Need a new food!!

[kerriebeth21]

We have had our pomeranian on Innova Senior since we got her in May. Lately she seems to have an issue with it and has been throwing up pretty much daily! I asked my mom about it (vet tech) she asked me if Cricket if throwing up stomach bile or just the food...I told her it's just the food and it's in freshly chewed pieces. She said in that case that it tends to be a problem with the food.

Now because Cricket has very few teeth...I'd like to stick with the same shape as the Innova Senior...it's a flat shape about the size of a nickel...little wafer pieces. Everything I look at has the round kibble shape...which when she eats the other dogs' food, Canidae, she ALWAYS throws it up and it's still whole...she doesn't even chew it!

I want a high quality food...I've heard Blue Buffalo is pretty good...it's a newer food. I was interested to know if anyone feeds it or has fed it in the past...so I can know what the shape of the kibble is.

Any other opinions would be great!

[tbone6649]

Hello Kerriebeth 21,
There is a great food on the market today called Life's Abundance. It is a health food made for dogs. It does not contain corn, wheat, or dairy, which is hard for a dog to digest. It also conatins only human-grade meats, and no by-products. You have to order it online, because the food you recieve is fresh (made within five weeks).
Here is the link:
http://www.healthypetnet.com/petpro/
click on healthy pet net to the right.
Please let me know what you think!!!!

[kerriebeth21]

I picked up some Authority Harvest Baked Senior. After looking at a bunch of terrible labels in PetSmart that's the best ingredients list...though it has wheat. We'll try it out and see how it goes.

[Alexis]

Artemis is a great food.... I am pretty sure that they have a senior. I also use a dehydrated food for my dogs called The Honest Kitchen (www.thehonestkitchen.com). It hydrates into a "stew" (for lack of a better word). It is made of human-grade food. It is on the more expensive side, but well worth it. 10 lbs rehydrates into about 40 lbs (they have smaller quantities ) Anothetr thing that you could try (if you can't find the shape of food that you want) is to soak her food in warm water to make it softer.

[kerriebeth21]

Wow what a great idea! It is very expensive!! I'm thinking about ordering a trial size. It would be a great idea to even mix it in with kibble...that way it would be cheaper.

I was told not to soften her food with water....if I do she will definitly lose her remaining teeth. The dry food helps to clean her teeth...she only has one side with molars...if she loses those we would always have to soften the food. I hate to see her lose those teeth! And trust me she will NOT let you mess with her mouth! Whomever had this little dog prior to use did a TERRIBLE job taking care of her! My five year old jack russell has no tarter or plaque at all on her teeth! I clean them often! It's too bad that some people don't see these wonderful animals for what they are!

[doberkim]

honestly, throwing up whole kibble is NOT automatically a sign of the food.

before you change ANY diet,
i would get the dog to a vet for a thorough checkup. its not normal, and its not a dead giveaway that its a food problem, especially if shes been eating it with no problem for awhile.

[kerriebeth21]

Dogs can become hypersensitive to something after eating it for a period of time. Dog allergies are not like human allergies. She could have become allergic to something in the food. This came straight from my vet. So your dog could be eating a food with chicken as a main ingredient for a couple of years...and all of a sudden become allergic to chicken. So it is likely that she could have become allergic to something in the food.

The problem with determining if food allergies are present is that dogs
are usually allergic to only one ingredient, or to a small number of
ingredients -- not to the whole diet. So the problem becomes isolating
the food that is causing the problem.

This has traditionally been done by making a diet that is composed of
foods that a dog has never eaten before. Since food allergies are thought to
occur only to foods that the dog has been sensitized to, there should
not be an allergic reaction to a food that has not been eaten previously.

http://www.vetinfo.com/dallergy.html

[GreenleafGreyhound]

Doesn't Solid gold make a kibble called Lil' Bits? I think it's supposed to be in wafer-like pieces. Same price as CSFTDLS, Canidae, Wysong, Wellness, and...well, Pinnacle is just SO darn expensive. Blue Buff should be around the same price range.

Is she allergic to a certain ingredient in that food (i.e. chicken)? I know you can find this out by putting them on a bland-ish diet (the chicken/beef and rice thing you do when puppy has the Big D). Anyways, good luck.

Edited to add: Your probably already know this, but when you're doing the bland diet testing, you can't keep the pup on that diet for a longer time than a few days.

[Rip's Girl]

Kerrie - Off topic, but I happen to have one of those dogs who HATES to have their teeth messed with as well.. He eats a raw diet and his teeth are kept very clean, but a nice alternative to a raw diet that cleans teeth very well are raw bones with a tiny bit of meat on them. (just enough to make the dog work at it, and 'floss' the teeth) Buster, my mom's dog who is kibble-fed, has recently started getting a raw beef bone once a week (anything from ribs to the heavier bones, since he just picks at the meat and doesn't really crunch on the bone) and I'm already seeing an improvement in his teeth, they are slowly getting cleaner, and it is our alternative to sending him in for a dental. (Which the vet recommended we avoid, due to his age and health)

Doing that would give you the option to look for different shapes of food, that you could wet down a bit for her, because you wouldn't have to worry about her teeth so much.

[LabLuver22]

Actually, dry food really doesn't do anything for the teeth and gums, although soft food leaves more residue. So you wouldn't have to worry about keeping her food hard and crunchy. To keep her teeth and gums healthy, you can use Greenies, Nylabones, Hercules bones, sterilized bones, raw marrow bones, dental Kongs, Nylabone "Quest" bones, and a bunch of other toys. Isn't it unfair that while dogs get all these great toys and treats to clean their teeth, we have to stick to a boring old toothbrush and toothpaste?

[doberkim]

i am aware of allergies.
HOWEVER -before i woudl write something as serious as this off to allergies, i would get her thoroughly checked out. there are a lot of digestive problems and disease processes that can mimic this,a nd the advice of anyone online, or even a "vet tech" doenst take the place of a veterinarian examining the animal and running diagnostic tests - ESPECIALLY when this is an older animal.

for example - just within my third year class, the past 2 vomiting animals were diagnosed with GI lymphoma and hepatitis. symptoms were just vomiting.

besides, my post said nothing of the sort that its not allergies. what i said was - just because the food is not digested does not mean its AUTOMATICALLY the food.

if you are comfortable with using these assumptions then care for your pet, then so be it. many of us are not.


and interms of determining what it is she is allergic to - its not putting her on a bland diet. you need to run an elimination diet, and this is going to have to last much longer than a few days. you need to use novel sources of protein (ie if you think its chicken, then you dont feed chicken - you dont feed ANY meat she has eaten before).

again, this is something that a vet should be dealing with. not just taking the advice without examining the animal.

[kerriebeth21]

Like I said before she only has two crushing molars on one side. She doesn't chew on anything because she doesn't have but 5-10 teeth! And dry food does help keep the teeth clean, as per my vet and many others agree. My vet told me not to wet her food if I want her to keep her remaining few teeth. This is an older dog, she's 7. She was not treated well in the past. When we got her she was underweight and all her hair was falling out!

I take offensive to the assumption that I'm not taking the right steps to keep my dog healthy. She goes to the vet when need be. She's not underweight. And besides the throwing up that she'll do once and a while...it's not like she has the dry heaves or it throwing up everytime she drinks or eats. I can't afford to run to the vet with every little problem. My vet is an hour ride away. He is a GREAT vet and has won the NY State award for the best vet...I don't remember the name of the award. I would never take my dogs to anyone besides him. Cricket is on antibiotics right now for her terrible breath, the antibiotics are for an oral infection. Allergies don't just mean food, it was mentioned that it IS allergy season and something as simple as pollen could be causing her issues.

I was simply starting this threat to find a different food, not to get the run down on what I'm not doing or what I'm doing wrong.

Thanks Greenleaf I'll look into the Solid GOld.

[gaddylovesdogs]

You could try a wet food.....???

It can be hard to have seniors. Two of my girls are seniors, but luckily they've got all they're teeth (they're on a raw diet). If I find any foods that look good, I'll let you know.

[kerriebeth21]

Thanks!!

[LabLuver22]

Sorry, I didn't mean to make it sound like you're doing something wrong. You're not....you sound like a great owner.