[Ellie May]

I don't mean to be gross, but when you're ready to do the fecal, couldn't the two samples just be thoroughly mixed eliminating half the cost???

Anyway, what works for one may not work for another; and while no improvement would be an obvious indicator that a fecal is needed, the ingredients in home cooked food could definitely set one or both off.

I thought I had read that Sadie has had an issue with chicken. So feeding it now would not work. Rice, potato, and oatmeal are all fne, but they won't work for all dogs. Ellie can't handle brown rice and she seems to get violently ill on white potato. She does fine on sweet potato. White rice and oats go ok.

She doesn't do very well on any diet, but she is maintained on home cooked and enzymes (absolutely not suggestiong people should start using enzymes). She doesn't do well on any dog food either. I would decide on a home cooked or rx diet and stick to it like you planned. Make sure the ingredients are GI friendly and neither pup has reacted adversely to them before. Just like when we have the flu, starting with carbs is a good idea like Ann said. And per Ellie's nutritionist, if it is a food intolerance affecting the GI tract, some improvement would be noticable within three weeks (and obv. it's not a good idea to put the fecal off that long).