Feeding Advice

[denisec]

Looking for some advice please?

Paddy has had an upset tummy for a week now, the second time he has had this trouble this year. We took him to the vet for the second time today and saw a different vet who advised us that she didn't think he was getting the right diet for an older dog (he is over 7 now).  She said older dogs need more fibre in their diet and recommended we use Hills Science (which obviously they sell!). 

Whilst I'm happy to try anything to help him, I'm concerned that the Protein content appears to be 24%, which is over the 20% I've been advised is best for retired greyhounds.

Anybody else had this problem with their 'older' houndy? Or used Hills Science?

Thank you

[Ian]

Pat is probably the best person to answer this, however I can add that it's quite common for the more expensive dog foods to have a higher protein content. When we took Sean on he was 7 and we went through many different foods to try and suss out what worked for him, however he was always a fussy eater. The last dry food we had him on was Asda Hero. We used to find with Sean that runny bums were a fairly regular occurrence, worming tablets usually cleared the issue.

If you try one of the 'specialist' or more expensive brands (Royal Canin, James Wellbeloved, Eukanuba etc.) then do shop around for it because prices can vary quite a bit, also visit the manufacturers website to see if they do any free samples for you to try out. We just started Maggie (our Cocker Spaniel) on James Wellbeloved since it looks to be a better food than the very cheap Wagg.

[denisec]

Thank you Mark.

Paddy has had 2 meals of the Hills food now and his poo was back to normal this morning, so despite my scepticism it seems to be working - good news! 

He's just getting old I guess, like myself.  Hope I don't get the same problem though . . . 

As you say, I'll certainly shop round for the best deal.  We have a farm shop close by that sells all sorts of dog food at reasonable prices, so hopefully we can find it there.

Thanks
Denise

[sueb]

I've heard from someone on another forum that she was advised to give her greyhounds (with quite tricky problems with runny poo) canned pumpkin and it worked a treat (as opposed to trick or treat!!)