Dachshund food intolerance & loose stools advice

Good news that your vet has already ruled out parasites — that narrows things down considerably. With a 9-year-old Dachshund showing loose stools and a suspected dietary trigger, you're most likely dealing with a food intolerance rather than a true allergy, though the practical fix is the same: an elimination diet using a novel or hydrolysed protein. True food allergies are actually less common than people think, but both respond well to switching away from proteins the dog has been exposed to over the years. To point you in the right direction — what are you currently feeding him or her, and how long have the loose stools been going on?

Three years on the same chicken kibble is actually really useful information — chicken is one of the most common dietary triggers in dogs precisely because they've been exposed to it so long. For an elimination diet to work properly you need to switch to a protein she has genuinely never eaten before, or a hydrolysed protein where the molecules are broken down small enough that the immune system doesn't react. Has she ever eaten fish, venison, or duck to your knowledge?

Perfect — fish is a great option then. For a 9-year-old Dachshund with an upset gut, I'd go with Forthglade Complete Meal Grain Free Adult Dog Food with Salmon. It's a wet food, which is gentler on a sensitive digestive system than dry kibble, it's single-protein so you're not muddying the elimination trial with multiple ingredients, and the salmon is a novel protein for her. Forthglade's recipes are also nutritionally complete, which matters at her age when you don't want to create deficiencies. You'd ideally feed it exclusively for 8–12 weeks — no treats, no table scraps, nothing else — to get a clean result. If the stools firm up within two to three weeks you'll have strong evidence that chicken or beef was the culprit.

Gradually is better, especially given she already has a sensitive stomach right now. Over about five to seven days: start with roughly 75% her current food and 25% the new Forthglade, then move to 50/50 for a couple of days, then 25% old and 75% new, then fully over. If her stools worsen at any point during the transition, slow it down rather than pushing through. One other thing worth noting — at nine, Dachshunds can also develop other gut sensitivities, so if she doesn't improve after a full 8-week trial on the salmon food, it's worth going back to your vet to discuss further investigation. But chicken as a trigger is genuinely one of the most common findings, so I'd be optimistic.

That's exactly the right approach — the key is being strict about it for the full duration, which is the part most people find hard. Keep a simple diary of stool consistency so you have something concrete to show your vet at follow-up. Good luck with her — Dachshunds are tough little dogs and she's lucky to have someone taking it seriously.