has he been seen by a vet to rule out an obstruction? how old is he and how long has he been eating this food? what is the main source of protein?

Echoing Nina, need to rule out medical problems before focusing on dietary causes. Hope that you are able to arrange an examination ASAP.

DITTO, see a vet

My dog was doing the same, the vet put her on a low fat food, worked like a charm.

Thank you to all. Will call vet tomorrow and make an appointment.

Sweet dog.

The pendulum has largely swung away from the notion that "Grain Free" is of any nutritional value whatsoever.

That said, a few grains are tougher to digest and generally of lesser nutritional value.

Well, alot of people disagree with you Salti especially when the non grain free foods are 95% grain, and personal experience reflects that my own dogs have done a lot better with grain free.

Cute pup, I’m sure he’s beautiful, good luck with the Vet.

I didn't state any opinion of mine.

The FDA stated in a press release recently that there were absolutely no clinical studies suggesting any benefit to "grain-free" dog foods.

Take up the issue with them. Note they didn't say it was bad, just no benefit has been shown.

Here is but a sample of the thoughts of other folks:

Tufts on Grain Free

Now, leave me alone this time if you can.

I completely missed this whole thing concerning FDA and the Tufts study seems like it could be missing something not addressing the issue of corn.

I get the grain free issue but nothing is addressed about corn which I find interesting because I had a dog who had awful skin issues and was diagnosed with a corn allergy (after I spent tons of money, ran out of curing options, was considering acupuncture to help her, and discovered that dermatology vets are considered a specialty almost separate from regular vets.). Very long story.

In any case, I did an independent look at what some dog foods include in their first five ingredients, I’m assuming for filler. To my great surprise, it’s corn.

I mention this because I have not looked at dog food ingredients for at least 20 years (always fed grain free after allergy experience, not for nutrition).

I also mention this because I have been told by many vets and read that corn specifically is hard for dogs to digest, which can (certainly not always) cause severe health issues like my dog experienced.

I took a look at about 10 commercial dog foods and discovered that corn is still listed in the top five ingredients, probably for filler.

It seems to me that given the use of corn as filler, in addition to the disease/illness resilience that has been bred out of many dogs, plus the extent of FDA findings and Tufts study, something could have been mentioned about problems with corn (unless of course I’m wrong).

Mike

Hmm, I said above, "That said, a few grains are tougher to digest and generally of lesser nutritional value."

I'm confused. Not feeding a "grain free" food does not suggest at all feeding corn as an ingredient. Corn is typically considered difficult to digest by a dog - and i believe by humans also.

I would think it is a good idea to not feed any ingredient that your dog is allergic to. Corn is but one of many that may be an issue. The food that includes some corn as an ingredient may be fine for someone elses's dog and something your dog is fine with may cause another dog serious problems.

For decades I fed a highly respected holistic food from Solid Gold. It was and is not "grain free" nor does it contain corn.

The Tufts study I linked to, as I said, "Here is but a sample of the thoughts of other folks:" is NOT the FDA announcement I cited.

PS It is not as common to find that a dogis allergic to a particular grain as it is to find the allergy stems from the choice of protein.If changing food due to an allergy, the conventional wisdom is to change the choice of protein. (There are a couple of proteins that particularly seem to cause allergy problems.

PPS Per Merck Vet Manual - Vet School Text: "Corn is not a filler! It actually contains an amazing amount of nutrients, such as protein from corn gluten, natural antioxidants, and fatty acids."

All dogs tolerate foods differently. Nearly pulled all my hair out trying to find a food my dog could eat, trying high dollar grain free suggested dog foods, they did not agree with my dog at all. I ended up finding IAMS, yes the corn one and she's doing fantastic eating that food. That said, I know people that are feeding foods that my dog could not eat but their dogs are fine on them. Dog Food Advisor had me totally brainwashed with feeding only a high end grain free food...poor dog was so sick from it!

Concerning your dog, after the vet visit, it will be trial and error until you find a food he can tolerate assuming he's otherwise healthy.

Absolutely Arkansas girl! Despite multiple vet consults, my dog remained a failure-to-thrive pup until we found a holistic nutritionist who placed him on human-grade food with supplements. Since then, he’s been able to gain and maintain a healthy weight and is active and happy.

UPDATE Many thanks to you all for the help/support. We had our vet appt and according to 2 vets (got a second opinion) he is fine. Healthy in every way. His issue is being hungry :( Too long between his meals. He gets breakfast around 10 am and dinner about 6 pm. We can fix that!

"His issue is being hungry :( Too long between his meals. He gets
breakfast around 10 am and dinner about 6 pm. We can fix that!"

Huh?

I've fed my adult dogs at 8:30AM and 4:30PM for decades without any problem whatsoever. (That's the same length between meals that you feed.)

I'll bet there are others here with similar experience.

I can not believe two Vets suggested that. Did they explain what that feeding schedule actually did to the dogs? Would love to hear that. lol

madismom, I totally forgot about that. Awesome that your vets caught that! YES, I started giving my dog a small amount of food before she goes to bed at night because sometimes she would throw up some bile. I've talked to several people that have also said they do that. I just think some dogs have more sensitive stomachs. Every other dog that I've had in the past just ate from a bowl of food all day. My dog now would eat everything if I let her! I divide her food into three small meals a day with a little bit at night too.

Bedtime snack put a quick stop to morning bile greetings. Plus it puts Kirby in a trance till it's time to get up.

I approach dog ownership and what goes along with that as an individual thing, both for dogs and their humans. What works for me might not work for anyone else.

I think in many ways, the issue of dogs having resilience bred out of them (even mutts) complicates the way dogs and their humans function successfully on a daily basis.

When dealing with my dog clients as well as my own dogs, I am constantly looking at what works for them, not me, and I make adjustments as much as I can. Of course, dogs need to adjust also some behavior also.

Mike

My dogs (all rescued, all starved at one point in their lives) had frequent GI upsets that eventually led to GI bleeds. Once I got them on a low fat prescription diet everything improved. I supplement the RX diet with 20% homemade food (low fat chicken, veggies, anti-oxidant herbs) and fish oil twice a month. If my dogs show any GI upset I give them 10mg of Famotidine and that usually turns the tide.

Check with your Vet before considering www advice to give a "human drug" - or any other drug or homemade food.

Famotidine is known as Pepcid and a dog should not need this. You dog needs a visit with a good Vet.