Bland Diets

[mackenzie11]

how long does it take for a bland diet to help a puppy with the runs????

[Sandra777]

Depends on the pup and the reason for the runs.

Personally if the pup is under 12 weeks old I wouldn't be waiting for more than 24 hours for a medium sized puppy (adult weight over 15kg say) to get better. Smaller the pup the less time I'd wait.

For a slightly older pup (over 12 weeks) I'd consider not feeding at all for 12 hours, but again probably not for a small breed puppy.

[persephone]

I think that is like asking how long is a piece of string

How long has puppy been ill? What treatment did the vet give, and what is the supposed cause?

What 'bland diet are you feeding, and for how long have you been feeding it?

Edited August 26, 2010 by persephone

[poodlefan]

A bland diet won't "help" a pup with the runs. It helps a pup RECOVER from gastro intestinal issue by not taxing the digestive system unduly.

Fasting is a better bet if the condition is current. If it continued more than 24 hours, I'd be off to see a vet.

Edited August 26, 2010 by poodlefan

[mackenzie11]

I think that is like asking how long is a piece of string

How long has puppy been ill? What treatment did the vet give, and what is the supposed cause?

What 'bland diet are you feeding, and for how long have you been feeding it?

she is a 10 week old puppy, has been on optimum puppy food and was not tolerating it, so when she got her vaccinations done the vet switched her to Hills Science, but still had diahrea, vet said yesterday to not give her food for 12 hours and then this morning give her -

Thursday - 1/2 cup boiled rice & 1/2 cup boiled chicken x 3 times today

Friday - 1/2 cup boiled rice & 1/2 cup boiled chicken & 1/4 cup hills biscuits x 3 times this day

saturday - give 1/3 cup hills biscuits x 3 times from now on

vet thinks it is just the change over from old food to new, even though i did it very slow, she is not ill so to speak, she has loads of energy, eating, drinking, running about, just diaharea, gave her no food last night and she did a very solid stool this morning, i am just very worried about starting her back to early on the biscuits as she is so little and i don't think she can afford to lose any weight

[mackenzie11]

Depends on the pup and the reason for the runs.

Personally if the pup is under 12 weeks old I wouldn't be waiting for more than 24 hours for a medium sized puppy (adult weight over 15kg say) to get better. Smaller the pup the less time I'd wait.

For a slightly older pup (over 12 weeks) I'd consider not feeding at all for 12 hours, but again probably not for a small breed puppy.

rang vet yesterday and was told to not feed her last night, start bland diet - rice & chicken today, just not sure how long it takes for her gut to get back to normal

[Sandra777]

Wow, your vet vaccinated a 10 week old puppy with a runny butt? Time for a new vet my friend!

What was the breeder feeding her? What diet advice did you get when you bought her? Was there a reason you changed her food (ie were you advised to feed her weetbix and water )

Edited August 26, 2010 by Sandra777

[poodlefan]

If it were my pup, I'd want its stool tested. I'd be looking to eliminate coccidia as a reason for the runs.

How long has the pup had diarrhoea?

There are better puppy foods around with a lower amount of cereals than Hills. Head over the the nutrition thread for some recommendations.

Edited August 26, 2010 by poodlefan

[mackenzie11]

Wow, your vet vaccinated a 10 week old puppy with a runny butt? Time for a new vet my friend!

What was the breeder feeding her? What diet advice did you get when you bought her? Was there a reason you changed her food (ie were you advised to feed her weetbix and water )

vet just said that it was a result of the change of food, she was only doing 2 - 3 poos a day the first week of living with me but they were sloppy, all our pets have started out on optimum puppy or kitten food,

but vet said the best one was hill science puppy so he switched her to that, was told it would take a few days to get her used to it, once we switched she was doing 7-8 sloppy poos a day, this was from monday arvo to wednesday lunch, thought it may be due to vaccinations, but when it continued into wednesay that was when i rang vet and asked him how to implement the bland diet,

pet shop were i bought her told me to feed her what ever i wanted to feed her, as they had recently changed her diet so it would not harm her to change.

[poodlefan]

pet shop were i bought her told me to feed her what ever i wanted to feed her, as they had recently changed her diet so it would not harm her to change.

Has she been wormed since you had her?

I'd not rate petshops as high on the list of sources of advice on puppy nutrition. Basically, once you've parted with your cash, unless they promote what they sell, they really don't give a damn.

[Sandra777]

vet just said that it was a result of the change of food, she was only doing 2 - 3 poos a day the first week of living with me but they were sloppy, all our pets have started out on optimum puppy or kitten food,

but vet said the best one was hill science puppy so he switched her to that, was told it would take a few days to get her used to it, once we switched she was doing 7-8 sloppy poos a day, this was from monday arvo to wednesday lunch, thought it may be due to vaccinations, but when it continued into wednesay that was when i rang vet and asked him how to implement the bland diet,

pet shop were i bought her told me to feed her what ever i wanted to feed her, as they had recently changed her diet so it would not harm her to change.

Oh dear.

Poor little mite has gone from her "breeder" - one sort of food - to a pet shop (very stressful) and another sort of food - to your place and another sort of food no wonder she has digestion issues.

You won't find a huge number of people here who would agree that Hills is the best anything, so do your own research and if you've always been happy with optimum in the past then IMO you should stick with that until proven otherwise.

I love that your vet knows it was due to the change of food and not corona virus, parvo or salmonella or anything else this poor babe could have picked up on her trip through a pet shop.

IMO boiled chicken (no need for any rice) for three or four days with absolutely nothing else - no treats, no extras, no biscuits, NOTHING else, would probably be best. Then slowly reintroduce whatever food you decide on - and by slowly I mean no more than five or six biscuits for the first meal, then observe if she tolerates this before increasing the amount, it could take a week or more.

[Staranais]

If it was salmonella or parvo, the pup would not be BAR and full of life after several days of diarrhoea. Coccidia is a good guess if it doesn't clear up, but from what you write it sounds like her stools are getting more solid already?

[mackenzie11]

If it was salmonella or parvo, the pup would not be BAR and full of life after several days of diarrhoea. Coccidia is a good guess if it doesn't clear up, but from what you write it sounds like her stools are getting more solid already?

she has only done 1 stool so far today, in the previous days it was about 7 at this time of day, so maybe it is getting better, i have been told that cavaliers have sensitive stomachs and take a bit longer to adjust to new foods, but i don't want to leave her to "get used to it" if it means runny poos every day

[Rebanne]

, i have been told that cavaliers have sensitive stomachs and take a bit longer to adjust to new foods,

but she's a cross breed, how do you know she inherited her stomach from the cav parent if indeed one parent was actually a purebred cav, never can tell with pet shop puppies. Hope she comes good, just give her plain boiled chicken for a few days and while you are waiting for her tum to settle down, have a read of the nutrition forum and do some goggling so you can make informed choices about your pup. Personally I would prefer optimum over any hills science food any day.

[Pippa]

i have been told that cavaliers have sensitive stomachs and take a bit longer to adjust to new foods,

Who told you that?

[W Sibs]

Charlie is half Cav... he is a picky eater but I change his diet straight out and he was fine.

Umm.. with rice and chicken, I would feed it for a week and see how the poo is. When it gets firmer then I will gradually change to the diet you want your pup to eat.

All pups are different.. you have to make the decision on how long you want to feed your puppy rice and chicken.

Good luck

Hope your pup gets better soon

(oh.. i'm harsh. if my pup have an upset stomach, they don't eat for 24 hours not 12)

Edited August 26, 2010 by CW EW

[mackenzie11]

, i have been told that cavaliers have sensitive stomachs and take a bit longer to adjust to new foods,

but she's a cross breed, how do you know she inherited her stomach from the cav parent :D if indeed one parent was actually a purebred cav, never can tell with pet shop puppies. Hope she comes good, just give her plain boiled chicken for a few days and while you are waiting for her tum to settle down, have a read of the nutrition forum and do some goggling so you can make informed choices about your pup. Personally I would prefer optimum over any hills science food any day.

cause when she was at the vet on monday he said he could not see any poodle in her at all, he was the vet who done their health checks and all their vet care, he says she is the spit of her mom and he has cavs himself so he would know what they look like and their needs. we have raised another dog and two cats on optimum and they have only taken 3-4 days to adapt to the new food, but mollie was not adapting to it even after 1 week so i thought it best to change her,

she had another stool this arvo it was loads better than the past few days, she has only done 2 today much better than the 7-8 of the past few days

[mackenzie11]

vet just said that it was a result of the change of food, she was only doing 2 - 3 poos a day the first week of living with me but they were sloppy, all our pets have started out on optimum puppy or kitten food,

but vet said the best one was hill science puppy so he switched her to that, was told it would take a few days to get her used to it, once we switched she was doing 7-8 sloppy poos a day, this was from monday arvo to wednesday lunch, thought it may be due to vaccinations, but when it continued into wednesay that was when i rang vet and asked him how to implement the bland diet,

pet shop were i bought her told me to feed her what ever i wanted to feed her, as they had recently changed her diet so it would not harm her to change.

Oh dear.

Poor little mite has gone from her "breeder" - one sort of food - to a pet shop (very stressful) and another sort of food - to your place and another sort of food no wonder she has digestion issues. :D

You won't find a huge number of people here who would agree that Hills is the best anything, so do your own research and if you've always been happy with optimum in the past then IMO you should stick with that until proven otherwise.

I love that your vet knows it was due to the change of food and not corona virus, parvo or salmonella or anything else this poor babe could have picked up on her trip through a pet shop. ;)

IMO boiled chicken (no need for any rice) for three or four days with absolutely nothing else - no treats, no extras, no biscuits, NOTHING else, would probably be best. Then slowly reintroduce whatever food you decide on - and by slowly I mean no more than five or six biscuits for the first meal, then observe if she tolerates this before increasing the amount, it could take a week or more.

i am happy with optimum, but mollie was on it for 1 week and was not adapting to it 2-3 runny poos a day,i did not want to harm her by keeping her on it and thought she maybe intolerant to it, my other pets adapted to it within 3 days. will keep up the bland diet till she is better, then slowly introduce dry food.

[Rebanne]

cause when she was at the vet on monday he said he could not see any poodle in her at all, he was the vet who done their health checks and all their vet care, he says she is the spit of her mom and he has cavs himself so he would know what they look like and their needs.

really curious on how the vet would know what the pups Mum looked like when you said in another thread you got her from a pet shop :D

[Sandra777]

i am happy with optimum, but mollie was on it for 1 week and was not adapting to it 2-3 runny poos a day,i did not want to harm her by keeping her on it and thought she maybe intolerant to it, my other pets adapted to it within 3 days. will keep up the bland diet till she is better, then slowly introduce dry food.

A week to adjust to a home after a pet shop :D and a puppy farm ;) isn't a lot of time for one so young. Yep, the optimum may not agree with her and obviously you should feed her what suits her and you, just saying don't write it off, a runny butt in a baby that's been through so much really isn't all that surprising.