“I think that most conscientious dog owners would agree that keeping their dog or dogs well fed and in perfect condition is a continual worry especially as we are constantly bombarded with “science” that tells us that this or that product has greater benefit than any other.”
Paul and I own six border collies, some working, some retired and one apprentice and we started them on CSJ after meeting Ceri and being impressed with both the content and variety of the brand. We had in fact been losing faith in our regular brand as the dogs were not looking good and seemed to be producing far more waste than was normal. Unfortunately, although we did not know it then, the problems we were having were nothing to do with the food and after going through several of the CSJ varieties things seemed to go from bad to worse.
This did not make any sense as the analysis of the food was very impressive and I did not doubt the quality, but still my dogs were looking poor with intermittent diarrhoea and gradual weight loss. Needless to say they were regularly wormed and interestingly they showed no sign of being unwell but remained bright and keen to work.
Things came to a head when we realised that Spica had lost around a fifth of his body weight and we were convinced he had something terrible wrong with him. However, a trip to the vet and a barrage of blood tests produced no diagnosis and the vet was at a loss to know what to suggest next. There was talk of stool sampling and various other tests all of which would add to the rapidly burgeoning bill and without insurance we were becoming concerned.
It was about this time that Leo also lost a dramatic amount of weight and at almost 13 years old this was an even greater worry. I was going through copious amounts of rice, chicken and yoghurt as well as dosing all dogs with Pro-Kolin but although this controlled the diarrhoea it did nothing for their weight. I confess that even though I did not believe it could be the food I still tried several other brands, some of which were so expensive I knew that even if they worked I could not continue to feed six dogs on it.
During the various visits to the vets the possibility of Giardia was mentioned but as I recently wormed them all and had done a short course of Panacur it was ruled out. We also discussed the likelihood of Campylobacter as one of Sian’s puppies had developed this in its new home and there was a question mark about whether it had been infected before or after leaving. Anyway as my dogs showed no sign of improvement and even my youngster was starting to be affected I made a bold decision and asked to have them all put on a course of anti-biotics, and as my vet was also struggling to find a diagnosis she agreed to provide them all with 10 days worth of Erythromycin. It was not a cheap option as nothing is with six dogs, and in addition to this I decided to re dose them all with a three day course of Panacur to ensure there was no Giardia.
To cut a long story short it worked. Within a few days of finishing the Erythromycin and completing the course of Panacur the diarrhoea stopped and they gradually began to regain their weight. I immediately put them on the CSJ CP21 which is the salmon based food for sensitive tums and within what seemed only a matter of days not only did they look and feel better but the end product was so reduced and improved that to use Ceri’s term it was “kickable”.
This improvement has continued and for the last six months or so my dogs have been the picture of health. I still don’t know what the problem was and whether Campylobacter, Giardia, or something completely different was to blame but one thing I do know is that it wasn’t what they were eating, and although I am completely happy with the CSJ CP21 and wouldn’t think of changing while they are doing so well on it, I am sure that they probably don’t need a food for sensitive digestion now they are back to normal and would probably look as good on any one of the varieties.
So to return to the original statement don’t always blame the food when something goes wrong with your dogs, but look to the bigger picture and be prepared to be satisfied with the cure without necessarily knowing the cause.
