Adventures in Dog Food

from MShades

Krystal and I have been on a dog food adventure lately. As often happens with these kinds of adventures, there's been more confusion than fun.

Krystal has a tender digestive system, which has been ably taken care of over the last year by her wonderful vet.  A major element of that care includes a "low residue" food, which is easy for Krystal to digest. Once Krystal started eating this food, life improved significantly.

There's an interesting industry practice in the US veterinary universe whereby these types of special foods (low residue, urinary etc) are only available for purchase from vets by prescription. It appears that this is one way the pet food companies support the vets--by giving the vets unique products to sell that are not competitively available at PetSmart or on the web.

We've spent the last month dealing with this particular issue.

A little over a month ago, it was time to buy more food. I went to the vet's office to pick up a new 30 lb. bag, and was informed that in the time since my previous purchase the vet had changed food providers.

This meant I was no longer able to feed Krystal the low residue food she had been thriving on. We'll call this Food #1.

Because her food is only sold by prescription, I now had to purchase Food #2. I was assured there would be no difficulty transferring Krystal onto this new food. With reservations, I purchased Food #2.

For several days I presented her with a half-and-half mixture of both foods. Krystal gobbled down Food #2. For a dog on a restricted diet, new food was like manna from heaven.

Within 48 hours Krystal was a bundle of new energy. While she previously sat in my lap all day while I worked on the computer, she now was jumping up and down all day long and moving throughout the house at a brisker pace. She was increasingly distractible.

I mis-interpreted this as an energy burst that came from the new food--probably she was able to digest the food better, and was truly receiving more nutrients that with Food #1. I figured her metabolism would sort itself out.

At the end of the third week, with an increasingly distractible dog who barely visited my lap during the work day and who was doing her Terrier best to test several well established house rules, I was lonely and confused. To be honest, I had lost the connection between Food #2 and her changing behavior.

It wasn't until Krystal got car sick for the 4th time that I started making connections. She's always loved car rides, and has always been glad to accompany me on errands and take walks outside our neighborhood. Getting car sick just wasn't in her repertoire.

While I was cleaning out her travel crate it dawned on me--Food #2 had brought a lot of changes, and throwing up in the car was only one of them.

What to do?

1. Go find Food #1.
2. Once Krystal was back on Food #1, watch her behavior carefully.
   
   1. IF she returns to her previously lovable self, then there would be happiness and joy for all of us.
   2. IF her new behavior continues, we would go to the vet and see what's causing this behavior change.

Thankfully, my neighbor's daughter has a white boxer, Annabelle, who was being fed Food #1. I went to her vet and purchased Food #1. (FYI, Annabelle's vet had to call Krystal's vet to confirm there was a valid prescription.)

The results are amazing. Within 24 hours of returning to Food #1, Krystal was moving out of her distractible-ness. It was wonderful. My sweet lovable dog was returning to her former self. Over the next week she sat in my lap for increasing amounts of time, remembering it was her favorite perch. She began to behave much better on our walks. And, it was clear she was enjoying herself much more. We could play games and walk through the park. Her former glee was finding it's way back into her emotional repertoire.

One of the things we've learned over the last few years is how little understanding there is about:

1. The ingredients in dog food.
2. The actual nutritional needs of dogs.
   

We also need to add to our lack of understanding, how much the ingredients in dog food can affect a dog's behavior. Perhaps when a dog is misbehaving or has difficulty being trained, a change in food might be in order?

I would love to hear your observations and stories on the relationship between dog foods and their behaviors.