Cody, the Diarrhea King

I picked up Cody from PlanetPooch a couple of weeks ago. He was super skinny and was anxious to eat. I happened to start him on a new dog food (Authority Harvest from PetsMart) that same day. Since that day, he has had diarrhea. I don't think he had it at PlanetPooch since his first elimination at home was solid. For the week following, he still had diarrhea. After a few days, when I started him on bland food, he had improved, but then I found him eating a bag of the new food on the counter and his diarrhea came back. It took about a week for Cody to get over it and I'm glad that it was just a food allergy. I'm still not sure what ingredient in the food he's allergic too, but we're back on Nutro Ultra and Cody's stool is great.

Bland diet: After much research, most sites recommended trying a home remedy for awhile before taking the dog to the vet. I had scheduled an appt for 10 days after Cody's first bout. I figured it would be good to have someone check it in case it didn't get better. Here was the diet that Cody had: boiled chicken, rice, cottage cheese, and yogurt. Honestly, he loved his bland diet because it was so much more tasty than his regular food (well, at least he loved the chicken part). I used about a half cup each for all the ingredients (but a whole cup of rice). I fed him twice a day. Honestly, I think he would have gotten better at the same rate if I just switched him back to his old dog food immediately. However, in case the diarrhea was due to some other issue, it was good to have him have the bland diet just in case.