Advice please on dog that is always going to the loo

[dingle12]

Mother in law has a whippet and he has lost a little weight. He is always picking at his food but dont seem to be putting weight on he is on Dr Johns gold. He also goes for a number 2 about 6 or 7 times a day so know wonder he is losing condition. Been to pet shop and they have said to try the James Wellbeloved food however this is very dear but she is willing to try it. Has anyone any suggestions what we can feed him. He is fully wormed. Thanks

 

[Slinkyunicorn]

Has he been to the vet to rule out anything serious? If he has it may just be a question of finding a food that agrees with him. It is not unusual for dogs to have an intolerance to the cereals (paticularly wheat) that is in a lot of dog foods, our old Irish Setter had coeliac disease so any wheat/gluten really upset her tummy and the only way to keep weight on her was to eliminate it - meant we could always tell when she had been stealing tho! There are quite a lot of foods that are gluten and cereal free - just need to do some label reading. They will be more expensive as cereals are cheap and easy to bulk up feeds with. You could also try just chicken and rice (normal rice and chicken cooked and mixed together - was our setters 'fall back' if she had been stealing to settle her gut down. JWB is very good and I use it for my spaniel - he has less than recommended and looks great, maintains his weight and can run around all day long (is now 11 and has been fed JWB since a puppy), I think it actually works out as being very good value for money - big sack lasts about 2 months.

 

[Tia]

I'd personally switch him over to raw. If there was no noticable difference then I'd take him for blood work.

 

[_Acolyte_]

Sorry if I sound melodramatic but I would take him to the vets now

This is exactly how my little greyhound started (she was 10 years old) - her appetite had never been great, but she started dropping condition and going more regularly, and anything I fed her just went straight through her

Eventually, after 3 or 4 lots of blood tests and vets seemingly unable to find anything wrong, she was PTS in April last year.... she had just got so emaciated that she was not strong enough to cope with life any more

I am not saying that this will happen with your MIL's whippet, but they are such slight little dogs that it doesnt take much for them to drop a serious amount of condition and significantly damage their health

Since I lost my greyhound I have also lost my lurcher with lymphoma of the gut in December last year - I now refuse to feed anything which is not hypoallergenic, so mine are on James Wellbeloved. Yes it is expensive, but I will not risk feeding anything else now

 

[ihatework]

food wise there is also a new kibble on the market that I have just started my dog on, its called 'Barking Mad'. They do a chicken one for sensitive tummies. It wouldn't be dissimilar to James Wellbeloved (in fact barking mad has more meat in it, 46%) and it is a bit cheaper.

If changing the diet doesn't work I would probably take to vet to be on safe side