We all know how it goes; your pet has diarrhea, you call the vet and you get told to feed chicken and rice for a few days to clear up the diarrhea. But did you know, this recommendation could be doing more harm than good?
Chicken and rice was originally recommended as an alternative to fasting or resting the gut for 24 hours, and feeding a bland diet however this recommendation is outdated. While a bland diet still has its place, bland shouldn’t mean unbalanced or deficient in nutrition! We now have better options when it comes to treating acute cases of diarrhea, that are available over the counter and are far cheaper (both in the short and long term) than cooking chicken and rice for your pet.
So why don’t I recommend chicken and rice?
1. It’s not complete and balanced:
Chicken and rice is deficient in 17 essential nutrients! The diet itself lacks a fat source and if using just chicken breast, the diet is likely very deficient in protein and calcium. Proponents of chicken and rice state it’s fine in the short term, however, it’s important to remember this is a compromised patient! Feeding a nutritionally deficient diet to a patient recovering from illness has been shown time and time again to prolong the illness, and delays discharge. Because a deficient diet results in malnutrition (within as little as 24 hours) and fails to replace the nutrients lost in diarrhea, patients experience much poorer outcomes compared to those who have had adequate nutritional support during their illness. Chicken and rice contains almost no vitamin B12, has no electrolytes or a prebiotic fibre source – nutrients that are vitally important for healthy gastrointestinal function. By starving the gut of these nutrients further damage to the microbiome occurs and colonocytes (colonic cells) are starved of energy, resulting in mass apoptosis (death), further delaying recovery. These key nutrients need to be replaced or supplemented to support the pet’s recovery and prevent readmission to the hospital.
2. It lacks energy:
Chicken and rice is also significantly lacking in energy. When patients are unwell, their energy requirements are actually higher than a healthy pet at rest; for a patient in recovery from surgery or trauma, Resting Energy Requirements are multiplied by 1.25. Therefore, if we were to compare the energy needs of a healthy 10kg dog to a recovering 10kg dog, you actually need to feed significantly more calories to meet their needs; which is certainly a challenge when they are likely to be inappetant!
For example, a 10kg healthy dog needs around 393kcal per day at a minimum (resting). If that same dog was sick, their daily caloric intake actually increases to 492kcal. Now lets put that in the context of feeding chicken and rice vs a commercial food.
Chicken breast contains around 165kcal/100g and white rice contains 130kcal/100g. So to meet a sick pet’s energy needs, this pet must eat 160g of white rice and one chicken breast (175g) per day. Keeping in mind this isn’t actually meeting their nutritional requirements, this is just getting calories in – while contributing to malnutrition since this diet is deficient in 17 essential nutrients (as per above).
If you compare this to feeding a commercially prepared recovery or gastrointestinal diet (labelled for a high energy density), a 10kg dog would only need 1 standard sized can (360-400g) per day and as this diet is complete and balanced, it will support recovery and provide all the necessary nutrients the pet needs. Plus, commercial diets also have the added benefit of being tested for palatability, to encourage sick pets to eat – chicken and rice generally falls flat where palatability is concerned since it lacks fat and doesn’t have a lot of smell or seasoning. You’ll often find pets just eating the chicken…and leaving the rice behind – missing out on half their calorie needs.
3. It’s costly to make:
As mentioned above, chicken and rice is low in energy density which increases the cost needed to both secure the ingredients aswell as to balance it. For the patient used in the example above, let’s have a look at costs:
Chicken breast costs $14 per kg, therefore 175g costs $2.45. Microwave rice costs $1 per 100g, so 160g is $1.60. Total ingredients cost per meal is $4.05 (without any supplements to balance the recipe). Now let’s imagine we use the BalanceIT Canine vitamin mix – for this recipe, you’ll need 3 & 1/8 teaspoons (7.5g) so this costs $11.68 AUD per 20g pouch (not including shipping from the US) – therefore the supplement cost for this recipe is $4.38 AUD. Therefore the total cost of one meal would be $8.43.
For 1 standard can (360-400g) of gastrointestinal food, you’ll pay around $6 a can, depending and all the nutrients necessary are present, to get your pet back to their usual self.
For less than it costs to balance chicken and rice, you can feed your pet a perfectly balanced diet with zero prep time that is actually clinically proven to support their recovery – getting them back to their regular diet with minimal issues, because feeding chicken and rice…
4. Can make the problem worse:
Chicken is one of the most common food allergens in pets – although food allergies are considered rare in comparison to environmental allergies (food allergies only account for around 10% of all allergies in pets), a cause of GI upset can be food sensitivities or intolerances and should always be considered if the pet has regular flare ups or a ‘sensitive stomach’.
Therefore, feeding a diet that contains chicken is likely to cause further gastrointestinal distress and potentially prolong the recovery time of the pet. More often than not, I have pet parents report their pet didn’t improve on chicken and rice and is continuing to have diarrhea, sometimes having significantly worse diarrhea, which is where you would suspect a food sensitivity. In these cases its better instead to consider an elimination diet early, to prevent recurrent issues and further delay recovery. A food elimination trial is the only method by which a food allergy can be diagnosed.
If the patient has a more serious gastrointestinal disease underlying, such as a protein-losing enteropathy or pancreatitis, chicken and rice is an inappropriate diet. Why? Because each gastrointestinal disease will have a different nutrient profile required for treatment; for example, dietary protein requirements increase in protein-losing enteropathy meaning the amount of chicken described above is unlikely to actually meet their protein requirements, even if it provides sufficient energy. Dietary fat needs to be kept to a minimum during gastrointestinal dysfunction, as malabsorbed fatty acids and bile acids can further cause secretory diarrhea. Depending on whether the small or large bowel is involved in the diarrhea will also depict what types and combinations of fibres will work best – rice is a relatively poor source of dietary fibre and doesn’t have the best combination of fibre types necessary to support diarrhea. For these reasons, chicken and rice can often worsen diarrhea, particularly if there’s another underlying GI disease.
5. It can cause long term issues:
Often pets will actually like the taste of chicken and rice, and it becomes increasingly difficult to transition the patient back onto their regular diet, and refuse to eat anything else! Even if offering chicken and rice in the ‘short term’ (2-3 days), it can be hard to reintroduce regular food – the change in itself can be enough to trigger a return of diarrhea (if the patient did indeed improve on chicken and rice) meaning the owner is now trapped in a vicious cycle of chicken and rice, transition, diarrhea, back to chicken and rice…etc etc. I’ve had patients who have been stuck in this endless cycle for years where they either have or will eventually have serious malnutrition and nutritional diseases as a result of the numerous deficiencies in the diet. Plus, this means we never ever get to the root cause of the diarrhea – therefore the patient could go on for years with a life-limiting disease, suffering silently in pain.
We know that eating any unbalanced diet long term can result in a serious illness and malnutrition, but where chicken and rice is concerned, the most serious one to be concerned about is calcium; both calcium and vitamin D are extremely deficient in chicken and rice, placing this patient at high risk for bone deformities, rubber-jaw disease, nutritional secondary hyperparathyroidism, seizures and folding fractures among other things.
So what do I recommend instead?
1. Probiotics and Prebiotics:
Dysbiosis, an imbalance of the good and bad bacteria in the gut, often occurs alongside or causes diarrhea. One way dysbiosis is remedied is through the addition of good bacteria, to out-compete the bad bacteria and induce a healthy balance, through the use of probiotics. It’s important to use a veterinary product that has been clinically proven to support your dog or cats unique microbiome, not a human or DIY product. The other way we can remedy dysbiosis is through prebiotic fibre; this has a two pronged affect, both adding fibre to bulk and bind the stools and adding prebiotics to selectively feed the good bacteria in the gut (and starving the bad). Some probiotic supplements will also contain a prebiotic, so check your labels. There’s many others, so always seek your vet’s recommendation for a probiotic that is specific to your pet’s situation, when looking for a veterinary probiotic supplement. Switching to a diet that contains prebiotic fibre is also worth considering, particularly if your pet is experiencing other issues associated with a lack of fibre (anal glands issues, constipation, etc) – for this, I recommend Hill’s Gastrointestinal Biome or Royal Canin Gastrointestinal High Fibre, which both contain the perfect blend of soluble and insoluble fibre to feed the good bacteria in the gut.
2. Gastrointestinal diets:
In place of chicken and rice, I recommend using a commercially available gastrointestinal food that is both complete and balanced aswell as formulated to target gastrointestinal upsets. They contain the key nutrients lost in diarrhea, aswell as a high energy density to help promote recovery. These diets are designed to be fed both short and long term, so if you can’t transition off the food or prefer not to, your pet is still get perfectly balanced nutrition. Some examples of diets that can be used are Hill’s Prescription Diet I/d, Royal Canin Gastrointestinal and ProPlan EN. It’s also important to note that Hills I/d and ProPlan EN are safe for growth aswell as the specially formulated Royal Canin Gastrointestinal Puppy and Kitten diets. You can also use recovery foods such as Hills Prescription Diet A/d, Royal Canin Recovery or ProPlan CN however some of these aren’t indicated for long term feeding – reach for these in cases of pets who are refusing to eat all together while experiencing an episode. Some over the counter diets may also be suitable for both short and long term feeding, such as Royal Canin Digestive Care or Hill’s Sensitive Skin and Stomach.
3. No treats and feed regular diet:
If you aren’t prepared to switch diets, there’s a very simple solution; stop all treats and feed only the pet’s regular food. In the vast majority of cases, an acute bout of diarrhea is due to the introduction of a new treat or diet without appropriate transition/introduction, or overindulging! If they improve quickly, the addition of treats (either new treats or too many) was the likely culprit – but if the patient does not improve at all or become worse, we need to consider a diet change in the long term as the pet’s current diet may be the underlying cause or it warrants further investigation.
4. Investigate the issue:
Rarely do pets have diarrhea for no reason – common causes of diarrhea can be a sudden change in diet, the addition of a new treat or supplement, stress, food sensitivities, dysbiosis, a lack of fibre in the diet or parasites. Less common but still important to consider is inflammatory bowel diseases, food allergies or medical conditions so it’s important to try and determine the cause of the diarrhea with your vet before reaching to self-medicate.
Vets! Do you still recommend chicken and rice? Why or why not? Did this post change your mind? Let us know your thoughts below!
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https://www.myhillsvet.com.au/blog/beyond-chicken-and-rice/
https://aussiepooch.com.au/blogs/news/why-chicken-rice-is-one-of-the-worst-things-to-feed-a-sick-dog
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