely allergic to...well mine never have but I certainly wouldn't switch them to a food they've never had before in an attempt to "fix" it.

Then again I would probably ask the advice of a qualified someone I actually knew and/or a medical professional.


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## Michiyo-Fir (Jul 25, 2009)

The vets around here all recommend chicken and rice. I went to the vet and called another. She wasn't particularly fond of the rice I must say. She picked out all the chicken and left the rice.


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## Kathyy (Jun 15, 2008)

Not had actual diarrhea, Max gets less or skips a meal if he has loose stool. No organ, easy bone, low fat. I would be offering bits of raw boneless skinless chicken breast after a fast if he really got sick.


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## DobManiac (Aug 12, 2007)

As a general rule, diarrhea is pretty rare for a RAW fed dog. But Dawn has been on antibiotics lately, and that's made her poop soft. It also makes it difficult for me tell if her Ca ratio is correct. I have to just assume since the all the other dogs poop looks fine. But I have been giving her canned pumpkin or cottage cheese with her meals, and that helps a lot. I'm staying away from probiatics and tripe until she stops the antibiotics. She will then get probiatics for at least a few weeks to replenish her digestive tract.


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## Namrah (Jul 15, 2008)

I'm still in the process of transitioning Elka to raw food, mostly adding new sources of proteins every 4-6 weeks. I include pumpkin when I do that as she always gets soft stool when adding a new protein. The pumpkin cures/avoids it and Elka loves pumpkin. =)


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## RBark (Sep 10, 2007)

Just a note, but soft stool often means too much meat and not enough bone in a meal. Just be aware of that when you see it. You might simply need to add more bone. Chalky poo is not enough meat.


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## Namrah (Jul 15, 2008)

Thanks RBark - I honestly thought Elka was getting too much bone but her poo does look quite white and chalky, at least when it dries, so maybe I need to increase the bone content.


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## Rambo's Mum (Jan 12, 2013)

Hi all, 

Although this thread was a few years back I feel the necessity to bring it to live once again as I just joined this forum and also a new raw feeder to my golden boy aged 14 months.

I started feeding him raw about 6 months back after discovering he was allergic to chicken (sigh, the cheapest protein meat in my country yet my boy has to be allergic to it:Cry So I fed him raw lamb, mutton, indian buffalo meat and beef. Frankly it's not easy to get raw meaty bones here and even if I can get it's very expensive and I'm rather skeptical about it (unhygienic). Usually I'll buy raw meat cubes and just thawed it for him to eat. I'll buy the frozen raw lamb or mutton shoulder with bones and give it to him for his dinner. 

Truthfully when he first started off raw he didn't exactly do very well. One day he would get soft stool and the next he would get hard stool and somedays he would get soft stool and hard at one go!:doh: Yup, that is the oddest part. I can see the hard flaky powdery stool together with the west soft stool! Still I persist and continue with this raw feeding. Ok, he seems to be doing ok and only on occasion he gets hot spot due to sometimes he picked up a chicken bone by the road when we went walking and I couldn't pull it out of his mouth fast enough.

Then just last November he vomitted yellow biles with very slight trace of blood in it. I didn't take him to the vet as he seems to be perfectly fine running, jumping and fighting with the lab girl. About 3 weeks later he vomitted yellow biles again and his poop has slight traces of blood in it and that's when I took him to the vet. The vet checked him through and couldn't find anything wrong with him. The vet send us off without prescribing and meds. Then on 21/12/12 I got him neutered and then he started to get diarrhoea! So we were back at the vet and this time the vet prescribed him with antibiotics and activated charcoal as the vet said he got a lot of gas in his stomach. The vet advice me to lay off feeding him raw but only cooked food until he finished his meds and fully recovered. Right, he recovered and I put him back on raw and then bang! he got diarrhoea again! Now I'm at my ends wit and don't know what to do. Now he seems fine. He can jump, run and play. Doesn't seems to be in discomfort or pain.

So, my questions are,

1) Should I continue to feed him raw?
2) When he has diarrhoea what to feed him? Raw still or?
3) Are there any dogs that are intolerant to raw at all?

Note, his stool has never been pretty since he went raw but he has nice coat and big boy. Even the vet commented he looks good and healthy with clean teeth and gums. Make that everyone said the same thing too when they saw him yet he continue to have soft stool and even runny ones.

What am I suppose to do? BTW I usually give him a half cap of Solana organic apple cider vinegar with his raw meat. Also I will give him on every 2 days a salmon softgel (human grade) and alternate days Dermatrix. Just 3 days back I started adding raw veg and carrots into his food.

So, all those raw feeders out there, kindly please help me out in my tight spot. I want to continue to feed my boy raw but with his runny stool it's kinda disheartening.

Thanks all!


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## Miss Bugs (Jul 4, 2011)

doesn't happen much with my raw fed dogs..well exept Rusty but he has issues. either way I do same thing everyone else does...rice and plain hamburger and pumpkin. the exeption is baby dog. .but she does not eat raw... she is allergic to rice chicken and beef so she gets plain instant mash potatos and canned salmon.


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## Kathyy (Jun 15, 2008)

Max needed daily bony meat for quite a while after starting raw. I suspect your dog cannot handle lots of bone then zero bone yet. If you could feed something like fish heads daily along with boneless meat and a bit of organ daily most of the time his gut might adapt to the raw better. At first feed lean meat too, fat causes loose stool as well. And weigh the portions. I get into trouble all the time because I either give Max too much food or too much organ.

Miss Bugs, you are providing calcium and supplementing vitamins and minerals with that mashed potato and salmon diet? Salmon is great for protein and omega 3 but it is very low in mineral content.


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## Miss Bugs (Jul 4, 2011)

kathyy the salmon and mashed potato diet is only her bland diet when she is sick, its not her actual diet! her reg diet is just kibble not raw like my others because fish is the "only" protien she can eat.


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## Kathyy (Jun 15, 2008)

Oops, sorry about that Miss Bugs. I completely forgot what the point of the thread was in the first place too.

Max hasn't had real diarrhea since starting raw. I probably would get some bone in chicken breasts, take off all the fat and skin and feed several times a day after a day of no food. Very important for him, I would be sure not to overfeed. That would make a diet that was low fat, moderate bone and fewer calories than normal.


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## Rambo's Mum (Jan 12, 2013)

Hi Miss Bugs and Kathyy,

Thanks for replying to my post. Well, today I took him to another vet and the vet did the fecal test on him and on my lab girl aged 11 months as she too starting to get soft stool. My lab girl isn't on raw. She is on kibbles and cooked chicken meat. Guess what, the vet found in both of them. Giardia! The only thing I can think about how on earth my two dogs can get giardia is through drinking unfiltered unboiled water which is what I gave them. So, starting from today I'm giving both my dogs boiled water and am also going to invest in a water filter. My boy's run is worse than my lab girl was perhaps due to the meat that was washed with tap water and also drinking the tap water while my girl only drink the water but still eat cooked stuff. I guess I've to lay off my boy on raw, install a water filter, get him back in good health before starting him on raw again.


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## Willowy (Dec 10, 2007)

Where do you live? In the U.S. the tap water usually doesn't have parasites :/. More likely from drinking out of an old puddle in the yard.


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## Rambo's Mum (Jan 12, 2013)

Willowy said:


> Where do you live? In the U.S. the tap water usually doesn't have parasites :/. More likely from drinking out of an old puddle in the yard.


Hi Willowy,

I live in Malaysia and the water here is my area is yellowish when you first turn on the tap. I have to run it a bit before collecting and then boiling it. Also there is a lot of sediments in the unfiltered water. What you said could be true too as the damn garbage truck that came around ALWAYS leaked waste water out and when I walked my dogs they might licked at the ground and probably picked the unopend cyst of giardia up too. Also people here are not civic-minded at all! Those who have dogs would walk their dogs but would not picked up their dogs poo unlike me. I even bring along kitchen paper towels now in case my dogs' poop stick to the ground and I could wipe it up. That wouldn't stop me from walking my dogs though as they are so active and needed the exercises. The vet suggested to me to boost my dogs immune system up. 

I would like to put my boy back on raw once I get the water filter system up and ways to boost his immune system. Question what can I do to boost my boy immune system up? Any suggestions please?


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## Sibe (Nov 21, 2010)

There is a distinction that needs to be made between real diarrhea and what raw feeders call cannon butt which is simply loose poop. True diarrhea is often caused by illness. The dog needs to poo frequently and urgently. Cannon butt may be a little more frequent than regular, and the poo is loose, but the dog is not ill. Either way the poo can still be "explosive" which is why the term cannon butt is used.

Cannon butt can be from a few different things:
-Too much fat/skin
-Too much organ
-Too much of a new protein source/cut the dog isn't used to yet
-Not enough bone
-Possibly (rarely) a reaction or allergy to a certain protein source/cut

The solution for cannon butt is to learn how items affect your dog and to try to have balance. If the dog's digestive system is really upset then a 24 hour fast (no food, no treats, no anything) is a good idea. Try to keep track of what you feed your dog and what their poo looks like. You'll start to be able to tell how much is too much or not enough of certain things. Like too much bone can lead to painfully hard poo, but not enough can lead to really loose drippy poo. You'll notice how your dog's poo looks after eating a certain item. For example, it's totally normal for a dog that ate heart to have poo that is very dark if not black with a sticky tar-like consistency. That's not diarrhea. What you're seeing from the Giardia is diarrhea. I hope they get better soon!!


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