Does this ever happen to you? You figure out something GREAT! So great that you can’t help but get EXCITED! And the more excited you get, you find yourself getting a smidge… carried away?!?
Welp.
That’s what happened with home cooking for Cooper.
{{If you need to catch up, here’s why we decided to home cook, and here’s how Coop was doing at last check-in.}}
He was doing phenomenally well. His system was actually digesting his food (gasp!) and he had consistently solid poops. We wanted to take photos and frame them, they were so good. Better than being solid? There was no more blood!
Victory!
Well, for a little while anyway.
Because we had so much success with a range of grains, carb sources, and veggies AND he was doing well with a couple different proteins, we decided to mix things up.
All at once.
There’s the mistake: When you are trying your dog out on a totally home-cooked diet, especially if that dog has digestive problems, stick to one change at a time. One. For real.
Sigh.
We started him on pork, and it seemed to be going OK, so we switched out his veggies and his carbs. Then we decided to give oatmeal a whirl. Then, two of the supplements that I ordered came in, so we stirred those in, too. There were five new things in his bowl all at once. Here is where I have to smack my head and ask, “What were you thinking, lady?!?”
And then he got sick.
Like, really, really sick. Like, worse than before.
Back to having emergency accidents around the house. {{Incidentally, he had a big one directly in front of our CritterZone, and I didn’t smell it until it was already… dried… That thing is pretty sweet. I’ll have a post and coupon code about it soon.}}
The blood was back, and he actually dropped about three pounds. In a week.
The big problem, of course, was that we didn’t know what it was that he reacted to so violently. The pork? The oatmeal? The supplements? No clue.
We had to clear out his system, so he ate boiled potatoes and steamed apples – and literally nothing else because he couldn’t keep anything solid in him – mixed with water to keep him from dehydrating. He ate nothing but that for over a week.
Once we were clear that he was clear, we started adding items back in, one at a time.
It’s been several weeks, and we’ve shifted one bite at a time from the potatoes and apple to his current mix: salmon, quinoa, green beans, apples, and supplements. We’ve been slowly shifting out the salmon and adding in lamb, which has gone perfectly. So far. But I’m not going to push it. I learned my lesson.
Let this be my warning: If you’re home cooking for your dog, especially a dog as sensitive as Cooper, never ever add more than one ingredient at a time. Give that ingredient a few days (or even a week – our new plan) to settle, then add something new.
So that’s the update and our cautionary tale! As we work out other combinations, I’ll be sure to share. I’ve gotten tons of amazingly good questions via email and on Facebook, which I’m compiling into an FAQ-style post. My plan is to tackle the supplement piece in a post by itself first (that’s been the most-asked question), so look for that next week!
Thanks for sticking with us through this! Please join in with your insights in the comments or on Facebook! I’d LOVE to hear your experiences and ideas – the more info we can all get, the better we can serve our pups!
How scary! Thanks for the warning.
Thank you! I was just hoping to help prevent this mistake for someone else… Thankfully, he’s pretty much back to normal now! Phew!
What a great article! Pet owners often think that if their dog eats something it must be okay for all dogs. No two dogs are the same! We put together a quick infographic listing out some safe and not-so-safe foods for pet owners to try over at our blog: http://blog.cityleash.com/healthy-and-harmful-food-for-your-dogs/ , but take the advice of this article and add one at a time!
You’re SO right: no two dogs can handle the same thing! Sometimes I think Emmett has a steel gut. Nothing has ever caused him big problems. With Cooper, it’s the littlest thing that messes him up for days. Thanks for sharing your resource!
I also had this happen with my 3. In fact, I could never figure out which one had the problem because I was feeding the same to all 3. I finally went back to a good grade grain-free. Which worked. No more wet piles.
Ugh. So sorry, Kathy. I’ve actually been trying to calculate if it would be cheaper just to make bigger batches of Coop’s food and feed ’em all. Knowing our luck, one of the other two would have a sensitivity to Coop’s meal! 🙂
ohhh poor Cooper. poor you. What a time. It is one of those lessons that we do have to learn a couple of times: how/when to switch dog’s food. And their poor tummies when we forget. And our poor rugs..
HAHA! Yep. The rugs. Sigh. We actually had rented a steam cleaner and done them all after his last batch of tummy troubles. We thought we had it under control. Goes to show… 😉
Always good advice! Our Angel Sam was so super sensitive, just thinking of making a change seemed to cause issues.
Monty and Harlow
You are so right – just the thought of a change seems to throw him off! Sweet Angel Sam – he and Cooper would’ve had a lot to talk about.
Great advice. I’m sorry you had such a setback with Cooper, that’s a tough one, but I think it’s perfectly natural for us to think, wow this is going great and then we sometimes get a little carried away. 🙂
This is where we are are with Delilah’s liver levels, I am hoping to add some things to her diet, but want to do it slowly because I want to know what works or doesn’t work.
The good thing for you is you realized the issue right away and could get him back on track.
That is a tough one. Do you see effects of changes immediately? Or is it just in checking her levels with a blood test? I guess the good thing with Coop is that we KNOW immediately if there’s a problem. It takes much longer to get him back on track than it does to discover an issue.
We once gave the dogs some leftover pork, thinking it would be fine for them. I don’t know if we overdid it or what, but we had two dogs with diarrhea for several days! Strangely enough, it didn’t bother Cricket at all, Luke was better in a couple of days, but it took Sheba close to a week with lots of bland food and pumpkin to finally get her stomach settled. We’re much more careful with leftovers now!
Uhhhh. I feel ya. Emmett is like Cricket. He can eat anything and stay fine. Pork, I suspect, is just too fatty?
I’m so happy to have found your blog. I am going through IBD with my 11 year-old dog, Cody. When the RX foods failed I started cooking for him, but I haven’t seen big changes. We are using ground lamb, rice and squash – plus a whole bunch of meds and probiotics. I will check out your earlier posts for more hints. Thank you for sharing your story.
Hi, Sharon! I feel for you! The RX foods didn’t work for Cooper either. I will say that ground lamb wasn’t his best type… I suspect because it has a mix of lamb parts that it gets sort of fatty? We’ve been buying a leg of lamb at Costco and baking that for him, and it seems to be much better. Wishing all the best for Cody, and let me know if you want to compare notes – I’m happy to pull a list of our wins (and losses)!
Maggie,
I’m very interested in learning which foods worked best for your dog. We are also using leg of lamb that is ground for Cody. I boil the meat and add basmati rice and a few veggies (lately it’s been butternut squash). Any suggestions?
So far, for protein, he’s done well with salmon, tuna, and lamb. Pork, chicken, and beef are NO good! Quinoa has been fabulous. It’s a protein-rich grain option, so we’ve been using that instead of rice. He’s also good with boiled potatoes and apples, steamed green beans and carrots. On my “to try” list next is sweet potato (boiled, probably) and cauliflower. Your squash suggestion is great, too, so I’ll probably add that to the list! I’m not sure what other proteins we can try… probably none… but alternating the three that are good has seemed to work well! I really hope that helps!!
Cody likes fish so maybe we’ll try that next. It’s interesting to see that you rotate proteins. I was also wondering what medications you are using? Thanks
We’ve had such struggles with this because so many supplements add things like liver for flavor. We went through probably half a dozen versions before we figured out that even the slightest additive really upset his stomach. We’re currently testing two vegetarian supplements, plus he’s taking a bone meal supplement since calcium deficiency is a real problem with home cooked. As we get results from our tests, I’ll definitely share!!!
Oh no! Get better soon!
Thank you! He seems to be doing much better this week, though we’re still struggling to put weight on the little guy!