Help with Orijen!

[Milly_Munchkin]

Hello All,
Milly is now nearly 5 months, I got her at 12 weeks. Her breeder fed her pedigree and I gently weaned her off Pedigree into Orijen puppy food. She ate her food reasonably well although she isn't a big eater. Since I have had her she has had three separate occasions of diarrhea Took her to the vet first two times, no temperature etc all normal. She is wormed and flea treated at the vet every month and was put on a bland diet each time (chicken and rice for 3 days) and gently weaned back into Orijen. The vet has also prescribed this paste that comes in a tube in order to harden up her poos (which works).

Ok, so here we go again, back to loose stools since 2am last night! her diarrhoa has sometimes had a mucus substance almost jelly like bits, no blood, no worms and the vet said nothing is wrong with her. I am beginning to wonder if Orijen is too rich for her as she is a tiny girl (1.4Kg/3lb). I also weaned her off the chicken and rice and gave her just her kibble last night. *sigh*...I don't know what to do. Has anyone else experienced this before on orijen? What would be a premium food alternative for a sensitive stomach? I know when I mention this to the vet she is going to get me to buy her a bag of Hills sensitive tummy food but I am not too keen on Hills. I have heard blue buffalo does a sensitive diet kibble but I am in the UK and don't get it here Help! I am pulling my hair out! So glad yorkietalk exists Any suggestions/help will be much appreciated.

[MY OSCAR]

Originally Posted by milly_munchkin

hello all,
milly is now nearly 5 months, i got her at 12 weeks. Her breeder fed her pedigree and i gently weaned her off pedigree into orijen puppy food. She ate her food reasonably well although she isn't a big eater. Since i have had her she has had three separate occasions of diarrhea took her to the vet first two times, no temperature etc all normal. She is wormed and flea treated at the vet every month and was put on a bland diet each time (chicken and rice for 3 days) and gently weaned back into orijen. The vet has also prescribed this paste that comes in a tube in order to harden up her poos (which works).

Ok, so here we go again, back to loose stools since 2am last night! Her diarrhoa has sometimes had a mucus substance almost jelly like bits, no blood, no worms and the vet said nothing is wrong with her. I am beginning to wonder if orijen is too rich for her as she is a tiny girl (1.4kg/3lb). I also weaned her off the chicken and rice and gave her just her kibble last night. *sigh*...i don't know what to do. Has anyone else experienced this before on orijen? What would be a premium food alternative for a sensitive stomach? I know when i mention this to the vet she is going to get me to buy her a bag of hills sensitive tummy food but i am not too keen on hills. I have heard blue buffalo does a sensitive diet kibble but i am in the uk and don't get it here Help! I am pulling my hair out! So glad yorkietalk exists any suggestions/help will be much appreciated.

it could be that the orijen is just too rich for her. My oscar cannot eat it. It has the same effect on him.
hills science diet has helped a lot of dogs with digestive issues.
my airedale has been on rx food before and it did wonders for him.

in my opinion maybe you go by your vets suggestion and give the hills sd a try.
hopefully it will make your baby feel better..

[concretegurl]

Try a grain free diet.
Tote bb etc
I feed BARF here.
Most importantly a low allergen food see how she does with that.

[Zoejane]

I have used Orijen since I brought my baby home at 12 weeks. She weighed about 2 1/2 pounds. Her poop is totally fine on it, with the excpeption of the time she had giardia. The vet gave her some canned and she wouldn't eat it so I put her back on Orijen. Mine isn't a big eater either, but this is one she likes and I've never had a problem with it. But if you are sure she doesn't have giardia, I would probably try to switch her to something else to see if that helps.

[xoxodoglover89]

It could be that the Orijen is too rich for her. Some foods just don't work well with some dogs. Did you transition her slowly to Orijen or just switch her over cold turkey? I usually recommend coming from a pretty crappy food and going to an extremely good food to transition very slowly, over almost a month period since the foods are so different from one another. If you did transition though, then it sounds like Orijen just might not be for her.

I really like Blue Buffalo and Fromm. If these arn't available where you're located, maybe you could order them offline? Good luck in your search!

[BiewerYorkie]

Orijen is VERY rich, that and Evo. I feed ACANA which is excellent food too, made by the same company as Orijen.

HOWEVER, they are changing the formula so I don't know about that. Luckily I have a 30 pound bag of the old one so I am OK for a while.

Louise

[Mysmimi]

We gave our Zoey Jane Orijen at about 5 months also...she had very bad diarrhea, so we went back to the Royal Cainine. Now @ 10 months we give her Royal Canine and 1/2 pattie of Stella and Chewy's and then the Orijen as treats! Boy is she happy. Personally, I think the Orijen is just too rich for them at that young age...

[Wylie's Mom]

To be honest, there is really no such thing as a food being "too rich"....that doesn't really mean anything. I only mention it bc that term can really confuse people here.

If Orijen doesn't work for her but another food does - all it means is that there some component or combination in the food that doesn't agree w/ her individual system -- it could be from the carbs, the veg, fruit, a grain, flax, the protein, the fat....ANYthing.

Which protein(s) is in the food you're feeding? Whichever food you go with next, try a different protein for her. Oftentimes, a dog may have certain protein intolerances.

[Britster]

Orijen has a lot of ingredients, and is a bit more rich than other foods. It's high in calories and high in fat/protein. May just not be working for her. You could try Acana ... made by the same company. You could also try feeding less. It may just not be working for her.

[Milly_Munchkin]

Thank you all for your helpful replies. I've been researching good quality dog food all day! Ahhh I wish they would just make it more easier. I've been thinking of Acana Pacifica dog kibble, as this it says suitable for sensitive dogs although it is made out of fish. I have also looked at taste of the wild pacific stream which is also made for sensitive dogs and fish. Taste of the wild has 25% protein, acana about 33% and Orijen around 40%. Which one do you think I should go for? This is all so confusing!

[Teresiana]

We didn't do well on Orijen or Acana. If Milly isn't doing well on the Orijen, she might not do well on the Acana either. They're made by the same company. It may not be the protein/fat percentages that are upsetting Milly's tummy. It could be some other ingredient in the kibble. The ingredient list of both are very similar and very loooong. It was impossible for me to pinpoint exactly what didn't agree with Yoshi from that list. Yoshi also experienced "gel-like" bits in his poo when he was eating Champion products. He also had big thick white eye goop, one of his eyes was swollen & he had red itchies and splotches on his tummy.

Maybe you should try a Taste of the Wild Puppy formula? I've also heard good things about Blue Buffalo Wilderness (although we haven't tried it yet). We decided to go with Darwin's raw. He also eats Stella & Chewy's freeze dried raw & ZiwiPeak on occasion. His symptoms cleared up almost immediately. Good luck!

[concretegurl]

Taste of the Wild has no puppy formula...just different proteins...the kibble is one small medium size too.

The ideal behind TOTE is to feed all the same young old fat skinny etc in a "natural" kibble balance.

None of my dogs do well on red meats, I saywas rich meaninge reds, Ann made an awesome point of the misuse of the word...

they ate TOTE Roasted Wetlabds Foul.

We switched to TOTW to go from 4the different Innova foods when I wanted a grainless low allergen content food I could feed ALL of mine, as before I had 4a dogs on 4full foods puppy senior lamb chicken small bites and feeding time was sooo mucg work to separate and keep my fatty food sneaker from finishing everyone's!!


Totw was great for us but when the recall happened I put all mine on raw one was already on BARF, we never did get a recall on totw in CA but we prefer where we only are now with feeding.

We do still give a little kibble as its a slow change over.

[gardengirl77]

My 5 lb girl can't seem to eat the Orijen either. Too rich. She loved TOTW, but I took her off that because of all the recalls. Right now she is eating Innova & seems to love it. I mix a few kibbles of the Orijen in with it just to use it up. She does fine with just a few at a time.

[Britster]

TOTW does have puppy formulas. They changed a while back.

Dry Food, High Prairie Puppy Formula - Taste of the Wild Pet Food

Dry Food, Pacific Stream Puppy Formula - Taste of the Wild Pet Food

[concretegurl]

Originally Posted by Britster

TOTW does have puppy formulas. They changed a while back.

Dry Food, High Prairie Puppy Formula - Taste of the Wild Pet Food

Dry Food, Pacific Stream Puppy Formula - Taste of the Wild Pet Food

I stabd corrected lol, I guess I havent gotten it in so long I'm clueless.

Hmmm must have changed their whole motto about wild natural feeding now too...lol sell outs!