Yoshi had a bit of diarrhoea

Hi Everyone,

I haven't been on this site in so long, as I've been so busy with our little Prince Yoshi. He's almost trippled in size since we got him at 8 weeks, he's now nearly 18 weeks and keeping us very busy.

He had a bout of diarrhoea a few weeks ago, I had no idea what was wrong with him when he woke me up at 2am (which he never does since he's been sleeping through the night) with a kind of panic barking, when I went to check on him he didn't stop, so I thought, let me just take him outside and there he went doing very watery poos outside. The little man was so relieved that I'd come down and had the sense to take him outside that he kept licking my hand to thank me. Then every hour after that we were outside together, awwww.

I called my breeder the following morning and she told me to feed him plain boiled rice with chicken and after a couple of days this should stop it and that I should not give him anymore of his normal Royal Canin food. I follwed her advice and he was back to normal after 2 days as she said. After he seemed to be doing better I decided to give him back his usual dry food, which he walked up to, sniffed and just walked away in his 'royal' way. Is this normal, to him I think he's thinking, why should I eat all that boring dry food when I have this nice chicken and rice to eat? So, what I've been doing is mixing in his dry food with the chicken and rice 50/50 and he loves it like this.

My question really is, is it okay for him to just eat the chicken and rice or do I need to persevere to ensure that he eats his Royal Canin for all its specific nutrients?

If you have any advice, I'd love to hear it.

Thanks
Desiree
xx

I give Biscuit plain boiled rice and chicken as a treat twice a week mixed in with his dryed food.
Some times he will not eat his dryed food like you said sniffs and walks away. I don't give in to him though I give him hlaf an hour to eat it if not I take it away he then gets it for lunch evntually when he is hungry he eats it. He has trippled in size since we got him at 8 wks he is now 20wks and weighs 11.21b.

Thanks Michaela,

I've done that as well, giving him a certain time to eat and if not I take it away, as I tend to give him just his dry food for breakfast and the rice and chicken mixed in for dinner. I've been feeling guilty and have been giving him the chicken and rice with his dry food every day now for the past 2 weeks I think. My gut tells me that he needs to be eating more of his dry food for the nutritional value. He's 18 weeks on Saturday and when I weighed him two weeks ago he was 4kg / 8.8lbs, he's definitely bigger now, the cheeky boy.

I would not give him the cicken and rice for a couple of days, when he is hungry he will eat his dry food. But he knows he is going to get something better later. I don't know but would thing he needs more dry food to get the vitamins etc
Would love to see some upto date pictures.

Hi, glad that Yoshi is better, If one of mine has. a poorly tummy I give them chicken and rice and then gradually add the dried food back in over a number of days, they do get a little chicken with each meal or some tinned mackeral with the oil drained off, I would say his weight is about right for his age, my daughters puppy Maisey is 20 weeks and she is 8lbs. Shih Tzu are now to be quite picky eaters and my two never eat all the food that is put down for them, and it is picked up and they are not given any more until next meal time.

Thanks so much Michele, I'll do that.

Mine is a greedy little boy, who's quite chunky, when he's hungry he eats his food so fast it's like a disappearing act, 1 second it's there and the next it's gone . I've learnt to only feed him when he is calm and sitting quietly for his food, as when he's fed when excited he tends to throw up. Yes I'll have to get moving and load some new pictures soon as he has changed lots.

I don't feed a dry food - Josh has Natures Menu Banquet Nuggets which are a mix of various raw meats minced and formed into chunks which are then frozen. Since starting feeding in this way I have NOT had any problems with a fussy shih tzu (lone shih tzu are reknowned for being picky eaters as they learn very quiclkly how to control their humans :lol!)
As for chicken and rice - there is nothing wrong with feeding this (in fact my mum's shih tzu family lived on that - and chicken adn pasta for many years as two of them had a gut bacteria problem and could not toelrate dog food. If you do feed this though you need to add a good quality vitamin and mineral supplement just to make sure that he is getting adequate in his diet.

Oh great, I don't feel so bad anymore. Can you recommend a good vitamin and mineral supplement to add to his food?

SA37 is the one my vet used to advise - not sure if it is still around anymore as there was a problem with where it was made and smuggled substances (though that might have been a rumour!!) - anyway there are a couple of good substitutes. Here is one of them:-

SF50 at Hyperdrug (the canine chemist)

Thank you :-)

ur welcome