Hi, can anyone help with the food that they feed their English springer spaniel? I have a 2 year old springer that seems to have an upset stomach when he’s eaten and he farts awful which smells disgusting, but this is only in the afternoon. He’s fine when he goes out first thing in the morning, but when he goes in the afternoon it’s quite loose and sometimes I’m unable to pick it up properly ?♀️. I feed him skinner’s salmon and rice. As I’ve noticed it’s when he’s had any meat based products. So it’s not cheap rubbish food. He’s now to the point he gets no treats and only the odd carrot as a treat. I’ve never had this problem with my other one as he could eat anything. Only other option is taking him vets which I want to use as a last resort as the price of them is astronomical for them to feed their overpriced food.
A visit to the vet should be first in order to rule out medical issues. They should be able to provide advice on a quality food without requiring you to buy it from them. As you are currently feeding skinner's which is a UK brand, I'm assuming you are in the UK, so will let those in the UK comment on brands available there. One thing you might do, since he doesn't have issues first thing in the morning is to adjust your feeding time(s) and see if the problem adjusts with it. So, if he eats at 8 am and has loose movements about 2 pm, if you adjust his feeding time to 6 am, is he having loose movements around 12 pm OR still about 2 pm? If the former, then it's more likely the food. If the latter, then he may be getting into something in the garden, etc and that is what is causing the problem.
Hi, yeah I’m in the uk, he gets fed at the same time every morning, which is 7am to which as soon as he’s eaten he goes out and that’s fine, but by 2 pm onwards that’s when it starts, only thing he eats in the garden is some of the grass and then that’s not very often. It was worse on meat products and that would near enough all day everyday as to why I changed him to fish.
Right. The first poop of the day is expelling all the stuff from the day/night before. The afternoon poop is more likely to be from that morning's meal OR something else that he's getting into in the morning. If you're certain it's the food, you may try feeding him several small meals a day vs one big meal a day. The food in smaller quantities might not upset his system. Since it improved a lot by changing to a fish based diet, this may be a better solution than trying to change his diet again - frequent changes can upset their systems even more. Also, I read several reviews on the skinners that the kibble is fairly small. If he is a gobbler (fast eater), he may not be chewing the food. In that case, you might try a feeding mat, etc, where he has to slow down. That may help him digest better.
When I had a Beagle with bowel cancer the Skinner's rep told me that the Field and Trial Duck and Rice recipe was the one least likely to cause probles as it is gluten free, and duck is a novel protein source for most canines. If your Springer is a working type his to looseness can be due to exciteability - his system will be more active during the daytime, in the morning he has been asleep all night. If his poos have a greasy look, or have an offensive smell; or if you are having trouble keeping enough weight on him, I would suggest a visit to the vet though.
Hmmm food for thought ( no pun intended ) he was a cryptorchid dog so I had to get him done, he started putting weight on as he was in lead and wouldn’t listen for awhile after he was done being stubborn, so he soon cottoned on after that. He is from working line and very excitable in working, I do keep him going but don’t work him as he doesn’t want to give up a dummy but will a ball for me to hide in long grass, bushes and so forth. But thank you for that I might just ween him in to that and see if that’s any help to him, if not it’s a visit to the dreaded.
Well I took him to the vets, he said it’s more likely the food as some dogs can have ibs just like humans, he thinks it might be a touch of that!! So has agreed to try smaller meals and a different food with probiotic sachets to help change over. So this is going to trial and error process until I find a food that agrees with him fully
Perhaps try a food that’s “limited ingredients”. I had to try a few different foods before I found one that does well for them (meaning good poops).
I will do thank you all for some sound advice. All the years I’ve had dogs I have never had this problem except the usual every day problems to sort. But I suppose it’s horses for courses so to speak.
I just walked out of the kitchen with a packet of Purinas Pro Plan supplements FORTIFLORA. Symbiotic action. Try this in the first meal and may help the rest. Any brand would be ok. It has helped me with the famous of all loose stool dogs=shepherds. Man I went thru a lot to keep them pick-up-able cuz we had a poop eater on the premises. found this, https://dinovite.com/free-starter-p...ters for dogs&utm_content=Probiotics for Dogs
Hi, that’s what I’d had been putting in his food atm and it has been helping tremendously to be honest and I think now I just need to add this to the food that I am already feeding him. Yes we too have a dachshund that does exactly the same thing so have to be quick on it, trouble is springers walk while the go so you have to follow them round to get it
