Good morning, we are new to this forum and looking for advise on our adopted 11 month old St Bernard puppy. We have only had the pleasure for 10 days and in that time have seen a breed that has the most beautiful and kind natured soul. What brings us here, our puppy ate fresh mince, vegetables and rice in copious amounts while we waited for an online order of Royal Canin Giant Junior to arrive. This may be coincidental, on arrival of the food 3 cups of dry food was given for dinner. That night puppy threw up during the night and in the morning had diarrohea and was lethargic and clearly unwell, of course refusing to eat. The following day the same so a visit to the vet which advised gastro, chicken and rice until stomach settled then the reintroduction of dry food. On following this advise appetite improved, on the reintroduction of the dry food on the 3rd day the following morning he again refused to eat displayed signs of lethargy and clearly looked unwell. Back to the chicken and rice, same process, improvement, a new dry food then woke the next morning to not eating. We will visit the vet again, however, I have been told the St Bernard can have sensitive stomachs. Can you please advise which dry foods and wet foods are the best to feed. Thank you Kat
You should never make sudden changes in a dog's diet, especially if you gave the new food dry. If he has been previously raw fed, begin the change over by adding a small quantity of kibble to the same food he has been reared on. Continue to reduce one element and increase the other until the changeover is complete. Most giant breeds are prone to gastric torsion and personally, I would never put down dry kibble because of the danger of bloating.
Definitely changover slowly. That is the best way for a sensitive stomach. You may find that one type of meat ingredient works better than others. My Moose-dog did fine on lamb based kibble, but had issues with the same brand's chicken based version. You can feed smaller portions more frequently to reduce the impact of the new food also. Talk to your vet about the best kibble (or other) food to feed him. There is a lot of flipflopping in regards to torsion - some say feeding dry kibble is better, some say feeding wet kibble is better. Some say it's about the actual ingredients. And so on. Some studies that that the size of the kibble has an effect. Smaller kibble gets eaten much quicker and that causes air to get in the stomach. Whether to feed from a raised food bowl or a low food bowl gets flipflopped also. The one thing that is known is that feeding one large meal and a dog who gobbles his food are more likely to cause torsion. Use puzzle feeders to slow them down and/or feed more frequently in smaller portions. P.S. Is his name really Harvey Bernard Milk? I love it!!!!
