Switching to Blue Buffalo

So I have been doing a little thinking on Lacey’s dry food.And I came across the thought that Lacey could not have fishy food so I searched back on her site & found that it was on of one of the WellnessSuper5Mix Dry Food I had given her that caused soft stools.I checked the ingredients in it and did seems to have a “good” amount of fish but I didn’t try her on any other brand for fish.On the Wellness Dry Food she’d always gets soft stools so I am not even going to try her on the Wellness Core or the Simple Solutions.I might try her on another fishy food with a different brand such as TOTW Pacific or something similar to that.

On Blue Buffalo,doing some research I have found that a lot of poodles do good on the Small Breed which most of the Blue Buffalo dog food that does have grains,usually have 3,being which MOST poodles are doing good on.I am going to slowly transition her over to Blue Buffalo and see how she is medically in the upcoming months.Otherwise it’s going to be mostly grain free for her.So far for her diet,we will be using Blue Buffalo as the primary diet(even if it’s only grain free),TOTW & possibly Earthborn.Can Food:Merricks,Party Animal.Raw:Stella & Chewy Freeze Dried Chicken or Duck(alternating)When the NOW!dog food comes to Hawaii we’ll probably stop the Earthborn if not before that and try the NOW! dog food by PetCurean.So far I am pleased with their customer service on facebook & looking forward to try their products for Lacey..Still looking at other options but that’s where we are for now…

Update May 11 2010:It seems that Lacey can’t handle Stella & Chewy’s freeze dried raw food.She can handle the chicken & beef with good bowels but can not handle the lamb,duck/goose both resulting in soft stools.The beef she doesn’t care for it too much so we will discontinue that…If sometime later a new brand comes out for freeze dried or she will accept ACV in treats if it’s ever used in treats we may get her to eat Primal Frozen but right now it will be the raw treats from Stella & Chewy & Primal for raw treats…
As far as dry food goes Lacey is obviously giving us a very difficult time on transitioning to new food whether it be Blue Buffalo,Earthborn,Taste of the Wild,Nature’s Variety or whatever she’s just not eating…In turn I have cut out most of her treats & table food until she does eat something.I have been giving her an 1/8 cup of Merricks or Party Animal daily(can food) so she’s got something in her tummy.I doubt 1/8 cup of can food will fill her up though.I am waiting for her to eat a few kibble before she gets treats/table food and see what she responds to first..At this point as much as I’d LOVE to feed her high quality dry food I am just trying to get her to eat something whether it’s high quality or cheap.Yes,cheap will cut her years earlier but at least she will be eating.If we try most brands and she won’t respond after sometime I guess we MAY be forced to go back to Halo’s….We will try different brands for the time being ranging from high quality to medium quality to the absolute worst of dry food brands.If she responds to none….back to Halo’s we’ll go..IF ALL ELSE FAILS!

Looking back at Lacey’s first year:Health and all

Name:Lacey Princess Maltipoo Akamine
Current Weight at one year old:7.11 pounds according to vet records,7.6 according to home weight
Birth Date:March 13 2009
Born:Kailua,HI
Breed:Maltese/Toy Poodle
Mom:Poodle
Dad:Maltese
Adopted:july 17 2009
Age of adoption:16 weeks old
Found on:Kijiji.com
Price:$600
Name of Vet:Dr John Kaya
Vet Hospital:VCA Animal Hospital aka VCA University Hospital
Weight at first vet visit:4.5 pounds
Dog Food:Science Diet & IAMS,Beneful Prepared Meals till December 2009
Puppy Pad Training:9 weeks
Health Issues:Yeast infection in ear,worms,UTI,Spaying(February 2010)
First Heat:November 2009
First Treats:Nutro Dog Biscuits,Pupperoni,The Goodlife Recipe treats
First Walk:November 2009
Shortest Walk:<<<than 5 minutes
Longest Walk:62 minutes on her birthday
First Time Out: December 2009
First Thanksgiving:Thanksgiving 2009:Family Dinner
First Christmas:Christmas 2009:A new top,Waggin Train
Brands of dog food we tried:Solid Gold Just a Wee Bit,Chicken Soup for the Pet lover's Soul,Wellness Super5Mix Small Breed/Super5Mix Complete Health Chicken,Halo's Spot's Stew
Current Dry Food Brands:Solid Gold Just a Wee Bit,Halo's Spot's Stew(Wholesome Chicken & Wild Salmon flavors),Earthborn Holistic Primitive Natural
Brands of Can Food we tried:Natural Balance,NV Instinct & Prairie can food,Wellness Can Food then lost interest,Halo's Spot's Stew Can Food,Merricks
Current Brands of Can Food:Merricks
First introduced to Raw(Freeze Dried):January 2010
Started accepting Freeze Dried Raw:Feburary 2010
Brands we tried:Stella & Chewy till APril 2010 then we'll be switching to Nature's variety Freeze Dried
First Freeze Dried Raw Treat:Primal Pet Turkey Liver(A birthday present)
Organic Treats she's tried:Trader Joe's,Waggin' Train,No Grainers
First Boarding Facilities we considered:Di Ventus Dog Hotel & Spa
First Boarding Facilities we looked at:The Ohana Doggie Day Care,Pets in the city
First Starts understanding people conversations:7-8 months old
First Command:SIT
Commands she knows:sit,stay,don't move,time out,sit & stay,shake paw/hand,"eat",hi5,shake your tail,down aka sit,lay down,kiss,learning roll over,"wait",inside,outside,table manners at the table
Uses Common Sense while walking:About 8-9 months old
Checks for cars like a human(right,left,right,left,center,then walk)about 10 months-1 year old
Goes outside for afternoon poop:December 2009-learned by example of aunty's dogs
Vaccinations:Distemper,Parvo,Lepto
First Carrier:casual Canine
First Crate:Pet Mate Kennel Cab
Characteristics:A definite mix of Maltese/Toy Poodle.Brains of the poodle.Looks of a maltese.eyes are poodle.Loves to play.Loves to sample food
Types of food she tried:Mexican,Italian,Japanese,Chinese
Favorite Fast Food:KFC chicken skin
Shops we shop at:Naturally Pet,Halo’s Purely for Pets,The Pet Spot,Kalihi Pet Store
Misc:Also tried Hartz Oinkies
Able to climb steps:10-11 months old
First Shampoo;Sergent’s Puppy Shampoo
Current Shampoo:Halo’s Cloud Nine Herbal Shampoo/Earthbath Shampoo
Grooming:Cardinal Pet Gold Metal Pets Unicoat Professional Spray

Wellness Super5Mix Complete Health Chicken

We tried Lacey on the Super5Mix Complete Health Chicken dry food.She ate one piece-the stool was good but after she had a mixture of foods 1)Wellness 2)Halo’s 3)Merricks 4)Table Food (Not to worry.She never gets more than 1/2 cup at the most & I always take her weight monthly)& her stool was soft after dinner so I am going to try her on 20 pieces of Wellness (1/8 cup) during the day in her bottles and see how her stool is.At night I will give her Halo’s.I am going to do this until we reach maybe 2 or 3 pieces of Wellness.Then I will be able to tell if we should go with the Super5Mix Lamb,Barley & Salmon or try a different brand…The Wellness can food is great but we’re having difficulty with the dry food…If it comes to the point where we have to do freeze dried raw,dehydrated raw,canned food & Halo’s we’ll do that but options are becoming limited living in the islands not everything that the mainland has is offered down here.We’ll see.Stay posted to see how she does on the Wellness Super5Mix Complete Health Chicken.We’re using the samples at the moment.

Wellness Super5Mix Complete Wholesome Meal Chicken flavor

Since Lacey is off of her medicine for now I took up her Halo’s and placed 20 pieces of the Wellness Super5Mix Wholesome Meal Chicken flavored in her two bottles for her to try.I am trying to see if she will also have sensitivity to this one or if it’s only the Small Breed due to the amount of fish.If she does our next bet will be that she “won’t be able to handle any of the Wellness dry except canned”,although we could ask for trial bags of a few other options that Wellness has to offer or/and we will order a Castor & Pollux dry food(3 pound bag)online.If we can not find any that will work for her as options are very limited in Hawaii we’ll either do dehydrated raw or do completely homemade cooking which I will have to read up on.I’d hate to take that route but if it must be done as a last resort we’ll look into it.We’ll defiantly see if we can find a good dry food for her.What makes it harder is that majority of the dry food has beet pulp which can cause tear stains in smaller breeds.

Dr Kaya calls back on Ketoconazole side effects for Lacey

I called Dr Kaya’s office reporting that she may be having side effects from her medicine.I explained that I tried her on the Wellness Super5Mix Small Breed and she had soft bowels on it after about a 4 day period then I took her off on Monday January 28? which is the same day she went in for a check up with Dr Kaya.Since then I told Dr Kaya I stopped her on the Small Breed and she’s back to her regular diet.Since we have given her the medicine she has had only one good stool.Dr Kaya told us to try give her the Ketoconazole 1/8 tablet every other day and break her diet into four small meals(with her 1/8 cup that she gets daily so divide into four small meals)with rice.

Lacey just made a bowel and it does seem more firm but still soft looking.It wasn’t splattered like yesterday(Wednesday) so that’s a step forward in the right direction for her.

We also got the Wellness Super5Mix Complete Health Chicken Recipe yesterday but I don’t want the results to conflict so I am holding off on that for a while.Also going to try not giving her any canned food to see if that also makes a difference.I know normally it would make her bowels slightly soft but that’s not our focus though.

Lacey tries another Wellness Super5Mix

I just got off the phone with one of the Wellness representatives and I told her what Lacey’s problem was..possible sensitivity to the amount of fish in the Small Breed.We’re going to try her on the Chicken formula to see how she does.The Wellness reps are going to send us a sample and we’ll see how she does on it before we purchase a bag for her.Am hoping that she’ll do better on it with no fish in it.Even possibly the Lamb,Barley & Salmon may work but we’ll try the Chicken one first.Here’s the ingredients list:
Deboned Chicken, Chicken Meal, Oatmeal, Ground Barley, Ground Brown Rice, Tomato Pomace, Rye Flour, Canola Oil (preserved with mixed tocopherols, a natural source of Vitamin E), Tomatoes, Rice Bran, Deboned Whitefish, Natural Chicken Flavor, Carrots, Spinach, Sweet Potatoes, Apples, Blueberries, Ground Flaxseed, Ground Millet, Dicalcium Phosphate, Calcium Carbonate, Potassium Chloride, Minerals [Zinc Sulfate, Zinc Proteinate, Iron Proteinate, Ferrous Sulfate, Copper Proteinate, Copper Sulfate, Manganese Proteinate, Manganese Sulfate, Sodium Selenite], Vitamins [Beta-Carotene, Vitamin E Supplement, Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), Vitamin A Supplement, Niacin, Calcium Pantothenate, Riboflavin, Vitamin D-3 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Thiamine Mononitrate, Folic Acid, Biotin, Vitamin B-12 Supplement], Choline Chloride, Taurine, Mixed Tocopherols (a natural preservative), Glucosamine Hydrochloride, Chondroitin Sulfate, Chicory Root Extract, Garlic, Yucca Schidigera Extract, Green Tea Extract, Dried Lactobacillus plantarum, Enterococcus faecium, Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus acidophilus fermentation products.