adding kibble back

Dyan -- truly do NOT sweat it.  My Prissy lived 18 of her 21 years on just plain burger and rice.  She had pancreatitis at 3 and stayed on that bland diet for the rest of her life.  No supplements, or anything at all (had never heard of such a thing back then). 

Most of the time the weird color and consistency of fecal matter when they are on a "bland diet" is NOT a result of the meat and rice -- but it's rather a result of the fact that the intestinal tract isn't working properly.  If it were ME I'd be leaving him on the meat and rice **until** his body returns to normal and then I'd add anything else in ***very very very*** slowly.  (like literally a spoonful of kibble at time -- in fact I might simply add a bit more burger and rice if he's too hungry **first**)  The whole point of the bland diet is to give the body time to heal.

Exactly what Callie said.  If you are still getting weird color stools and soft stools once a day, the G-I tract is not yet working properly.  I usually see nice stools after two days of a bland diet. 

I guess I worry about a couple of things....one is he still IS a puppy. He is still growing, and I worry about him being balanced in nutrition while he is growing.  A few months back when I tried the home cooking way to go...he was loosing weight rapidly....I thought I was giving him too much....but the fact that he was growing along with the change...he ended up loosing. Now that said...he is not growing rapidly like that now....but he is growing and will be for quite a while.

And I guess what goes with that is the fact that I have no idea how much to feed him of this concoction.   Even DH said yesterday...."he looks like he is loosing weight again.!"  HHmmm. But yet.... back a few posts about Gibby being sick...someone ( don't feel like trying to find it right now ) thought that by me giving him 2 cups 3 times a day that it was too much.  So I can tell you I sure LOVE reading the back of the dog food bag for an idea on how much to feed...even if you DON'T listen to it 100%

tzu_mom

If you are still getting weird color stools and soft stools once a day, the G-I tract is not yet working properly.  I usually see nice stools after two days of a bland diet. 

If he has collitis/irritable bowl it's that irritation that's causing the yellowish stool -- that can take several days to abate (and hoping that it's not outside stress causing it).

You have to do this SLOWLY ... because otherwise you will never EVER isolate what's causing the problem.  If you add kibble back in immediately and see problems was it that the body wasn't healed that caused a problem or was it kibble ... or was it THIS kibble?

It's individual -- Luna eats up to two cups twice a day of home cooked -- usually 1 1/2 but it depends.  And on that she gains NOTHING.  She's thin as the proverbial rail and it doesn't seem to matter how much I feed her.  That's just Luna.  (and I've had her since she was 9 months old and she's ALWAYS been rail thin).  Billy -- same weight as Luna prettymuch -- he's 28 and she's 30 now -- he'll chunk up on an extra tablespoon of food. 

Gibby's a big boy -- I can't imagine 2 cups three times a day is over the top at all.  He's young and he's energetic. 

 The *only* thing I'd change -- IF IT WERE ME -- is I'd feed him a bit more of the bland food.  Don't worry about nutrition -- there is LOTS of nutrition in red meat.  There isn't in chicken (particularly not white meat chicken -- we humans prefer it, but it is NOT packed with nutritents in any event). 

If it were ME, I'd then add beef liver and beef heart.  Keep it in the same meat family.  Keep it bland tho (the liver is definitely more 'rich';) but it will increase the nutrition.  But make changes SLOWLY.  Because that is the **only** way you're going to be able to isolate what's causing the real problem. 

Now -- if you keep him on this same bland diet for a month -- and he gets runny yellow stools on Saturday after you've been gone on Friday?  THEN you will know something.  You'll know it *is* stress and not just food.  But you're not going to be able to isolate a thing if you don't keep things constant for a while.

And one week is *not* enough to know anything.  You'll have to keep this up for several weeks in order to truly isolate a cause and get the same results 3 times at least -- because you'll always always wonder "Was it what we did Saturday *morning*??  He drank out of that puddle ... or he was running a lot yesterday at ______".  You have to be able to elminate 10000 changes so you can arrive at some sort of real conclusion. 

If he stays on the same meat source, the same "bland diet" for 3-4 weeks, and he goes all the way thru week after week with no discernible change or discomfort -- then you rule out stress.  But if you keep him on the same diet and on a particular day he gets yucky stool and then the next week it happens on the same day ... you're gonna get a clue it's stress more than anything. 

Make sense?

 He's not going to get malnourished on this -- He's filling out more than real "growing" -- but  determining what the problem is really is more important than putting a ton of nutrition into him that his body can't hang onto because of diarreah

  Dyan; you knew how many calories he was getting with kibble, right? Just feed him the same amount of calories with the home cooked; often that means more food because home cooked usually has fewer calories per cup than kibble. This website will help you figure how many calories are in his cooked food;    http://www.nutritiondata.com/

  When Jessie was first diagnosed with pancreatitis I cooked a very bland diet for her. Her stools were soft the first week but when I added calcium the second week they firmed right up. You said you gave Gibby a tums but that's only enough calcium for about nine ounces of meat. He may have normal stools if you add the right amount.

  When you switch Gibby back to a commercial food, have you thought about putting him back on bil-jac frozen? I thought he never vomited or had diarrhea on that food. I'm glad he's feeling better.

Thanks for the link Janice....will go to it and try to figure it out. Can't be too hard there is only ground beef and rice in it.....lol!    And yes in answer to your BJ question....I have thought very seriously into giving the frozen to him. You know a lady  on the Internet that shows Danes and also sells supplements and things......is the one who told me that BilJac would be better than any kibble.   Thats when I at least switched to it for breakfast but didn't want to completely go over to it because I wasn't sure of it.   There is a couple of ingredients I'm not too sure of. Then I "spoke" ( email ) to another Great Dane person that is into all this and she talked be out of the BJ because of many of the ingredients, saying I need to have him on super premium kibble.  YIKES!  But you know...for sure I will add more calcium. I am also putting a little of the ground egg shells that I made into powder in his food.

Yes Callie...I understand. Your right because I am confused and don't know $hit from Shinola right now.....lol! But I must say......Gibby never has had problems with diarrhea before....not even when I wondered if it was the stress or so on Sats.    It has been a vomiting thing...mostly bile. OR he would vomit bile and want to eat tons of grass and act like a "mad dog" until he got that grass....laying down and munching up on it while I was trying to pull him away. So watery...or mostly even soft stools are not the usual...maybe when he got a vaccine or HW pill only.    I didn't ever really say that before and maybe it makes a difference.

Today when I took him for his walk....he took a dump...it was not yellow...more brown but not the dark that is has always been. Nor was it firm....but more firm than its been. But almost kind of sticky.  Kind of....sort of.  LOL!

YIKES...... what a conversation....Gibbys yucky stool!!!

okay....so since Gibby was born...I have taken him into the bathroom with me and let him chew on things while I am getting ready for work...so that he would be quiet for a while since its very early...as in 5 AM.   Eventually we got it down to giving him a marrow bone with the marrow taken out..never got around to leaving some in to see how it sits with him. But because of all his digestion problems lately, I did not give him one today when I went back to work....boy was he lost. Kept looking at the sink,,,in the tub...behide the door....walked out and back in......  so what do you guys think about letting him have one tomorrow?  Too early?  I am still feeding him the bland for at least a few more days. Today when I walked him his stool is brown....but looks nothing like it always did...and I can't believe it will unless he is eating the same thing as he was. He is now going one small amount and yes...its a little on the soft side....but not soft or watery...just not hard as usual. Think gnawing on a bone will hurt?