Need Help-- Need to Change Food NOW

[Doodlebug]

Daisy had a peaceful nights sleep last night for the first time in many nights. I am well rested myself from finally getting some sleep. I just feel so awful that my baby had to go through so much pain and fear. They are both loving the chicken and rice. I am anxious to see how they like their new food.

[dottiesyrky]

Way to go! So happy the chicken and rice are agreeing with your dogs and that now you all are getting some much needed sleep. Praying that the switch to the commercial foods goes as well. Thanks for the update. :-)

[Doodlebug]

I went out of town to visit a friend for a couple of days since Daisy was feeling so much better, and left hubby in charge of feeding the pups. I showed him how to make their chicken and rice before I left. He decided to start feeding them the new dog food with the chicken and rice. I also came home to find a bowl of the new dog food sitting next to their water bowl. I was not happy about that. Now tonight Daisy has another tummy ache. I am so frustrated with him because I asked him not to give them any dog food while I was gone. I don't know what he was thinking. I told him that we needed to slowly transition them to the new food after a few days of chicken and rice. I am getting them back on their chicken and rice again.

I think I will need to switch them to the small breed kibble since Teddy seemed to have trouble chewing the larger kibble. The good news is that hubby told me that Daisy seems to love the new food. I hope this works out.

[Doodlebug]

I forgot to add...he also gave them turkey (white meat) instead of chicken...and he gave them treats. Grrrrrr. I was up with her until after six am this morning...only got a couple hours of sleep last night. Her poop this morning was soft and runny and light beige in color. Now we're starting all over. Why, why, why?

[dottiesyrky]

So sorry, just when you thought you were winning! Men!!! He sure did not obey the rules! I hope your baby soon returns to health with sticking to your feeding regimen and plan. At least your girl likes the new food, if that is any consolation.
Could it be she also was stressed when you were gone?
I wonder if this tummy sensitivity could be due to pancreatitis? Has she been checked out for that?
Hope that is not the case, but worth checking out?

[tokipoki]

Originally Posted by Doodlebug

I went out of town to visit a friend for a couple of days since Daisy was feeling so much better, and left hubby in charge of feeding the pups. I showed him how to make their chicken and rice before I left. He decided to start feeding them the new dog food with the chicken and rice. I also came home to find a bowl of the new dog food sitting next to their water bowl. I was not happy about that. Now tonight Daisy has another tummy ache. I am so frustrated with him because I asked him not to give them any dog food while I was gone. I don't know what he was thinking. I told him that we needed to slowly transition them to the new food after a few days of chicken and rice. I am getting them back on their chicken and rice again.

I think I will need to switch them to the small breed kibble since Teddy seemed to have trouble chewing the larger kibble. The good news is that hubby told me that Daisy seems to love the new food. I hope this works out.

Aww! Dang! I'm sure your hubby did those things out of love for the pups but when you say to do something a certain way, there's a reason for it lol...my BF is the same way! Hope Daisy is feeling better. And yeah, I remember that particular Wellness Core formula did have kind of large weird wedge-shaped pieces...Toki didn't have an issue with it but they did seem kinda big.

[windwalker]

Have you been to Vet, stool sample? Stool appearance, smell? parasites, bacteria?

[Doodlebug]

I definitely think hubby wanted to make the babies happy and he doesn't realize the consequences can hurt them. He loves them so much. He would never ever purposely hurt them. I feel so lucky for that. But I think he also wanted to surprise me and let me see that they like the food. I think maybe he believes I go a little overboard trying to protect them

I don't think Daisy has pancreatitis but I will definitely have the vet take a look at her if it seems that way. After I talked to the BB rep and she confirmed that the life source bits were the problem, I didn't think she would need to see the vet if her gas goes away. I think she will be ok now. I won't leave her with hubby again until she is back on track, that's for sure.

Some of Teddy Bear's teeth are a little loose. He will probably need some pulled at his next dental. He is 10 yrs old and still has all of his teeth. He does need rentals regularly. Hubby said he soaked the kibble in water to soften it for them.

Thanks for your concern and advice. It is always helpful and appreciated.

[dottiesyrky]

Of course your hubby thought what he fed them was to be kind to them, we all tend to give our dogs treats to make them happy. And I am sure he thought you would be pleased that they liked the new food. He was not to know what effects his feeding would have. But sometimes family members do not realize how delicate these dogs can be when it comes to diet, and often they think we are being unduly restrictive.
Praying that it was the black bits that caused the upset and that it will be out of her system soon. Try and get some sleep and hopefully she will be ok tomorrow and can come home. :-)

[dottiesyrky]

Sorry, she is at home….what was I thinking!!!! Hope she is feeling better today.

[Rescuemomma]

I don't like feeding all the grain that's in foods like Royal Canin, Science Diet, etc I mainly feed raw, but if I'm traveling and need to use kibble I get Nature's Variety or Wellness Core. Petsmart carries both now.

Just another sad story about how much Blue cares - Years ago I thought I would try Blue Buffalo Wilderness with my Sphynx cats. I had 3 cats - 3 days after switching them, one of my cats went down scary fast. I rushed him to the vet but they couldn't find what was wrong. His liver and kidney values where extremely high but none of the toxin tests or other bloodwork they ran gave any reason why. All my cats had just had full physicals including bloodwork about 3 months prior. He ended up spending 2 1/2 weeks at the vet near death on IV fluids and being tube fed before he was even strong enough that I could take him home to continue the treatment (I am a trained vet tech, and had an IV pump and everything else I needed - But he was far to critical to transport back and forth to the vet every day when I went to work since he needed to be monitored around the clock!) He wanted to eat but he was to weak. I took him to a specialist, they couldn't figure it out. Slowly my cat recovered after loosing over half his body weight - It was a very long, slow recovery. A week after the first cat got sick, my other male went down just as fast. I rushed him to the vet as well - but sadly he went into Cardiac Arrest within moments of getting there and as hard as they tried, he didn't survive. When I took my surviving cat to the internal medicine specialist he asked one question I thought was odd - "Do you or have you fed Blue Buffalo". I told him I'd just changed and he told me that explained a lot . He said he'd had a number of patients with sudden serious and unexplained symptoms and the only thing they all had in common was being fed Blue I called them and basically got the same response you did "the bags may vary from batch to batch" - OK, but my cats had never eaten Blue before, they where perfectly healthy, and suddenly I was thousands of dollars into vet bills on one and lost another. They told me I could exchange the bag - No thanks! I threw it away and went back to their original food (Felidae). My one girl that never got sick I took to the vet to be safe, and both her liver and kidney values where high. She's just had bloodwork done (they all had!) just 3 months prior - So we know it was a new thing, and almost certainly caused by the food. Not a coincidence that 3 healthy cats all had problems!

[dottiesyrky]

Wow, that is really scary about BB. I am so sorry your cats had such bad reactions to the food. I wonder what it was in the food that could cause this?
There do seem to be isolated reports like yours, but how could BB survive if its food caused more general illness? I can only surmise that the quality control is such that bad batches get through to the customer instead of being caught at source? The stated ingredients appear to be good quality and at one time I fed my dogs that food. Now I feed prescription diet for health reasons.
I do feel strongly that quality control is not good in much of the dog food industry and I wish there were more stringent regulations here.

[Rescuemomma]

Yes, I agree that quality control was the issues. The internal medicine specialist I took my cat to said all the animals he has seen sick from BB had been within the last 2-3 months of when my cats for sick. So it was probably a bad batch - But IMO it should have triggered a recall and some sort of compensation should have been offered to all the owners who's pets got sick off that food!

I also agree that over all quality control is not what it should be in the pet food industry, which is part of why I now choose to feed raw - then I KNOW where my dogs' food comes from, how it is handled and prepared, etc. Some companies like Orijen, Acana, Canidae, etc have much higher quality control standards then others. I use to feed and swear by Canidea before I went to raw, used it for over 10 years for my rescues and never had problems. I know Petco now sells Canidae.

[chestermama]

solid golds sundancer is great food grain free and chester done great on it and then got tired of it, acana is his food now

[Doodlebug]

I am so sorry about your cats Rescuemomma. That is awful.

Daisy seems better the last couple of nights. Much better. She is acting pretty normal right now. But yesterday I called the vet to make an appointment. I have to wait a week to get in...AGAIN. So I asked if they could give me something for her tummy while we are waiting. So yesterday she got Prostora in the am and pm, and she had a great night last night.

I am trying a new vet who has longer hours and 3 vets work there. I can't see waiting a week every time I need to see the vet. We have an appointment at 2:10 on Monday.

Are there any tests that I should be asking about just to make sure she is ok?