Dog food: dry or canned? Feed once or twice a day? Feed the dogs or the humans first? What do you do?

This month Windy was diagnosed with hemorrhagic gastroenteritis. (HGE) This is a sneaky illness that can take a dog’s life if not treated by your veterinarian. After a night on an IV at the vet’s, Windy came home with an antibiotic, metronidazole and a week’s worth of a special low-residue canned food.

Typically, I feed a dry I get from a pet store then add some home-cooked defatted beef or chicken broth with a couple of bites of meat. She had been eating this and was not fussy.

She loved the canned food. It did great with her digestion. When I had used almost the week’s worth up I gradually re-introduced her regular diet with the last can of the specialty food. At bedtime her gas was unreal. I try a quality canned food from a pet store. Nightmare gas again. I went back to the vet and got another week’s worth.

As I study dog food ingredients I get frustrated.  The front of the cans proclaim: “Lamb and Rice”, “Grain Free”, “Limited Ingredients”, “vegetarian” (no way). In desperation I get several kinds. The most bizarre was a fish and sweet potato formula. Not only did she hate it, Jake and Hope would not go near her dish to eat her leftovers. The kitchen smelled like I had opened a nasty can of cat food.

Last night Windy had a duck and potato formula. So far so good. At least I can strike a match and burn a candle without fear of blowing the house up.