Unable to digest kibble?!

[Boscobeans]

First time poster here...

my 5 year old lab has been on a home cooked diet for the last year. I’m EXHAUSTED keeping up with the amount of food he needs. This all started after many months of throwing up undigested kibble. We cycled through several different foods all weaning slowly off chicken and rice but after several days on just kibble the vomiting would return. The last time I tried was the worst experience he’d had. He wouldn’t eat ANYTHING and was bloated. The vet said all the food was just sitting in his stomach. Strangely enough I don’t remember him pooping a lot which is what the vet said needed to happen. He does not throw up on home cooked food (smart dog) which makes me believe there’s a lack of digestive enzymes, but we’ve not done an endoscopy, xrays or ultrasound.

Anyone have any experience with this? I’m at a loss where to start because I was naive thinking I could handle cooking long term. It’s so much work and so much money!

[Black Labbies]

Welcome to the board. What's your boy's name? How much food is he eating per day? Do you have any thoughts/diagnosis as to why he can't eat kibble, pre-further tests?

I have lots of experience with what your boy and you are dealing with. Our late girl, Zoe, was diagnosed with EPI (Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency) and we homemade/raw her meals for 10 of the almost 12 years of her wonderful life. She, too, could not eat kibble. YES, it's a lot of work!, YES, it's expensive, but Zoe was soooooo worth all the work and money. To save money, we bought the ingredients of her meals on sale and shopped around for other deals, we also grew some of her veggies in our garden. We 'cooked' once a month for almost the whole weekend and then froze her meals in containers.

Have you tried feeding him freeze dried dog foods?

I feel your frustration, because I've been there.... Hang in there .

[SunDance]

My thought is lack of pancreatic enzymes...I knew a dog with these symptoms and that diagnosis. After a course of enzymes (don't remember how long but not a lifetime), the dog was fine. He was younger than your dog when diagnosed....don't know if that might be important for length of time enzymes would be necessary.

Good luck!

[Boscobeans]

My boys name is Bosco. He eats twice a day and about 2.5 heaping cups of food. I make him Huge trays of turkey meatloaf with lots of veggies along with batches of rice or pasta and trays of tilapia.

I think he’s lacking a digestive enzyme to help break down solid food. He can tolerate all safe human food but has thrown up apple slices I fed him for a snack and once on a carrot chunk that was in his meatloaf. What I learned from his last terrible episode on kibble is it just sits in his stomach. This created a massive case of indigestion and he was dripping excessive saliva so much we had to keep him on towels or outside. He went on gas-x and got some steroids at the vet. He refused to eat anything for 2-3 days. Not even cheese. It was nuts.

So...I’m thinking my only route is to put him through gi testing in order for my vet to prescribe digestive enzymes.

I’ve not tried freeze dried food because I figured it wouldn’t be any more affordable, but could be an option when we travel.

[Black Labbies]

Hi Bosco . Do you give him any digestive enzyme supplements? We did with Zoe's every meas to help digest her foods, we bought them as per vet's advise at the health store. We also pureed her veggies in a food processor (yes, a lot of work). Zoe was fed boiled lean ground beef or de-boned chicken thighs (no fat), pureed veggies (peas and carrots, and some garden grown beans). Carbs were over-boiled rice and elbow pasta in small amounts. Plus, safe fruits finely chopped.

I can see you making his food to be a lot of work at 2.5 cups, 2X daily - that's a lot of food! We also had the excessive drooling episodes with Zoe, and went through many old towels to keep her dry.

Unfortunately, you may have to go through medical tests to have a proper diagnosis on what's bothering Bosco.

Please keep us posted on Bosco's health issue. Good luck!!

[Snowshoe]

Hmmm. Other possibilites are Lymphangiectasia, which my boy has, Irritable Bowel Sydrome (IBS) and --- I'll post back when I remember the other one. You can find Face Book groups for some of these. Sadly, every dog can be different with these ailments. Many have found raw food to work best. I home cooked for a while and so did some friends, I know how time consuming it is. I do think raw is a bit easier but not less expensive. REal raw, not those pre-packaged, pre-ground commercial foods. It's hard to control fat levels on raw (slice all the fat off a hunk of frozen chicken? Pretty hard to do) so we had to go back to kibble but this one, Raynes Low Fat Kangaroo, has worked for six years now. Oban also takes several herbal preparations as per his Holistic/Integrative Vet. He had a fecal transplant in the early days that seemed to make a big difference in restoring proper gut biome. I also did the Nutriscan test on him, even though we thought his itchy allergies were summer environmental, and it turned out he did have some food allergies. Should add, no vomitting for us, just near constant, very runny diarrhoea which resulted in a loss of 20% of his body weight. Good luck.

[Boscobeans]

I’ve not tried digestive enzymes. I thought they had to be prescribed...I do add a vitamin supplement (balance it) to his food but that of course isn’t to address his digestive issues.

I currently puree all his veggies that go into his meatloaf. I don’t mind the process, it’s the clean up and expense and time I loathe 😑. We bought a deep freezer to help with storage when I make double batches. That helps but I keep thinking there has to be a better way to feed this dog!!

[Snowshoe]

I see you found a FB group. There are many digestive enzymes you can purchase without a Rx. I have made my own kefir for years, it restores good bacteria, which helps in digestion. LOL, a raw food distributer near me feeds his dogs in a bathtub, to keep mess contained. He has a large property and I think the tub is in the barn. Yeah, I bought a high end blender for the raw food. My raw enthusiast Vet likes a juicer better but one that would handle sweet potato cost about $2,000, Canadian.

[SunDance]

You can buy digestive enzymes for dogs...check Amazon. The dog I'd referenced got prescription pancreatic enzymes.