Can anyone please give me some advise?
Murray has not got a big appetite and is not a breakfast personalthough if the mood takes him he will have some Arden Grange complete. I have been feeding him on raw green tripe, chicken wings, breast of lamb with occasional vegetables (pureed) and the odd tin of sardines in oil and mixer kibble. He enjoys his evening meal and I do not exercise him until about an hour after his meal.
The problem is that for the past 2/3 weeks he has been having diarrhoea every time he goes to the toilet. He is not losing weight and seems happy enough and the other dogs haven't suffered with this. He has been wormed correctly.
He is very food motivated when out on walks and will do anything for a gravy bone which he has very spareringly.
I feel that I am doing something wrong with his feeding regieme but don't know how to stop his looseness. Thanks

Ben had a spate of diarrhoea for about a week, I think he was drinking from a barrel of stagnant water in the garden, as soon as I covered it to prevent him getting at it, he recovered. Could this be the case with Murray or is there something he could be eating when he's out walking?

Other than this I can only state the obvious in saying is there anything new that you have introduced into his diet during this period. Pork can upset some dogs!

That's an idea - I have got a grubby pond in the garden! Will cover it up and see if that works. Thanks
Do Deerhounds do well on complete food diets and what do others feed?

You're not doing nything wrong, it can be a thankless task feeding a deerhound, they are so picky and fussy. The pond does sound like a possible cause, especially if the water is a bit green and stagnent after the summer. I think most complete foods are ok, they all seem roughly the same. I feed mine Omega complete or Bakers, I tend to swap over here and there. They also have mince, cooked up in a pot with whatever veg is in the fridge, plus a few spuds and make a sort of stew, they have that with the complete as I feel dry food looks so unappetising! They are greedy with food that isn't theirs and of course gravy bones and schmacko's!
As Murphy doesn't carry much weight, he also has left overs from our plates, as long as it is 'healthy', not chips! Spagetti bolognaise and chillie chicken is a particular favourite as is curry! he never gets a runny bum either believe it or not!

I can only speak for Ben and he's fussy with his food. He doesn't like complete diets. I've tried Biscuits (Nutro, Burns and the best Hills organic). He will eat some when he's hungry but will avoid them if he can. I also tried him on nature diet when he was a puppy but one day he suddenly refused to touch them any more. I know a breeder who told me that Deerhounds generally don't take to a complete diet as well.

His absolute favourite is lamb, as I'm not rich he has to suffice with breast or ribs. He also likes beef/lamb mince and brisket. He's not keen on chicken though.

I just hope he hasn't eaten something in the house which has caused damage to his insides - I am a real worrywart when it comes to himself or any of my dogs. The runny poo really stinks (sorry!) and just pours out of him. I will take him to the dark side (vets) if no improvement seen after a few days on a complete diet

Have you tried Bio-yogurt to ease his stomach? Perhaps scrambled egg to bind him a bit yet give protein.

I must admit, I found it quite disturbing having a dog who did not 'scoff' his food !
Luckily Zoe Owen had mentioned that deerhounds can be picky eaters so as long as he grows and is healthy, I have got used to the effort he seems to have to make to get up and walk 8 feet to his bowl:dry:
He prefers Arden Grange Complete, although he has always been prone to not solid motions, whatever he eats. Bonio first thing is popular, then breakfast has meat with it and often Bio yogurt which he does enjoy. Evenings are Arden Grange with minced tripe and/or minced lamb/chicken. He still has 2 slices of wholemeal toast last thing...eaten in a leisurely way.
How do deerhounds grow so when they eat less than smaller dogs?

Su

We feed our guuys Eagle pack holistic (complete kibble) which they seem to like, although our boy is still a fussy eater, and has to wander off and chew each mouthful, then wander off and have a burp we don't feed anything else as it tends to upset their tummies, they do get the odd marrow bone but it's a rare treat. I don't know how he finds the energy to run round like a crazy thing when some days he decides he just isn't interested in eating at all

I have two piggies that eat anything and everything put in front of them and one who wanders off between mouthfuls and would pick at his bowl all day (if given a chance). The two piggies keep him eating and he nevers lets them steal his food, but they would in a heartbeat if he let them!

Our basic food is breakfast and dinner of Pedigree Natural which has a lower protein level. I find the higher protein level foods, such as Advance, Eukanuba, etc, tend to give them runny bums. They get a decent size spoon of mince (either beef or chicken) and beef bones a couple of times a week. Lamb meat gives my Deerhound the runs, but never bothered my American Cocker when he was still around.

I'd be going back to something bland like plain cooked chicken and rice for a few days and gradually introduce biscuits/kibble back to the diet later. I've found this works when they've had upset tummies in the past.

Cheers
Mel

I agree with Fyrth. Try some bland food as well as covering the pond. When Lockie was around 3 months he got real bad runs, seemed happy in himself but then he vomited up his meal and his faeces came out like water. Took him to the vet and he had a gas obstruction. His bowel was full of gas and nothing was passing except liquid. The vet was uncertain about the x-ray so they opening him up. They managed to get all the gas out and he has been fine since. I must admit though that he does have flatulence ever since but at least they are not aromatic.

My dog never passed wind! Seriously, what a subject we are onto now, but he never does it, he burps like a man, but never from the other end, though the little terrier makes up for that!
I only ever feed him once a day, contrary to what many of you do, he has his meal, about 7pm now, in the summer it is much later, he won't eat in the heat and wanders off leaving it to the flies. I did used to feed him more often when he was a growing puppy, then I found if he had breakfast he wouldn't eat his dinner, so now he has a good meal at night, about an hour after his run and that suits him. At the weekend however he has scrambled eggs.
When giving scrambled eggs to a dog with an upset tummy, avoid the milk as it curdles in their tummies, if you have litterlac lying around that is fine in his breakfast.
Murphy had a bug once, I am not one to run up the vets for every little thing, but this was horrendous. I was working at home (thankfully) and he was out in the garden, it was like a tap of red blood coming from his back end, I have never seen anything like it. He was also vommiting for England, again, red with blood. I took him straight up there and they weren't overly worried (I was panicking) they gave him an anti sickness jab, and another for the runs and sent us off with doggy diaorralite and less £60! But seeing the red worried me. Incidentally it was after his first show, an indoor one, which he could have picked something up from another dog, you never know.

After rubbish, tin, dry food, extruded revolution and the divine revelation of BARF, now the E.N.F is the ultimate.
Extrem Natural Food.
Rat for Yorkshire terrier, fox for the Fox-terrier, and deer for Deerhounds (of course).
For our breed it's not easy to do, especially if you live in a flat. First it is hard to keep a herd of deer on the balcony, but more difficult is the feeding, a hunt party on a balcony can disturb our neighbours...
As a breeders, you can see the new owners very surprise to go away with a puppy and a small herd of deer.
But there is some breed very very very difficult to feed with E.N.F., like Irish Wolfhounds and St Bernard.
Yes St Bernard is really hard to feed with E.N.F.!
About drink it's easy but expensive, Rum is the best but Whisky is ok, and i think this breed is quite stupid because Scotch Whisky is better than Rum.
About food it's another story...
Indeed, St Bernard eat victim, more precisely 10 % of the survivor.
St Bernard eat 4 pounds of meat per day, so you need one victim every month and mathematically 10 rescue/month.
Finally i am happy to choice Deerhounds...
Join picture of my stock of E.N.F.

So if you have a Jack Russell, you feed them Jack's? I know a few Jacks round here
if anyone has one!

oh but wild is best

Florent - love it - very funny :laugh :

Poodles given poo!!! Sorry - not funny
Thanks for all advise posted. I have bought some bio yoghurt, tinned Chappie (forgot that this was supposed to be good for upset tums)and will lay off tripe ect till things hopefully settle down

We feed ours on Royal Canin, they love it but if they ever do become loose, boiled chicken and rice does the trick very quickly

Ten or so years I tried an experiment to see what would be best for my hounds. I left 7 on the high end kibble they were on and put 8 on a raw diet. I did an enormous amount of research on net, incl. DrJean Dodds, if emailed her....the outcome was without a doubt, that the raw won. It was alot more work then, esp. since none of my breeder friends with in alignment - oh, the work, you must be crazy. 'the food now is complete, you need not bother..bother, I'd do it for my kids, in fact did...so why not the dogs, I thought. i already had a dairy goat and we had more milk than we could use. I had convinced the kids it tasted great, although I could not drink it. I made yogurt from the raw goats milk as well - for both kids and dogs, and myself - this was good. I purchased slabs of beef from the butcher...as well as liver 1 week. At first it was alot of work, purchased an electric knife and cut the meat into cubes, bagged it and froze some. Each morning I made a huge stock pot of fresh oatmeal. The dogs got a large scoop of oatmeal, adult s got 1.5 lbs of meat 2xday plus 1/2c yogurt, some fresh veggies, in winter it was what I had frozen from our huge garden. I cut fresh organic alphalfa from the field and put it through the blender with vita C, E a litle olive oil drizzled on top...and the meal is served. Never a morsel left in a dish. I had a young male Borzoi who I was trying to get more coat growth on...tried different supplements to no avail..once on this diet..boom - coat galore. He won his class at the american Nationals 5 months later. Now days I am able to purchase raw meat already prepared - although it is ground up with the veggies..I would prefer cubes - to enable the chewing aspect for the dogs. It is inexpensive in comparison and we are happy with it. In Alberta and B.C. i have found at least 5 different companies. They all seem great. We can get a variety of combinations - beef, chicken, turkey, rabbit, buffalo (loved it) venison (sometimes) salmon, whitefish....some come with fruit and veggies, some with vitamins added...all natural - come frozen. We are blessed with this - life is soooo much easier. I'd never go back.

I feed raw to everything thats here at a meal time (though if its humans its usually not raw MEAT.. plenty raw veg though!)..

So far ive not had anything through my house that didnt improve on a raw diet, from foster terriers with 10 years + beind them on tinned pedigree bum (we call it that for a reason!)..and brightly coloured 'owner pleaser' type foods like bakers and frolic, to ex racing greyhounds and elderly lurchers..

Sometimes ive had to be quite firm, like with my saluki x greyhound girly who at 9 years old, after a lifetime on vitalin, was CONVINCED i was poisoning her (she does 'aloof' well and 'suspicious' even better)... but after 4 days of figuring out that if she didnt eat it, someone else would, she was tucking into raw meat, veg, fish etc and at rapidly approaching 13 shes still horribly healthy (what i recently thought was the start of heart failure turned out to be a chest infection, her heart is apparently nothing i need worry about for a logn time yet!)...

Her teeth are starting to fail her and we do scrape them manually as well as feed raw bones - but then when she came here her teeth were foul and we improved them a helluva lot.

Two of my other dogs, aged 7 and 8 have spent most of their lives eating raw food (the younger one since i got him at 6 weeks, the older since he was 18 months old) - both dogs are fit, lean and hard with white teeth and nice breath and i have to remind vets that they are supposedly middleaged..

Kelda - well shes my first deerhound. At the moment she is not eating up tons of food but she IS eating until shes had enough, and that i put down to lack of exercise thus lack of need for food (shes only allowed 5 minutes three times a day at the moment). I fully expect as her exercise levels increase her food intake will as well, and up until her limited exercise due to injury, she has not ONCE been picky over food except when offered meals that are purely complete dry dog food. (Good quality food too but i think part of her pickyness there is being offered dry dog food when everyone else has raw meat).

I wouldnt say shes got entirely cast iron digestion though - too much beef or tripe gives her dark coloured runny stools that smell utterly FOUL, but we dont have this problem with anything else and so we make sure she never gets more than a few spoons of beef or tripe and no more than twice a week.

I do think she looks more immature than some bitches her age fed on a complete diet, before she injured herself at her last show she was up against a bitch only a day older than her who was an inch or so taller and a fair bit more 'done'..

But (without wishing to imply anythng about the owner of that bitch), my preference is for a dog to mature at its own pace rather than be 'pushed' in any way for the show ring.. so im happy for her to mature at her own speed, which she is doing nicely.

I really do think raw diets are the way to go, i saw symptoms in my dogs vanish that i hadnt realised were symptoms of poor diet, things like a stronger than natural smell, itchyness, nasty breathe, runny/orange poos - nothing was at a level where youd think 'vets... now' but lots of things i thought were 'normal for dogs' actually turned out not to be so at all.

Sorry to harp on about food again, but I need to tell you all about this food I have been trying.

As I explained before, I cook Murphy up a mince beef with vegetables, but also add 3 cups of complete food too. He had been having Bakers, but I bought a bag of Omega for working dogs in our local pet supermarket, it was only £12.99 the bag, I thought I would give it a go as he wasn't enthusiastic about his dinners lately. Murphy also never carried much weight, though he is a big boy, 32" and looks heavy boned, he quickly loses weight too.
I have just bought my 2nd bag of this food, it looks like Weeto's, though somehow I think if I pour cold milk on them the kids would know!

It has really made him look good, he is 'woofing' (pardon the pun) his tea down in one and he just looks bigger and healthier and gets really excited when I bring the bag in from the car, he loves them!

Ooohhh - I am going to try that! I find that my dogs enjoy something for a while then they start to not enjoy it so much. We are currently enjoying Gelert and, like Omega, because it is for working dogs there is no VAT to pay