Dogs can eat most but not all things that humans eat. It’s important to recognize that onions, garlics, and leeks are harmful to dogs. They cause a type of anemia that can lead to liver damage and ultimately do the dog in. So, be careful not to share things like beef stew, chicken cacciatori, or any of the other delicious oniony things we like to eat. Be careful with commercial chicken and beef broth: these usually contain onion. And I’m sure you know that chocolate is very toxic to dogs. Never let your dog eat chocolate! Caffeine is also harmful to them; some sources also say not to feed grapes or avocados.

Otherwise, a dog should have healthy, real food — NOT JUNK FOOD OF ANY KIND — that consists of about half starch & vegetables and half cooked, unadulterated meat. Do not add salt, do not add sugar.

Veggies can be cooked to soften them. I zap a few handfuls of frozen vegetables in the microwave until they’re just al dente. Then I chop them in the food processor or blender. If the dog was in the wild, it would eat the vegetative matter found in its prey’s stomach; so, imagine vegetables that have been chewed and partly digested (which is what cooking does to them).

Sweet potatoes and yams are very good. Dogs like them & they’re full of vitamins. Cut a sweet potato into several chunks and microwave until soft all the way through. Be sure it’s cool before feeding it to the dog. I count sweet potatoes as a kind of starch, but I’ve been known to add it to rice and pretend it’s a vegetable.

IMHO, meat should be cooked; my veterinarian concurs in this theory. Hamburger is the easiest, because you don’t have to cut it up. Chicken thighs are easy, because a thigh has only one bone to remove.

ALWAYS remove any bones in the meat you feed a dog. Do not feed a dog cooked bones of any kind. It’s preferable not to give them bones, period.

Dogs need a source of calcium. They are not evolved to digest dairy products, although some do OK with hard cheese or yogurt. In the wild they would obtain calcium by consuming bones and cartilage. You can provide calcium in vitamin pills — use vitamins made for dogs, available in pet stores and veterinaries. You sometimes can find these at Trader Joe’s at a much better price.

The main thing is not to feed them junk food, packaged human snacks, sweets, or stuff from fast-food restaurants. In a pinch you could order a dry hamburger and give the dog the meat patty, but bear in mind that restaurant food is heavily salted and may contain onions, neither of which is good for the dog. Do not feed deep-fried foods. Some fat is desirable, but the meat of domesticated cows, hogs, and chickens is much higher in fat than wild game, and so your dog should get enough fat from plain baked or water-cooked meat.

Some dogs, cutely, will lap beer. Never allow this. Alcohol is toxic to dogs. It’s toxic to humans, too: that’s why we call it inTOXICated.

Otherwise, it’s pretty easy. Don’t feed the dog anything you wouldn’t eat (or that you know better than to be eating), and don’t feed it onions, garlic, or chocolate. Everything else is fair game. As it were.

I have to say that in the past I had C-diff. Never had anything like it before. My dentist had given me an antibiotic due to the work being done on my teeth. Anyway a day latter I had the worse case of diarrhea ever. I was scarred. Went to my family dr. and he told me it came from the antibiotic given to me and I needed to take an antimicrobial drug called metronidazole (Flagyl) to eliminate C. difficile. Also, told me to take Culturelle, a probiotic. All this worked and cleared up in no time. In fact, I was told anytime I need an antibiotic to make sure I take Culturelle at the same time to prevent this from happening. My puppy is now taking metronidazole with a probiotic. Just started this. Hope to see the results soon.

I understand diarrhea can be caused by various things and from doctors and researching what vets had to say on line I feel, hopefully, this will clear things up.

In the past with previous pets, I’ve had holistic vets tell me to put them on raw meat. I disagreed with this after realizing that bacteria in uncooked meats can be dangerous. So much info. out there it’s hard to sort through it all.

I had been giving my dogs some foods I prepare for my family cause I’m very careful about diet due to serious health problems in my family. So I only give them what I know is healthy. However, the controversy out there about giving commercial dog foods by various companies is mind boggling.

Appreciate the list of foods you mentioned and I will certainly incorporate them into my puppy’s diet as soon as all this mess is over with.

Thanks

If your pup still has diarrhea, please take him back to the vet immediately! And give him the antibiotics the vet prescribes. If you distrust your present veterinarian, find another one.

Don’t try to change your dog’s food if he has severe diarrhea. Changing from one brand of dog food to another or from dog food to real food is likely to cause more intestinal problems.

In my experience, feeding my dogs a wide variety of real food — by that, I mean something that I would eat myself, not commercial pet food — does not cause diarrhea, once the animal is accustomed to eating real food. You can expect that abruptly stopping the use of dog food will cause some mild gollywobbles; this passes in a day or two.

All of my dogs have had diets that include beef, pork, lamb, chicken, duck, canned salmon, canned tuna, rice, bread, pasta, quinoa, oatmeal, potatoes, yogurt, cheese, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, peas, yams, squash. Once the dog is accustomed to eating actual food, shifting ingredients that are real food does not seem to cause any gastric distress. Because I buy what’s on sale, Cassie’s food changes frequently. Her gut functions quite normally all the time.

I’m not a veterinarian, but IMHO you should keep your pup on whatever you’re feeding until he is completely well. Then if you decide to change his diet, do it slowly. But don’t try it until you’re sure he’s over what’s ailing him. If you decide to feed him real food, be sure the stuff is cooked. The fact that a dog can contract C. difficile, which is increasingly common in factory-farmed meats, demonstrates that you should avoid feeding raw meat.

Problem is I don’t know what to feed him at this time. First I thought his problem might be coming from the so-call superior puppy foods I’v bought until I found out that C-Diff was causing his diarrhea.

I guess my question is I’ve read the article about giving him people food, but my confusion comes in when I read that change in foods (even puppy and dog foods) must be a gradual process. So, if I start giving him different people foods will that upset his stomach with so much variety and turnover of different foods?

Sometimes you can get those fatty lamb chops on megasale–not the succulent little three-bite gems but the flat ones that look like little chuck roasts and are kind of rubbery when you grill them. If you can score these on sale, the price isn’t too blinding. Also, lamb neck bones are generally cheap. They have a lot of meat on them–simmer them in some water until the meat falls off the bone and you have both meat and wonderful lamb broth.

Avoid canned broths because they’re full of salt and usually have onion in them. Onion is really bad for dawgs.

Some dogs, like some humans, are allergic to wheat. See if the dog can tolerate rice. All my pooches have liked yams & sweet potatoes, too–these also are apparently low on the allergen scale.