Thursday, May 28, 2009

One for the "pet foods that aren't good" file

Nibbles McGee here, with a sensitive post to be avoided by those eating breakfast...

Since Joe and I like to let readers know about possible problems in the world of pet food, I thought I'd mention that my roommates and I recently tried to feed our precious hound the Brandon Farms organic wet dog food (chicken and...rice?) and it appears to have made him sick.

He's not at death's door or anything, just pukey and thirsty. We're watching him to make sure a trip to the vet isn't necessary. Just a heads up for readers considering this kind of dog food.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Pukey and thirsty sounds an awful lot like glycol poisoning. Is he wobbly on his feet? Please have him checked for that too!

If so, time is of the essence! (Spoken as one of those whose dog is in the 5% survival territory.)

Gary McGowan said...

For whatever it's worth, dogs here in Thailand eat LOTS of rice (with various leftovers). Outside of condo-land, that is. Both canned and dry dog foods are available, but I don't think they are big sellers. Hard to find a Thai household without rice in the rice-cooker 24 hrs a day. Doesn't keep very well, so lotsa rice for the dogs.

Other things being equal, I can't imagine a problem with dogs and rice.

I would guess my University has some 100 resident dogs who live in various faculties, parking lots and green areas. One of my colleagues who fed 3 (gave the cleaning staff money to feed them) just passed away. I asked one of the workers who was feeding the dogs now (two of them were sleeping on the stairs with nary a thought someone might shoo them away, much less kick them or step on them--people just go around). Seems it had fallen upon the workers, who are not well-paid, but have a degree of job security. I offered a contribution, for which she was grateful. Then she told me one of the dogs will usually eat only khao mun gai! A step or two above leftovers! Chicken served with rice cooked in chicken stock and coconut milk, essentially. Jeeze! She wasn't too happy with having inherited that. (But Chris told me he was leaving his estate in trust for the education of a number of poor children on his street, who otherwise would get only a minimal education. I guess it all balances out.)

Unknown said...

Did you faze in the new brand of dog food or switch overnight? It matters because a dogs stomach creates enzymes to digest food and introducing new food that their bodies are not equipped to digest can cause difficulties. You can google proper way to change your dogs diet.

Zee said...

Geno, yes, I had that problem when my dog got tired of the same food and balked. I switched him over to another all natural high quality brand and it took him a while to acclimate but now he loves it.

TinaTequila said...

I switched my dog to Artemis w/no problems. Didn't bother w/the "slow-mo" method of gradually mixing it w/her old dog food over the course of a week. I just started giving her a half cup of the stuff. Wish I had switched her sooner....no more runny p**P and she has a better appetite.

Joseph Cannon said...

Artemis is good stuff. My pooch did well on it. Alas, it is not always easy to find.