About a month ago I decided that I couldn't keep doing the "dog health food store food". I picked up my son at school and we did drive through McDonald's for dinner as it was the only way to feed him and get to the dog health food store before it closed -- I decide that this was a sign that my life and priorities needed to be adjusted, and that Lyle would just need to learn to eat something that they sell at Petsmart (which is open convenient hours, located conveniently, and where we have to go every couple of weeks to buy crickets for the frog). The health food store had stopped selling what I fed him (Canidae grain free) so we would have had to change anyway.
I picked Blue buffalo food because it seemed the highest protein, and thus closest to what he'd eaten before (he started on EVO, but found that Canidae agreed with him better -- he definitely prefers grain free, and won't each much of the other).
He loved the BB but within about a week he had an episode of kind of bloody diarrhea, so I went to the other health food pet store (thinking they'd have CGF, they didn't) and bought something called, I think, NOW. His system was back to normal the next day.
We ran out of the NOW and money was tight so I decided to try the rest of the bag of BB. He seemed to do really well, until today. I gave him the end of the bag, and came home with a new, bigger bag, to find more slightly bloody diarrhea in my room. There's grass in the diarrhea (not sure that's relevant).
So, now I guess I return the BB, except I don't have the receipt, and I don't now what else to buy at Petsmart for him to eat -- he's eaten Science Diet sensitive stomach at boarding and reportedly did OK. Should I try that? Should I take the BB to the health food store (they sell it too) and see if they'll trade it in for NOW, even though they didn't sell that bag? Or do I assume that the BB had nothing to do with it, and keep feeding him. I should mention that both days of diarrhea came right after a day of daycare, so maybe it's something from there instead?
Also, we're going skiing over Christmas, staying at my brother's and sending the dog to daycare during the day. It's a new place (since my brother lives 10 hours away) and they require a recent parasite test for the dog. Getting poop is hard right now as he poops in the backyard, in the dark late at night, so I'd be walking around in the freezing cold/dark with a flashlight watching him to see if he's pooping (and thereby missing bedtime for my kid), my neighborhood is not conducive to evening walks now that it's dark at night, due to high crime. I'm not willing to either bring my child on a walk in the dark, or to leave him home. This is a long way of saying that I'm wondering if I could take the diarrhea in for a parasite test. Will they become alarmed that it's slightly bloody and grassy (I'm not, I figure the new food will fix it)? Should I explain or just say "here's the poop I brought for parasite testing".
Or should I be worried, and figure out how to pay for a vet visit?
I picked Blue buffalo food because it seemed the highest protein, and thus closest to what he'd eaten before (he started on EVO, but found that Canidae agreed with him better -- he definitely prefers grain free, and won't each much of the other).
He loved the BB but within about a week he had an episode of kind of bloody diarrhea, so I went to the other health food pet store (thinking they'd have CGF, they didn't) and bought something called, I think, NOW. His system was back to normal the next day.
We ran out of the NOW and money was tight so I decided to try the rest of the bag of BB. He seemed to do really well, until today. I gave him the end of the bag, and came home with a new, bigger bag, to find more slightly bloody diarrhea in my room. There's grass in the diarrhea (not sure that's relevant).
So, now I guess I return the BB, except I don't have the receipt, and I don't now what else to buy at Petsmart for him to eat -- he's eaten Science Diet sensitive stomach at boarding and reportedly did OK. Should I try that? Should I take the BB to the health food store (they sell it too) and see if they'll trade it in for NOW, even though they didn't sell that bag? Or do I assume that the BB had nothing to do with it, and keep feeding him. I should mention that both days of diarrhea came right after a day of daycare, so maybe it's something from there instead?
Also, we're going skiing over Christmas, staying at my brother's and sending the dog to daycare during the day. It's a new place (since my brother lives 10 hours away) and they require a recent parasite test for the dog. Getting poop is hard right now as he poops in the backyard, in the dark late at night, so I'd be walking around in the freezing cold/dark with a flashlight watching him to see if he's pooping (and thereby missing bedtime for my kid), my neighborhood is not conducive to evening walks now that it's dark at night, due to high crime. I'm not willing to either bring my child on a walk in the dark, or to leave him home. This is a long way of saying that I'm wondering if I could take the diarrhea in for a parasite test. Will they become alarmed that it's slightly bloody and grassy (I'm not, I figure the new food will fix it)? Should I explain or just say "here's the poop I brought for parasite testing".
Or should I be worried, and figure out how to pay for a vet visit?
