Is Petcurean grain free good for my dog??

by Gita
(Atlanta, GA)

Hello Dr. Schonbeck,

I love your website ? it is very informative and very helpful!! I apologize in advance for the long email?.Since Rocky got sick, I have been reading a lot about different dog foods and companies producing them. I literally spent hours and hours researching. Rocky is a rescue dog, mutt, medium size (he looks like a mix of GSD and shiba inu); we adopted him in 2007 and he will be 4 years old in May. He is my baby!! At the end of January of this year one evening he stopped eating, was very lethargic and depressed, had diarrhea and vomited (there was some blood). My vet first was not sure what was the matter with him and performed a number of tests: X-rays, blood tests, pancreatitis test (ruled that out) and an ultrasound. The ultrasound showed inflamed intestines, and Ricky was diagnosed with gastroenteritis and inflamed gall bladder (the vet said there was a lot of sludge?). She prescribed Metronidazole, Carafate, Tagamet and Actigall. Rocky has been on Urso (generic for Actigall) since the end of January. I fed him normal dog food (Nutro Ultra). He was doing just fine (no diarrhea or vomiting) until I decided to try Wellness 5 mix healthy weight dog food. I think I switched the food too fast, because he had diarrhea again? I immediately took him off the food and fed only cooked chicken/ rice/ potato. He did not get better, so my vet prescribed another doze of Metronidazole (again 15 pills, ~2 weeks ago). The vet also prescribed Royal Canine Low Fat dry dog food. I am introducing the kibble very slowly, and Rocky seems to be doing well. He hasn?t had diarrhea and had only 3 pills of Metronidazole left. He is licking his mouth from time to time and making same chewing sounds (if makes sense..). His stool is not great yet: it is some orange color and some mucus in it, but it is looking better each day. He is not going #2 very often (sometimes once in 2 days, sometimes twice). I read a lot about different dog foods. I would love to feed him Orijen, but I do not think that he will do well on such high protein/ fat %. So far I like what I?ve read about Petcurean Pet Nutrition . They have a product line called ?Now? which is grain free and has moderate protein/ fat % (protein is 26% and fat is 16%). Have you heard about this company and what is you opinion about their foods? I fed him Nutro Ultra (about 24% protein and 14% fat) or Nutro Ultra weight management (~20% protein and 9% fat), but I refuse to give them this food any more since it has synthetic vitamin K (menadione). Supposedly Menadione has been linked to canine kidney/ liver diseases if fed over long term (I have been feeding them this food for 4 years! I cannot believe it!). Rocky does not need really to loose weight, and I am not going to feed him any weight management formulas. Petcurean supposedly uses high quality protein and only fresh vegetables and fruit. People who have been feeding their dogs with pancreatitis and/ or irritable bowel diseases have only good things to say about Now. I do not know if Rocky would like this food or if his tummy would accept it, but I would like to try. I would like to feed him a better quality and higher protein diet. I only, of course, want what?s best for him!

Could you please let me know what you think?

Thank you so much for your help!!

Gita Davis (aka concerned mommy :))


My Comment:

Hi Gita

Thank you so much for your mail and thank you for it to be (long - yes but..) so detailed.

I have had a look on Petcurean and from judging from the ingredients it looks fine to me. I don't know any about the company or their reputation, so I can't comment on that.

It appears that there is no definitive diagnosis. Is this true?

What I am taking into account is "he was normal on normal dog food" - so the intestines are abel to work normal.

I would like to be able to tell you that he could benefit from Petcurean (or not) but I can't. It depends on a test.

My advice would be to normalize the stomach again using food he can handle. The one you are using now might be OK - but needs more time probably.

After the bowels are normal I would very slowly try the food you wish to try. Take at least one week on each step! Add a little new in the old food, perhaps just 5% and give this for a week. The next you can increase to 10-15% new and 85-90% old, and so on....

Very slowly you should make the change.

By doing it this way, you can see if ha can handle the new food and you have a chance to "eject" before possible intestinal problems are coming and gone to far.

But again the food you are looking at seems OK to me.

All the best

Per Schonbeck