[NAGDU] Introduction and question

[Tracy Carcione]

Hi Asia.

Nice to meet you! I’m Tracy, and I’m working my 7th guide dog.  His name is Krokus.  He’s a 60-pound yellow lab/golden from The Seeing Eye.

 

Yeah, overprotective family are a problem, but sounds like you’re bringing your dad around.

 

Krokus has allergies to chicken, and had loose stools on Purina, but, when I switched him to a grain-free, chicken-free diet, he did better and hasn’t had any real problems since.  But it sounds like you’ve already done that.  A friend of mine has a dog who’s had serious digestive issues for a long time.  The only thing that’s worked for her is making all his food herself, which is a pain.  I think he’s getting turkey with oatmeal and vitamins.

There are lots of foods with very few ingredients.  Have you tried any of those?  Dogfoodadvisor.com has many lists of dogfoods, including ingredients.  Chewy.com also has ingredient lists.  Poring over dogfood ingredient lists makes my head spin after a while, but it’s worth it to find the food that makes your boy feel good.

Hopefully, Danielle S will chime in.  She’s had good success researching dogfood.

 

Krokus also has to empty on route.  It’s a pain in the neck, but that’s how he is.  However, his stool is good, so it’s easy to pick up.  

Have you heard of or considered using a relieving belt, which some people call a toileting harness?  You can buy one at onthego.com.  It’s a belt with clips on it.  You put it around the dog’s hips, then attach a bag to the clips.  The poop falls into the bag.  I put it on Krokus when I think he’s going to poop.  I don’t leave it on him when he’s walking.  It really helps with pickup when the stool is loose.

 

Good luck.  Sometimes finding the right food is a real pain, but it’s such a relief when you do.

Tracy

 

 

 

From: NAGDU [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Asia Quinones-Evans via NAGDU
Sent: Thursday, May 21, 2020 10:17 AM
To: James Boehm via NAGDU
Cc: Asia Quinones-Evans
Subject: [NAGDU] Introduction and question

 

Hello my name is Asia Quinones-Evans and I have been on this list for a while and I do not think I introduced myself. I went blind 6 years ago due to a brain tumor cutting off my optic nerves. I went blind in less than a week so it was not a process for me and I had to learn new things very quickly. I knew nothing about the blind community or even the guide dog community the only thing I did know was there were dogs out there to help people with disabilities. I learned everything quickly though because I wanted to get back to sports and doing most of my daily things. I will be 23 in October so I lost my sight just before I could learn to drive. I actually am not that upset about it because I was not a person that was really excited to drive but now I do wish that I could run errands much easier without depending on someone else. I live in Ohio in a city that has public transportation but it is not accessible for the blind to use it is barely accessible for the sighted community here to use. So majority  of my transportation is walking, my dad driving me, or Uber. I also had to attend with an over protective dad that did not want me walking around our neighborhood by myself with just my cane. Next month will be 2 years I have been partnered with a wonderful Leader dog named Greyson. He is a yellow lab and is around 80 pounds. With having such a large dog now my dad does not mind so much that I go out to the stores around me. His opinion is that since most people where we live are scared of large dogs and will think Greyson will bite them then it is fine for me to go out. At first though I had to convince my dad that I could not just go out with him behind us and only on set routes. My dad works long days a lot of the time and we would not have been able to go out until he got home from work. I finally convinced my dad that I needed to go out with Greyson to build our partnership and work at different times of the day to encounter different things.

 

After that long introduction I would like to ask a question about digestive problems. As long as I have been working with Greyson he has had stool problems. I have put him threw several food changes and we have also tried a food that is ment to  help with digestive problems but that did not work. The food he was on for a while in training and when I got home with him was Purina Pro Plan Sport 26 16 formula. I eventually changed him to Diamond Naturals Beef Meal and Rice Formula because he would throw up sometimes and it was just bile. I learned that sometimes that if a food has too much protein in it that can cause tummy upsets. The Purina food also eventually made him poop stewy stool which means that it was partly solid then the rest was messy and his schedule was very inconsistent. Like sometimes he will go at the same time for several days and then not want to go at the same time the next day. I have also worked with my local vet and Leader’s vet to think of ways to solve it. First they suggested a general deworming and a steroid round. Both of these did nothing to help him. They showed improvement for a few days on them and after that his stools went back to being stewy. My local vet also put Greyson on Hills ID prescription food for about a month. After a week though his stools went back to being stewy even on that food. I have finally put Greyson on Natural Balance Sweet Potato and Venison Limited Ingredient formula thinking that the issue was chicken products in the other foods. It has been about two weeks with Greyson on this food and his stools are stewy once again after improving for a little while. I will be going to my local vets office after its been 60 days. Another issue is that he always wants to go poop while on a walking route. I do not find this to be much of a problem because I have taught him to tell me when he has to go but the poop that comes out has no form to it at all when this happens. It does not matter if I make him go right before we go on a walk he will still want to go after several minutes of walking. Any treats that he gets I have changed to treats that only are one  protein type to eliminate that cause. I do not feed him treats while working because he gets distracted from his work and starts demanding the treat before he completes the task. This is one thing I will not put up with from any dog so he just gets petting and verbal praise while working and does fabulous work with both of these.

 

With this whole explanation I was hoping that someone on this mailing list could give me any ideas that I could bring up to my vet to think about. Or anything I could do to help my puppy not have so many bad poops. If someone wants to email me privately so not to clutter up this list you can email me at: asiaevans102897 at gmail.com 

 

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