Desperately Seeking a Firm Stool

[lindseyp]

Of course you could try raw.

that was going to be my suggestion too 
my 3 have the 'perfect poops' sinse switching to BARF 

I shall monitor results and report back in fine detail!! 

 shall look forward to that

[Geordietyke]

Hello Coralee and welcome back to the fold   I too have been thinking about how you and Harvey have been getting on.  Sorry about his current 'issues' but I can relate to them (have posted many poo related threads whilst you've been gone ).

Hope you get him sorted soon, would be nice to see some current pics though   Lesley

[coralee]

Lindsey - that will be my next avenue to explore - I think the name BARF makes me...well, you  know,  !  but if it works...it shall be!

Hiya Lesley - thanks for welcome back  - it's great to catch up with everyone - I hope you and your boy  are having as good a time as me and the seamonster!

Updated pics under "Working Cockers" on photo threads - he's all grown up now 

[ebony girl]

have a look at Fish For Dogs....we have the kibble as any soft food sometimes give ebony a dodgy belly x

[coralee]

Thank you Ebony Girl I shall take a look

[Sheepscheeks]

Of course you could try raw.

that was going to be my suggestion too 
my 3 have the 'perfect poops' sinse switching to BARF 

Freddie has been on Natural Instinct raw food since the age of 5 months due to cow pat poos with blood and mucous in them. I know your Harvey isn't quite that bad but, honestly, the raw diet has been the making of Freddie. We only tried 2 kibbles - Wainwrights (which he was on from the breeder) and Barking Heads - introduced this VERY gradually over 2 weeks after a period of chicken and rice (which Freddie happens to be fine with). The NI comes in frozen trays, doesn't smell, you don't have to handle raw ingredients. Works out at £1.65 a day for Freddie...

[lisalh]

Fred was like that as a pup and we tried every brand of food known to man, even had my mum source so harder to get brands, in the end we phased chicken out of his diet totally (no more pancreatitis outbreaks), fed him more eggs and changed his food to Arden Grange (Lamb), it took a few week for the change over to take effect and touch wood he is fine now.  The first couple of poops a day are solid as a rock, getting squidgier as the day goes on or if he is running about a lot, once a week he gets fish in oil/Scrambled Egg/Yoghurt added to his breakfast and 1/2 tub of Natures Diet added to his evening meal.  It took us ages to find a diet that worked for him but now he is off his meds and thriving.  Good luck finding a food that works for you xxx

[elaine.e]

Another raw feeder here and I'm absolutely convinced it's made a huge difference to William (now nearly 7 years old) who had itchy skin, lip fold infections and runny-ish poos on JWB, then AG, plus regular night time vomiting small amounts of yellow bile. A switch to Burns definitely helped but it wasn't until I switched to raw that all his problems cleared up and he had perfectly formed poos It also means that I'm not so limited with training treats because he can now have things containing wheat (usually home made sardine or tuna bread) in larger quantities than before.

I mostly feed Natural Instinct because it's a complete raw food so has everything in it. For a bit of variety I buy frozen lamb's hearts and thaw one of those out and chop it up to mix in with the NI sometimes. I feed a raw chicken wing about once a week but hold on to it until I'm sure William is crunching it up properly.

My other Cocker Louis, 20 months old, is also raw fed now but he has a cast iron constitution and can eat pretty much anything so I haven't noticed much difference with him.

[Mel]

Hello Coralee and welcome back to the fold   I too have been thinking about how you and Harvey have been getting on.  Sorry about his current 'issues' but I can relate to them (have posted many poo related threads whilst you've been gone ).

Hope you get him sorted soon, would be nice to see some current pics though   Lesley

In contrast apart from issues about where he poos, Tali has had no pooing issues, colitis, etc, and he's been on raw since 6 months and before that on a kibble like Barking Heads, which I can't remember the name of, but was very holistic.

[Pudding]

I had this with Bob for a long time ... and i tried all kind of food....
he is now on JWB Duck with some veg and some times a small amount of yep Chappy wet (tin)
then he has raw for his dinner with some veg... and i tell you what not only dose he love it
but his poo has never been better

[supergirl]

Roly also had a tough time as a pup trying to find a food to suit him - try to keep it simple, stay away from any processed treats, pigs ears (or any ears) gave Roly the runs (he has only ever had one).  Fish is a good route, but I have to admit I think scrambled egg is very good for firming up things (no milk or butter though) with boiled rice for a few days (nothing else).  Then if stools are looking a bit better start to add some fish (only very small amounts) and gradually start to substitute the egg.  If all goes well for a few more days then start to add in some kibble, only a few pieces at first.

The first kibble that worked for Roly was the JWB puppy fish & Rice, but then when we switched to the adult variety it started all over again.  Surprisingly Chudleys worked quite well for him, but eventually we switched to Arden Grange Lamb & Rice  and that suits him very well along with being part raw fed in the evenings.

It is a fine art and thankfully Roly is not as sensitive as he used to be, though there are still some things that will upset his digestion and he can only have them in small quantities.

[coralee]

Thanks so much all for your help and guidance  - I like the idea of taking him off the kibble totally and going for something like scrambled eggs and then adding to find the balance. How many eggs should I give him with the rice? He currently has breakfast at about 8am and dinner at about 5pm. One egg for brecky with rice...how many for dinner? Then add fish - see, I always knew kedgeree was underrated!!

[amanda9586]

I have had the same problem with Poppy now for about a year - we have switch from JWB to Burns - bit better but not great and she still has to have her anal glands emptied although the time between was getting longer.

However I think we have had a breadkthrough - we cant go fully BARF as it just doesn't suit us (in that Poppy goes off to stay with parents and trying to make sure food is ready / defrosted etc just wouldn't work for us - but she is having Raw chicken wings every other day for breakfast and low and behold firm poos!  The imbetween poos seem better as well so we are sticking with this for a while!

[coralee]

So much help - thanks all!

Right, have made a decision - am going to go for rice, with white fish, to settle him, then try one of the recommended kibbles bit by bit and adapt as needed.

I'm still going to report back in fine detail! So prepare ye-selves for this!!

Thanks again - has re-opened my eyes to the jungle that is dog food

[Sheepscheeks]

Keep him off kibble for a whole 2 weeks then re-introduce your chosen variety SLOWLY over 2 weeks. This was my vet's advice and I followed it to the letter when introducing Freddie to Barking Heads. All was fine right up until he went back to 100% kibble then problems all started again so we gave up on kibble altogether. I am convinced some dogs just can't tolerate the processing - no matter how good quality the kibble is, it is still processed. When you read the ingredients then look at and smell the kibble... well, I always wonder what on earth they do to it to make it look and smell like that! I'm not anti-kibble - my overweight cat is on Hills M/D feline kibble for weight control. It just doesn't suit Freddie (or rather I didn't want to go through the palaver of chicken and rice for 2 weeks then introducing another kibble over 2 weeks over and over again!)