Chicken & Rice Diet For Diarrhea

[Mum to Emma]

My whippet developed intermittent diarrhea about a month ago. I took him to the vet after 10 days because it didn't resolve on its own. The vet did a thorough examination (felt his abdomen, checked his stool under the microscope for parasites) but couldn't determine what the problem was. Metrozine has worked on the same dog in the past, so we came away with 10 days worth of metrozine. Whilst on it, the diarrhea lessened however I knew it wasn't going to fix the problem this time (the stools were still soft but formed). He was on his normal diet at the time. Sure enough - after the end of the pills the diarrhea returned. I decided to worm him with drontal chews (just in case). This was last Saturday and since then he has been on a chicken & rice diet (with a little well-cooked broccoli over the past couple of days). His stools have been formed but soft.

If this was your dog, would you keep him on the chicken & rice for another week, or would now be a good time to slowly introduce his normal diet. I dread when he looks like he's about to poo(!) This has dragged on so long - I just want to get his feeding routine back to normal.

[Dogsfevr]

We do Chicken & Pumpkin here ,Pumpkin is great for dogs with the runs ,we would also add floramax tabltes to help with the gut bacteria

[Tilly]

I find Chicken / Pumpkin work much better for us then chicken / rice ... I serve it slightly warm and the boys absolutely love it. I also add some Inner Health Plus to it as well - only because that is what I use so I buy a bottle from time to time and we all share

When we got our youngest he had diarrhoea for the first couple of weeks due to stress / change in diet etc. We found he didn’t tolerate the dry foods and so we fed him raw removing grains etc from his diet – and he was great. It was only later that he started turning his nose up at raw that I started looking for another dry food (and for convenience).

We now feed Canidae PureSea (Salmon Grain Free) and raw (mainly chicken, turkey, fish and lamb) he is doing great … but I think beef is something else we may need to stay away from. Not sure yet if it is all beef or just beef marrow/brisket bones.

Edited August 27, 2011 by Tilly

[Mason_Gibbs]

You can also do turkey and sweet potato or chicken sweet potato

[persephone]

If he were mine I would be heading off for another opinion... blood tests etc to determine the cause of this recurring problem. Hope he's well again soon...

[Guest lavendergirl]

I would be thinking about a course of probiotics.

[Bullbreedlover]

If he were mine I would be heading off for another opinion... blood tests etc to determine the cause of this recurring problem. Hope he's well again soon...

I would recommend both of these depending on what is wrong

Trying to determine the cause of the problem is the main thing here.

You cant just keep on feeding the dog without finding out why he has diarrhea or very very soft stools.

If he has a bacteria then foods can feed the bug.

Why did the vet only do a microscope exam without a full stool test as well?

Have you thought about changing his food completely? It could just be his diet that is not agreeing with him.

My dogs get fed a diet(of two brands of kibble(not expensive brands of dry food) but they also get raw chicken, cooked offal, sardines, etc etc.

They thrive on what they get and their stools are always an indication of how well they feel on the inside.

I would be thinking about a course of probiotics.

[CavsRcute]

I had the same problem with my girl.

It turned out that she was sensitive to the chicken that was supposed to be helping her

I put her on white fish and potato. This stopped the dairrhea and she has never had chicken since and has had no problem

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

Given your dog has been having recurring problems - I wouldn't be considering returning to the "normal" diet any time soon. I'd try something completely different. Eg if it's chicken based - maybe try lamb based or turkey or beef etc. And if that doesn't work - I'd be going back for the tests as the others suggested.

If my dog gets the runs, I think about what opportunites she's had to eat stuff that would upset her tummy eg the bbq fat dump at the footy oval (argh). If she's eaten something bad - I try to fast her for a day (24 hours) and then start her on normal diet.

If I've got no idea why she might have the runs, it's fast 24 hours and then boiled chicken and rice for the next three until the poo is normal.

She was on Advance dog food, and she was getting the runs every couple of weeks for no apparent reason, so I felt like I wasn't really feeding her advance at all really - more like a steady diet of chicken and rice but every time I started up the advance again - even introducing it gradually over several meals - she'd get the runs again. So I tried an "elimination diet", and elminated the advance. Just went up one level to almost the same stuff - Nutro natural choice - which she's been fine on - ie all tummy upsets are explainable and do not recur when she goes back on the nutro. Nutro have a few varieties if I decided chicken was bad for her. Other dog food brands also have other varieties so if you think the regular food could be the cause you can change to something completely different and see if that sorts it.

[Mum to Emma]

Thanks for all the tips. And I'll certainly be taking him back to the vet if the situation doesn't improve. However essentially what I'm asking is this - should diarrhea resolve after a week of chicken & rice (which DOES make his stools relatively normal) or can it take 2 weeks or more before it's safe to reintroduce a more balanced diet?

I should point out that he normally has a cast-iron stomach but I suspect the fact that he's a first class scavenger may have caused this. He literally scrapes bird poo of the footpath with his teeth.

Oh, and he's 4 years old and is otherwise in superb health.

[persephone]

should diarrhea resolve after a week of chicken & rice (which DOES make his stools relatively normal) or can it take 2 weeks or more before it's safe to reintroduce a more balanced diet?

It depends on what the problem is.... dogs with a case of upset tummy after eating rubbish are often back to normal after a day or two.Dogs who are sensitive to certain proteins, or who have IBS/colic/ other things may not settle until the cause is found.

a normal chicken/rice diet doesn't contain broccoli ....not sure why you've added that?

A dog who responded to a medication, but then regressed once medication was stopped needs further checks ,IMO.

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

My dog is usually fine after 1 or 2 days of chicken and rice, and fine back on her normal diet then - but if the problem comes straight back - you need to either stop the scavenging or change the regular diet.

My dog can eat a small amount of bird poop and be fine. It's large amounts of rancid bbq fat mixed with dirt, or dumped takeaway scraps found at the local football club that is bad. She's gradually getting the idea that she does not have permission to eat this stuff. I put her on lead as we approach the zone of temptation and let her off again as we clear it.

[Boronia]

Perhaps give him a charcoal tablet morning and night for a couple of days, they really help in absorbing nasty toxins in the gut.

You can buy them at chemist shops for around $10-->$15 depending on the chemist.

Maybe worth a try