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6 month English Mastiff with diarrhea issues

Aries

Member
Originally we were feeding Aries our now 6 month English Mastiff the Canadian Acana large breed puppy dry kibble 3x a day, we then started noticing after some time had passed that he was shedding excessively so we started adding salmon oil to his food. Aries then got the runs very badly so we stopped the oil but I questioned how well is he digesting the food when he is shedding like crazy and occasionally throwing it up hours latter and it looks completely whole still. When i mentioned this at the store when we needed more food the man suggested a different type of Acana thinking he may not be tolerating the chicken in it so we bought Grasslands no grain no chicken. Aries went from bad to worse and started having explosive diarrhea with many accidents a day and no longer being able to hold it at night needless to say we stopped the food and have been giving him plain rice. We took him into the vet and health wise he checks out fine. If anyone can suggest a food that would be gentle and easier for him to digest I would greatly appreciate it. One food I am considering is Farmina grain free. On a side note Rug Doctor makes a great portable carpet shampooer .
 

DennasMom

Well-Known Member
Acana is normally a good, well tolerated food, but it doesn't sound like your pup is getting it digested well... so...

1. Add a good full spectrum probiotic, like dogzymes (but any will help). if you have some plain live yogurt around, you can see if he'll tolerate that (but beware dairy, even fermented, does not always go down easy).

2. I use a product from OnlyNaturalPet called "GI Support" that has all sorts of support for the GI tract - probiotics, enzymes and herbs. It works for us when we have the occasional upset, and it also seems to be helping some kittens we just adopted.

3. Food... Have you considered a home-prepared diet? either cooked or raw? You could start just by adding some boiled chicken to the plain rice, along with a dog multi-vitamin and calcium supplement. We feed Denna a raw diet, which is very easy and gives us complete control over what goes in her mouth, which is very helpful when trying to get the gut lined up and working smoothly.

I do add fish oil to Denna's meals - 2x a human dose (I use naturemade fish oil from Costco) - that your pup didn't do well with salmon oil makes me wonder if there's something going on with his pancreas... did you mention to the vet the explosive reaction to adding the oil?

Is he drinking plenty of water? You could give him some homemade low-sodium beef broth for extra liquid if you don't think he's getting enough fluids. Lack of fluids might be holding up digestion and causing troubles, also. It's better for him to drink big gulps at times other than meal time when feeding dry kibble, but you could also add a little water or broth to his dry food to help soften it and get it started breaking down quicker in the gut.

Just throwing some stuff out there. I hope his tummy feels better soon!
 

Aries

Member
Thank you so much for your response. I wasn't sure it was okay to soften his kibble before giving it to him but was really hoping that was alright. I thought it could make it easier for him to digest to. Is it okay to put him on a raw diet at this age? I was under the impression that it wasn't good for a giant breed puppy, if it is then could you please direct me on how to do that properly or a reputable source of information for feeding raw. We feed our tiny Shih Tzu raw but it comes in a little 1 oz Pattie and she only eats 3 oz a day. I'm a bit scared at how expensive it could be to feed Aries raw but his food he is on isn't cheap already and is money wasted if he's not absorbing the full nutritional value of it. Thanks again for your help.