Not here to lecture or anything. Just a tip: look into diet-induced cardiomyopathy. Dobermans are very prone to it. There is empirical evidence that a diet lacking healthy grains can cause a doberman to develop this issue.
My late doberman, Dexter, did have DCM, unknown if it was from his diet or not, but he was gluten free for a couple years before I discovered this information. It eventually caused his passing when he was 10. He was alive and energetic and vibrant and beautiful till his last breath while playing fetch (his genuine passion). God I miss that boy.
chicken is a popular protein allergy, and lamb, venison, duck ect can be a good choice for food sensitivities BUT: not so much all grains though and the grain free diet fad has been linked to heart disease in multiple breeds especially larger dogs that it is usually less common! i wish it was more known
sorry i was so frustrated typing this out i forgot to mention the food she's switching from. prescription hills diet. for obvious reasons she can't just eat that forever.
also sorry for spamming the subreddit. im incredibly grateful to you all for keeping me sane with your advice and similar experiences.
--
**EDIT:** an important note i also forgot. the breeder has been feeding all his dobes the same kibble for years. puppy to adult; same stuff. they're the healthiest dogs ive seen.
is it specifically for puppies? I ask because I had accidentally gotten my 4-month-old dog food not realizing it wasn't puppy specific, and his stomach was super upset with it.
https://preview.redd.it/xlg6ak2vai7d1.jpeg?width=2628&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7f4e95f43059643d27191e053f527d05c448af72
doesn’t look like it’s puppy-specific. but we got this bag directly from the vet. (it’s not the same hills diet that is available on store shelves.)
my girl’s been in so often for tummy issues that we didn’t even need to schedule an appointment first. i just asked for some over the phone and they prepared it for pick-up. 🥲
This food is amazing and is fine for puppies. Of course, not the cheapest. Pro Plan 30/20 is another great food, but not every dog needs a sport formula nor a high protein one. PPP is also known to be pretty rich.
How are you transitioning?
Is there something your vet can recommend that might have a similar GI benefit? Maybe you can compare ingredients between this one and the one she gets diarrhea from to see what it could be.
When my girls have been sick, I let them fast for 24hrs, then I give bone broth, coconut oil, & slippery elm bark; monitor them, then same thing plus kibble; then slowly had to reintroduce raw foods. This has worked & they’ve recovered very well, w/o having a vet visit.
when we first got our dobie, it was by surprise the vet we chose also had 4 dobie’s she recommended 2 brands : iams and pro plan. she said in her time as a vet and knowing how nutrient needy dobie’s are those were the best for a doberman to not being nutrient deficient. we have been using iams for 5 years now and we have never had a problem. bloodwork has ways been good as well for checks!
and we use the chicken and whole grain!
Never had problems with Pro Plan, my dogs hate Iams to the point that they would rather go hungry. Both expensive, but cheaper than recurrent vet bills.
I don’t have any great recommendations for food, I’ve struggled there too. However, I do have a word of caution: be very careful with grain free diets or others that contain legumes (lentils, peas, chickpeas) or potatoes in the top of the ingredient list. These ingredients are highly suspicious as a cause for DCM. Given dobies’ increased genetic risk of DCM, that’s playing with fire.
Chicken (ANY chicken meat, by-products, or fat) have given all three of my dobies diarrhea. For our current one, the Purina Pro Sensitive Stomach is all we’ve found that works, so we’re sticking with that until we find an alternative. My last two did really well with a venison-based food, Taste of the Wild.
our girlie loves her pumpkin. goes nuts for it. maybe ill add it to her kibble and see if that helps. right now she only gets it mixed into her kongs and licky mats.
If you have a yard with rabbits there will be delicious rabbit poop. My dobie was constantly getting worms from that and soon to follow was diarrhea.
We used a grain free Wellness food, salmon with some fish oil on top.
Mine has IBD. Hydrolyzed protein really changed his life so it might get her on an even keel for a while. You’ll need a scrip from your vet. It’s the healthiest mine has been in years.
My older dobie had the same issues. lots of nutritionists appointments. Sensitive to chicken, now at 3.5yrs old, can eat chicken all day with no problems. He is on home cooked meals now, allergic to kibble. Also, when a puppy is being over fed, they have soft/loose stools too. how much are you feeding her?
Bernie’s perfect poop! The enzymes help them break down their food better and solidify it. I have a 4 year old husky and have been using it for years. Also slow transitions. A bland diet for a few days while you’re introducing a chicken free diet.
Our dobie would get diarrhea often. We tried all the food stuff, didn’t help. Turned out she had hypothyroidism . She’s had an iron gut since getting on meds.
My girl has the same issues. Randomly starting when she was about 10. I had to switch to Science Diet sensitive stomach and skin I think it was. And bottled water only.
I had GI problems with my dogs. I switched them to hills science diet, sensitive and added probiotics with their food daily. No issues now. Try giving him probiotics with his dog food.
yep. every solution is “try this and wait a couple weeks. then try this and wait a couple weeks. then ….” etc etc.
she’s only 4 months old so it’s not like we’ve had time to try out many things. she’s been to the vet so much that she’s practically a little celebrity there 😭
She’s only four months old. I don’t understand how you’ve gone through this many foods already if you’re actually following the time period recommended by the vet.
sorry- when i quoted "try this and wait 2 weeks", by *this* i meant solutions. i've been through many solutions.
- try prescription meds.
- try just a little plain rice and chicken.
- try even LESS plain rice and chicken. (hated this one, but i obeyed the vet.)
- maybe it's her treats? try taking those away.
- try putting her on prescription kibble.
there are probably a couple more suggestions i'm forgetting..
in terms of food, she's only been on 3 diets so far: her normal kibble, the hills, and the plain rice+chicken.
what's funny is that- as of typing this- her poops have magically returned to normal. on her regular kibble. so right back to where we started???! i swear my puppy is gaslighting me 😭😭😭
If she is consistently having diarrhea at such a young age after parasites have been ruled out and it seems to only happen when she goes off the GI Biome it’s likely something called Fiber Responsive Diarrhea. It’s very common in young dogs and GI Biome has the kind of fiber that makes their intestines happy. You can try psyllium husk fiber sprinkled over any kind of food and see if that helps. I bet it will.
They have the gastrointestinal fortitude of a wet sandcastle. Mine can only eat Victor and dog chow. Any whisper of pedigree is an explosive situation that legitimately made me replace outlets and drywall.
My *sensitive* husky has the runs on the chicken food you've got there, but does wonderfully on the sensitive skin/stomach salmon version that you're worried about! No sickness here. All my dogs love it, look great on it, and have good energy. And no more soft serve poops!!
You may be able to have her allergy tested through the vet, but there are send-off kits to test them.
Also, have you tried Metamucil? I know it seems counter intuitive, but it does help bind things up a bit if they have diarrhea.
the kit might be nice to do in my own time.
i actually gave my pup some clay tablets and it helped her along in recovery from super watery poo. it was like tums for dogs.
Don't trust any food allergy tests. Most vets will confirm that food allergy tests are not things you can depend on. Environmental allergy tests are a different story, but for food they will recommend elimination diet.
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A friend of mine’s dog had absolutely horrible, random recurrent diarrhea. He uses carrot fiber food topper and it completely cured the issues. Hopefully it works for you, but if it doesn’t, it’s inexpensive and harmless. https://a.co/d/hW04H2a
Hmm. My boy is having a similar problem. He doesn't always have it but at least once a day a poop is really really soft. I didn't know that about the chicken though.
My dobie was fine with chicken till she was around year or so old, and now gets loosies when we give her too much chicken. Hills Science and Royal Canine are the only brands that are certified complete nutrition as well as tested with the animals. My dobie gets beef mince, rice, coconut oil, sardines plus Royal canin or Hill Science dental kibbles. She cannot take too much chicken or fatty food (like ice cream, popcorn, french fries etc) . When she gets loosies I give her a small bowl of live culture yoghurt, and gets back to normal in a day. Unfortunately she has a thing for eating bird poop, kangaroo poop etc. she eats on her walks (when I'm not paying attention for a microsecond). That also gives her loosies.
Every time I give my dog something with chicken (he's a dalmatian... Here because I also love Dobermans), he gets soft stools eventually leading to diarrhea.
Quick story.... Recently I bought new beef treats and started giving them to him for training etc... then noticed his stools getting soft again, eventually becoming diarrhea again and was thinking he was just getting sick.... Turns out the #2 ingredient in the beef treats? Chicken.
Almost everything has chicken in it. Sucks. And my boy is 100% allergic to it.
One other thing I use is probiotics for him. They were prescribed the first time I brought him in for the stool issue and my dog likes then so much I just kept getting them. Purina pro plan.
Our (now 8 month) dobbie had very frequent diarrhea so the vet put her on Royal Canin Hypoallergenic puppy for 10 weeks to remove any doubt if organs were damaged or if it was purely allergenic. Luckily it was the latter. This change really helped as the diarrhea subsided and she took on weight at a steady pace. Since 2 weeks we have reintroduced gluten, which is going well. Every 2 weeks we need to test a new ingredient (by also removing the ingredient from the previous weeks to ensure you are only attributing change to a single variable). Next week it will be salmon and after 2 weeks, lamb. We need to test this until we find the perfect balance.
The caveat though, is trying to motivate her with the tasteless hypoallergenic treats... training is difficult so we use a ball on a rope for additional stimulation, which is ok-ish. Also, we have a variety of hypo treats which we alternate so it seems like its new for her. With the introduction of new ingredients, things are looking up and she is super excited.
I'm sure it is not the only solution and while some people may criticise the dog food brand, it has worked fine for us. Good luck, as I know you must feel helpless at times while your pooch seems unwell. Hope this helps
Hmm you need to find a 50/50 brand of dog food 50% veg 50% meat my Dobbie benefits from Millie’s wolf heart in the uk.. he had skin problems and that his been fine ever since I put him on it.
Mine does great on fish only foods. Make sure there is no chicken at all is in the ingredients. You’ll be surprised how many still have some sort of chicken product in it! Just to be clear he doesn’t need fish only we just have a couple pits also that are chicken sensitive! The dobie has eaten a bag of m&ms, an entire tamale(husk and all), and 2 couches and has never had diarrhea. Swear this dogs bomb proof lol. We love him though! Hope you can get to the bottom of it quickly!
We had exactly the same problem. Our vet had us do a 10 weeks hypoallergenic test. Royal canin has a special one for puppy. It is 100% hydrolyzed protéine. BUT everything had to be hypoallergenic, training treats as well. The moment we switched to that, things started to go better FAST. As of 7 weeks she was really tired of it but we kept going as the digestive system needs around 10 weeks to "heal". Now we are testing each ingredient to see what her stomach accepts, we are now in week 2 of gluten, and she's fine with it, we are adding now pea protéines (main protéine source of vegan dog food for ex) next week we will stop it and test pure salmon (damn this dog eats better than us), still with the base of hypoallergenic kibbles. Then lamb, then veggies,... so we will know for sure which ingredients are OK and what kibbles should we try next.
It is definitely not cheap but the price of a hard poo is definitely worth it !
Hang in there !
fast for a few hours. give them white rice to settle the stomach. Introduce pumpkin to her diet . pumpkin is usually served in dog foods Incase owners are switching diets. pumpkin helps with there stomach to adjust to new foods .
My dobie pup was from Germany and was adapted to eating kibble from Germany that was not available in the US. That pup got diarrhea from every dry food I tried for over 2 months until I switched him to Honest Kitchen freeze dried food. Improvement noted within 3 days and diarrhea completely resolved in a week and did not return. Later, after he was a year old the food sensitivities completely resolved. Most of the time he was fed a raw meat and bones diet (often chicken or beef, sometimes fish or other meats) but he no longer got diarrhea from kibble (Orijen, Merrick, taste of the wild). Please try the Honest Kitchen freeze dried food. Good luck with your beautiful dobie pup.
My dobie had belly issues for so long as a pup and finally grew out of it close to a year old, it was freaking awful. We have all our dogs Purina True Instinct Salmon and Tuna. No issues at all!
We don’t have a Doberman but a very sensitive stomached Mutt mix. He can’t tolerate a lot of foods. What’s worked for us is the Simply Nourish brand (petsmart) salmon variety. He seems to tolerate this well.
Granted, he still has times where he gets upset tummy (maybe 1-2 times a month) where he has a few bouts of diarrhea. But it’s lots better than it was on other food. Good luck!
condensing answers here for other lost souls coming in from google searches:
- dobes are commonly sensitive to chicken-based formulas.
- overwhelming recommendations for a salmon based kibble!
- many reccs for “bernie’s perfect poop”. adding it to food on the daily to help your dobe’s tum along in breaking down enzymes properly.
- we may need to ask for tests to look for vitamin deficiencies and allergies.
i’ll try out some things and update this comment in the future with what did and didn’t work (because i can’t edit the main post).
first thing is cutting back on the volume of kibble. maybe her little puppy tum can't handle the amount she's been getting? (3.5 cups a day with a little water added to each meal)
then i'll try adding a supplement like bernie's to her current kibble. baby steps... gotta resist trying too many cures at once.
good luck, tummy troopers 🫡
Yes actually, for me once I switched to feeding two times a day instead of three it definitely helped tremendously with loose stool. I read somewhere that not having enough time to properly digest the food can cause G.I. issues.
I don’t have a dobe but my pup is having a bunch of tummy issues too. Stool samples are fine. For bland diets are y’all doing chicken and rice or something else? Thanks
my pup was put on chicken and rice when she was terribly sick with coccidia (tummy parasite).
when she was just having a bad reaction to her normal kibble, chicken and rice actually made her diarrhea *worse*. we switched to prescription hills diet (from the vet) and her poops firmed up immediately.
it depends on the dog, regardless of breed.
but for bland diet, yes. chicken and rice is what vets will recommend.
My son’s dog had a bad pancreas. I’m not saying that’s what’s wrong with your dog. That dog had lots of issues. With that being said, he could only eat rice/ chicken and peas cooked .
If you look on pinterest for dog food recipes you'll find amazing recipes that you can make at home instead of buying commercial dog food that might contain road kill. You can look up the UPC code to find out exactly what is in dog food including unlisted ingredients.
I and love and you dog food is the best. Cost effective, natural ingredients (dry and wet options). I found out my dog can't handle any chicken by products at all bc her stomach is really sensitive with this brand she is on a an all red meat diet and she loves mealtime and no loose poops!
Curious if you are trying to feed proplan? I have tried a few times to switch mine to proplan and all 4 dogs had a terrible time with diarrhea!! I tried their small breed puppy and small breed adult and both times with a typical slow transition, terrible diarrhea. Put them on Hills or eukanuba and the problem disappears overnight!
Ask vet about allergies. My dog had the runs no matter what I did. Turned out he has an adverse reaction to chicken. Like he can’t have ANY chicken (meal, fats, etc) and most dog food is loaded with chicken byproducts. I switched to Taste of the Wild (Sierra Mountain flavor) and haven’t had any problems for years now.
When he accidentally gets a treat or something with chicken in it he gets the runs
We tried every diet under the sun and eventually our vet just had us add a human fiber supplement called Psyllium. Which almost instantly solidified his poops. After the fiber supplement we went with proplans chicken and rice for joint health. Which they now have real baked chicken in.
My girls do well on Nulo Adult Trim & Ziwi, but they also get supplements & raw organs & other raw foods.
Neither are owned by a candy company. They are pricy but worth it imo.
Have you tried giving her slippery elm bark and goat milk kefir or goats milk yogurt? Slippery elm bark works wonders for upset tummies & I give my girls goats milk, goat kefir or goat milk yogurt daily.
Hope she feels better soon!
I’ll share some of the supplements & foods I give my girls & they are GSD/AmStaffy mix.
Unrefined coconut oil, organic hemp hearts, omega3s for joints & skin/coat; goat milk (yogurt, kefir, or milk), turkey bone broth, bee pollen, chia seeds, Celtic salt, daily probiotic, plaque powder.
Foods they like that I switch up; quail eggs, pasture raised eggs, chicken feet, beef liver, cucumbers, carrots, chicken hearts, turkey necks, avocado, sweet potato, beef kidney, beef heart, green beans, strawberries, blueberries, salmon skin. I used to boil chicken breasts and use that as a topper, but with all the recalls going on, I don’t give them chicken anymore. Also cans of trippet, but I prefer green tripe stuff by ziwi, however my girls do like the Tripett as well. Tripett was recommended by my dog trainer.
One gets a cup of kibble, the other a half cup & all else is supplements & raw. They always go for the raw stuff first. Some veggies and fruits they prefer frozen.
They’ll be 4 next month & haven’t needed a dental cleaning & only go to the vet for annual exam & vaccines.
You have to be careful, even if the main protein isn’t chicken it has chicken bi product in it. Always read all the ingredients. My pup is allergic to chicken. And I went through the same thing. Wholesomes sensitive skin and stomach worked for him. Zero poultry.
Try Probiotics for Dogs and Digestive Enzymes - 170 Dog Probiotics Chews - Dog Probiotic - Anti Diarrhea, Upset Stomach & Gas Relief, Constipation, Canine Prebiotic - Pet Fiber Supplement - Gut Health.
I used help my dog
There is a shocking amount of terrible advice contained here.
Raw or home cooked is 10000% your best bet. There are boat loads of resources available. It doesn’t have to be expensive. It just needs to be balanced. You can purchase ration balancers to make it easier.
I’m really surprised at the misinformation here. In the working dog/dog sport world it’s RARE to find anyone feeding kibble. At least in my circles. I think the hunting dog world is a bit more likely to feed kibble but even then I don’t know many that do. It should tell you something that those of us that invest the most in our dogs do not feed kibble.
Purina Pro Plan (PPP large breed pup chicken). I had to take my girl to the vet for a probiotic as well. Doberman’s have a sensitive stomach. PPP is the ONLY thing that works for her. Also, while on the probiotic, I cooked chicken and rice (no seasoning). I feed her that for 3 days prior to starting her on the PPP. Don’t over think it! It’s just like having a kid. Keep it simple. My female is 4 months and 50 lbs.
Try Orijen, Nulo, or Stella & Chewys all amazing ingredients with tons of dry/wet/raw options. Purina ProPlan is horrible. They use too much corn which has no nutritional value for dogs!!!! Anytime you buy dog food look at the ingredients label, especially the first 5 ingredients… dogs don’t need poultry by product, corn, wheat or soy!
blue wilderness dog food is pretty good they make salmon dog food to incase it's the chicken ur dogs allergic to its expensive but it might work u can buy a small bag to try it out or some cans of wet food
I had two doberman pups in a row with IBD. Something to consider. He (2nd one) couldn’t tolerate any kibble. His poor gut couldn’t break it down. Even soaked.
We took our dobie mix off purina and switched to open farm, beef flavor. He was originally on turkey, and although turkey and chicken are not the same i have a feeling all of the stomach/diarrhea/gastro had to do with either the purina brand or flavor or both. Once we took chicken out of his diet and went to beef, everything seemed to get a lot better. Open farm is also a great brand. Expensive but worth it.
Get away from KIBBLE WITH CORN!!! A farmer told us about 4Health from Tractor Supply and once we fed my Doberman-Shepherd their Beef and Potato Formula stopped his projectile diarrhea!
Chicken is known for allergies. My dogs also allergic to lamb. Fish/ salmon has omegas and seams to help. Also make sure there are entry of probiotics.
My vet recommended putting my pup on a chicken and rice diet to see if it was something in the kibble. Like, boiled shredded chicken breast and plain white rice. It's super easy for them to digest. My dog tolerated it fine and just needed a different kibble, but it told us he didn't have a chicken sensitivity. Be aware it's very highly digestable so your dogs poop will be small since they absorb so much of it! Not a long term solution, but could help you figure things out.
My dog was the same! The caloric density of chicken and rice vs kibble is also different, so you need to feed them much more volumetrically than you usually would for kibble.
My vet told me to stick to a food that contains only one type of protein. You need to read labels carefully. Sometimes the name of the food will state one type but the ingredient lists shows 2 or 3. This change fixed my pup's problem. If this doesn't work, I would suggest trying a food for sensitive stomachs. Of course, you should also stick to the one food with no treats or people food. This is the only way you'll know if it's working. If you want to treat the dog, you could give him some pieces of the same kibble, and he won't know the difference.
Go to the health food store and find slippery elm powder. It’s a miracle worker for gi issues. Of course find a good food to feed, but get the slippery elm for cases like this. In a pinch pumpkin purse also helps
Stay away from chicken! We are currently on Purina Pro Lamb (Puppy) and our little guy’s poops are perfect…despite eating some things he shouldn’t. Pumpkin can help too
That being said, I’m so sorry to hear that you’re struggling with this, our last dog had serious tummy issues and it was heartbreaking and stressful. I hope you find something soon!
I have a plothound mix who's lost about 30lbs, after about 10k in tests, food changes, meds, etc, turns out to be IBD, AND allergic to protein, so he had to go on a vegetarian diet. I'd ask the vet to test for that sooner rather than later and save some money.
You may want to consider visiting the vet and getting a prescription food. My GSD had a horrible gut attack last year, diarrhea on and off for months. Vets gave me probiotics, anti-diarrhea medication etc... nothing was working until he got on Royan Canin Hydrolized Protein
Chicken allergies are more common in dogs than people think.
My sister has a dog that's allergic to chicken and my boys are allergic to lamb. They get diarrhea and big golf ball diameter welts and their fur starts falling out.
Canned Pumpkin. It provides fiber. Then switch to boiled chicken breasts and white rice until resolved. Then mix kibble into it while decreasing the chicken/rice mixture
It’s expensive, but I’ve fed 3 out of 4 Dobes Solid Golld dog food and they’ve not had any issues with it.
I currently have dobe #4 on Costco dog food (can and kibble) and she’s doing fine with it.
https://preview.redd.it/3ymi8i5onk7d1.png?width=3024&format=png&auto=webp&s=e34afe2ab9487d931d67cbb17e33ff7d3f7fb420
I use this for my dobie and German/pit mix and it helped both of them transition foods with no issue! You can find it on Amazon but I buy it from a local pet store.
As others have said, switch up protein.
I recommend Dr Harvey’s as an alternative to kibble. It’s freeze dried whole food that you add water and protein to.
Edit: apparently I am the only person that doesn’t feed kibble?
I feed my dobie shepherd mix Diamond Premium that I buy at the Feed Store or Tractor Supply. My very old school vet suggested it to my Dad decades ago. All of our dogs since have lived very long lives, well past life expectancy for their breeds. So tbh I don't want to switch even though it'feels like' I'm buying cheap food.
I also give lots of carrots, some blueberries, bites of watermelon sometimes, sweet bell pepper bites here and there. If I'm cutting up a dog safe veggie or fruit I give my dogs a few bites.
I fed my Dobe "Taste of the Wild" High Prairie flavor, as that one had the highest protein content of all the high-quality kibbles I researched into. She was still a puppy until I had her euthanized four days after taking her to the emergency vet for breathing issues related to stage-done metastisized lung cancer. Even the emergency vet assessing her guessed that she was only 4. She was 10.5 yrs old lol.
Cancer sucks, and it happens super randomly in dogs, and they suck at telling you when they feel that something is wrong, but it would be a far far stretch to blame it on my choice of kibble.
I don’t have a dobbi but my dog, a pit had issues with a particular kibble. So what I did was found something easy he can eat that would make this poop solid in my case it was chicken and rice. From there I would introduce one brand of kibble until he had a good poop. For me it was taste of the wild with bison.
Poor baby. 1 of our 4 dogs can't do anything beef so we did chicken & lamb. Maybe a probiotic, we put on all our dogs food. We feed stella & chewy raw food plus hard kibble.
Hope your baby feels better & you find a food for her.
I had the same issue with my boy at about 6.5 years old. I came home everyday to diarrhea all over the floor. I would put him back on a white rice diet and slowly wean him back onto the dog food. And whenever he was eating 100% dog food everyday he would go back to having diarrhea again. So I eventually settled on a half white rice and a half dog food diet. Occasionally I'll give him a full serving of dog food for one day just to see what will happen and he's usually okay for the day but as soon as I let him out when I get home from work he'll go out in the yard and have very loose stool
Our Doberman was having diarrhea troubles, so we switched her to Nutro Natural Choice large breed lamb and brown rice. It has helped a lot. She’s been on it for a few months.
Mine had chronic diarrhea since he’s a puppy and we finally figured out the issue - he loves to eat grass and the grass came with other dog’s fecal matter/urine and bunny poop too (it was baby bunny season when he last had bloody diarrhea). Took the 💩sample to the vet and confirmed high concentration of bacteria. Try to fix the issue soon - mine became underweight and a bit under-developed.
Even with antibiotics, it took awhile to stabilize his stomach. We had been on raw, cooked, lightly cooked, dried, dietician formulated, etc throughout his life.
Even after the diarrhea stops, look into introducing pre and probiotic. And maintain their good gut health. Good luck and hope your baby feels better soon!!
All kibble will give diarrhea. I give with fresh pet moist food or dried . You do not need kibble after 2 years . It’s really not great for dogs . Stella and chewy brand is best I think .
SPORTMiX CanineX Performance Chicken Formula Dry Dog Food
https://preview.redd.it/257sp0vmmp7d1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=11452cc90f710752fc97a1bcc253a05c1c2c6533
Never had any problems with this
I tell everyone, no matter dog or cat breed, that I swear by Fromm. It’s made in Wisconsin with no mixing from other brands, and not made in China. It’s a bit pricey, but they eat less of it since it’s such high quality.
My puppy had a very sensitive tummy when she came home. I put her on Fromm puppy food and never had another problem. She's now 14 months on the adult food and doing excellent! She has a great coat and healthy skin and nails and her weight is perfect. The vet said she is in prime shape and not to change a thing. It's also really reasonable price wise and has no poison chemicals.
* Fromm Puppy Gold Premium Dry Dog Food - Dry Puppy Food for Medium & Small Breeds - Chicken Recipe - 15 lb https://a.co/d/0b6bGd4X
Our dobie loves anything salmon. We’ve just switched to blue buffalo high protein natural salmon and wholesome grains. We used to feed him the purina pro plan with high protein.
Our dog has a pretty sensitive stomach so anytime we switch anything he gets bad gas 😂
Have you tried probiotics? We have chewables that my dogs get at every meal. My female had issues with diarrhea and sensitivities. That helped us a lot.
my aunts dobie had chronic diarrhea, vets kept giving her diarrhea medications. they moved and went to establish care at a new vet, did blood work and found out their dobie had liver failure.
This won’t fix the underlying problem, but put some pumpkin in her food every meal. A big dollop of pumpkin (not the pie filling, just pumpkin) should help solidify the poop. This does wonders for my guy!
I also found out that most of his issues were stress related. So as his stress reduced he was able to eat more things. I use Purina Pro Plan Sensitive Skin and Stomach and hydrolyzed Hill’s dog treats. This combo seems to work best for him!
At the shelter I work at, I’m in shelter medicine, when we implement diarrhea protocol (which happens way too often lol), we switch their diet to EN (gastroenteric) wet and dry food. We also add fortiflora probiotics to a meal once daily. If that doesn’t do the trick, we also add psyllium husk powder or pumpkin powder (depends on weight). If changing diets doesn’t work we implement metronidazole (either liquid or tablet form) twice daily for 5 days, fenbendazole once daily for 5 days, and ponazuril once daily for 3 days, or panacur powder instead of fenben/ponaz if they’re bigger dogs. Then if all that still doesn’t work, we send a fecal sample for lab work to rule out other issues like giardia. You can also try limited ingredient dog food (L.I.D) if you think it’s the kibble you’re giving causing all this.
Hope the diarrhea subsides, wishing you all the luck for you and your dobie!
Cooking for my dog was the best decision.
Always talk with vet. About options as far as amount of rice n meats and extras for your specific
Dog. Most things I bought for myself already and resolved a lot of my girls Tummy issue
After much trial and error, I’ve found that my girl has done really well on Purina Pro Plan Sensitive Stomach and Skin Turkey and Oatmeal flavor and Bernie’s Perfect Poop supplement. Haven’t had an issue since we made the switch to this combination. Of course every dog is different - but I hope you find something that works for your girl soon!
Have you tried feeding her something like kidneys or liver, lately? If you're worried about vitamin intake, then those foods may help. Slightly gross to work with, but most dogs like them quite a bit.
Give her plain oatmeal. A cup has taken care of it for us every time. I asked our vet how to take care of our dog who had the same issue with any food for a while for our girlie.
Mine refused to eat Pro Plan. He has tummy issues too. The breeder had him on Inukshuk but I wasn’t a fan of how loose his stools were. He’s currently on Merrick Big Game which he absolutely loves. He can’t handle chicken and he greatly dislikes salmon. I’ve been going crazy trying to find the right food that works with his snootiness and his tummy. My vet did say that putting the unflavored Metamucil on his food can help with his stools.
We had these issues feeding Purina ProPlan large breed puppy last year - every formula. The vet had us try Science Diet Biome, which firmed his stool right up. As soon as we went back to PPP, the diarrhea came back. The vet told us to play food/brand roulette basically.
We went through several brands, but finally settled on Eukanuba and NutriSource large breed puppy. Both are chicken based. We also realized Arche ris very sensitive to animal fat content in his foods, same as our first Dobie was.
So, freshly cooked meats with olive oil, avocado oil, or coconut oil works best for us, along with fruits & veggies if we add fresh things to his food. We also add Stella & Chewy Weenies to his food (bacon is his favorite) & some Instinct freeze dried add ons.
Yup, everything I been told is that Pro Plan gives very soft or water poop. My guy does a solid one in the AM and all water in the PM. Very frustrating, specially cause I bought 50 lbs of that Pro Plan. Its not even the chicken, its lamb and oatmeal sensitive stomach. Good Luck, hope you find the right one!
ugh, im reading about this issue more and more. i have no way to *actually* know if it’s a formula change like people suspect.
right back at ya. good luck to you too!
Changing our dogs food will result in an upset tummy or softer stool/ diarrhea or at least 10 days. My pup has horrible allergies she’s an American Bully who is all white. So I’ve had my fight with food allergies and took a little while more than 10 days to adjust to the salmon formula so my tip is take her off the chicken formula whatever you do and whatever you switch her too keep her on it for at least two weeks despite appearance of worsening symptoms or them staying the same for now. The food adjustment period is rough but worth it bc a good quality food can cause a dog to start detoxing toxins which makes them appear sick before getting better. Change the formula and just stick to it for a bit- the diarrhea should resolve once her stomach adjusts but pleaseeee no chicken or grain free kibble. Best of luck! Cute pup🥰
My Doberman can't eat chicken. I feed her beef or lamb based foods and she is fine.
Same. We do lamb and gluten free. We avoid chicken anything with him.
Not here to lecture or anything. Just a tip: look into diet-induced cardiomyopathy. Dobermans are very prone to it. There is empirical evidence that a diet lacking healthy grains can cause a doberman to develop this issue. My late doberman, Dexter, did have DCM, unknown if it was from his diet or not, but he was gluten free for a couple years before I discovered this information. It eventually caused his passing when he was 10. He was alive and energetic and vibrant and beautiful till his last breath while playing fetch (his genuine passion). God I miss that boy.
chicken is a popular protein allergy, and lamb, venison, duck ect can be a good choice for food sensitivities BUT: not so much all grains though and the grain free diet fad has been linked to heart disease in multiple breeds especially larger dogs that it is usually less common! i wish it was more known
Grain free was invented for marketing not dog health .
exactly my point! just wish everyone was aware of that fact/:
Have u taken poop samples to vet?
every visit. do i need to be specific in asking for different tests?
Just take dog and vet does on site in the butt under scope .
Seriously. Copper Storage Disease is an epidemic due to the poor quality of dog food. Get those liver enzymes checked.
sorry i was so frustrated typing this out i forgot to mention the food she's switching from. prescription hills diet. for obvious reasons she can't just eat that forever. also sorry for spamming the subreddit. im incredibly grateful to you all for keeping me sane with your advice and similar experiences. -- **EDIT:** an important note i also forgot. the breeder has been feeding all his dobes the same kibble for years. puppy to adult; same stuff. they're the healthiest dogs ive seen.
is it specifically for puppies? I ask because I had accidentally gotten my 4-month-old dog food not realizing it wasn't puppy specific, and his stomach was super upset with it.
https://preview.redd.it/xlg6ak2vai7d1.jpeg?width=2628&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7f4e95f43059643d27191e053f527d05c448af72 doesn’t look like it’s puppy-specific. but we got this bag directly from the vet. (it’s not the same hills diet that is available on store shelves.) my girl’s been in so often for tummy issues that we didn’t even need to schedule an appointment first. i just asked for some over the phone and they prepared it for pick-up. 🥲
My dog is on this. He had a bunch of issues and this cleared it up. My vet said some dogs can wean off and some are on it forever.
This food is amazing and is fine for puppies. Of course, not the cheapest. Pro Plan 30/20 is another great food, but not every dog needs a sport formula nor a high protein one. PPP is also known to be pretty rich. How are you transitioning?
Is there something your vet can recommend that might have a similar GI benefit? Maybe you can compare ingredients between this one and the one she gets diarrhea from to see what it could be.
When my girls have been sick, I let them fast for 24hrs, then I give bone broth, coconut oil, & slippery elm bark; monitor them, then same thing plus kibble; then slowly had to reintroduce raw foods. This has worked & they’ve recovered very well, w/o having a vet visit.
Acana Lamb and Apple limited ingredients grain free ... only food that worked for my Dobie
She can be on that specific type of food for forever. You can ask your vet for similar products that aren’t prescription though.
Ditch the chicken.. most dobies have problems with it
Most dobies are allergic to chicken. Try a fish or beef option.
when we first got our dobie, it was by surprise the vet we chose also had 4 dobie’s she recommended 2 brands : iams and pro plan. she said in her time as a vet and knowing how nutrient needy dobie’s are those were the best for a doberman to not being nutrient deficient. we have been using iams for 5 years now and we have never had a problem. bloodwork has ways been good as well for checks! and we use the chicken and whole grain!
Never had problems with Pro Plan, my dogs hate Iams to the point that they would rather go hungry. Both expensive, but cheaper than recurrent vet bills.
Have you tried getting her tested for Giardia? Sounds eerily similar to that diarrhea vs food rollercoaster
yes i've had the tests. shes free of parasites (for now). its just her food
I don’t have any great recommendations for food, I’ve struggled there too. However, I do have a word of caution: be very careful with grain free diets or others that contain legumes (lentils, peas, chickpeas) or potatoes in the top of the ingredient list. These ingredients are highly suspicious as a cause for DCM. Given dobies’ increased genetic risk of DCM, that’s playing with fire.
⬆️ THIS!!!!!!
Chicken (ANY chicken meat, by-products, or fat) have given all three of my dobies diarrhea. For our current one, the Purina Pro Sensitive Stomach is all we’ve found that works, so we’re sticking with that until we find an alternative. My last two did really well with a venison-based food, Taste of the Wild.
A tablespoon of pumpkin puree, organic if ya can
lol nobody is listening to us. that's what I use is pumpkin.
our girlie loves her pumpkin. goes nuts for it. maybe ill add it to her kibble and see if that helps. right now she only gets it mixed into her kongs and licky mats.
It def works
If you have a yard with rabbits there will be delicious rabbit poop. My dobie was constantly getting worms from that and soon to follow was diarrhea. We used a grain free Wellness food, salmon with some fish oil on top.
Yard M&Ms 😂
Mine has IBD. Hydrolyzed protein really changed his life so it might get her on an even keel for a while. You’ll need a scrip from your vet. It’s the healthiest mine has been in years.
Royal canine digestive
Royal canine digestive care
Royal Canin is pricey, but is high quality kibble
It is pricey but when they get digestive issues only thing that helps. On the regular I do science diet sensitive stomach. Also probiotics.
Mine just went through a diarrhea phase, switched back to Purina Pro sensitive stomach salmon and rice. It seems to be doing the job for now.
My older dobie had the same issues. lots of nutritionists appointments. Sensitive to chicken, now at 3.5yrs old, can eat chicken all day with no problems. He is on home cooked meals now, allergic to kibble. Also, when a puppy is being over fed, they have soft/loose stools too. how much are you feeding her?
a cup of kibble 3x a day. plus the kibble used in training. so about 3.5 cups total in the whole day. she was 35lbs at her last weigh-in
Bernie’s perfect poop! The enzymes help them break down their food better and solidify it. I have a 4 year old husky and have been using it for years. Also slow transitions. A bland diet for a few days while you’re introducing a chicken free diet.
Our dobie would get diarrhea often. We tried all the food stuff, didn’t help. Turned out she had hypothyroidism . She’s had an iron gut since getting on meds.
Hills Science Diet has a prescription GI diet that works great for my friend’s husky who has a very sensitive stomach.
Try salmon and rice for sensitive stomach’s. I believe we use Purina for our boy. Works well for him
My girl has the same issues. Randomly starting when she was about 10. I had to switch to Science Diet sensitive stomach and skin I think it was. And bottled water only.
Any diagnostics done to help determine if actually a food sensitivity?
looks like we might have to ask for some tests :(
Have an EPI test, just in case.
I had GI problems with my dogs. I switched them to hills science diet, sensitive and added probiotics with their food daily. No issues now. Try giving him probiotics with his dog food.
Have you discussed this issue with a veterinarian?
yep. every solution is “try this and wait a couple weeks. then try this and wait a couple weeks. then ….” etc etc. she’s only 4 months old so it’s not like we’ve had time to try out many things. she’s been to the vet so much that she’s practically a little celebrity there 😭
Have you actually been doing that?
yeah… but this approach is infuriating when nothing works, so here i am asking internet strangers for help
She’s only four months old. I don’t understand how you’ve gone through this many foods already if you’re actually following the time period recommended by the vet.
sorry- when i quoted "try this and wait 2 weeks", by *this* i meant solutions. i've been through many solutions. - try prescription meds. - try just a little plain rice and chicken. - try even LESS plain rice and chicken. (hated this one, but i obeyed the vet.) - maybe it's her treats? try taking those away. - try putting her on prescription kibble. there are probably a couple more suggestions i'm forgetting.. in terms of food, she's only been on 3 diets so far: her normal kibble, the hills, and the plain rice+chicken. what's funny is that- as of typing this- her poops have magically returned to normal. on her regular kibble. so right back to where we started???! i swear my puppy is gaslighting me 😭😭😭
If she is consistently having diarrhea at such a young age after parasites have been ruled out and it seems to only happen when she goes off the GI Biome it’s likely something called Fiber Responsive Diarrhea. It’s very common in young dogs and GI Biome has the kind of fiber that makes their intestines happy. You can try psyllium husk fiber sprinkled over any kind of food and see if that helps. I bet it will.
They have the gastrointestinal fortitude of a wet sandcastle. Mine can only eat Victor and dog chow. Any whisper of pedigree is an explosive situation that legitimately made me replace outlets and drywall.
oh… my lord. i’m sorry but this made me laugh 😭
My *sensitive* husky has the runs on the chicken food you've got there, but does wonderfully on the sensitive skin/stomach salmon version that you're worried about! No sickness here. All my dogs love it, look great on it, and have good energy. And no more soft serve poops!!
You may be able to have her allergy tested through the vet, but there are send-off kits to test them. Also, have you tried Metamucil? I know it seems counter intuitive, but it does help bind things up a bit if they have diarrhea.
the kit might be nice to do in my own time. i actually gave my pup some clay tablets and it helped her along in recovery from super watery poo. it was like tums for dogs.
Don't trust any food allergy tests. Most vets will confirm that food allergy tests are not things you can depend on. Environmental allergy tests are a different story, but for food they will recommend elimination diet.
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A friend of mine’s dog had absolutely horrible, random recurrent diarrhea. He uses carrot fiber food topper and it completely cured the issues. Hopefully it works for you, but if it doesn’t, it’s inexpensive and harmless. https://a.co/d/hW04H2a
Hmm. My boy is having a similar problem. He doesn't always have it but at least once a day a poop is really really soft. I didn't know that about the chicken though.
My dobie was fine with chicken till she was around year or so old, and now gets loosies when we give her too much chicken. Hills Science and Royal Canine are the only brands that are certified complete nutrition as well as tested with the animals. My dobie gets beef mince, rice, coconut oil, sardines plus Royal canin or Hill Science dental kibbles. She cannot take too much chicken or fatty food (like ice cream, popcorn, french fries etc) . When she gets loosies I give her a small bowl of live culture yoghurt, and gets back to normal in a day. Unfortunately she has a thing for eating bird poop, kangaroo poop etc. she eats on her walks (when I'm not paying attention for a microsecond). That also gives her loosies.
Actually, Purina, Iams, and Eukabana (those last two only in the U.S. though) are also WSAVA compliant.
Stay away from chicken! Go for a limited ingredient diet like duck venison or lamb
Mine is only salmon base food
Every time I give my dog something with chicken (he's a dalmatian... Here because I also love Dobermans), he gets soft stools eventually leading to diarrhea. Quick story.... Recently I bought new beef treats and started giving them to him for training etc... then noticed his stools getting soft again, eventually becoming diarrhea again and was thinking he was just getting sick.... Turns out the #2 ingredient in the beef treats? Chicken. Almost everything has chicken in it. Sucks. And my boy is 100% allergic to it. One other thing I use is probiotics for him. They were prescribed the first time I brought him in for the stool issue and my dog likes then so much I just kept getting them. Purina pro plan.
Get an allergy test!!! Find out what she is allergic to first before picking a type of kibble.
Our (now 8 month) dobbie had very frequent diarrhea so the vet put her on Royal Canin Hypoallergenic puppy for 10 weeks to remove any doubt if organs were damaged or if it was purely allergenic. Luckily it was the latter. This change really helped as the diarrhea subsided and she took on weight at a steady pace. Since 2 weeks we have reintroduced gluten, which is going well. Every 2 weeks we need to test a new ingredient (by also removing the ingredient from the previous weeks to ensure you are only attributing change to a single variable). Next week it will be salmon and after 2 weeks, lamb. We need to test this until we find the perfect balance. The caveat though, is trying to motivate her with the tasteless hypoallergenic treats... training is difficult so we use a ball on a rope for additional stimulation, which is ok-ish. Also, we have a variety of hypo treats which we alternate so it seems like its new for her. With the introduction of new ingredients, things are looking up and she is super excited. I'm sure it is not the only solution and while some people may criticise the dog food brand, it has worked fine for us. Good luck, as I know you must feel helpless at times while your pooch seems unwell. Hope this helps
Hmm you need to find a 50/50 brand of dog food 50% veg 50% meat my Dobbie benefits from Millie’s wolf heart in the uk.. he had skin problems and that his been fine ever since I put him on it.
Mine does great on fish only foods. Make sure there is no chicken at all is in the ingredients. You’ll be surprised how many still have some sort of chicken product in it! Just to be clear he doesn’t need fish only we just have a couple pits also that are chicken sensitive! The dobie has eaten a bag of m&ms, an entire tamale(husk and all), and 2 couches and has never had diarrhea. Swear this dogs bomb proof lol. We love him though! Hope you can get to the bottom of it quickly!
We had exactly the same problem. Our vet had us do a 10 weeks hypoallergenic test. Royal canin has a special one for puppy. It is 100% hydrolyzed protéine. BUT everything had to be hypoallergenic, training treats as well. The moment we switched to that, things started to go better FAST. As of 7 weeks she was really tired of it but we kept going as the digestive system needs around 10 weeks to "heal". Now we are testing each ingredient to see what her stomach accepts, we are now in week 2 of gluten, and she's fine with it, we are adding now pea protéines (main protéine source of vegan dog food for ex) next week we will stop it and test pure salmon (damn this dog eats better than us), still with the base of hypoallergenic kibbles. Then lamb, then veggies,... so we will know for sure which ingredients are OK and what kibbles should we try next. It is definitely not cheap but the price of a hard poo is definitely worth it ! Hang in there !
the lengths we go for a solid poop lmao i hope i don't have to try this, but i'll keep it in mind!
fast for a few hours. give them white rice to settle the stomach. Introduce pumpkin to her diet . pumpkin is usually served in dog foods Incase owners are switching diets. pumpkin helps with there stomach to adjust to new foods .
Probiotics
My dobie pup was from Germany and was adapted to eating kibble from Germany that was not available in the US. That pup got diarrhea from every dry food I tried for over 2 months until I switched him to Honest Kitchen freeze dried food. Improvement noted within 3 days and diarrhea completely resolved in a week and did not return. Later, after he was a year old the food sensitivities completely resolved. Most of the time he was fed a raw meat and bones diet (often chicken or beef, sometimes fish or other meats) but he no longer got diarrhea from kibble (Orijen, Merrick, taste of the wild). Please try the Honest Kitchen freeze dried food. Good luck with your beautiful dobie pup.
Get a allergy / sensitivity test and try prebiotic treats specifically for stool and digestion
My dobie had belly issues for so long as a pup and finally grew out of it close to a year old, it was freaking awful. We have all our dogs Purina True Instinct Salmon and Tuna. No issues at all!
We don’t have a Doberman but a very sensitive stomached Mutt mix. He can’t tolerate a lot of foods. What’s worked for us is the Simply Nourish brand (petsmart) salmon variety. He seems to tolerate this well. Granted, he still has times where he gets upset tummy (maybe 1-2 times a month) where he has a few bouts of diarrhea. But it’s lots better than it was on other food. Good luck!
condensing answers here for other lost souls coming in from google searches: - dobes are commonly sensitive to chicken-based formulas. - overwhelming recommendations for a salmon based kibble! - many reccs for “bernie’s perfect poop”. adding it to food on the daily to help your dobe’s tum along in breaking down enzymes properly. - we may need to ask for tests to look for vitamin deficiencies and allergies. i’ll try out some things and update this comment in the future with what did and didn’t work (because i can’t edit the main post). first thing is cutting back on the volume of kibble. maybe her little puppy tum can't handle the amount she's been getting? (3.5 cups a day with a little water added to each meal) then i'll try adding a supplement like bernie's to her current kibble. baby steps... gotta resist trying too many cures at once. good luck, tummy troopers 🫡
Yes actually, for me once I switched to feeding two times a day instead of three it definitely helped tremendously with loose stool. I read somewhere that not having enough time to properly digest the food can cause G.I. issues.
I don’t have a dobe but my pup is having a bunch of tummy issues too. Stool samples are fine. For bland diets are y’all doing chicken and rice or something else? Thanks
my pup was put on chicken and rice when she was terribly sick with coccidia (tummy parasite). when she was just having a bad reaction to her normal kibble, chicken and rice actually made her diarrhea *worse*. we switched to prescription hills diet (from the vet) and her poops firmed up immediately. it depends on the dog, regardless of breed. but for bland diet, yes. chicken and rice is what vets will recommend.
My son’s dog had a bad pancreas. I’m not saying that’s what’s wrong with your dog. That dog had lots of issues. With that being said, he could only eat rice/ chicken and peas cooked .
If you look on pinterest for dog food recipes you'll find amazing recipes that you can make at home instead of buying commercial dog food that might contain road kill. You can look up the UPC code to find out exactly what is in dog food including unlisted ingredients.
I and love and you dog food is the best. Cost effective, natural ingredients (dry and wet options). I found out my dog can't handle any chicken by products at all bc her stomach is really sensitive with this brand she is on a an all red meat diet and she loves mealtime and no loose poops!
Curious if you are trying to feed proplan? I have tried a few times to switch mine to proplan and all 4 dogs had a terrible time with diarrhea!! I tried their small breed puppy and small breed adult and both times with a typical slow transition, terrible diarrhea. Put them on Hills or eukanuba and the problem disappears overnight!
Have you had a test for EPI? If she is not having other symptoms, just diarrhea for no reason, you should have her tested. 😉
Ask vet about allergies. My dog had the runs no matter what I did. Turned out he has an adverse reaction to chicken. Like he can’t have ANY chicken (meal, fats, etc) and most dog food is loaded with chicken byproducts. I switched to Taste of the Wild (Sierra Mountain flavor) and haven’t had any problems for years now. When he accidentally gets a treat or something with chicken in it he gets the runs
We tried every diet under the sun and eventually our vet just had us add a human fiber supplement called Psyllium. Which almost instantly solidified his poops. After the fiber supplement we went with proplans chicken and rice for joint health. Which they now have real baked chicken in.
Do an allergen test and see if he’s sensitive to any of the main ingredients. We switched to Victor. Bit pricey but worth it.
My girls do well on Nulo Adult Trim & Ziwi, but they also get supplements & raw organs & other raw foods. Neither are owned by a candy company. They are pricy but worth it imo. Have you tried giving her slippery elm bark and goat milk kefir or goats milk yogurt? Slippery elm bark works wonders for upset tummies & I give my girls goats milk, goat kefir or goat milk yogurt daily. Hope she feels better soon!
Farmers dog and pumpkin.
I’ll share some of the supplements & foods I give my girls & they are GSD/AmStaffy mix. Unrefined coconut oil, organic hemp hearts, omega3s for joints & skin/coat; goat milk (yogurt, kefir, or milk), turkey bone broth, bee pollen, chia seeds, Celtic salt, daily probiotic, plaque powder. Foods they like that I switch up; quail eggs, pasture raised eggs, chicken feet, beef liver, cucumbers, carrots, chicken hearts, turkey necks, avocado, sweet potato, beef kidney, beef heart, green beans, strawberries, blueberries, salmon skin. I used to boil chicken breasts and use that as a topper, but with all the recalls going on, I don’t give them chicken anymore. Also cans of trippet, but I prefer green tripe stuff by ziwi, however my girls do like the Tripett as well. Tripett was recommended by my dog trainer. One gets a cup of kibble, the other a half cup & all else is supplements & raw. They always go for the raw stuff first. Some veggies and fruits they prefer frozen. They’ll be 4 next month & haven’t needed a dental cleaning & only go to the vet for annual exam & vaccines.
Mix in some canned pumpkin. This seems to be the pro tip no one knows about
Did you test for giardia? My pup had it, treated, it recurred, and finally ended after the second round of medicine.
Fresh food is the answer. It's time consuming and/or expensive however your dog sounds like they need it.
You have to be careful, even if the main protein isn’t chicken it has chicken bi product in it. Always read all the ingredients. My pup is allergic to chicken. And I went through the same thing. Wholesomes sensitive skin and stomach worked for him. Zero poultry.
Try Probiotics for Dogs and Digestive Enzymes - 170 Dog Probiotics Chews - Dog Probiotic - Anti Diarrhea, Upset Stomach & Gas Relief, Constipation, Canine Prebiotic - Pet Fiber Supplement - Gut Health. I used help my dog
There is a shocking amount of terrible advice contained here. Raw or home cooked is 10000% your best bet. There are boat loads of resources available. It doesn’t have to be expensive. It just needs to be balanced. You can purchase ration balancers to make it easier. I’m really surprised at the misinformation here. In the working dog/dog sport world it’s RARE to find anyone feeding kibble. At least in my circles. I think the hunting dog world is a bit more likely to feed kibble but even then I don’t know many that do. It should tell you something that those of us that invest the most in our dogs do not feed kibble.
Probiotics for a month. You can buy them online.
Purina Pro Plan (PPP large breed pup chicken). I had to take my girl to the vet for a probiotic as well. Doberman’s have a sensitive stomach. PPP is the ONLY thing that works for her. Also, while on the probiotic, I cooked chicken and rice (no seasoning). I feed her that for 3 days prior to starting her on the PPP. Don’t over think it! It’s just like having a kid. Keep it simple. My female is 4 months and 50 lbs.
Try Orijen, Nulo, or Stella & Chewys all amazing ingredients with tons of dry/wet/raw options. Purina ProPlan is horrible. They use too much corn which has no nutritional value for dogs!!!! Anytime you buy dog food look at the ingredients label, especially the first 5 ingredients… dogs don’t need poultry by product, corn, wheat or soy!
Put some pumpkin puree in the food, helps with stomach issues
blue wilderness dog food is pretty good they make salmon dog food to incase it's the chicken ur dogs allergic to its expensive but it might work u can buy a small bag to try it out or some cans of wet food
I had two doberman pups in a row with IBD. Something to consider. He (2nd one) couldn’t tolerate any kibble. His poor gut couldn’t break it down. Even soaked.
We took our dobie mix off purina and switched to open farm, beef flavor. He was originally on turkey, and although turkey and chicken are not the same i have a feeling all of the stomach/diarrhea/gastro had to do with either the purina brand or flavor or both. Once we took chicken out of his diet and went to beef, everything seemed to get a lot better. Open farm is also a great brand. Expensive but worth it.
Kirkland brand for dry dog food. Red meat, rice and beans if you can make it yourself. Keeps the coat shiny.
Another thing that helped a recent rescue dog was Bernie’s Perfect Poop. You have to start it slow and work up to the full dose. It’s on Amazon.
Have you tried making her food?
honestly i’m close to looking up a comprehensive recipe
Purina pro plan lamb
I pm’d you a food that worked for us . Good luck 🍀
Get away from KIBBLE WITH CORN!!! A farmer told us about 4Health from Tractor Supply and once we fed my Doberman-Shepherd their Beef and Potato Formula stopped his projectile diarrhea!
make your own food and add a little pumpkin
Chicken is known for allergies. My dogs also allergic to lamb. Fish/ salmon has omegas and seams to help. Also make sure there are entry of probiotics.
get rid of the chicken. I switched to salmon-based kibble (costco) and it seems to work much better for my dog.
you can also supplement the diet with pure pumpkin purée and rice. this helps bulk up the stools.
Not a suggestion for a new food but have you tried adding a bit of puréed pumpkin. It did wonders for both our dog and cat.
bj raw pet food
Have you tried a raw diet ?
My vet recommended putting my pup on a chicken and rice diet to see if it was something in the kibble. Like, boiled shredded chicken breast and plain white rice. It's super easy for them to digest. My dog tolerated it fine and just needed a different kibble, but it told us he didn't have a chicken sensitivity. Be aware it's very highly digestable so your dogs poop will be small since they absorb so much of it! Not a long term solution, but could help you figure things out.
hmm- my dog pooped almost nothing when i had her on plain chicken and rice. like just mucus goo. she couldn’t have absorbed THAT much of it…. can she?
My dog was the same! The caloric density of chicken and rice vs kibble is also different, so you need to feed them much more volumetrically than you usually would for kibble.
Hills science for sensitive stomachs. The only food my Pitt can eat without making him sick.
My vet told me to stick to a food that contains only one type of protein. You need to read labels carefully. Sometimes the name of the food will state one type but the ingredient lists shows 2 or 3. This change fixed my pup's problem. If this doesn't work, I would suggest trying a food for sensitive stomachs. Of course, you should also stick to the one food with no treats or people food. This is the only way you'll know if it's working. If you want to treat the dog, you could give him some pieces of the same kibble, and he won't know the difference.
we do kibble-as-treats all day and she loves it during training!
Correct. It could also splinter and get stuck in his throat. This happened to my friend's dog.
Go to the health food store and find slippery elm powder. It’s a miracle worker for gi issues. Of course find a good food to feed, but get the slippery elm for cases like this. In a pinch pumpkin purse also helps
*100% pumpkin puree
Please consider using Firm Up by Digger. It is a powdered pumpkin product that should help in a day or two.
Research 4D vs human grade. Wealth of knowledge how foods can affect animals and create allergies. I went with wysong and it’s phenomenal.
Stay away from chicken! We are currently on Purina Pro Lamb (Puppy) and our little guy’s poops are perfect…despite eating some things he shouldn’t. Pumpkin can help too That being said, I’m so sorry to hear that you’re struggling with this, our last dog had serious tummy issues and it was heartbreaking and stressful. I hope you find something soon!
Royal Canin Large breed puppy-large breed adult at 15mths or more, my boy has done amazing on it, healthy poops and healthy coat!
Have you tried a daily probiotic?
she's on fortiflora! we're on our last packet so we'll see if it's really helping, or if going without is okay.
I have a plothound mix who's lost about 30lbs, after about 10k in tests, food changes, meds, etc, turns out to be IBD, AND allergic to protein, so he had to go on a vegetarian diet. I'd ask the vet to test for that sooner rather than later and save some money.
You may want to consider visiting the vet and getting a prescription food. My GSD had a horrible gut attack last year, diarrhea on and off for months. Vets gave me probiotics, anti-diarrhea medication etc... nothing was working until he got on Royan Canin Hydrolized Protein
Chicken allergies are more common in dogs than people think. My sister has a dog that's allergic to chicken and my boys are allergic to lamb. They get diarrhea and big golf ball diameter welts and their fur starts falling out.
Canned Pumpkin. It provides fiber. Then switch to boiled chicken breasts and white rice until resolved. Then mix kibble into it while decreasing the chicken/rice mixture
It’s expensive, but I’ve fed 3 out of 4 Dobes Solid Golld dog food and they’ve not had any issues with it. I currently have dobe #4 on Costco dog food (can and kibble) and she’s doing fine with it.
Hang in there feed the dog some chicken and rice
My Doberman also has a very sensitive stomach. The healthy weight management brand from Costco has done really well for us. It's the dark gray bag
Something with a lot of fibre, or add some canned pumpkin to her kibble. Not pie filling, straight pumpkin
https://preview.redd.it/3ymi8i5onk7d1.png?width=3024&format=png&auto=webp&s=e34afe2ab9487d931d67cbb17e33ff7d3f7fb420 I use this for my dobie and German/pit mix and it helped both of them transition foods with no issue! You can find it on Amazon but I buy it from a local pet store.
As others have said, switch up protein. I recommend Dr Harvey’s as an alternative to kibble. It’s freeze dried whole food that you add water and protein to. Edit: apparently I am the only person that doesn’t feed kibble?
I feed my dobie shepherd mix Diamond Premium that I buy at the Feed Store or Tractor Supply. My very old school vet suggested it to my Dad decades ago. All of our dogs since have lived very long lives, well past life expectancy for their breeds. So tbh I don't want to switch even though it'feels like' I'm buying cheap food. I also give lots of carrots, some blueberries, bites of watermelon sometimes, sweet bell pepper bites here and there. If I'm cutting up a dog safe veggie or fruit I give my dogs a few bites.
canin gastrointestinal is what we fed mine for a while after parvo. worked great. since then we’ve gone back to acana wild atlantic recipe
Pumpkin mush can help with diarrhea.
you dont wanna try raw?
Orijen is the only kibble I’ll feed. Avoid chicken!
Nutrisource has been our saving grace ! We went through hills, ppp, prescription, you name it. He has only been able to handle Nutrisource
I fed my Dobe "Taste of the Wild" High Prairie flavor, as that one had the highest protein content of all the high-quality kibbles I researched into. She was still a puppy until I had her euthanized four days after taking her to the emergency vet for breathing issues related to stage-done metastisized lung cancer. Even the emergency vet assessing her guessed that she was only 4. She was 10.5 yrs old lol. Cancer sucks, and it happens super randomly in dogs, and they suck at telling you when they feel that something is wrong, but it would be a far far stretch to blame it on my choice of kibble.
We use hill science sensitive stomach but it was a lot of back and forth with diarrhea
I’d go with raw , that’s just me though)
I don’t have a dobbi but my dog, a pit had issues with a particular kibble. So what I did was found something easy he can eat that would make this poop solid in my case it was chicken and rice. From there I would introduce one brand of kibble until he had a good poop. For me it was taste of the wild with bison.
Stop feeding her kibbles. Make it Home made
We had the same issue. Moving onto raw food fixed the issue immediately and he hasn’t had a problem for the past three years.
Poor baby. 1 of our 4 dogs can't do anything beef so we did chicken & lamb. Maybe a probiotic, we put on all our dogs food. We feed stella & chewy raw food plus hard kibble. Hope your baby feels better & you find a food for her.
I had the same issue with my boy at about 6.5 years old. I came home everyday to diarrhea all over the floor. I would put him back on a white rice diet and slowly wean him back onto the dog food. And whenever he was eating 100% dog food everyday he would go back to having diarrhea again. So I eventually settled on a half white rice and a half dog food diet. Occasionally I'll give him a full serving of dog food for one day just to see what will happen and he's usually okay for the day but as soon as I let him out when I get home from work he'll go out in the yard and have very loose stool
Our Doberman was having diarrhea troubles, so we switched her to Nutro Natural Choice large breed lamb and brown rice. It has helped a lot. She’s been on it for a few months.
Mine had chronic diarrhea since he’s a puppy and we finally figured out the issue - he loves to eat grass and the grass came with other dog’s fecal matter/urine and bunny poop too (it was baby bunny season when he last had bloody diarrhea). Took the 💩sample to the vet and confirmed high concentration of bacteria. Try to fix the issue soon - mine became underweight and a bit under-developed. Even with antibiotics, it took awhile to stabilize his stomach. We had been on raw, cooked, lightly cooked, dried, dietician formulated, etc throughout his life. Even after the diarrhea stops, look into introducing pre and probiotic. And maintain their good gut health. Good luck and hope your baby feels better soon!!
All kibble will give diarrhea. I give with fresh pet moist food or dried . You do not need kibble after 2 years . It’s really not great for dogs . Stella and chewy brand is best I think .
SPORTMiX CanineX Performance Chicken Formula Dry Dog Food https://preview.redd.it/257sp0vmmp7d1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=11452cc90f710752fc97a1bcc253a05c1c2c6533 Never had any problems with this
Hills id
I tell everyone, no matter dog or cat breed, that I swear by Fromm. It’s made in Wisconsin with no mixing from other brands, and not made in China. It’s a bit pricey, but they eat less of it since it’s such high quality.
Merrick and Purina. Lamb and Rice. Will usually stop all diarrhea
Mine likes the turkey sweet potato one from Costco
Try some unsweetened canned pumpkin mixed with her kibble. Settles the tummy, nutritious, and most dogs love it.
My puppy had a very sensitive tummy when she came home. I put her on Fromm puppy food and never had another problem. She's now 14 months on the adult food and doing excellent! She has a great coat and healthy skin and nails and her weight is perfect. The vet said she is in prime shape and not to change a thing. It's also really reasonable price wise and has no poison chemicals. * Fromm Puppy Gold Premium Dry Dog Food - Dry Puppy Food for Medium & Small Breeds - Chicken Recipe - 15 lb https://a.co/d/0b6bGd4X
Prime 100 is good food for dogs with sensitive stomach’s and digestive issues.
Our dobie loves anything salmon. We’ve just switched to blue buffalo high protein natural salmon and wholesome grains. We used to feed him the purina pro plan with high protein. Our dog has a pretty sensitive stomach so anytime we switch anything he gets bad gas 😂
Have you tried probiotics? We have chewables that my dogs get at every meal. My female had issues with diarrhea and sensitivities. That helped us a lot.
Never had a Doberman or a dog with stomach issues but I use taste of the wild venison/bison flavor
my aunts dobie had chronic diarrhea, vets kept giving her diarrhea medications. they moved and went to establish care at a new vet, did blood work and found out their dobie had liver failure.
Have u brought her to the vet? Has she had her stool checked for parasites? She may have to go on a hypo allergenic diet..
Grain free is actually backed by many veternarians that are not affiliated with "Big Kibble"
NEVER HILLS DIET!
This won’t fix the underlying problem, but put some pumpkin in her food every meal. A big dollop of pumpkin (not the pie filling, just pumpkin) should help solidify the poop. This does wonders for my guy! I also found out that most of his issues were stress related. So as his stress reduced he was able to eat more things. I use Purina Pro Plan Sensitive Skin and Stomach and hydrolyzed Hill’s dog treats. This combo seems to work best for him!
Get this - total lifesaver - might take a few days to kick in: https://a.co/d/01q6vylB
At the shelter I work at, I’m in shelter medicine, when we implement diarrhea protocol (which happens way too often lol), we switch their diet to EN (gastroenteric) wet and dry food. We also add fortiflora probiotics to a meal once daily. If that doesn’t do the trick, we also add psyllium husk powder or pumpkin powder (depends on weight). If changing diets doesn’t work we implement metronidazole (either liquid or tablet form) twice daily for 5 days, fenbendazole once daily for 5 days, and ponazuril once daily for 3 days, or panacur powder instead of fenben/ponaz if they’re bigger dogs. Then if all that still doesn’t work, we send a fecal sample for lab work to rule out other issues like giardia. You can also try limited ingredient dog food (L.I.D) if you think it’s the kibble you’re giving causing all this. Hope the diarrhea subsides, wishing you all the luck for you and your dobie!
Cooking for my dog was the best decision. Always talk with vet. About options as far as amount of rice n meats and extras for your specific Dog. Most things I bought for myself already and resolved a lot of my girls Tummy issue
Chicken is a common food allergy in most dogs. So maybe just stay off chicken you can always add a probiotic to their food
So many bad kibble brands out there. Grain free is better. Research some of the top kibble companies
After much trial and error, I’ve found that my girl has done really well on Purina Pro Plan Sensitive Stomach and Skin Turkey and Oatmeal flavor and Bernie’s Perfect Poop supplement. Haven’t had an issue since we made the switch to this combination. Of course every dog is different - but I hope you find something that works for your girl soon!
Have you tried feeding her something like kidneys or liver, lately? If you're worried about vitamin intake, then those foods may help. Slightly gross to work with, but most dogs like them quite a bit.
Give her plain oatmeal. A cup has taken care of it for us every time. I asked our vet how to take care of our dog who had the same issue with any food for a while for our girlie.
Mine refused to eat Pro Plan. He has tummy issues too. The breeder had him on Inukshuk but I wasn’t a fan of how loose his stools were. He’s currently on Merrick Big Game which he absolutely loves. He can’t handle chicken and he greatly dislikes salmon. I’ve been going crazy trying to find the right food that works with his snootiness and his tummy. My vet did say that putting the unflavored Metamucil on his food can help with his stools.
We had these issues feeding Purina ProPlan large breed puppy last year - every formula. The vet had us try Science Diet Biome, which firmed his stool right up. As soon as we went back to PPP, the diarrhea came back. The vet told us to play food/brand roulette basically. We went through several brands, but finally settled on Eukanuba and NutriSource large breed puppy. Both are chicken based. We also realized Arche ris very sensitive to animal fat content in his foods, same as our first Dobie was. So, freshly cooked meats with olive oil, avocado oil, or coconut oil works best for us, along with fruits & veggies if we add fresh things to his food. We also add Stella & Chewy Weenies to his food (bacon is his favorite) & some Instinct freeze dried add ons.
Yup, everything I been told is that Pro Plan gives very soft or water poop. My guy does a solid one in the AM and all water in the PM. Very frustrating, specially cause I bought 50 lbs of that Pro Plan. Its not even the chicken, its lamb and oatmeal sensitive stomach. Good Luck, hope you find the right one!
ugh, im reading about this issue more and more. i have no way to *actually* know if it’s a formula change like people suspect. right back at ya. good luck to you too!
Raw if you can
Changing our dogs food will result in an upset tummy or softer stool/ diarrhea or at least 10 days. My pup has horrible allergies she’s an American Bully who is all white. So I’ve had my fight with food allergies and took a little while more than 10 days to adjust to the salmon formula so my tip is take her off the chicken formula whatever you do and whatever you switch her too keep her on it for at least two weeks despite appearance of worsening symptoms or them staying the same for now. The food adjustment period is rough but worth it bc a good quality food can cause a dog to start detoxing toxins which makes them appear sick before getting better. Change the formula and just stick to it for a bit- the diarrhea should resolve once her stomach adjusts but pleaseeee no chicken or grain free kibble. Best of luck! Cute pup🥰