Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello everyone this board looks very helpfull. Me and my wife got to mals about 3 months ago they are wonderful dogs female is 6.5 years and the male is 4.5 years. They were always outside dogs and never really walked much or etc. They were each being fed 2 cups of Ol`Roy dry food a day which isn`t enough. anyways since we have had them they have episodes of diareha sometimes being real bad we changed there food from this ol`roy to 3.5 cups of dog chow dry food and 1/2 a can of pegigree wet food daily but no change they are good for a few days and then diarehea for a week, and they both don`t get it at the same time, the old owner said he feed these dogs anything vegtables tuna all kinds of stuff so not really sure what to do, was wondering if the heat could possibly have something to do with it , because it seems they get worse in the hot days.

any help would be great sry for the long post

A good step is to have a fecal specimen on each dog checked by your veterinarian. They could have parasites.
-----
Kathy Diamond Davis, author, "Therapy Dogs: Training Your Dog to Reach Others," 2nd edition, and the free Canine Behavior Series articles at http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=SRC&S=1&SourceID=47

yes we have already done this they both came back fine, stool sample and blood work and a few other tests, i was a little put off by the vet as he could offer up no explanation for us, except wanted me to by some food from him that was easy to digested bbut earlier on said what i was feeding them was ok

Your Mals may not be liking the food you are feeding in spite of what your vet has said. Malamutes have a very basic digestive system and for centuries their diets mainly consisted of wild game and fresh fish. I'm going to take a shot and say your dogs are not tolerating the dry food and canned Pedigree very well. Most canned foods are very highly processed and loaded with grains that may not be suitable to your dogs digestive system. You didn't say what kind of dry food you are feeding but any food bought from a supermarket or department store(Ol' Roy) contains meat by-products, grains and artificial vitamins. I would recommend buying a high quality dog food maybe a fish based one that has quality ingredients like Wellness, Royal Canin or Merrick just to name a few. Most of these companies also have a high quality canned food. My own brand of Wellness I use with my Shibas has a canned product that is 95% grain free. When making the switch do it over time.... do not change the food overnight but gradually over the course of a week or so. At each meal add more of the new food while decreasing the amount of the old food until the switch is complete. One other thing to remember... Mals are working dogs and need plenty of excercise or a job to perform. As such they evolved to live and work on very little food and should tend to be more on the lean side of the weight scale.
-----

Bob

If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.

Thanx for the advice the dogs get half a can of pedigree per day and 4 cups of dry purina dog chow per day. Today i talked to a nice lady at the pet valu store here and after doing some research over the last few weeks purchase some canidae food it was very expensive but if it solves the mess then its worth it forsure . that ol roy food is probably the worst food out there and they have been fed that all there life was actually thinking the other day if i switched them back to that if they would be ok.

i walk these two dogs twice a day once in the morning usually 6 am and once in the late evening around 8 pm, trying to give them as much exercise as possible.

The Purina brand has a good name and has been out there a long time. If you wanted to stay with a Purina brand I would at least go with Purina One. Still not the best but the best a supermarket would have to offer. The Canidae is a very good food and yes generally food sold in a pet store will be more expensive.... but it is well worth spending the money to get a good quality food for our dogs. Check to see if Canidae also has a wet food. Again it'll cost you a little more but it's money well spent. I've never looked into the Ol'Roy food but I'm sure it's not the best out there even considering where it's sold. Whatever you do... don't switch back! I think once you fully break the Mals onto the Canidae you'll begin to see a big difference... even in their coat and skin. Twice walking is good excercise if the walks are nice long ones. An idea for you to try would be to get a couple of those doggie knapsacks and strap them to the Mals. Put some treats or bottled water in the pouches for them to carry. They will think they are performing a job for you and will be happy doing it. BTW.... What are their names? Try to post a picture or two when you can. My neighbor has a Mal named Dusty and she is gorgeous!
-----

Bob

If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.

One thing I would definitely give them now is friendly bacteria. We buy it at the human health food store, multidophilus plus or some such name. It needs to be kept refrigerated at the store and at your home. Read the label and get one with a high number of friendly bacteria. It won't be cheap, but then again, it's cheaper than continuous veterinary visits for the problem. I also suspect that long-term low friendly bacteria in the intestines may be what causes intestinal problems to become chronic in some dogs.

The reason dogs need this bacteria more than people is because their intestines are shorter and more efficient than ours. That is good but it also means they are more heavily dependent on having enough friendly bacteria in there to handle proper absorption. Otherwise, it passes through too fast. My dogs always need friendly bacteria when they go on antibiotics. Antibiotics really kill that friendly bacteria they need in their intestines.

Giving friendly bacteria also helps with dietary changes, because each change of diet requires the dog to develop the right bacteria to digest the new food. The friendly bacteria handles that.

It actually tastes so good that most of my dogs have been happy to eat the capsule. I tasted it myself. Yum!
-----
Kathy Diamond Davis, author, "Therapy Dogs: Training Your Dog to Reach Others," 2nd edition, and the free Canine Behavior Series articles at http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=SRC&S=1&SourceID=47

The Canidae is a really good food, whatever you do, please don't go back to Ol Roy.

not planing on going back to the ol`roy was just thinking that these dogs are 4 and 6 years old and have been feed that there whole life so i was thinking that is what they are use to, the lady at the pet store was very helpful she suggested i give them white rice and i gave them some with there food and it has seem to help them a bit hopfully this new food works