GrassChop
Well-Known Member
Tentatively posting here for some advice...
We have a 10 month old rescue and we are really struggling to find a food that agrees with him. He's been on Jollyes Lifestage Grain Free Chicken, Turkey and Salmon puppy food which has the following ingredients:
Chicken, Turkey, Salmon (60%), freshly prepared chicken (25%), dried chicken (17%), chicken fat (6%), dried salmon (4%), dried turkey (4%), chicken gravy (4%), sweet potato (24%), peas (5%), potato, beet pulp, linseed, minerals, dried seaweed, yeast (0.3%), carrot (0.2%), glucosamine (0.02%), methylsulfonylmethane (0.02%), chondroitin sulphate (0.01%), fructooligosaccharides (FOS) (0.01%), mannanoligosaccharides (MOS)
He was on it for a couple of months where his poos were better but still not great. So we switched it to their grain free salmon food in case it was an intolerance to poultry and the poos got even worse, constant diarrhea. These were the ingredients:
Salmon and white fish (55%), freshly prepared salmon (30%), white fish meal (16%), salmon meal (4%), salmon stock (4%), salmon oil (1%), sweet potato (15%), potato, peas (12%), rapeseed oil, beet pulp (2%), linseed (0.5%), minerals, asparagus (0.2%), yeast hydrolysate (a natural source of mannanoligosaccharides and beta glucans) (0.3%), fructooligosaccharides (FOS) (0.03%), glucosamine (0.01%), methylsulfonylmethane (0.01%), chondroitin sulphate (0.01%)
We did it all gradually and tried it for a couple of weeks once transitioned but he was so bad he just stayed in squatting position for ages with nothing coming out eventually. So we decided to try their Turkey & Rice in case it was actually the fish causing the issue. The ingredients are:
Turkey (43%), turkey meal (27%), turkey fat (9%), freshly prepared turkey (4%), turkey gravy (3%), brown rice (20%), white rice (20%), oats (12%), pea protein, linseed, minerals, lucerne, fructooligosaccharides (FOS), yeast hydrolysate (a natural source of MOS and beta glucans), dried seaweed, yucca schidigera, dried dandelion
Again, still very bad diarrhea. The first poo of the day is better but not great. The only ingredient that is consistent on all three are linseed, minerals and yeast but at small amounts. He poos so many times throughout the day and they get more watery as time goes on until he's going but nothing is coming out.
We don't know what is causing it or what to try next. I have been relentlessly searching through different feeds scanning the ingredients avoiding ones with fillers and other rubbish. I didn't think the Lifestage ones were that bad though.
Any ideas and recommendations please? We are going to talk to the vets on Monday about it too.
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For a bit of a background and I expect I will get some judgement understandably after the last failure but this was unplanned so I just want to add this to make it clear. The rescue, who originally let us down with the first spaniel we wanted to adopt if anyone recalls, called us one day saying they had just brought in a 5 month old cocker from a really bad place and he wasn't coping in their kennels. We took him as an emergency foster, as we still had everything in place, just to give him somewhere quiet to be and were very mindful that it may not work out but we wanted to help at least.
We spent hours upon hours intermittently sitting on the other side of kitchen on the floor trying to gain his trust and get him used to us, mainly ignoring him so not to make him overwhelmed just so he could observe. He was incredibly shut down and wouldn't move, didn't leave the kitchen for weeks. We had to carry him in when he arrived and had no choice but to use puppy pads for a while. He was just petrified of life and it was heartbreaking to see he'd given up. He spent the first 5 months of his life living in a kennel in a traveller home from what I understand and he seemed extremely traumatised. He was covered in poo, despite having a bath before we picked him up, it was just so ingrained in his fur and he was extremely skinny and bloated, full of worms, I can't explain how awful it was. We did end up adopting him a month or so later and he truly is the best thing we have ever done. The last one was set up badly from the start and we weren't prepared or experienced enough plus he also needed somewhere with another dog and no cats ideally; our home was not suited to his needs and it was more than gutting as we loved him but now he is thriving and we are in regular contact with his owners. We had no intention on getting another, let alone a spaniel.
But... Our boy now is the happiest dog and the absolute total opposite to what we had before. He's come so far in trusting people and learning what love is. He's even got a good relationship with the cats and doesn't want to chase them out of their homes so that was a huge plus too as that was a very important aspect of things, they even push their faces on him! He travels around with my OH for work but is also quite happy to conk out and sleep for a few hours! Every time I check on the camera, he's spread out in his bed sleeping with his legs in the air! He's also getting cocky with confidence now and can't get enough of what he's been missing, I love watching him doing zoomies. He may have needed us but I didn't realise how much we needed him too!
We have a 10 month old rescue and we are really struggling to find a food that agrees with him. He's been on Jollyes Lifestage Grain Free Chicken, Turkey and Salmon puppy food which has the following ingredients:
Chicken, Turkey, Salmon (60%), freshly prepared chicken (25%), dried chicken (17%), chicken fat (6%), dried salmon (4%), dried turkey (4%), chicken gravy (4%), sweet potato (24%), peas (5%), potato, beet pulp, linseed, minerals, dried seaweed, yeast (0.3%), carrot (0.2%), glucosamine (0.02%), methylsulfonylmethane (0.02%), chondroitin sulphate (0.01%), fructooligosaccharides (FOS) (0.01%), mannanoligosaccharides (MOS)
He was on it for a couple of months where his poos were better but still not great. So we switched it to their grain free salmon food in case it was an intolerance to poultry and the poos got even worse, constant diarrhea. These were the ingredients:
Salmon and white fish (55%), freshly prepared salmon (30%), white fish meal (16%), salmon meal (4%), salmon stock (4%), salmon oil (1%), sweet potato (15%), potato, peas (12%), rapeseed oil, beet pulp (2%), linseed (0.5%), minerals, asparagus (0.2%), yeast hydrolysate (a natural source of mannanoligosaccharides and beta glucans) (0.3%), fructooligosaccharides (FOS) (0.03%), glucosamine (0.01%), methylsulfonylmethane (0.01%), chondroitin sulphate (0.01%)
We did it all gradually and tried it for a couple of weeks once transitioned but he was so bad he just stayed in squatting position for ages with nothing coming out eventually. So we decided to try their Turkey & Rice in case it was actually the fish causing the issue. The ingredients are:
Turkey (43%), turkey meal (27%), turkey fat (9%), freshly prepared turkey (4%), turkey gravy (3%), brown rice (20%), white rice (20%), oats (12%), pea protein, linseed, minerals, lucerne, fructooligosaccharides (FOS), yeast hydrolysate (a natural source of MOS and beta glucans), dried seaweed, yucca schidigera, dried dandelion
Again, still very bad diarrhea. The first poo of the day is better but not great. The only ingredient that is consistent on all three are linseed, minerals and yeast but at small amounts. He poos so many times throughout the day and they get more watery as time goes on until he's going but nothing is coming out.
We don't know what is causing it or what to try next. I have been relentlessly searching through different feeds scanning the ingredients avoiding ones with fillers and other rubbish. I didn't think the Lifestage ones were that bad though.
Any ideas and recommendations please? We are going to talk to the vets on Monday about it too.
-
For a bit of a background and I expect I will get some judgement understandably after the last failure but this was unplanned so I just want to add this to make it clear. The rescue, who originally let us down with the first spaniel we wanted to adopt if anyone recalls, called us one day saying they had just brought in a 5 month old cocker from a really bad place and he wasn't coping in their kennels. We took him as an emergency foster, as we still had everything in place, just to give him somewhere quiet to be and were very mindful that it may not work out but we wanted to help at least.
We spent hours upon hours intermittently sitting on the other side of kitchen on the floor trying to gain his trust and get him used to us, mainly ignoring him so not to make him overwhelmed just so he could observe. He was incredibly shut down and wouldn't move, didn't leave the kitchen for weeks. We had to carry him in when he arrived and had no choice but to use puppy pads for a while. He was just petrified of life and it was heartbreaking to see he'd given up. He spent the first 5 months of his life living in a kennel in a traveller home from what I understand and he seemed extremely traumatised. He was covered in poo, despite having a bath before we picked him up, it was just so ingrained in his fur and he was extremely skinny and bloated, full of worms, I can't explain how awful it was. We did end up adopting him a month or so later and he truly is the best thing we have ever done. The last one was set up badly from the start and we weren't prepared or experienced enough plus he also needed somewhere with another dog and no cats ideally; our home was not suited to his needs and it was more than gutting as we loved him but now he is thriving and we are in regular contact with his owners. We had no intention on getting another, let alone a spaniel.
But... Our boy now is the happiest dog and the absolute total opposite to what we had before. He's come so far in trusting people and learning what love is. He's even got a good relationship with the cats and doesn't want to chase them out of their homes so that was a huge plus too as that was a very important aspect of things, they even push their faces on him! He travels around with my OH for work but is also quite happy to conk out and sleep for a few hours! Every time I check on the camera, he's spread out in his bed sleeping with his legs in the air! He's also getting cocky with confidence now and can't get enough of what he's been missing, I love watching him doing zoomies. He may have needed us but I didn't realise how much we needed him too!
