What to do when your dog suffers from "sensitive intestines".

Note: Farm Food Fresh is not yet available in the UK. Where Farm Food Fresh Complete is mentioned you can change 20% of the Farm Food HE with the double amount of raw unwashed tripe

"Sensitive intestines" are an increasingly occurring problem. More and more dogs seem to suffer after eating ‘something wrong' or constantly suffer from diarrhoea and/or thin stool. If you take the dog to the vet, you will often hear the veterinarian say that it is best to switch to a "light food". In our experience this is the wrong advice and will usually make the symptoms worse.

What causes "sensitive intestines"?

Dogs were originally hunters and/or scavengers and are able to digest almost anything that they eat. Dogs typically eat the bowels of the prey first, this contains all kinds of bacteria. This helps them to maintain rich, stable intestinal flora.

However, more and more so-called modified food is being added to the typical household diet. Such as food that includes rice with lamb and/or chicken, and which is easy to digest. This food is extruded and/or expanded. As result it hardly contains any bacteria which the intestinal flora requires to process the modified food.

This has a negative effect on the intestinal flora, and causes the intestines to be easily upset. The food can no longer be broken down in the small intestine, and as a result undigested food ends up in the large intestine. Here all kinds of fermenting processes occur which in turn destroy the flora in the large intestine. So, if a dog eats ‘something wrong' the dog usually ends up suffering.

An intestinal infection, antibiotics treatment and especially worms can destroy the intestinal flora. It is important to make sure your dog is regularly wormed.

How to help the "sensitive intestines" recover.

As mentioned above, the heart of the problem lies in poor intestinal flora. The solution lies in working towards achieving stable, balanced intestinal flora. The dog can regain a stable intestinal flora if given Farm Food Fresh Tripe and Heart complete. It is important that the Tripe and Heart complete contains enough green tripe to help build up and maintain the intestinal flora. To preserve the bacteria the meat must be raw (unheated, and not thawed out in the microwave).

Depending on the condition of the "sensitive intestines" you have two options. You can immediately give the meat completely raw, or if the dog suffers from severe symptoms of diarrhoea you give the meat slightly cooked.  To slightly cook the meat you leave the meat to thaw at room temperature and before giving it to the dog immerse it in boiling water for just an instant, this prevents the meat from being completely raw. Let it cool off, before you give it to the dog. After a few days you can give the food completely raw. Give Farm Food Fresh for 5 to 7 days before you switch to FARM FOOD HE.

During the first month, in addition to giving FARM FOOD HE, give FARM FOOD FRESH complete (Tripe and Heart complete or Beef complete) at least once a day. After this period, give it at least once a month. And young dogs should receive it one every two weeks. This helps your dog to maintain a healthy, balanced intestinal flora.

Once the dog's intestinal flora are in a healthy order again, you can offer it FARM FOOD HE to ensure it receives a balanced diet, and will prevent your dog from suffering if it eats ‘something wrong'. To help maintain healthy intestinal flora, make sure to give your dog Farm Food Fresh. In most cases the dog will no longer suffer from intestinal problems.

Note: Farm Food Fresh is not yet available in the UK. Where Farm Food Fresh Complete is mentioned you can change 20% of Farm Food HE with the double amount of raw unwashed tripe. 

Since Farm Food Fresh Complete has all the nutrients for a complete and healthy meal the raw unwashed tripe is not complete. Therefore Farm Food HE can be used as a basis to create a 'do it yourself' Farm Food Fresh Complete substitute.

50 grams of Farm Food HE compares to 100 grams Farm Food Fresh. A dog needs at least 75% of the nutrients from Farm Food HE to get a complete meal, the rest of the meal should be substituted with raw unwashed tripe to stimulate the intestinal flora.

So if you would give a dog 100 grams (example!) Farm Food HE per meal (but wanted to feed your dog FF Fresh Complete instead) you can give 80 grams Farm Food HE and 40 grams raw unwashed tripe (you doubled the 20%).