Why Don't You Listen To Me?

[jordyquint]

I'm feeding Taste Of The Wild Lamb forumla for now.

Rucker eats all the ToTW first and then eats his old food, so I know he likes it and that's good, but I need to know how he's doing. He hasn't pooped yet this morning, so when he does, I'll see then. Other than that, so far he's doing fine on it.

Cali, on the other hand, just had soft stools and as it progressed further, it became even softer. Not yet diarreha, just soft. I haven't switched her to 50/50 yet. Last night I gave her a little more than 25% to get her ready to move on to 50/50, so maybe I'm moving too fast for her? Could it be too rich? I gave her the same amount today seeing if her stools would firm up. Her stools are better formed than when she didn't have ToTW, they're just a little soft. I heard about pumpkin and yogurt. Would that help her? Or should I just leave it out and see if they get firmer? Should I move it back down to 25% new/75% old?

Vassar, I have no idea how he is doing because he's at my aunt's getting this thing removed from his face. Nobody will tell me anything. Nobody will check his stools and I'm sitting here, going crazy because I'm not there with him. I asked my aunt how he was doing on it and she replied, "He snarfed it right up." Then a few seconds later, she sends another text that says, "M is going to check his poop when he goes, but he hasn't gone yet. hahaha" I replied with, "Okay, tell her to text me when he does."

A few seconds later, my other sister, K, texts me and asks, "Why do you need us to check Vassar's poop?" I explained everything to her and she still refuses to do it. I told her to go have M do it, texted back and said she wasn't going to do it either. My aunt works, so it's up to my sisters to give me all this information. And hopefully my aunt is the one feeding him... If I find out it was my sisters, ugh, I don't even know... They're going to be in trouble and then I'm going to be the only one in trouble because I yelled at them. :/

Here's the text messages we sent each other...

K: "Why do you want us looking at Vassar's poop?"
J: "To see if he's getting switched too fast..."
K: "I hardly did at all and that is just plain nasty." -- I hardly did at all, gives me the assumption that she is messing with V's kibble.
J: "You have to. I don't want him getting sick and what do you mean by, "I hardly did at all?"" -- She never replied, so I sent her a text that said, "Hello?" She never replied to my hardly did at all question.
K: "Why did you switch the food over if you don't want him getting sick?"
J: "You don't get it. If I switch too fast he could get diarreha. If I switch him at his pace, then he most likely won't. That's why I need you to check when he goes to the bathroom. Since I'm not there it's harder for me to know what's going on."
K: "Well so I'm not doing it."
J: "Why not? I need you to because I need to know if he's being switched too fast. Tell M to or something because I need to know."
K: "Well you're the dog expert since you tell me I don't know anything about the dogs, so I'm not doing it, because you say you know everything about them so I'm not doing it and M isn't too. But you never gave a dumb schedule so yeah."

I texted back this morning and said I gave it to my aunt. I cleared up her chat speak and that's it. She's the one that likes to cause these stupid little fights with me and I hate it. Just do what I say. And, I don't tell her I know everything about dogs, I tell her I know more about dogs than her, which the the flat out truth because she could careless if Vassar was doing good on the kibble or not.

K: "You're sick for wanting me to that. Even you say I don't know anything so I'm not doing that nasty thing you want me to do."
J: "Tell somebody else to then."
K: "Nobody wants to do that nasty job of yours."
J: "I'm not there to do so somebody else has to. It's important."

So that's it. I don't know what to do. My step mom was talking to her sister(my aunt) about taking V to the vet to get that thing off of his face and take M and K with her. I jumped up from my seat and said, "No, I'm switching their food over." My step mom replies with, "He'll be fine as long as he gets that thing off." ugh. ugh. ugh. I didn't even want them taking him when I started to switch over. I wrote down every possible thing I could think of, gave my aunt the schedule, and trusted her. I didn't give it to my sisters for them to "try" and feed him. I gave it to my aunt because at the very least, she knows what she's doing.

Now I'm afraid that I'm going to run out of old food and freaking out that I measured Vassar's food wrong. My parents will freak if they find out I have to get another bag of the old stuff.

I know for a fact when I get my Toller that my family will have nothing to do with him/her... at all.

 

[jackienmutts]

Sorry about all the problems you're having with your family and the big food switch-over. I know it's really important to you, but I think you need to take a deep breath and calm down. Actually, a lot of dogs can switch over from foods a lot faster and more smoothly than some people think. Since your family is so resistant to checking poop, I'd quit asking. It's not a matter of life or death, they're not going to do it, so just cross that off your list. If you can get them to feed the food, I think that would be the main thing. And - right now, since the dog is having something removed from his face, maybe waiting a few days to switch is ok. Some dogs get a little loose poop from anasthesia - you won't know if it's from the new food, the meds, or ? Let his system deal with one thing at a time.

Do the best you can, take a deep breath - and take one day at a time. You're doing the best you can for your dogs, and you're going to win people over much faster by being calm and happy, than by making them mad at you, cuz you'll turn them off to everything you say.

You mainly want all your dogs eating good food and having good health. Don't forget that stress isn't good for anyone's health either - and being all stressed out over good food .. isn't healthy. Your dogs know when you're upset, and they get upset too (believe it or not!). So - you calm down, see if you can have a nice conversation with your sister and/or aunt and see what it will take to get your dog eating the right food, just ask: how can we get this new food program started, it's important to me? See what they say. Maybe a new approach will help. Sometimes if everyone calms down and changes their approach, the whole situation can change - and be better for everyone. Good luck!

 

[jordyquint]

Thanks for the help! I think everything is okay now... I haven't bothered them since I posted this.

 

[tx_cowgirl]

Depending on the dog, I take 7-16 days to switch to a new food.
1st day (ALL FEEDINGS): 25% new, 75% old
2nd day: 25% new, 75% old
3rd day: 50% new, 50% old
4th day: 50% new, 50% old
5th day: 75% new, 25% old
6th day: 75% new, 25% old
7th day: 100% new

I had a Weim/GSP who had a really sensitive stomach, so for him I would do a duplicate some of those days, so for instance, first 3-4 days, 25% new, 75% old; next 3-4 days 50%(or not quite 50%) new, 50% old, etc.

Don't panic. Even if they do have diarrhea, it's nothing to freak out about. Granted, diarrhea is unpleasant, but nothing to panic your family about. You might tell them to feed less of the new food just to settle your own nerves and give Vassar more time to adjust to the new food.

For me, I mix ToTW and Blue Buffalo Wilderness, because ToTW is cheaper and it helps me go a little longer between buying food. It took a lot of work and several months before their digestive systems got used to it, but I typically rotate the flavors of both foods to give them something different. I also add either canned or raw at random, and sometimes get a small bag of a completely different brand of food and mix it accordingly. With such a variety of foods, they have NO digestive problems whatsoever, and if I were to decide to switch foods it would be very easy for them. Being that your parents are buying the food, maybe you could just switch ToTW flavors once in a while.