Uncanny digestion

[Aroura]

Tessa, my 22kg bull terrier/ACD/Kelpie cross, eats mearly two thirds of a cup a day of dry food, and what comes out the other end is twice as much!
I can't believe how little she needs, and she is by no means underweight and runs and runs all day.
Does anyone else here have a 'super efficient' dog?
Lily makes up for it by eating 4 -5 cups per day, a whole chicken carcass, eggs, pureed carrots, table scraps and the list goes on and she never puts on any weight! :-?

[Guest roo]

:o :o :o
I thought you said that your dogs are both on barf now?
:roll: :roll: :roll:
Roo

[Smooshie]

[quote name='Aroura']
Lily makes up for it by eating 4 -5 cups per day, a whole chicken carcass, eggs, pureed carrots, table scraps and the list goes on and she never puts on any weight! :-?[/quote]

WOW...that IS a lot!...how old is she??? Loki is 18 months...INCREDIBLY healthy (according to his vet) and he only eats 5 cups of premium grade kibble + a cup of rice OR cottage cheese a day....are you sure they're the same breed??? :wink:

[Aroura]

Sorry, I mentioned somewhere else but didn't mention it here, BARF got a little to expensive for me so I had to switch back to kibble :(
But I've got a job interview this week so wish me luck! Then I can go back to BARF.
K, she does best with more meat. I don't like not feeding raw meat each day, so I give her what I can afford. Their dry food is good quality BUT it is cooked meat (sorry to those who don't agree that cooking destroys vital nutrients) and I like to say 'fresh is best'.
Smooshie, she's still growing, plus she's got the tummy problem. Hopefully when I find out whats going on there she'll eat less! :wink:

[Guest roo]

I would be inclined to stick to one food and one food only at the moment, please please don't keep chopping and changing her diet ever month.
i am sure you worm her regularly, but
i would worm her again, then get hold of some
live yoghurt, made from sheep or goats milk.
give her that for a meal and miss out on the rest,
when you next feed her add a bit of yoghurt to her meals.
runny pooh, can be caused by overfeeding.
what are you actually giving her what brand?
Live yoghurt is a brilliant thing it helps put the good bugs back into the gut.
Roo

[Aroura]

I feed her supercoat, a brand I think is only sold in Australia. There is only one place in town that sells sheeps yoghurt, one 350g tub costs the same as a 4kg bag of dog food! Do happen to know if you can make your own sheeps/goats milk yoghurt? I'm allergic to dairy so have to drink it myself, so in that case it wouldn't be a hassle (even though goats milk is 4 times the price of normal milk!)
I have been sold though, on Pro Plan. Just got a personalised email, explaining the ingredients they use, quality human grade, no preservatives, colours, or ethoxyquin plus its made in Australia. It costs $95 for 17kg, but if it works its worth it. I will try that for a few months (and stick to it, nothing added), if that doesn't work then I'll take her to the vet.
I don't chop and change all the time, I have stuck to foods long enough to know that unless its that particular food it is her digestion, nothing to do with her still getting used to it.
As I said, I'll try the Pro Plan and hope it works, supercoat is a good dog food, but maybe just not good for Lily.

[Guest roo]

If you can make yoghurt yourself fine try it,
a pot over here is under a pound

[Aroura]

Thanks for the suggestion, I can only get long life Goats Milk and I can only buy sheeps yoghurt! Hopefully the two will go nicely together :wink:
I'll blend it in slowly, I should be getting paid soon and I still have a whole bag of supercoat (which Tessa also eats, but she wont need the pro plan, she's as tough as nuts and healthy as they come! :D )
Once I have weaned her onto the pro plan, then I will start adding the yoghurt and some fruit and vegges once I see how she goes on that.

[Guest roo]

Long life milk will not make live yoghurt.
try pain live yoghurt, that works too i just prefer sheep or goats milk.
You really will not need to add anything to the proplan, it is a balanced diet, fruit can cause the runs in dogs too.
if you are trying to get her back to normal, stick to the proplan.
dont add to it anything.
try feeding the yog on its own first.
As soon as you start adding to a complete diet you start to unbalance it.
Roo

[Aroura]

We've made yoghurt with long life milk for years (it wont work in Junket though!). I guess the bactiria in the milk may be killed, but it is the bactiria in the yoghurt that needs to be live, so thats why it works.
I would wait for her stomach to settle before I gave her any fruit or veg. I would only give it as a treat and if it gave her the runs I wouldn't give it to her again.

[Guest roo]

[quote name='Mei-Mei']Just to add my own .02, never add yogurt to warm or hot food. It kills the helpful live bacteria in the yogurt! :o[/quote]

good point Mei Mei
thanks for mentioning it
roo :lol:

[Carolk9s]

$95 for 17kg of pro plan! I am stunned! Darned good thing it does not cost that much here, I really like Pro Plan and feed it to my 3 but if it were that high here, dont think it would happen. You have my sympathy at that high cost.
I add a dollop of plain lowfat yogurt to their breakfast each day. They also love raw carrots and cooked green beans. In the evening meal, the older dogs get Missing Link w/glucosamine. Mine get the occaisional fruit as a treat, Jesse looks at me like I'm crazy but the girls, especially Brittany, will eat just about anything. Never have had a problem with runny stools but the fruit is generally a small amount. Brittany is very fond of banana and honeydew melon, she also likes strawberries. Recently they all have had some raw summer squash, Britt chomped hers, Candy played keep away with hers, Jesse spat it out and walked away in disgust.

[Carolk9s]

Forgot to mention, the two older dogs are quite different and always have been in their nutritional needs. Jesse as a youngster had to have 8 cups of dry a day and was still lean. I tried different foods, always feeding a food for a minimum of 6 months to see how he would do. When he was about 5, I switched him to Science Diet. The results were very pleasing, he finally put on some decent weight, his coat and skin improved tremendously and it worked well for him for the next 4 years. I was also able to reduce what he needed.
Brittany, poor girl, put on weight very easily. She was put on Science Diet Lite by the time she was 3. She was an active girl too. Her max was about 2 cups a day, less when she was training for agility as she got treats during the training.
Now they are both on Pro Plan Senior, Jesse gets just over 3 cups a day and Britt gets 1.5 cups a day.
Candy the busybody gets about 1.5 cups a day of Pro Plan Adult.

[Aroura]

What were you feeding when Jesse was getting 8 cups a day?
I've thought of Hills, but have heard alot of bad things about them. I do know they have a sensitive stomach formula.
If I feed Pro Plan I just realized I will have to ring the company to even buy it! No one in this town sells the stuff!
Oh its all too confusing! All these diets etc etc etc, I'm thinking now I'll forget all that and just see what the vet has to say! :o

[Aroura]

Never heard of it, probably no an Aussie thing.
Goats milks great though, its got almost as much calcium as normal milk, less fat, more vitamins.... I think the only reason why not everyone drinks it is because it doesn't taste right and its so expensive!

[Carolk9s]

Now you're taxing my brain, trying to remember what I was feeding Jesse 9 years ago. LOL! I know I had him on Purina Hi-Pro for a short while, didn't like what that did for him, had him on Purina One for a time, so-so results. I had him on Pro Plan way back then for a time also, no matter which I fed he stayed rail thin. Then again, thats common in young male Belgians. He's a fairly tall dog for the breed. His coat was pretty good but he did have some dry skin issues.
When I switched him to Science Diet, in a matter of months I saw a nice positive change in him. Better weight, skin and coat. I do think part of the change was him maturing and not burning quite the high # of calories as before.
You know, I have heard some good things and some bad about Hills. One good thing I've heard is that they have some of the tightest quality controls. don't know if its true or not.
In Jesse's case, at that stage of his life, Hills Science Diet was VERY good for him. Now that he's a senior, I've had him on Pro Plan for over a year, he is thriving on it. Even starting to see where I might need to trim back his portion just a bit.

[Aroura]

Thats interesting that he didn't do so well on Pro Plan, but then again, it is a representative who is trying to convince me that its the best! I was actually considering the sensitive stomach formula to see how that works for her. But I do realize that different things work best for different dogs. I am going to take her to the vet within the next week though and see what he has to say. I don't think he sells dog food, so he can give me an un bias oppinion. Everyone on the other forum is saying Pro Plan or Eukanuba. The reason they say Eukanuba is while I was away for a few days the kennel fed Lily on Eukanuba and the runs cleared up, I have a little suspision though that there were other factors involved, possibly considence, but it may be worth a try... but then again so may be hills, or Pro Plan....
If I'm going to spend $100 on a bag of dog food, I want it to be the right one.
I'm beggining to pull my hair out!!!! :o

[Carolk9s]

Aroura, It's also QUITE possible, perhaps pretty much guaranteed, that Pro Plans formula has changed over the years. Since they recently changed it again I would bet money on it. They recently added fish meal and I believe they said Vit E to their senior and adult foods.
So while Jesse did not thrive on Pro Plan 7-8 years ago, he does now. Might be just the formula change, might be as he's matured his nutritional needs stabilized, might be the Missing Link supplement he's been on for the past few years etc. Might be all of the above! :D
Best of luck in your search

[Aroura]

Thats all probably true. I didn't think of that. Well I'm going to buy Lily Eukanuba for two months to see if it sorts her stomach out. If it doesn't off to the vets for some tests... if it does I'll try switching her to Pro Plan, or Purina One which is a little more in my price range. If that doesn't work I will have to keep forking out $30 a fortnight to feed her! That would be fine if I didn't have to feed Tessa and my two cats as well.
But now the good news!!!! Although it all sounds very expensive, I got a job today!!!!! :D :D :D
I'm also getting paid $350 for doing Jury Duty, so for once I actually have the money I need!!!! :D

[Guest roo]

Congratulations on the job, what is it?
if you stablize lilly on the euk, keep her on it.
Roo

[Aroura]

Thanks roo, I'll be working at the post office at the UNI, which suits me fine because I've got stacks of friends at the UNI and I'll get to see them every day!!!
The only reason I would put her on Purina One is because its cheaper, its still top quality and its made in Australia. If she didn't like it I would keep her on the Euk. though.