Dog food for Westies with sensitive stomachs

A Westie with a history of both skin and gut reactions to artificial additives is actually a pretty well-defined problem — Westies are already prone to skin sensitivity, and when you add a digestive system that's also reacting to synthetic colours, preservatives, or flavour enhancers, you end up with a dog that needs a genuinely clean ingredient list, not just one that's marketed as 'natural.' Sensitive stomach issues generally fall into food intolerance, a reaction to specific ingredients, or a gut that does better on simpler food — and for your dog it sounds like the middle category, with additives as the trigger. To point you in the right direction: how old is he or she exactly, what symptoms are showing up most — skin flare-ups, loose stools, vomiting, gas? — and what foods have you already tried or ruled out?

That pattern — loose stools paired with paw and ear itching — is very consistent with additive sensitivity in Westies. The ear and paw involvement especially points to something systemic rather than just a straightforward upset stomach, and supermarket foods almost universally contain the artificial preservatives and colourings that tend to be the culprit. The vet own-brand dry foods can be better formulated but they're not always additive-free. A couple of quick questions before I give you a recommendation: is she on any grain-free diet already, or has she eaten grain-containing food throughout? And is her weight roughly normal for a Westie — around 7 to 9 kg — or is she on the lighter or heavier side?

That's helpful — she's a good weight and the grain question matters because some dogs do fine with grains and some don't, but given that her reactions seem tied to additives rather than grains specifically, I wouldn't necessarily go grain-free just for the sake of it. What I would do is move her to a food with a short, transparent ingredient list and absolutely nothing synthetic. My recommendation is Forthglade Natural Complete Grain Free wet food — the chicken with potato and veg variety. It's a single named protein source, no artificial preservatives, no added colours or flavour enhancers, and the wet format is generally easier on a sensitive gut than kibble. Forthglade is made in the UK, genuinely additive-free, and it's well-regarded specifically for dogs with this kind of dual skin-and-gut sensitivity. For a 7-year-old Westie at 8kg, you're looking at roughly one and a half to two trays a day depending on activity level. It's available in multipacks on Amazon UK and the price per tray is reasonable. I'd give it a solid four weeks before judging — skin improvements always take longer than gut improvements to show up.

It's a fair question and the honest answer is: it depends on the dog, but wet food does have some real advantages for sensitive stomachs. The higher moisture content means easier digestion and less strain on the gut, and wet foods tend to have fewer preservatives because the cooking and sealing process does the preservation work that chemicals do in dry food. For a dog like yours — where you suspect additives are driving the problem — wet food removes a whole layer of likely culprits. Dry food isn't automatically bad, but clean grain-free kibble at the same quality level tends to be more expensive and harder to find without some compromise in the ingredient list. If you ever want to switch to dry, Forthglade also do a dry range, but I'd start with the wet, get her stable, and then decide whether you want to stay there or transition.

Definitely transition gradually — actually more so for a dog with a sensitive stomach, not less. A slow switch reduces the chance of a flare-up masking the new food's real effect. Spend about ten days moving across: start with around 20% new food mixed into 80% old, and every two to three days shift the ratio further. By day ten you should be on 100% Forthglade. If you see a loose stool spike during the transition, slow down rather than pushing through. Once she's fully transitioned, give it another three to four weeks before assessing the skin — gut changes often show within the first two weeks, but the paw and ear irritation will take longer to settle if the additive load is what's been driving it.