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I'm looking for a small breed food for my dog that is at least seven. I got him from a shelter so I don't know his exact age.

He is currently on Purina Pro Plan. There has been some people claiming their dogs got sick and or died from this food. Some of it sounds like hype but I read about a family that lost two dogs in a month and a third one got sick but recovered. They have a fourth dog that did not get sick. The three that got sick were fed Purina PP and the forth was fed another brand. The vet does not know what caused the deaths/illness. Purina is investigating.

I wasn't too concerned and was going to wait and see but my DD's dog got sick yesterday. She also feeds Purina PP. It may not have anything to do with the food but we just lost our dog and my DD also lost hers so since I need to order more food I want to get something different.

I have done a lot of searching but I'm not sure what to get.

Thanks!!

There is a site I use to review the quality of dog-food.
I won’t break site-rules by posting a link, but if you google
dog food review and ratings
or
dog food advisor
you will find a site that has some excellent testing results on dog-food. I personally have used that site to select kibbles for my black labrador.
I generally select a food available locally that gets their top grade.

One idea is to get two food and feed alternatively. I sometimes worry that if my dog is not getting some nutrient from the single type he’s eating at the time, so by having one morning and one evening brand I sort-of cover the bases. I also occasionally add fresh meat to his meals.

Buy any type of cheap meat (my Lab gets ground turkey, pork, lamb and occasionally beef) and mix into it finely chopped carrots and whatever veggies are dog-friendly, along with some egg and healthy oil. I press this into ice-cube boxes and remove 2-3 per day for his evening meal, mixed with the kibbles.

We get exclusively Purina proplan Performance as recommended by the trainers and breeders. Something changed between when my Willy was a pup and getting our second Chocolate boy in Feb. Most got away from it. Due to a variety of reasons.
We currently are using Hills which is $$$$, but they are healthy strong muscular boys with shiny healthy fur, no ear issues etc. So we will stick with it for now.

When my Lucy developed allergies to corn and chicken and was still having issues with kibble that was supposed to be free of it was still contaminated enough to elicit a response. At that point she was 13 had survived cancer and I decided to do research and make her food from scratch.
She was then diagnosed with end stage kidney disease so more research and alternative things added to keep her healthy as long as possible. I am 💯% sure she lived as long as she did because of my making her food. She chewed bones so wasn't worried about soft food effecting her dental health.
I would make a 5 gallon bucket full every 2 weeks. Base was ground beef, and rice then lots of dog friendly veggies and fruit. Then I'd measure out single servings and freeze. It worked well and kept her healthy. Now she was my 3rd dog to ha e cancer end of life. It had given me pause to consider doing this for my boys now. I do think know if it's the food but it is the one co sostent thing they get their entire lives. My sister lost a dog last summer to cancer as well and she was young.
I'm still on the fence with it. But it would take me about 90 min to make 2 weeks worth. It wasn't awful and then I knew she was getting the right nutrients without it hurting her.

I wonder why so many dogs suffer from corn or chicken allergies. Commercial chicken feed is mostly ground corn with small grains and minerals added (we sell our crops of these grains exclusively to poultry plants). What I suspect is going on may be a couple of factors influencing dog health: the genetic changes in corn varieties to be "glyphosate resistant" along with genetic changes in chicken to produce broilers in 4 freakin' weeks!

Glyphosate residues are in so many foods now that it is hard to avoid, especially in whole grains commercially harvested. It's used (a) as weed control; the grains have been GMO'd to resist it, and (b) then it's applied to standing GMO'd crops to hasten ripening as the stalks succumb to the effect of glyphosate salt and day length shortening.

Contrary to the herbicide manufacturers' lobby, glyphosate is known to kill off gut bacteria in mammals, even if it does not directly cause cancer.

I quit feeding our GSD puppy chicken-based kibble or even training treats based on chicken, due to 2 ear infections in 10 months. We've switched him to salmon-based. I hope residues of other feeds in the manufacturer's plants aren't going to cause a problem for him, but I never even considered that possiblity!

It is such a hard job finding the right food, with all the research needed. (And even harder finding home-made training treats, apparently!) 😆

I can only say that I have to avoid any food with Lamb in it for my dogs. Gives them gas that that could use in basic training for soldiers. It has honestly made me do a house check to see if their is a mess that I cant find.
Blue buffalo is usually what I use. I have a 10 year old Beagle mix, a 7 year old terrier mix, and a 3 year old goldendoofus.

My other dogs died of old age. My first dog lived to be almost seventeen despite being fed Purina dog chow. There was no internet back then, no overload of information and misinformation. I had no idea what I was doing but he was happy, healthy and well behaved.

My eyes glaze over with all the information about dog food. I have used the site Bigger referred to in the past but there is controversy about the information they put out. I appreciate the suggestion!!

My vet just said to not feed grain free and switch to a senior food at 7-8.

My DD's retriever throws up when he eats food with chicken in it. It does seem like many dogs have issues with chicken.

My last dog ate grass like he was a horse and threw up all the time. I switched his food multiple times and cooked food and tried a combination. Nothing seemed to help and the vet didn't have an answer. He never lost weight and his bloodwork was always good until it wasn't.

The two brands I am considering are Hills and Royal Canin.

I 100% believe the chicken and corn allergy for my lab was secondary to her interest and extensive intake of corn feed for the chickens. She was obsessed with it. She would sneak the chick feed sneak into the chicken yard and couple and gobble up their feed. She developed the corn allergy first the chicken allergy second.
Excessive intake of corn feed started it all.

My vet just said to not feed grain free

This! I don't know how or why dog food manufacturers can still make this after all the research that's been done on the detriments of a grain-free diet and cardiac issues. I guess there are still enough people out there who haven't been told by their vets that this is a no-no.

I had our pooch at the veterinary cardiologist this week for his semi-annual check-up (he has valve disease) and one of the first things she asked me (it was a get-established appt since our move this summer) was what did we feed him. When I told her, she had her assistant go Google it to make sure it wasn't grain-free.

We have mostly fed him Taste of the Wild Ancient Mountain with Grains. A 28-lb bag runs about $60. It will last us for at least three months. We do also keep some Hills prescription food around for times when his tummy is upset. It's the i/d Digestive Care. And yes, as Tushnurse says, it's pricey. But again, we only use it when he won't eat his regular food, which tells us he's not feeling well. In the past week, we've had to give it to him for about five days because we moved out of our apt. into our new house, and he was just really stressed and was refusing to eat. He seems to be feeling better now.

Number 4, slight threadjack, but...
WOW, you did it! Moved into the newly renovated home!!

Wish you would post a story about it in OT when you get settled. 😀😀😀

I homecook but if you're using a commercial dog food check where the ingredients are sourced and then check the ingredient list itself. If they have corn in them, don't buy them. If it says meat byproduct or chicken byproduct don't buy that food, look up what meat byproduct is, it's disgusting. You want a high quality protein to be first. Some of the worst brands come from purina and science diet.

"If they have corn in them, don't buy them."

I have found this to not be true. The U of Penn has some good information on this.