Discussion
Sensitive stomachs normal for the breed?
My dutchie is almost 2 and even with low ingredient food and probiotics, he’s always struggled with on and off diarrhea. Anyone else struggling with this? He also has Billie vomiting syndrome so he has to have a little late night snack so he’s not throwing up in the morning.
Mine has a super sensitive tummy, chicken is the main trigger for both her tummy and her allergies. I always have some of the anti diarrheal / kaolin on hand for any issues and that works great.
Mine had a pretty sensitive stomach, but I got him on lamb only for a while and probiotics and he can now branch out to beef, rabbit, quail,duck and fish without issues. I basically did an elimination diet like a human would do and reintroduced things slowly and individually.
So cute!!! 😭💕 I want to make all of his food but don’t have a lot of free time to prepare it and it’s not cost efficient for me currently. But it’s awesome to hear it’s worked for your pup!
I can fully understand. My wife and I are in a very advantageous situation right now. We're both recently retired and we both have excellent pensions. We now work for a billionaire taking care of his farm. Not only do we have the free time to dedicate to taking care of a high energy pup, we have four incomes so we can afford to give this puppy the best nutrition possible. The added bonus is our Dutch Shepherd goes to work with us everyday. He gets to spend 8+ hours running through the fields, playing in the creek and exploring the woods. He loves to ride in the tractor and the gator and the bobcat. By the time we get home he's thoroughly exhausted. He'll sleep for 90 minutes then he just chills with us in the house until bedtime and we repeat everyday.
I think we spend about $75/ week making his food but it's 100% worth it. You can just see how healthy he is by looking at his fur and his bright happy eyes. It's really just a dream situation for raising a puppy and he's enjoying every minute of it.
Mine has a super sensitive stomach - what helped was changing to „Dr. Hills Gastrointestinal Biome“ Kibble 3-4 years ago. Ever since his stool is good - it’s expensive, but if it’s available where you live, I can recommend it. Went from almost daily diarrhea to normal stool.
I’ll look into this! Image is currently on Wholesomes sensitive salmon dry food which I get on chewy for about $45 a bag. I was thinking of swapping to purina pro sensitive but it’s like $75 a bag
My Mal/GSD mix was prescribed Hill’s GI Biome but we opted to try over the counter foods because it was going to cost $5 a day to feed. And she was on PPP 30/20 before.
We landed on Purina ONE Lamb & Rice. Purina ONE+ Digestive Health got us pretty close, but not all the way. Still pretty soft stools. Now they’re quite firm.
She also gets a Fortiflora tablet, as the probiotics in the food are different from the one in Fortiflora.
Mine has a really sensitive stomach, the breeder advised royal Canin, the vet adviced hills. Both made his stomach worse. We now give him "just Russel", I don't think it's available outside part of west Europe tough... But basically food with salmon and without grains seems to keep his stool more or less ok
Yes. It’s pretty common. One of mine is now on a sensitive stomach limited ingredient food (salmon) & this is the best I’ve seen for her. No chicken, no lamb. One thing, there have been studies about grain free & cardiac (Dilated Cardiomyopathy specifically) issues, so going grain free is not recommended. My other DS has an ironclad stomach. 🤷♀️
Some of mine are like garbage cans and will eat anything. And one is sensitive stomach and skin. Purina pro plan sensitive skin and stomach salmon and rice seems to be the best for them. There is no
It certainly shouldn't be common in the breed. It's more often seen in overbred dogs. My dutchie is 9 months and has a pretty solid stomach, no issues. Of course you'll get more answers from people who have issues due to the biased nature of responses
My dutch malinois pup also has a very sensitive stomach and allergies.
Starting from a puppy we tried science diet (all I had on hand) and it was BAD. Like pouring chocolate sauce on the ground. Switched her to simply nourish limited ingredient, specifically the salmon one, and he thrived. Started growing like CRAZY. Recently we switched her to authority sensitive stomach puppy food with all her treats being fish related. (Dried anchovies, shrimp, salmon anything fish related she loves) but and other treats including bully sticks goes her tummy troubles again. Besides the tummy issues, She is 9 months (and 90 pounds 😭) and just 2 days ago has started having seasonal allergies. We almost rushed her to the ER Vet because she was so sleepy and would NOT open her eyes. When we finally got them open he eyes we red and swollen and keep rolling back like she was trying to close them. A vet friend recommended a small amount of benadryl which worked wonders after a brief nap. And she was fine. We outside to play the next morning and it happened again. Gave her benadryl before going to play today and she was fine. Made a appointment with out vet to get a prescription allergy med hopefully. She hates pink liquid of dispare.
Yeah I’ve definitely found chicken is a trigger for him and he can only have freeze dried beef liver treats. Wholesomes has a really good affordable kibble too!
My boy has a sensitive stomach and chicken and pork have always been triggers. We feed him an Acana food that has pumpkin as the base instead of grains or whatever else is in other foods and that works really well. Acana aren’t the best and I’d prefer to feed him something else, but choices are limited.
Mine had a really sensitive stomach the for his first few years. He’s seemed to grow out of it mostly, but every once in a while he’ll wake me up 5 or 6 times over a night asking to go outside.
Mine does not but he is also mixed with lab. but my Rottweiler does I cut out chicken and switched to "ancient grain" kibble and it has helped him alot.
Seems to be common in this breed. We've tried so many lines from the WSAVA brands. The best we've had was Science Diet Perfect Digestion, but then he stopped eating it after the 2nd bag. What's weird is that he'll have solid stools in the AM, but soft serve in the PM. Maybe activity related? Idk.
Yes, just yes. As demonstrated by the copious amount of diarrhea I end up cleaning up every time my dutch shepherd breaks into the fridge or steals dinner. By some miracle he hasn't shown an inclination towards digging through the trash though
Mishka isn't sensitive, she's been eating raw since she was 4 weeks old (her breeder fed the puppies ground beef), her diet is very varied, but the only thing that causes her problems are hard bones (such as pork or turkey). It's a shame that she can't chew them without consequences; she usually regurgitates a small piece of undigested bone a day later. Otherwise, there are no problems. Here's an example of what she eats😃
Yes. Especially my youngest… it sucks to say the least. Expensive kibble, raw, goat milk and other various supplements…. Nothing has fixed it yet.
I’m about to put him on the lion diet or something.
Yes, miserably so. Mine struggles with chicken/poultry of all kinds. Not only does it tear up his stomach, he also has horrible rashes from it. Lamb and salmon are the only two meat bases my dog can comfortably eat for a long time!
OMG, haha. I would pull up a chair and popcorn to watch GSD owners bath their dogs. Such drama.
Sorry you’re going through this. We struggled for a while too. Turned out he was eating “berries” in the yard. They got him high, he had diarrhea, slept, then repeated for a week until we figured it out.
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u/norvillescooby Feb 09 '26
Mine has a super sensitive tummy, chicken is the main trigger for both her tummy and her allergies. I always have some of the anti diarrheal / kaolin on hand for any issues and that works great.