Hills Rx i/d Stress Stew -- need to switch?

[Ruby'sOwner]

Hi, everyone,

I'm glad to have found this forum. My 14-year-old dachshund Ruby (10 lbs.) was diagnosed with EPI almost a year ago. Since then, she's been on Hills Rx i/d Stress Stew (with powder enzymes and B12), which is expensive, but I've kept her on it, because she seemed to be doing pretty well. But in the past few months this food has become harder to get. I have repeat delivery from Petco, and they've had to cancel my past 2 orders due to no stock. I'm now down to just 12 days left of food. I can sometimes get it from my vet, but they're not guaranteed to have it (and it's even more expensive from them). Does anyone have recommendations for similar foods? Or foods you've had success switching your dog to from a Rx food? Many thanks for your input.

[Tuckaboo Pam]

Hi, Rebecca. That is tough, when you can't find their food anywhere. I've had luck with Sport Dog Food Elite, but my Tucker is 67 pounds. I'm not sure if that makes a difference. He eats the herding dog recipe, and he does really well on it. I'm sure you'll get some more answers soon. ----Pam

[jilbert57]

Hi Rebecca, you might want to do some googling on the Hills prescription i/d. They were having recall issues on the stew a year ago and I am not sure if they ever got it completely resolved and that might be why it is not always readily available. This is from 2019 . If they got it resolved no problem.

https://todaysveterinarybusiness.com/hi ... -dog-food/

https://www.avma.org/javma-news/2020-02 ... procedures

Not sure if Hills is still trying to figure it out.

Most Epi dogs do better on grain free and fiber 4% or lower, but if your pup does ok with grain then you would have more latitude if switching

Jill

[Olesia711]

Hi Rebecca,

Hmmm..... this is Interesting...... i just looked up the ingredients of Hills Rx i/d Stress Stew food and it has a LOT of fiber in it.... which is usually geared towards fixing gut flora imbalance in a dog.... unfortunately with many EPI dogs, if you give too much fiber in a food, it messes with the efficacy of the enzymes and instead of helping them it tends to give them loose stools all the time.... SOOOOOOOooooo.... Ruby appears to be one of the lucky one where she can actually tolerate a lot of fiber and it sounds like she actually benefits from it. SInce you are having such difficulty accessing this food... maybe try another gastrointestinal food (prescription) that also addresses gut flora???? Talk to your vet, see if they have any recommendations? in the meantime... i'll see if i can come up with any suggestions..... OR..... instead of going prescription... you can try the smallest bag possible of non-prescription dog food with similar ingredients & ratio of composition.....

[Olesia711]

here's some to look at that appears similar to what you are feeding, but whether these would work, i honestly have no idea...like i said, many EPI dogs tend to do better with less fiber content.....but since your experience is different maybe wone of these might work..... buti would start with a very small bag first:
1. Purina ONE Probiotics, Natural Dry Dog Food; Smartblend Digestive Health Formula - 31.1 lb. Bag (i think some others have had luck with Purina One)
2. Forza10 Nutraceutic Active Line Intestinal Support Diet Dry Dog Food

[Madelon]

Just wanted to check in. - have you found something similar yet? It's so frustrating when you can't get the food you need or they change the formulation of the food. I've gone through it twice and I have a really sensitive boy. Hope you've had luck finding something. Please keep us posted.

[Ruby'sOwner]

Thank you all so much for taking the time to reply to me. My vet is recommending we switch to another Hill's Rx diet (Microbiome), but there seem to be some supply issues with a lot of Hill's products, so I'm checking out the other forum recommendations for backup plans. Thanks again for all of your help.

[Olesia711]

Good luck... it is so hard when you have to change foods to find one that agrees. Whichever food you do decide to go with, what we do suggest is to first try the smallest bag or smallest amount possible to see if it does agree with your dog's digestive system.

The first consideration is finding a product with agreeable ingredients... but then sometimes the issue is how much or how little (%'s) of certain ingredients are in the food that can make a difference.

Paws and fingers crossed that you find an agreeable food sooner rather than later .....Please keep us posted!

[Ruby'sOwner]

Thanks so much!

[Ruby'sOwner]

Thanks so much!