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Science Diet

reviewed by roccosmom

Science Diet Pet Foods: Superior nutrition for the lifelong health of your cat and dog from Hill's Pet Nutrition.

roccosmom
09/23/2009

Science Diet 5

I have a Shih tzu-we got our puppy when he was 9 weeks old and he was on SD small bites until about about 11 and a half months of age-had no issues.

Researching and reading all sorts of negative comments in regards to SD let me to change his food (we did as we should and changed it slowly over the course of a week-I did not suddenly change his food so please don't attribute the following as a result of doing it improperly)....he soon developed chronic bouts of constipation and diarrhea...we tried several brands such as Wellness...Blue Buffalo...and Orijen-all "high quality" foods that were recommended by others....we brought him to the vet at least 4 or 5 times within a matter of two months....we, nor the vet could figure out what was wrong....they thought he'd swallowed something and had a blockage (negative), tested for parasites (negative), was given a $200.00 test for salmonella poisoning (negative), in between waiting for test results he was given antibiotics to firm up his poop....after all the testing came back negative the vet summed it up to him having an extremely sensitive digestive system and told us he'd need to be on prescription diet food for the rest of his life.

I couldn't accept that and in my stubborness I decided to try to go back to the food that he'd been raised on as a puppy (he's 14 months old now). I found Nature's Best Lamb & Brown Rice under the Hills SD brand from Petsmart. They have a money back guarantee so I figured I had nothing to lose....

Well, within two days of being back on this food I noticed a huge improvement....now a month later his poop is firm, and his digestive system has regulated. He's energetic, he's happy....and he loves his food.

I don't know much about canine nutrition, but I do know that whatever was in that higher quality food just did not agree with my dog. We spent countless dollars on vet bills only to find out that it was the food that was doing him harm. SD may not be the highest quality out there, but its more than sufficient for my dog.



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sheltervt commented 73 days ago.
I can virtually guarantee you that it wasn't the high quality foods causing digestive harm, but your method of changing foods. Although you state that you did a proper transition when you first changed from Science Diet to another food, you also state that you tried at least three high-end foods in a two month period. That does NOT indicate proper transitioning, as a proper food change usually takes as long as two months to show results. Chronic bouts of diarrhea and constipation are signs of changing food too rapidly, and these symptoms can be mitigated by adding plain canned yogurt to the diet for the duration of the transition.

Science Diet and other low-to-average quality foods create firm stools simply because they are packed full of nutritionally void fiber. Higher end foods DO take some getting used to, as there is much more nutritionally rich meat and other ingredients that the stomach actually needs to work to digest. Dogs on low quality foods need time and patience when doing a food change, so that their bodies can get used to actually functionaing how they are supposed to.

Lacelynn commented 53 days ago.
I also agree that it was not the high end food, and low quality foods like hill's have nothing but fiber in them as the above comment suggests. I am a student studying to be a vet and i can tell you that most vets will recommend this crap food because they have no background in nutrition and dont care enough to teach themselves. I am going to become a holistic vet, that works toward prevention rather than medications after the fact. I have a nine month old husky/australian shepard mix pup that is allergic to mainly everything but fish and sweet potatoes. Thankfully orijen has that formula and he does very very well on it. Your pup may be allergic to more than one thing and by switching its foods so quickly there was no way you could have ruled out any one ingredient. I would beg you to try again, not for me, but for the sake of your dog. He will live longer, healthier and happier if you do so. I gaurantee you can find a waayyyy better food that he will do well on. Hill's is not sufficient for any animal that is loved.
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