Stop Feeding Your Dog Chicken and Rice!

Boiled chicken and rice has been a staple veterinary recommendation as a bland food for dogs with GI upsets for decades. And I am finally at my breaking point with this! For the love of all that is good and holy, stop feeding boiled chicken and rice to your dogs with diarrhea and vomiting!

Now I can hear you thinking that chicken and rice has worked for your dog in the past. In fact, it may have even worked for you when you had a stomach bug or indulged in too much spicy food! And it’s very easy to grab both at the store and boil up a big batch to last the 3 – 5 days your dog will need bland food. So what’s my beef with chicken and rice?

Let’s start with the rice. It is being recommended as a fiber source, which we know benefits a ticked off digestive system. But It only contains a little over a gram of fiber per cup of cooked rice! Rice breaks down into sugar, which we know promotes inflammation. Does it make sense to increase inflammation in a compromised system?

We are also concerned about the level of arsenic in rice. Arsenic is a toxic trace mineral, and can be found in all types of rice and rice based products. You can learn more here.

When our dogs have diarrhea and/or vomiting, we are concerned about dehydration, electrolyte loss, and of course the lack of nutrients being absorbed. Many dogs do not want to eat when they are sick, so we need something that not only appeals to their nauseous system, but also can be digested and absorbed by the compromised digestive tract.

Enter the better option: pumpkin. Canned pumpkin (plain pumpkin, not pie filling with the spices), has almost six times the fiber contained in rice! And most importantly pumpkin is high in soluble fiber, the type that forms a gel that can coat and soothe the irritated tissues. It also slows stomach emptying, which lessens diarrhea. Pumpkin is also rich in potassium, which is lost in diarrhea. Low potassium can cause cramping, increasing your dog’s nauseousness.

Another super solution is dehydrated carrot. I prefer the Olewo brand. These are not a replacement for pumpkin, but rather an additional source of easily digestible nutrients and intestinal soothers. They can be useful as a topper to kibble to enhance digestive health, and address mild soft stool.

As far as meat goes, is chicken the best choice? It is often higher in fat than other meats — and no, boiling it does not remove all the fat. In fact, the overcooking that most people utilize to try to get the fat out is detrimental. Cooked fats are more likely to cause or worsen existing pancreatitis. They also tend to be high in advanced glycolation and lipoxidation end products, which are produced when fat is subjected to high heat cooking. These AGE’s and ALE’s are implicated in worsening of chronic disease and aging.

A better meat choice is turkey. It is naturally lower in fat than chicken and beef, and is readily available as a lean grind (93% lean or more) in most supermarkets. It need only be lightly cooked, minimizing the number of AGE’s/ALE’s created.

Of course when your dog has more than one episode of vomiting and/or diarrhea, you will phone your veterinarian for advice. If a bland diet is recommended, this is the protocol I follow: For a dog with diarrhea, I usually feed the pumpkin turkey mixture in 2 -3 meals per day, with the total amount about 75% of the amount of regular food the dog is usually fed. I aim for a 50% pumpkin 50% turkey mixture. Seek veterinary care immediately is your dog becomes lethargic, signs worsen in any way, or if your intuition is that something is not right.

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