Dog seems constipated

[davejh]

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Hi all,

Just after some advice really. We lost our GSD at the back end of August. We’re not planning to get another dog until after Christmas but saw an advert for a 4 year old GSD and well…….

When we got her she was on Dr John Platinum dog food. The lady we got her from said just gave her that and mixed in half a ton of wet working dog food. She said she was a fussy eater and would often leave it.

When we got her home we initially followed what she had been on, but it was clear she didn’t like it - would often eat the meat and leave the dry - or eat some of the meat anyway.

So we switched her to RAW. There is a local company to me who sell raw, we started her slowly with tripe and then introduced effectively’complete’ meals - they are Durham standards feeds. All different types of flavours. We also give her a couple of times a week chicken or duck feet. She initially seemed a little constipated, her poo was hard and she was obviously struggling to pass it. Had a word with the company that I buy from - they suggested with anything higher than 80/10/10 to mix some tripe - which we now do, so anything higher than that we mix half tripe half meal. We also added some carrots and broccoli which she seemed to like. We also added a couple of tablespoons of Apple cider vinegar which we read was good to help with constipation. Everything went well, eating all her food and going to the toilet as normal.

Had her in the vets last weekend just to get her checked over and really introduce them all. The vet said to stop the apple cider vinegar as they were not sure of the long term health risks/benefits. He suggested salmon oil instead - which we have done.

Now for the last 3 days she has been off her food - maybe eats half of what we put down and is clearly struggling to go to the toilet again. This morning she needed to go, eventually did, but yelped whilst doing it. She didn’t touch her food last night at all and only half this morning.

We are going to call the vets later on today, but does anyone have any ideas? I am not sure what to do. I don’t really want to change from raw if I’m being honest - she loved it when we moved her to it.

 

[JoanneF]

Can you add a little pumpkin or squash - the moisture to fibre ratio helps with constipation.

Not too much though, a couple of dessert spoonfuls at a time.

 

[Hemlock]

There is no reason to stop the apple cider vinegar if that is what works for this dog. Additionally, I'd suggest adding a small amount of either olive oil or butter. GSDs often have dodgy digestions, so it's a matter of what helps this particular dog. Sounds to me that you are doing well.

 

[JudyN]

Liver can loosen things up too. Sometimes spectacularly, if you add too much!

 

[excuseme]

Oooh I love the "Durham" meats and the girls do too, its quiet nice and coarse and plenty of varieties.
Changing from a kibble diet to a raw will of course firm up the poo and if your girl has always had a grain based food in the past she may well be finding the firmness a bit strange to pass.
It may be that the 80-10-10 has a little too much calcium, try reducing the calcium and offer only a meal every other day with bone in it. Increasing the meat content can help or as mentioned add some raw liver (not too much at any one time) as this can really loosen things up !***!
I would never take a vets dietry advice too seriously as there are not many vets with qualifications for our dogs dietry requirements!
Please read the attachment;

Myths About Raw: Is my vet really qualified to be giving nutritional advice?

There is also a nice little book that can be purchased from ebay or Amazon quiet cheaply but as new. "Honeys Natural Feeding Handbook for Dogs" easy to read and understand.
This can be a very useful little book to help getting you started on the raw diet.
My vet loved the book and would also recommend the book himself.

Don't worry too much about feeding a balanced diet every day. With raw feeding you should use a variety of products over a few weeks that include the required essentials, this will create a balanced diet quiet safely over time.
.
There are quiet a few of us here that feed the raw product and are always willing to help, you have made a good choice for your new girl.

.

 

[davejh]

Thanks all.

The vet has given her some Lactulose to give her over the next few days. I also contacted the place I get the food from - they are really helpful, and both they and the vets said just give her tripe tonight (which we did) and tomorrow to help her. Then reintroduce the Durham food slowly.

What the place said that we got the food from was that although it is marked as 80/10/10 they think the bone content can sometimes be a bit higher than that.

I think what I am gonna do is when she is ‘freed’ up go for 75/25 tripe/DF for a few days and then mix 50/50 to see how she gets on.

Also going to order a can of pumpkin (100%pure) from Amazon and put that in ice cube trays to freeze them down and give her one each meal - again suggested here and the vets said it was good for them.

She seems a lot better tonight to be fair - she had tripe and ate it all, although she hasn’t been to the toilet yet - but she only seems to go once a day anyway.

Again, thanks all