Glad I found you guys. We're having a problem with our Shephard.

I'm asking for any ideas at all. Here's her pic - before she started losing weight. :(


Since the middle of August, she's lost 16 lbs - down to 61.9 lbs at her last vet visit on Saturday. She's been tested for the pancreas issue that can affect shephards, she's been tested for parasites, even giardia, diabetes, etc. and everything on her blood panels come back fine. She's a poo eater and she had a bout with loose stools (not frequent, but you had to hose the spot down because you couldn't collect it) As a result, she had to undergo 2 rounds of antibiotics (one for 5 days, another for 3 wks) just incase she picked up giardia and it was missed in any testing. We knew she was around a dog that had been diagnosed with it. During that time, she was on chicken and brown rice, pumpkin, and yogurt. She did fine, so we started easing her back on to her kibble.

Boom! Same problem again. Our other shephard had diverticulitis and had similar issues, so we asked the vet if we could try the Science Diet W/D that fixed her problem. That fixed the poo problem, but she continued to be hungry constantly. The vet and I talked and they thought it was because it didn't have enough protein in it for a 2yo dog since it's mainly fiber. Our vet recommended the raw diet for her.

They said to ease into it. We bought the medallions, and we've been gradually increasing the amounts we give her. We are still feeding about half W/D at this point because we were afraid that we'd have to start breaking out the hose again. The vet thought that the increased protein should cut her hunger, but it doesn't seem to have done that.

Have any of you ever moved to the raw diet for your dogs or had similar issues? I feel like she's melting right in front of our eyes. She still as energetic, not lethargic at all, but hungry all the time!

I'm going to do some web searches. I trust the vets, and they are willing to try/test different things based on my concerns, but they said I should give the full raw diet 2 wks, then bring her back in to weigh her. They said she should only put on 5-8 lbs, since at 16 lbs heavier she was a bit too heavy. Oh, and these vets are very familiar with shephards because they have 4 of them.

Just thought maybe someone out in DU-land has gone through this before or may have some advice.

Medallions are bone heavy and full of bacteria from being ground, your dog needs whole pieces of meat. I would bet she's going to have a few days of loose stool when you switch to raw, until her body starts making the proper enzymes to digest real food. I have two dogs with digestive issues that were cleared by switching to raw. They still cannot eat any kind of ground due to the bacteria load.

If she were my dog, I'd take her off everything for 12 hours, then start with bone-in chicken breast, feeding 2% of her expected adult weight. You can increase it when she's digesting it completely. Go to 3 small meals/day at first. Chicken is easy to digest and chicken bones are very soft.

I strongly recommend joining this Yahoo group:

http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/rawfeeding/

There are people on that list that have been feeding raw for over 30 years to dogs with all kinds of digestive and health issues.

She's gorgeous, BTW :)

I switched my dog to frozen raw food over the last month or so. We're using Natures Variety. Ollie wasn't having any health or digestive problems at all- I just figured out after doing the research that regular dog food was a waste of money.

He LOVES the food, has tons of energy, and no diarreah. Its a little expensive, but he's worth it.

We did nothing special. She got Iams along with our Border Collie. Turns out her issues were anxiety. Now that she's fully at home here, all the digestive problems have gone away.

Is the kibble some kind of commercial dog food? She might have an allergy to an ingredient, like corn or wheat.
Can you continue cooking for her? I don't understand why you want to go to a raw diet if she did fine on a cooked diet of chicken and rice.
I'd say add some vegetables.

Even on the chicken and rice, she still had loose stools, but not the frequency. It was back to normal timing.

She didn't do well with a grain free kibble (potato/duck) we tried mixed with the ground raw medallions. We've eased into that over the last week and last night her diarrhea was back with a vengeance. Lots of gas and she actually had an accident in the house. Something that's only happened 3x since we adopted her at 5mo old. I'm totally at a loss, but if we don't get the problem fixed soon, I'm afraid we're going to lose her.

I have a call into her vet this morning and she has her 2wk weigh-in appointment this Saturday. After last night, I'm sure she'll be down more. She literally went poo about every 2 hours from lunch to 1:30am last night. This morning she was sooo hungry, that I fed her a small amount of cooked defatted minced beef cubes mixed with brown rice and a small spoonful of pumpkin. I'm laying off the yogurt (dairy), and since the new stuff had duck in it, I decided to try a bit of beef instead of chicken. So far, that didn't go right through her. I fed her about 6:30am and when we left for work/school at 8:10, she didn't do anything on her walk before we put her in her kennel. Hubby is going to take an early lunch today to check on her and take her for a walk and give her another small serving, then I'll run home at 2:00 for lunch and our daughter will be home from school and the dentist by 4:30, then we'll get home at 6:00. :( Thank goodness work and school are close to home.

I just spoke with a Vet assistant this morning whose dog was having similar problems and that is what she found that worked. Might not be the same thing. Switching dog foods so frequently is really tough on the intestines also. Sounds like your pup has major upset or bacterial. There is also Iams Low residue for dogs. Out little dog has a live issue due to eating bad foods and we put her on that and it really helped. Good luck. Such a pretty dog.

Dr. Stephen Blake is a great homeopathic vet. You can learn more and contact him here: http://www.thepetwhisperer.com/

He does phone consultations (he lives in San Diego county). He isn't inexpensive but he is very much worth it.

Also, a great book is Dr. Pitcairn's Complete Guide to Natural Health. You can find out more here: http://www.amazon.com/Pitcairns-Complete-Guide-Natural-Health/dp/B000RGSYVY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261551268&sr=1-1

Good luck with your gorgeous girl.

What about her adrenals?