diahrea with raw feeding

Hi,
Stella has always been plagued with itching and allergy issues so we have had her on canidae grain free, which seemed to help the most. This isnt easy to get or cheap so i thought i would try to find something cheaper that would work for her. Unfortunately no other commercial food has worked with the itchiness coming back awfully.
Decided to try RAW diet almost a week ago and are just starting with chicken backs, but the diarhea is terrible. she has made a mess in her crate for the first time ever and is now so upset that we are having to retrain her to go in the crate. she has also had a number of accidents in the house, which were ( i apoligise guys) very black and almost completely liquid. I know a bit of diahrea is normal, but how long should it go on for? Could she be allergic to chicken? OH thinks i should just go back to the canidae and be done.
Hoping for some advice as i dont want to put her through so much discomfort!
Thanks

Ours has allergies as well. We took her to a dermatologist to see what she was allergic to and chose the food based off of the results. Chicken was one of the things she was allergic to.

If you are changing foods it should be done gradually over a number of days so it won't upset her stomach. Start with 75% of the old and 25% of the new each meal. The following days increase the new food by 15% or so each day so she adjust to the new food. If you are feeding a mix of dry and raw be carefull about the time of day you feed each as they digest at different rates.

If you change all at once the direaha should not last more than 5-7 days.

I agree with jstaff. I would have started with a chicken wing added into the diet the opposite from the kibble feeding (if you feed kibble in AM do the chicken in the PM). It should be extremely gradual and it usually takes a few weeks to completely switch over. Having said that, some cannot stand the raw diet. My last bulldog couldn't handle chicken and was on Canidae Lamb and rice as that was all he could handle. Monte was raised eating raw from a puppy and thrives on it. You have to find what works and go with it. Canidae is a high quality food so it isn't cheap (I know because I bought it for years). I think you need to let Stellar's tummy get normal again if you want to try raw again. Go really bland for a few days. She sounds a bit traumatized by it all. So sorry you both have to go though all this.

Thanks guys.
Its only been 5 days on the raw and today have noticed that the itchiness has certainly reduced and bumps gone down. So i might hang in for a few more days and see if the poo firms up. If nothing seems to improve maybe i'll go back to canidae for now and try RAW again in a month or two with something other than chicken?
When i researched RAW alot of people seemed to say sudden change was better (unlike changing kilbble with gradual change) because they digest at a different rate?
Appreciate the advice, it feels so hit and miss with the allergies!
Thanks

Chicken! It's one of the most common meats to cause bad stomachs, and yet we're always told to feed it for bad stomachs! When I told my vet that Dempsey was poultry intolerant, I expected him to argue against it, but all he said was "Oh, yes, that's quite a common one!"

Rocchet wrote:When i researched RAW alot of people seemed to say sudden change was better (unlike changing kilbble with gradual change) because they digest at a different rate?
Appreciate the advice, it feels so hit and miss with the allergies!
Thanks

There are a lot of different views here, because feeding raw & dry can cause tummy issues. However, if you feed twice a day & give raw in the morning & dry in the evening, you should cut down problems. Also, with raw feeding, you really do need to introduce some raw bones - if he can't eat chicken, then lamb necks/spines/ribs are all good. These will give him valuable calcium & should harden his poops!

Why not try feeding a raw bone or some raw meat in the morning & then his usual dry food in the evening? You could actually keep him on that for life if it suits him.

Thats great advice thankyou.
She seems to have turned a corner today. she is much less itchy and just seems happier! Much more playful.
I havnt managed to catch her in the act of pooping today so im not sure if its firmed up, if it hasnt i think i'll do the dry food at night.

Thankyou very much guys
much appreciated.

I personally didn't bother with swapping the food over slowly with either dog, I just swapped straight to chicken backs/carcasses and never had any problems

ella wrote:I personally didn't bother with swapping the food over slowly with either dog, I just swapped straight to chicken backs/carcasses and never had any problems

A lot of dogs are fine with that - Dempsey had no problems either. But I've known of one or two that had a short term tummy upset when the switch was made.