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Permalink Reply by Jane on June 21, 2014 at 7:38pm

Check the calories on the can and compare it to what you were feeding in dry kibble. I believe the nutrition content in wet food is much lower than a similar quantity of dry. 11-12 lb is small for her age but dogs can vary quite a bit in build. Do you have any recent pictures?

Just looking at the Fromm website, the beef canned food (for example) is 329kcal/13 oz. can. A puppy that age could probably be eating 2 cups of dry food a day, which in the "beef frittata" dry kibble is 408 kcal/cup. That's more than double what the canned food is. I'd say she might need more a calories.

Edit from fromm's website below. According to that she should probably be getting at least 2 cans a day. I would really recommend trying to find a kibble that works for her though. 100% wet food just isn't that great of a diet for most dogs, and it's not as good for their teeth.

Daily Feeding Recommendations The average dog requires 3/4 oz for each pound of body weight, best fed twice a day.

Activity, age and size of dog may require adjusting quantity fed.

Feed up to twice this amount when feeding puppies, pregnant and nursing dogs

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Permalink Reply by Vicky Hay on June 21, 2014 at 9:01pm

Wow! No wonder the poor little thing is skinny!!

I was using Fromm's kibble before the vet asked me to put her on the UTI prescription diet.

The vet feels strongly that most  dog foods contain ash (http://www.petcarerx.com/article/ash-in-pet-food-filler-or-nutrient..., for the industry's view of this stuff: "As of right now, though, there is an essential amount of ash required by the AAFCO to meet nutritional requirements"). He says ash contributes to urinary problems. It appears that the proportion of ash in typical dry dog food is about 8 percent, and that you can't tell from the guaranteed analysis because the government allows food manufacturers to express the ash content as mineral content.

Interestingly, if it's true AAFCO requires ash, the government does not require manufacturers to list the ash content on labels, according to the Dr. Tim's dog food site (http://drtims.com/why-is-the-ash-level-in-a-pet-food-important/), so how you find a low-ash food without using a prescription diet escapes me. When you try to track down some enlightenment on the Web, you get contradictory stories, some people claiming 2% ash is as much as a dog needs, others saying 7% is about right, some inveighing that high-protein grain-free foods are among the worst offenders. Looks like no one really knows.

Well, until the little gal gets over her current spate of diarrhea -- brought on, I think, by Wellness beef venison & lamb grain-free canned -- she's getting a bland diet of hamburger and rice. But more of it. Lots more...

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Permalink Reply by Jane Christensen on June 22, 2014 at 8:52am

How fast did you change her from one food to the next? This should happen slowely over 7-10 days or you may see several side effects from switching.

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Permalink Reply by Vicky Hay on June 22, 2014 at 9:21am

I'd bought a couple of brands to see what they were like, and so yes, she did get switched a little fast. But on the other hand, she was switched abruptly from the Royal Canin S/O to Castor & Pollux, and nothing happened. The first cans of that I'd bought at Whole Foods seemed pretty good; also Dog Food Advisor seemed to like Wellness at least as well or better than C&P. So at Petsmart I bought some C&P brand and also the Wellness Beef, Venison & Lamb, hoping to find a better price.

Not so on the latter question: Petsmart's price was the same as Whole Foods (!!). But the C&P was different from the canful I got at WF -- instead of having a pate-like consistency similar to the S/O, it was little compressed dice-shaped pieces of gunk in "gravy," with much less actual food visible and about 1/3 liquid. Rip-off? She did OK on that, though. The Wellness seemed more substantial...but it was when I switched her to the Wellness that she got sick. Correlation doesn't mean causality, of course. I've had the wobbles myself and this morning Cassie's a bit stinky. So we may be looking at a bug here.

At any rate, she seems better on plain boiled chicken and rice. She slept four hours without rousting me out of the sack last night, and then made it another 2 1/2 hours to daylight, when she cannot be repressed.

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Permalink Reply by Vicky Hay on June 22, 2014 at 12:58pm

Here's an update:

Just weighed her: she's at 13.3 pounds! Gained 1.3 pounds since the last time I weighed her and started feeding her more.

The diarrhea may be starting to resolve itself. She had a liquid BM at 6 a.m., but mercifully has passed neither puddles nor gas since then -- it's 9:45 a.m. now. That's much longer than she's lasted for the past several days. And she slept four whole hours without having to get up and race outside, a big improvement on the two-hour naps.

She seems not to feel sick. She eats well, and she's consumed the larger helpings of food I've been offering, right down to the last crumb. In the cool of the morning she and Cassie were chasing around the yard at top speed. It's hot now -- 100 degrees outside, 82 in the house -- and both dogs are resting. Being somewhat brighter than humans, they always sleep through the heat of day. That she doesn't mope or act like she's in pain and that she seems to be improving seems to support the idea that this was brought on by the change of dog foods.

I'd made an appointment at noon today with a veterinary that offers regular-price care 7 days a week. But seeing that she no longer seems to be in extremis and that she's even gained a little weight on real, non-processed, non-manufactured food, I decided to cancel and instead take her, if need be, to the good Dr. Bracken, whose practice keeps normal hours. I think she'll be OK for a day or so, and it's even possible that by tomorrow she'll be shaking this thing off. We'll see.

As for how much weight she should be allowed to gain: ?????  I think her bone structure is about the same as Cassie's. It's hard to tell, though, because Cassie's coat is much thicker than Ruby's...but she doesn't seem especially dainty, as corgis go. I guess the best thing is to let her gain until she no longer looks emaciated but her ribs can still be felt and there's still a little "waistline," then maybe scale back the food to the point where she seems to be growing normally for her age. I doubt if she should weigh more than 23 or 25 pounds as an adult. But as to how close to "adult" she is at almost six months...I don't know. I've been told she should be spayed at 6 months, and certainly don't want her to be seriously underweight when that happens.

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