Expert: Jana Connell RVT, CVT - 3/9/2011

Question
I have a 6 month old Golden Retriever male who seems to have an intolerance to dry biscuit food (kibble). He is fully vaccinated/wormed/and recently castrated without problem. He had diarrhea when I got him, which persisted, and after a few visits to the vet where stool sample tests eliminated the presence of any germ or parasite causing this, we eventually discovered that kibble was the cause. About 6-7 weeks ago I switched him to just tin meat and the diarrhea stopped almost overnight. I had tried several different brands of kibble, but all resulted in him having diarrhea. He is small for his age (weight just over 13kg height 17") and my vet has suggested that he may have been the runt of the litter, because although he is underweight, he still looks in proportion. He does not look thin because he is also shorter than he should be, and in every other aspect he is perfectly healthy (he was the last pup left, so there were no siblings to compare him with).  I would rather feed him kibble than tin meat as it is the better option, especially for oral health, so my question is, If he was the runt, is it possible that this intolerance to kibble is due to his digestive system still being a little immature, and he will be able to tolerate it when he's a little older?

Answer
Some dogs outgrow intolerance's and some do not. The key is to find which ingredient is the culprit. The most common food intolerance is to beef, followed by wheat, soy, chicken, cheese and then pork. Rice is rarely one nor is corn. Lamb is becoming one because so many dogs were put on it that now dogs are developing intolerance to that.

You can try feeding trials such as novel foods- duck and potato for example, or venison and rice.
The best way to eliminate a food intolerance is to do it this way. Another, more expensive, however, way to go is to use powdered enzymes on his food. This may or may not help as it doesn't sound like he has a mal-absorption issue. If he did, his stool would be voluminous and gray in parts and have a large layer of mucous over it.

There are also all meat and vegetable (but no grain) diets on the market that are dry based. I would start with the novel diets first then switch to the meat and veggie based dry ones. Each food has to be fed no less then three months to really be able to tell which one works or not.

If he develops massive diarrhea from any of them, stop the food and feed him boiled chicken and rice for a few days then move on to another diet.
Make a list and check off the ones you try and write down how he reacted to each one.

If you are lucky you may find one right away that works for him. I hope so!!

Here is an article that may help as well..
http://www.peteducation.com/article_print.cfm?c=2&aid=143

Good luck and please let me know how it goes.