[amylou57]

Hi all,
It's been a while since I posted, but we've been lurking and reading the boards.

After seeing the horrible things done by Iams, we decided to change Wyatt's food. We had heard good things about Nutro, and spoke to our vet about it. He said Nutro should be fine for Wyatt, and it still fits in our budget. So we bought a bag of Nutro, and began mixing it with his old Iams mini-chunks (according to our vet recommendation). Of course Wyatt, being the picky eater he is, would pick out the new Nutro and leave most of the old Iams (until he got hungry enough to eat the Iams!). After about three weeks, we're to the point now that he's eating mostly the Nutro with a little of the Iams mixed in.

But here's our question. Since we switched him, Wyatt has been vomiting once a day, nearly every day. Last week was the first time since the switch that he hadn't vomited for about three days. We thought at first that it was just the new food and he'd get used to it, but now we're starting to get a little worried. You see, we switched his food right before this pet food recall. While none of the dry food has been listed, we're just a little concerned. Is it the new food, or is something more serious going on here? It's not been uncommon for Wyatt to vomit, but it's never happened as often as this.

Wyatt has an appointment with the vet soon, but we wanted to see what you beagle experts had to say about the situation. Any suggestions?

 

[Gingergoose]

Glad that you have a vet trip lined up.

Does Wyatt eat fast? Sometimes our Kelsey eats faster than the food can go down and she urps it back up.

Glad to hear that somebody else has a picky eater. Mine are incorrigible! I'm currently and temporarily cooking chicken/rice for mine until this recall plateaus and of course my dogs love this stuff. I can't wait until I can stop cooking this stuff.

Let us know how the vet visit goes.

ps...Wyatt is a cutie! What a face!

 

[PFR]

If you are feeding him the dry I don't think there will be a problem with the recall and it sounds like he is eating too fast. Someone once said to put a tennis ball in the bowl while they eat to slow them down...


Let us know what the vet says? And good luck!

 

[amylou57]

Thanks for the encouragement about the recall. Wyatt does sometimes eat fast, but I don't think that's the problem. When he does that, he usually gets it solved right there by his bowl. This vomiting usually occurs in the early morning, around 4 or 5 am. It's typically just a yellow color and very liquid. Luckily, he usually finds the tiled spots in our mostly carpeted home, but we are worried about him. Any other ideas? Has anyone had a similar experience?

I guess our biggest question is, could the food be causing some reaction in his stomach that causes the early morning vomiting?

 

[Gingergoose]

If it isn't the food itself that is making him vomit, blood work (specificallly kidney and liver panels) need to be done. If those are negative, an xray to rule out reflux or hiatal hernia. That's my guess.

But I'm not a vet. When is his appointment?

 

[K & G]

Good that you have the vet lined up, because this might not be Wyatt's problem, but Gage used to throw up yellow bile early in the morning too, and it was because his stomach was too empty. Perhaps nutro is more digestible than iams. We solved it by feeding him later at night.

Wyatt is very cute. He looks so comfortable, all curled up in bed.

 

[Spencer's Mum]

To be totally honest with you, I would try to go with a higher quality dog food than Iams, Science Diet or Nutro. I would suggest something like Fromm 4 Star, Orijen, Wellness, Solid Gold, Merrick, or Performatrim Ultra.

I have my two on the Fromm 4 star Duck formula and it is not all that expensive, I think it is about $35/bag and that lasts my two dogs about a month.

Take a look at the ingredients in the food. If it says "Corn" anything, "Brewer's" anything or "Bi-product" I totally avoid it because that is totally unhealthy for a dog. Corn is just a filler and just like humans, dogs can't actually digest it.

Here is a very good article my friend wrote on dog food, check it out. It is very informational.

http://www.iheartpaws.com/articles/35/1/Dog-Food--Decoding-Fact-from-Fiction-by-Laura-Presley.html

 

[amylou57]

Thanks all for the input. We had read an article similar to the one you linked Spencer's Mum, and that's what led us to Nutro. It's a reasonably priced option that was fairly nutritous. Once we get Wyatt's stomach issues worked out, we'll consider another brand. We may have to anyway!

Wyatt's appointment is over the weekend, since that's the quickest we could get him in. However our vet is very good at responding to emails/phone calls, and I've put both in to her already.

Thanks again for the responses, it's nice to get input from fellow beaglers!

 

[Spencer's Mum]

Well as far as vet recomendations go on pet food, I don't usually trust them. All my vet ever suggests is Hills/Science Diet and I refuse to feed that to my dogs. My dogs refused to eat Nutro, they hated it. It is definitely better food than Ol' Roy or Pedigre but it is still not the best. And the fact that it was on the recall list of foods is what concerns me the most.

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask them. I have had to do a ton of research on dog food because of Spencer's food allergies. It took me a long toime to find one that he was ok on.

 

[we3beagles]

The thing about "reasonably priced" dog food is that it usually is not less money than a better dog food. Sure it costs more per bag, but on a food like Innova or Origen you are usually feeding about half of what you feed of a lower quality dog food because there are more usuable nutrients in them than fillers. Iam you probably had to feed about 2 cups per day and on a higher quality food you would feed 1/2 to 3/4 cups per day so it works out pretty much the same in the end. Bugsey used to throw up bile every once in a while when he was young and when we switched to Innova he stopped and now he eats RAW so we never have a problem. I think it has a lot to do with his digestive system working overtime to try to digest fillers that he didn't need. It produced an over abundance of bile and hence the yellow stains in the carpet at our old house.

 

[amylou57]

Thanks again for your replies. Let me clear up that Nutro was not recommended by our vet, we chose that based on cost and what was available in our area. We've since found a feed store that may carry higher quality foods, and once we get to the vet and get Wyatt's stomach settled we'll investigate other options.

Thank you all for your concern and recommendations, I really do appreciate it.

 

[Buddy's Dad]

Wyatt is a handsome pup....Spencer's Mum, is there a problem with Hill's Science Diet or do you not like the vet pushing it on you?