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Poor Dre has changed foods more times than he's changed underwear.

Dre dog waits patiently for his turkey to boil.

We started by feeding him Nature's Variety; he never had solid stool and had a lot of gas. We even tried adjusting the amount with no luck.

We eventually started feeding him Taste of the Wild; it was better, but not perfect. But I noticed that he had a lot of excess energy-- lots of mouthing, jumping, chewing, pawing, wild eyes, and licking, licking, licking.

Luna, our shar pei /pit mix, experiences this excess energy when she eats kibble. And since it was clear that Andre was staying with us, we started switching him to raw. Plus, once you're used to cleaning up after a raw fed dog, cleaning up after a kibble fed dog is a major shock.

I'm pretty sure this was after the first surgery...

Started with raw chicken breast. Started adding in ground chicken leg quarters and he had a flare-up. We thought it was coincidental and more related to all the sticks he was eating.

Andre's flare-ups consist of lethargy, and either one or both of vomiting and/or liquid stool.

We tried again after he recovered, beginning with Bravo! frozen chicken, and he had another flare-up when we tried to add in the ground leg quarters again. He'd had so many rounds of antibiotics, anti-fungals, surgeries, was still underweight... we thought perhaps the bacterial load of raw was too much for him right now. I was hoping to get his immune system strengthened, get some weight on him, and then try again.

During each recovery period, he was given boiled chicken breast and either rice or starchy vegetables.

We went to kibble-- Wellness Core-- but, again, major case of the crazies.

Went to home cooked (chicken breast and vegetables), but it was so expensive. We tried adding in boiled leg quarters, another flare-up.

Back to kibble-- more crazies. We settled on a mix of kibble and boiled chicken breast with occasional veggies and bone meal.

He has done well on this for several weeks. However, he had several days of incontinence following dramatically increased water intake. It was likely stress of moving to a new house. But we're all keeping it in the backs of our minds.

And he never really gains any weight.

While Dre is currently healthy, I have gone to the vet and discussed a game plan. He felt like the most common thing it might be is a food intolerance-- perhaps chicken fat specifically, since that is what we've tried to increase each time he's had a flare-up.

We decided to start with a food trial. I have eased him off of kibble and onto boiled turkey. Tonight I began the switch back to raw-- Bravo! Turkey. We'll keep turkey kibble for Kongs and turkey treats. If he does well on this, we will try adding fats. If he handles other fats well, we'll try chicken fats and see if he tanks.

If he does NOT do well on the turkey, our next step is most likely round one of testing: the pancreas.

Fingers crossed.