The Woes of Finding the Perfect Dog Food...

MIA ON THE DAY SHE WAS ADOPTED!

Mia is our little Morkie (Maltese/Yorkie). We adopted  our little Mia on April 14, 2012. She was about 2 months old at the time. She was adorable and it was love at first sight. Little did we know, this was the beginning of a long journey that would only until just recently come to an end.
It wasn't long after we adopted Mia that we noticed she was having problems with vomiting. We didn't know why. We were feeding her what the animal rescue told us to feed her (Purina Puppy Chow kibble and Cesar Canine Cuisine soft food). We thought we were doing everything right! We asked the vet about it. The vet stated that she was perfectly healthy and that it couldn't possibly be the food because it was a good food! It was then my research began!

The first thing I discovered, neither Purina nor Cesar Canine Cuisine are good foods. They are both low quality pet foods with terrible ingredients. It was then that I spent hours educating myself on how to read pet food labels, what the ingredients listed on the labels actually meant, what ingredients were good or bad. It was a very enlightening experience. My conclusion once learning all of this is that the pet food industry should be ashamed of itself! The majority of the pet foods on store shelves are terrible. Basically, if you can buy it at your local grocery store or Walmart, it is garbage. The sad part is that they have fooled everyone. Pet Parents are being deceived!

With all the new information I learned, I began researching individual brands online. I came up with a list of good quality kibble and canned foods. I went to the local pet store armed with my list and found what I was looking for.

The next food I tried was Blue Buffalo. I was  loyal to the brand for a while. Mia did fairly well on their foods, but she was still having the vomiting episodes from time to time. They did get increasingly worse. So after about a year, the quest began again. I went through so many canned food brands. We tried Nature's Variety Instinct, WeRuva, Innova, Back to Basics, Addiction, and the list goes on.  I have no complaints about any of these foods. They are all fairly high quality, but some do have their faults. Synthetic vitamins anyone? Anyway, that is a post for another day....

At this point I started to research raw feeding. I was highly intrigued by the results many had claimed to get. So I figured why not give it a go? The first raw food I tried was Primal. This is a great brand. Mia did great on it for awhile, then of course the vomiting started again. At this point I started to suspect a food intolerance. So I went with some proteins she had never had (rabbit and venison). Again, she would do great for while and the vomiting would start.

About two months after starting the raw diet, I attended a pet nutrition seminar. It was conducted by a holistic vet whose office was about 2 hours away from where we lived. I learned a lot and absolutely loved the doctor. At one point during the seminar, a man asked her a question about his little Maltese who sounded like she was having similar problems. The doctor suggested it might very well be linked to food intolerances. She suggested that he try the Nurtriscan food sensitivity test. I of course took note of this. When I got home, I researched it and was very interested in doing the test. All you had to do was collect a saliva sample with the kit that was provided. It cost about $300 so it was something I had to think about.

In July of 2014 Mia was still having the vomiting episodes. The only diagnosis I got after visiting with 3 different vets was acid reflux. I was told to give her Pepcid once a day at bed time. After doing my homework on acid reflux and giving dogs Pepcid, I was not happy. Pepcid contains NSAIDS which can cause more harm than help. There was very little information out there about dogs and acid reflux.  Mia was due back for her yearly check-up in late July. I decided I was going to make the 2 hour trip to see the holistic vet.

This vet spent 2 hours with us. Her assistant took a very large amount of notes. She also told me that there is no such thing as "acid reflux" in dogs. It seemed fitting since my research wasn't turning up much information on the topic. They left no stone unturned. Mia was perfectly healthy and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The doctor again mentioned the Nutriscan test because in addition to the vomiting Mia did have symptoms of food allergies (runny eyes, pink skin, paw chewing, scratching, ear infections, etc). We decided to go for it because at that point it seemed like we had exhausted all options. The vet’s office kept kits on hand and obtained the saliva sample on a small cotton rope. It was then sent off for testing. It would take two weeks to get the results.

The results actually came back sooner than the two week timeline given. I nearly died when I saw them. It explained everything! Mia had a reaction to 22 out of the 24 items that were tested! The only protein she didn’t have a reaction to was beef! This was ironic because we had thought beef was a problem. Apparently it was all the OTHER stuff in the beef foods that were the problem (regular potatoes and sweet potatoes, quinoa, rice). The vet was kind enough to call the following day and go over the results with me and help me get a diet plan set up.

The diet change was terrible. We ended up trying multiple beef foods. We even found some foods that were just the beef, beef organs, and beef bone and added in our own mixture of veggies and fruit. Mia still continued to vomit. She eventually also started having black tar like stools. This worried me so off to her local vet she went. I was worried she was having a pancreatitis attack because the beef foods were really high in fat and she hadn't really been eating foods that fatty. Blood tests were done. It wasn’t pancreatitis, but her CBC blood count was a little wonky. The doctor said she had an iron deficiency. He came to the conclusion that she had an ulcer. The ulcer was most likely brought on by the food intolerance issues and was aggravated by switching to a really high fat food.  He treated her for the ulcer by prescribing anti-biotics, a pill for nausea, and a liquid acid blocker. He also insisted that she eat Science Diet. I about had a stroke but went along with it.

Here we were 2 weeks later and she was vomiting more than ever. I had been in contact with the holistic vet and they urged me to put her back on her raw diet. I finally listened. However, this time, I went with buffalo as the protein in hopes it would work since it was closely related to beef. Buffalo is naturally lower in fat. I picked NRG Maxim raw dehydrated food. I also cut out the “acid blocker”. It turns out it was liquid Pepcid with a fancy name. According to my research NSAIDS are BAD for ulcers. I also cut the anti-biotics back to once a day. Since she had been on anti-biotics I knew her stomach was most likely off-kilter with the good and bad bacteria so I started her on Answers Raw Goats Milk because it has tons of natural pro-biotics in it (which is good for ulcers).

Six weeks later we went back to the local vet for a follow up blood test. Her CBC blood test was back to normal, which was great news! It has been about a month since treating the ulcer and changing her food based on the guidelines of her allergy test results. She hasn't thrown up since! This is a record! Hopefully this means we got her sorted out. It is also important to mention that the paw chewing has stopped, her skin no longer has a pink tint, she doesn't scratch, she hasn't had an ear infection, and one unexpected change- her anal glandes haven't needed to be expressed! I never would have imagined all of that was connected to one problem!

The point of this post it to let other pet parents who are having similar issues know what finally worked for us. It was a long road, but I think we finally figured it out. If you know something isn’t right with your pet, don’t give up! Keep asking questions until you find your answers! Don't be afraid to question your vet because believe it or not, they don't know everything! Never be afraid to get a 2nd, 3rd, or 4th opinion! Also, educate yourselves on proper pet nutrition! It is important!

Do you have a story about finding the perfect pet food? If so, share it with us!

Related links to check out:

• Nutriscan: http://www.nutriscan.org/  
• Goats Milk Information: http://answerspetfood.com/additional.html 
• NRG Raw Pet Food: http://www.nrgdogproducts.com/