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Feeding a puppy - am I doing this right?
We have a 4 mo old Rat Terrier. He's about 12 lbs right now. He's on antibiotics for a bladder infection.
He was eating Eukanuba Pure Puppy when we got him and I slowly integrated Blue Buffalo puppy with his food and now he exclusively gets that. He was also getting a couple of spoonfuls of the wet food by Blue along with the dry (per his vet), but the vet said he was at a good weight now and to stop the wet food. The vet also said he doesn't usually recommend the Blue brand because he sees a lot of dogs have issues with digestion in regard to this brand and other holistic foods. I picked this brand after doing research and felt confident in it. I decided against grain-free, but wanted wholesome ingredients.
My questions are:
Should I listen to the vet? I question his opinion because he told me to go with one of the big name brands but to use their premium line. He mentioned Iams or Science Diet. I don't mind spending the money on a good food, but I haven't heard great things about those two brands in general.
Since he is getting antibiotics in pill form twice a day, I have been putting the pill in a small piece of banana (about the side that a human would take in one bite) since he no longer gets wet food. He likes banana and he gets those two small pieces a day. Is this too much? He's eating most of his dry food and gets about 2 cups of dry a day (fed twice a day, so 1 cup each meal).That seems like a lot of food, but he's not the kind of dog to just stand there and eat everything in 2 mins, so I figured he was eating what he needed. He gets between 20 and 30 mins for each meal and then the bowl goes up.
He has gas. I thought maybe it was the bully sticks giving him the gas as it seemed to start around the time we started to give those to him. He still has it but not as badly (he hasn't had a bully stick in a few days). He has also had very soft poop and had a little bit of diarrhea yesterday. He made it outside in time, but he didn't eat his breakfast yesterday morning and wanted to be held. He had a noisy tummy too. Because he's on antibiotics, I'm not sure what is causing his stomach issues. He's been on them for about a week.
He gets a very small amount of peanut butter with his kong most mornings. Just enough to seal in the dry dog food that I use to fill his kong.
So, I know that's a lot of info, but I want to make sure I'm doing things right. If he weren't so gassy and his poop were normal I would feel confident we were doing the right things. Should I wait until his antibiotics are gone before I make any changes? The only thing I've changed since him going on antibiotics is swapping out the wet food for banana.
Thanks.
ETA: Is there a way to prevent bladder infections? The vet didn't give us any insight as to how he got it and how to prevent it in the future.
Re: Feeding a puppy - am I doing this right?
I wouldn't listen to vet in terms of food. What's the fat content of the food? Sometimes the really rich high quality food has a higher fat content. When I had Murphy, he had a very time w/ high fat food and would often have diarrhea. We had to stick with food that had around 12-14% fat at the most.
This is what the website shows for the nutritional analysis for the food that he's on:
Guaranteed Analysis
So, do I go by the crude fat %? Do you think that 16% might be too much and possibly causing issues? Doesn't puppy food generally have a higher fat content than adult food?
I would continue feeding what YOU feel is best for your dog. Yes - the vet is knowledgeable, however if you think the product is better than what your vet recommends, I'd stick to your guns. Honestly, between the food and the not giving insight on the infection, I'd be looking for a new vet....
My thoughts on the gas - it could be related to the antibiotics. I'd stick to feeding him is normal food and not give him any edible treats/toys to see if the gas/tummy issues decrease.
If the gas/loose stool continues, pureed pumpkin is a GREAT 'treat' you can give dogs to help with gas. It's like a natural Pepto Bismol for dogs!
Unfortunately, vets don't always know a whole lot about food.
With that said, I think every dog is different. We did a ton of research on food for our Lab. We tried to pick the "best" food for her. Well, the high-quality food ended up not being the best for our dog. Her stool was always soft and we've been battling anal gland issues. So, we've actually dropped down to what some would consider a lower quality food and our dog is actually doing better.
With that said, I totally agree with going with a high-quality food, but sometimes those foods are too rich for a specific dog.
Thanks, I didn't know about pumpkin in that regard.
How do you figure out how much to give your dog in regard to his weight for the stomach upset?
My dogs are 17 and 19 lbs., and when I give pumpkin, I only give ~1 teaspoon with each meal (so 2 teaspoons max per day) based on a rec from ladies on this board. If you give too much, it can have the opposite of the desired effect, so you might want to start with 1 teaspoon per day (since your pup is smaller than mine).
We were thinking of changing vets. We aren't too thrilled with him in general. When he tried to get a sample of urine to test, he took him to a different room and we heard our puppy crying loudly. They were not successful and in the end scared him into peeing on the table and used that urine for their sample. They inserted a needle into his bladder and he was too wiggly for that, he got scared and peed.
We picked him because of recommendations from other people and are rethinking that decision. Plus, he's about a 30 min drive from home so all the more reason to pick a different vet that is closer to home. We already have him scheduled for a neuter there, so after that I think we'll be going somewhere else.
I think most of the time you kind of know when a vet isn't right. The first vet I brought my dogs to after moving to a new state were nothing but money-hungry. It was the worst seeing our sick dog not getting better because they wanted to throw all kinds of different treatments at us. Find a vet you trust, who cares about your dog, and shows respect and kindness.
We give our female a small amount of fiber powder with dinner to help with soft stools (we also have anal gland issues with her). Pumpkin works well, but she doesn't seem to like it. If you use it, make sure to get pure pumpkin, NOT pie filling.
I'd ignore the vet on the food. You can check to see if you think there might be any allergen issues with it, but it doesn't sound like it. We used to feed our dogs Blue, but our female didn't like the little black bits (she would literally eat around them and leave them scattered all around her bowl... hilarious, but also annoying). They're both now on Wellness Healthy Weight (female because she apparently likes it better than regular... weirdo. And our male because he is a little on the chunky side). Feed quality food that your dog likes.
I'm sure once he's off the antibiotics and feeling a bit better that you'll some improvement.
I always give probiotics any time I give antibiotics. I wouldn't worry too much about another UTI unless they're recurrent. Boy anatomy isn't really conducive to them.
If he's still having poop issues, I'd continue probiotics for a bit, and cut out all treats.
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