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Permalink Reply by Katy on May 31, 2014 at 11:58pm

Fromm is a great food! Have the vets looked into a pancreatitis? My mothers dog has that and it comes and goes with over rich food. And some kibble would set it off ( lethargic, vomit, diarrhea and lack of appetite). It got scary! But we out both dogs on a bird protein (turkey) and grain free diet (sweet potato and pea) and she hasn't had any issues since the complete switch over. I know Fromm makes really good lines, perhaps their Duck and Sweet Potato or the chicken a la veg would do better in your girls system?

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Permalink Reply by Vicky Hay on June 1, 2014 at 2:32pm

A holistic vet recommended Fromm's to me, too. It seems to be pretty good as commercial foods go, and it's made in the US, a huge plus.

Let me suggest a) trying something different from the fish flavor. A previous vet (when I had a highly allergic greyhound) identified fish as a common allergen. Possibly try lamb, bison, duck, or venison?

And b) also, how quickly did the switch from Blue Buffalo to Fromm's occur? Often an abrupt change will give a dog the gogglywobbles. It may be that just hanging in there for a few more days will help.

Here's a scary proposal, because it involves a lot of work and a leap of faith: you actually can cook up a diet of real food in your kitchen that fulfills all of a dog's needs. If a week or so on the Fromm's doesn't help, try easing the pup over to cooked, genuine, no-garbage food that you prepare on your own stove. What's been working for my dogs for the past several years looks like this:

• 1/2 (by weight) good-quality meat (chicken, beef, turkey, pork; if lamb comes on sale, grab it)
• 1/4 vegetables that do NOT include anything in the onion family or corn; I use Costco's "Tuscan" frozen veggie mix
• 1/4 high-quality starch, depending on dog's tolerance. Sweet potato is well tolerated and high in vitamins; avoid regular white potatoes which do not agree with some dogs. Rice is OK, but use with restraint because it's unduly high in arsenic; oatmeal seems to work well; quinoa; bread; pasta (latter two also in moderation); winter squash, especially also works nicely

Cook the meat by simmering in water until done (hamburger can simply be placed in a frying pan and cooked over medium heat until just cooked through); save the broth to add to dog food when serving, which pleases dog.

Zap frozen veggies in microwave until just barely cooked. They should be cooked but not limp & soggy.

Cook starch product according to package instructions; or zap sweet potato in microwave until cooked soft all the way through.

Get out the food processor.

Grind the cooked, drained, cooled meat in the food processor. Place in a big bowl. Grind the zapped veggies; add to bowl. Add the cooked starch product to these ingredients. Mix. Serve up. For a 25-pound corgi, I feed about six or eight ounces per meal, twice a day; watch weight and adjust acccordingly. For a puppy, feed twice that much to the age of six or eight months. Then ease down to adult requirement. Watch weight, as corgis will eat anything you put in front of them and merrily head toward obesity.

If you worry about your competence in the dog-food department, get a bottle of doggy vitamins and administer one a day.

The difference is amazing.

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Permalink Reply by Jen Giammona on June 3, 2014 at 10:06am

Is there something in the yard that she might be getting into?  My puppy had chewed some hostas in our yard and when I looked it up, they are toxic!  Not enough to kill her, but enough to give her diarrhea.  

Also, our puppy, when we got her, had all sorts of problems (giardia, coccidia and tapeworms).  Even when she was clear of all the parasites, she was still having loose stool.  We started giving her a pre/probiotic powder (from the holistic pet store) with her dinner and it really helped to heal up her insides.  

Good luck!

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