Hi all
I have a Deerhound Greyhound cross called Fred. He seems to have a bit of a sensitive tummy and the vets put him on Royal Canin SC 21. I have a read this is quite poor quality dog food so i now have some Burns duck and brown rice on the way which i ordered the other day. Then i found this site so i thought i’d have look and see what other people have to say about various foods. Any recomendations are welcome 
Hello and welcome to the forum. Please could you tell us how old your dog is and what his symptoms are? Does he have any health problems apart from digestive? How has he been doing on the Royal Canin and what else have you tried? Hopefully some of our members will be able to suggest something suitable but it would help if we could just a little bit more information. 
He’s 1 year and 1 month and weighs 34kg. We got him when he was 8 weeks and fed him arden grange large breed puppy until he was about 6 or 7 months. Then he got sore bits on his tummy and groin area which the vets said had got infected. This was treated with a wash and some antibiotics. A little while after this he seemed to have a bit of diarrhoea so we starved him for a day and when he stopped having the diarrhoea we gave him plain cooked chicken and boiled rice… which seemed to make things worse. Went to vets and they said he might have developed a chicken allergy which is common. So the vets advised we try him on royal canin SC21 and that seemed to work a treat. However, slowly over the past few months he has been getting softer looser stools again. We recently tried wainrights lamb and rice but this made big smelly stools.
Thank you for the update. It sounds as if he may be intolerant to rice but as the vet says, it could be chicken. Without the proper tests, it is impossible to be sure. Because rice is commonly found in grain containing foods, it may be best to look for a food that is completely grain free and natural. If you go to the Dog Food Directory here, try the following filters:
Type of Food - tick dry complete.
Food Properties -place a tick in each of the first five boxes, natural to clearly labelled.
Rating - it’s up to you, but 3.5 to 5 stars would give you the best ones. You just have to move the slider.
Avoid ingredients - place tick in all red ingredients, all cereals and chicken.
Nutrient levels - this can be left at default for now.
Click ‘Go’.
I’ve just set these filters for you and it has come up with some excellent products. We have a member (louisecragg) with a chicken intolerant dog and she uses Millie’s Wolfheart with success - the product is on that list. If you decide to try any of them, remember not to overfeed - start at the bottom figure of the guidelines until you get a feel for how much is needed. Dogs can develop loose poo/diarrhoea when overfed. Also, if going grain free remember to stop all treats containing grains including biscuits. Dried sea jerky (fish skins) would be fine.
Hopefully someone else will be along later to add to your thread with more advice. Also, it would be interesting to hear how you get on if you decide to change his food.
Why do you say that, Dottie? I don’t think Royal Canin SC21 contains rice - it’s based on duck & tapioca, iirc. Having said that, I think your advice to avoid cereals, including treats, is good.
Because of this:
we gave him plain cooked chicken and boiled rice...... which seemed to make things worse.. and this:
We recently tried wainrights lamb and rice but this made big smelly stools.Obviously that could be due to the chicken or the rice but Wainwright's Lamb and Rice also caused problems so that is why I suggested going grain free - so many of the grain containing foods have rice in them so it's easier just to tick the boxes for grain free. That being said, it is impossible to know exactly what it is that is causing the problem without the correct tests. Mostly dogs aren't intolerant to rice, but I understand that it can occur.
Ah, I see. I read…
…as meaning that he was getting softer stools on the SC21. Not that it matters, since I agree that he would be better without either chicken or rice. I’m just being a pedantic old queen today, nothing new there… :-[
Thanks for the feed back folks.
Yes although the royal canin seemed to be good at first, he has slowly been getting softer stools on it. And look at the ingredients reveals hydrolised poultry proteins.
He had some turkey chews from wainrights and they made him have the squits too. So, i thought it was the chicken (similar to turkey?)- could be the rice though.
The burns arries in a minute so we will see how that goes.
Did you check if it was totally chicken free? If it is and he is OK with it then it could point to chicken as being the problem. Please let us know how the Burns food goes down? It will be interesting to know.
can’t see any evidence of chicken on the burns
Composition:
Brown Rice (63%), Duck Meal (22%), Oats, Peas, Duck Fat, Sunflower Oil, Seaweed, Vitamins & Minerals.
It just arrived and i let him have a few pieces - he liked it
feeding amounts are much lower on the burns - i had also wondered if it was quantity of food that might be an issue i.e. too much of the royal canin was needed for his size and his digestive system couldn’t cope with the quantities. So the burns should sort that out if it is an issue.
We’ll see over the coming weeks. Plan to change him over quite slowly. Will defo keep you updated.
which Millies Wolfheart should i use for a greyhound deerhound cross?
Eight varieties came up on the search of grain free/no chicken. If I were you I would give the company a call tomorrow morning on their advice line. The telephone number is: 08006124655 / 01535 280319. Looking at the Hunter one, I see it is based on duck and as your dog has had that before and seemed to cope with it, maybe that would be a good place to start. However, I am sure that there will be someone on the telephone who can help you and probably they will also send samples.
yeah i might do that. Looking at the price it isn’t any more expensive than the royal canin or the burns. I’ll see what one they recommend for greyhounds or deer hounds
Are you going to try the Burns for a few days first?
yes he is on the burns moxed with canin now. I will slowly swap him over to that this week and then see how he does for a few days on burns only.
It will be interesting to see you you get on with the Burns.
i’ll try and put some pics of him up
i get this error when i try to add a pic -
The upload folder is full. Please try a smaller file and/or contact an administrator.
file size is less than 100 kb
So, it is not going well. Absolute mush. Going to try him on the pork and potato burns and also have a search for something else
I am sorry to hear that the Burns is not going well. As you probably know, their products do contain a lot of cereal including brown rice. Pork and Potato version contains cereal too but this time it is maize. However, it doesn’t contain rice so it might be better for him. Let’s hope so.