Dog has another gastrointestinal problem

I understand the giardia is really really hard to get rid of. My old office mgr. sheltie had it when she got him from the breeder and he had trouble for I bet close to a year. And a couple of clients at the vet clinic I used to work at also had the same trouble.    I personally don't know much more about it than that....I bet someone will come along and answer you though.

I have a Great Dane so its hard for me to see how much your small dog should eat..but I would get him on Probiotics in a hurry...I believe it will help a lot. I use Liquid Dispersible from Natures Farmacy.....for my Dane and the danes before him.

GOOD LUCK!!!

Giardia is HARD to get rid of, and HIGHLY contagious.

I'd keep him out of all parks and daycare - it sounds like your park may already be contaminated.

Have you sent a stool sample out to the LAB? They can test for giardia, and all sorts of other parasites and bacterial infections.

Wileycat

 So, my question is this:  I am wondering how much rice and beef I should feel a 20 lb. dog. I am worried I am not feeding him enough. I think I give him a cup or more of rice a day and about 8 oz of the beef (not sure.) I have no idea how many calories are in regular food. 

Dogs can't thrive on boiled rice and beef. There is hardly any nutrition in the same two foods, over and over. At one point I home-made 100% of my JRT-mix's meals, but before I even attempted it I did a consultation with a canine nutritionist who designed a balanced diet for my little guy. When he was eating all home-made, I think he ate close to two cups a day of food - keep in mind that fresh foods are not as dense as kibble or canned food so it LOOKS like a ton of food, compared to the less-than-a-cup he'd get if he ate all dry food.

Also, not trying to be snotty, but I personally don't categorize either of those foods as 'highly rated'. IMO they are more middle of the road :) If you end up going with a commercial food, my JRT-mix does well with the limited ingredient Natural Balance food.

Wileycat

If he turns out to have some sensitive stomach problem, can someone recommend a good food for that?

I'd go with one of the limited ingredient diets myself.  I used Natural Balance-the fish-at one time. 

I would use turkey or chicken instead of the beef and white rice until the diarrhea goes away. The white rice has no nutrition but is binding. Then when it does change to brown rice or cooked oats. the oats are very soothing to the stomach. There is nothing wrong with cooking for your pet ,the important thing is to get a good supplement I use http://www.platinumperformance.com/Platinum-Performance0153-Canine/productinfo/CPLAG1/ There are things that a dog can not get from food so it is important to supplement

 

Dawnben

I would use turkey or chicken instead of the beef and white rice until the diarrhea goes away. The white rice has no nutrition but is binding. Then when it does change to brown rice or cooked oats.

  I agree with using turkey or chicken. It should be skinless white meat; extra lean ground turkey works well. Enriched white rice is a good source of niacin, selenium, folate, and thiamine and is more digestible than brown rice. It's okay to add a supplement such as the one recommended above for a short period of time, but be aware that it will not provide adequate nutrition over the long term.

I dont agree about the brown rice I would rather get the vitamins in their natural form rather that something that has been fortified. In my opinion a whole grain is always preferred. Also when you are home cooking for your pets if you don't supplement on a regular basis they will become deficient in some vitamins and minerals. If you feeding dog food they are already in it so you dont need to supplement. So what's the difference? Brown and White Rice Rice goes through a variety of processes before it's ready for cooking. After harvesting, the seeds are run through a rice huller/husker for milling to remove the outer grain husks. After this process, you're left with brown rice. Nice and simple. To create white rice, there's added steps. The germ and the inner husk (bran) is removed, the grain is then polished, usually using glucose or talc. The crazy thing is that these added steps to turn brown rice to white remove nutrients that are sometimes then introduced back in via synthetic sources - this is called fortified white rice. The same type of thing happens in brown bread vs. white bread scenario. The loss of nutrients is broad and substantial. Plain white rice has far less Vitamin E, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Folacin, Potassium, Magnesium, Iron and over dozen other nutrients.  Added to that, the dietary fiber contained in white rice is around a quarter of brown rice.

Some dogs just can't digest rice at all -- brown has more nutrition but it is very hard to get it cooked enough to be digestible to some dogs, but in either case you often have to cook the rice to the fully blown out stage in order for it to be digestible.

I don't use much grain at  all -- I'd rather use veggies.  Even plain white potato can be well tolerated for a sore gut.

But seriously -- if this is gardia, nothing is going to help until you get the parasite issue resolved.  Feeding a home-cooked diet is a good thing, but as Meg says, a nutritional consult is a good thing over the long haul. 

It often comes down to personal preference but I don't give my dogs ANY chicken at all -- and I'd use dark meat poultry rather than white meat (because it's more rich in nutrition).  But Chinese medicine sees chicken as an "inflammatory" meat -- there's nothing at all wrong with it, but if a dog already has intestinal issues that show there's inflammation (like soft/mucousy stool) then it's more likely to worsen it than help actually.  Beef, lamb, whitefish ....

Bottom line -- when you home-cook you limit the ingredients.  No artificial stuff, preservatives, etc.  It's part of what helps.  You remove the guesswork because you *know* what you put in.

Beyond that a lot is up to your own preferences --

Dawnben

I dont agree about the brown rice I would rather get the vitamins in their natural form rather that something that has been fortified. In my opinion a whole grain is always preferred. Also when you are home cooking for your pets if you don't supplement on a regular basis they will become deficient in some vitamins and minerals.

 

   Hi Dawnben; You're fairly new to the forum; welcome.  I totally agree that you need to supplement when home cooking. Jessie has chronic pancreatitis and because of several food allergies, she couldn't have the prescription foods. She's allergic to most non-prescription diets that are low in fat also. I had a diet formulated for her by Monica Segal;  http://www.monicasegal.com/  It's a very simple diet of enriched white rice and boiled lean turkey, and requires many individual supplements, including the ones you mention. As for fiber, dogs with pancreatitis need a low fiber diet so the brown rice wouldn't be suitable. I believe that if you're going to home cook for your dog, it's important to have a diet that's balanced by someone with the proper knowledge instead of using a general supplement like the one you mentioned. Monica formulates diets according to NRC guidelines;  http://sites.nationalacademies.org/NRC/index.htm.  NRC guidelines are based on the weight of a dog and do not increase linearly like AAFCO guidelines. She takes into account the nutrients that present in the food used for the recipe, then adds supplements to fill in the gaps in the amounts needed by the dog. She ensures the dog receives the right amount of nutrients, avoiding shortages and excesses, something a general all purpose supplement can't do. The forward to one of her books, "Optimal Nutrition", was written by Dr. Ana S. Hill, who is a professor of small animal nutrition at Ohio State University. If you're interested, there's a Yahoo group moderated by her called K9 Kitchen; 

  http://www.monicasegal.com/aboutus/discussions.php

Thanks for the info. Most sites wont work for me because my dogs are vegetarians. About 15 years ago the we got a lot of information about the state of the meat industry. I was already a vegetarian and began to wonder why I had never thought of that diet for my dogs. All of my dogs have been vegetarians since then and are healthy, happy and energetic. The only time I had problems is when I left the country and put my foxhound on a meat based diet. With in 6 months he had chronic gastritis and was over weight. I took him off the meat and cooked for him and have never had a problem since. His stomach was back to normal in a week and he lost the excess weight in about 3 months. That was 2 years ago. I think the dog food industry has made people afraid of feeding their dogs. I think before the dog food industry got involved dogs were healthier eating what we do real food. But that is just my opinion.