[Laura L]

My 10 month old lab puppy weighs in at 64 pounds. She is starting to fill out but is not fat. She was spayed at 9 months a and has started to experience vomitting and diarrhea episodes approximately 1 episode per month (January 29, March 1, beginning of April and again now). Vet had suggested switching her to adult food and 2 episodes corresponded with intro of new food but recent food addition. Is a food she has been stealing from my older dog on a regular basis without issue right along. Now vet is questioning a possible issue with chicken but again I am not clam not convinced. It is very difficult to find a large breed puppy food without chicken. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Also would love input on large breed puppy versus large breed adult.

[zcRiley]

FROMM PRAIRIE GOLD (large breed dry kibble with NO CHICKEN)
Fromm Prairie Gold is a line of grain-free, red meat recipes that are naturally formulated with beef, pork and lamb and are also enhanced with probiotics to aid digestion.
(Side Note: Puppies need extra nutrients but yours is just 2 months shy of switching to adult food so it’s fine).

ALLERGY PANEL TESTING: http://www.glacierpeakholistics.com
You’ll be amazed to find out to which proteins your dog is intolerant, plus 100 other foods found in dog food.

After analyzing my own pups’ allergies (they became allergic to chicken during year 1), they now thrive on Zignature Zssentials. You can read the ingredient list on Chewy.com.

[Pitlove]

Hi Laura-

It is actually recommended by most veterinary nutritionists to keep a large breed puppy on a large breed puppy formula until 18 months of age. What foods has she eaten and what is she eating right now? Will make it easier for me to help with a recommendation if I can look at the ingredient panel of what she is currently eating.

[Laura L]

Hi Pitove, thank you for your help. I actually just had her to the vet as the vomiting increased today, in speaking with the vet I expressed concern over the apparent cyclical nature of the vomiting episodes and he indicated she could actually have a beef sensitivity and about a week after Heartgard she is having these episodes.
I started her on Fromm large breed puppy when I brought her home in August and and she was great for 5 months, she then got a very distinct odor (I could smell her all over the house) so I switched her to blue wilderness large breed puppy (chicken) and she has done well except for these 1x a month episodes. The odor was gone and stools were regular. A beef sensitivity makes sense, yesterday I cooked ground beef (I was thinking it was a chicken issue) and today she was worse. I will be seeing my regular vet on Thursday and will ask about an allergy panel.
I have been encouraged to switch to large breed adult to cut risk of too fast weight gain but am not comfortable with that so I am staying with large breed puppy.
Thank you for your help
Laura

[Pitlove]

I was told by many people to avoid chicken for my food allergic pitbull as well. It turned out beef was in fact the problem. In fact he does not do well on any red meat. Could be the same for your pup and that is why she is reacting to the Fromm Gold Large Breed Puppy, as it has lamb in it. We also switched off NexGard for the same reason (the beef), as per the vet.

Large Breed Puppy formulas are designed with a growing LBP in mind. They will not cause your pup to gain weight unless you overfeed. It is a tired old myth to feed a LBP an adult maintenance food, though a lot of breeders, dog clubs, and vets still recommend it. You are absolutely making the right choice in keeping her on a large breed puppy food.

No self respecting vet will suggest an allergy blood panel as they are notorious for being inaccurate. The only way to properly diagnose a food allergy is by a food trial either with a homecooked diet of a single novel protein and carb or the hydrolyzed protein vet diet. That is what we did for our pitbull and he is doing excellent now on a fish based diet that is grain inclusive. He does terrible on grain free foods.

[Laura L]

Good info, thank you. The vet tonight said to try with the current food and take everything else away and add things one at a time over a period of time (after doing a bland diet and slowly adding her food in). Things get complicated as she is a typical lab and she will pounce into my older dogs bowl if she even lifts her head to look around (my 13 year old of course eats Natures Variety Beef). So many of the commercial foods have multiple protein sources so that is hard too.
Libby is at 63 pounds right now and looking good body scale wise, I think she has filled out some but she certainly doesn’t look overweight. I can’t wait to get her swimming so she will have more exercise.

[Pitlove]

That is a make shift food trial basically. Is her current food still Fromm? As far as her getting into the other dogs food, can you feed her seperately or watch them closely so you can stop her if she tries to eat the 13 year olds food? That is what I do with my dogs, especially now that my pitbull has a new lease on life and is no longer picky about food lol.

[Laura L]

She is currently on Blue Wilderness chicken and rice large breed puppy food (since March or so).
I do feed them separately but my old girl has anxiety so I need to be around or she wont eat and she is also very picky so I pick her bowl up (she prefers to eat late so when Libby goes into the crate I put Kenzies food down but I am not always successful getting it picked up in time. I may also try to find something my old girl likes better so she will be a little more enthusiastic about eating. I am going to keep a diary for a while too and jot info down.

[Pitlove]

How has Libby been doing on Blue? Was this the food she vomits once a month on? I’m not sure if you said already, sorry. If you are interested in changing foods, NutriSource Large Breed Puppy is also chicken and rice based, however it is technically an All Life Stages food so your 13 year old dog could eat it as well. Then there would not be the issue of Libby eating a food that she could be sensitive to.

Large Breed Puppy

[Laura L]

The vomiting started before I switched to the blue and continued while on the Blue for 1-2 days per month (april and may) before that she was on the Fromm which she tolerated for a long time before issues arose. Choices were so limited for large breed puppy food that I tried it and she seemed to do well except for the episodes of vomiting. I will look into the Nutrisource, Kenzie may like it better and eat better and then I wouldn’t have to worry about switching Libby when she is older.

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