My Dog Got Sick – Time for Homemade Help
So, yeah, my buddy Max wasn’t feeling too hot last week. Just lying around, no energy, wouldn’t touch his regular kibble. Vet said it was just a bug, but he needed something super easy on his stomach to get his strength back. They mentioned those pricey prescription recovery foods, but I figured, hey, I can probably whip something up myself, right? Keep it simple.
Figuring Out What to Make
I did a quick search, you know, just typed in stuff like “what to feed sick dog.” Lots came up, but the main thing everyone seemed to agree on was bland food. Like, really bland. Think boiled chicken and plain rice. No spices, no oils, nothing fancy. Sounded doable.
I remembered having some chicken breast in the freezer and a bag of white rice in the pantry. Perfect. Didn’t even need a trip to the store. Some people mentioned sweet potatoes too, which I had, but I decided to start with just chicken and rice. Keep it super basic first.
Getting Down to Cooking
Okay, so the actual process was pretty straightforward.
- I grabbed two chicken breasts, rinsed them off, and just tossed them into a pot of water.
- Brought it to a boil, then let it simmer until the chicken was cooked all the way through. No salt, no pepper, nothing. Just plain boiled chicken.
- While that was simmering away, I got the rice going. Just a cup of white rice with two cups of water, cooked it like normal, again, zero seasoning.
- Once the chicken was done, I pulled it out of the water (saved some of that broth, just in case!) and let it cool down a bit so I wouldn’t burn my fingers.
- Then, the fun part: shredding the chicken. I used two forks, pulled it all apart into small, easy-to-eat pieces. Max isn’t a huge dog, so smaller bits are better.
- The rice finished up, nice and fluffy.
I mixed the shredded chicken and the plain rice together in his bowl. Probably about two parts rice to one part chicken, just to be gentle on his tummy. It didn’t look like much, honestly, pretty boring stuff.
The Moment of Truth
I took the bowl over to Max. He lifted his head, gave it a sniff. He didn’t exactly dive in, which worried me for a second. So, I remembered reading about warming it up slightly or adding broth. I splashed a little bit of that plain chicken broth I saved onto the food and stirred it in. The warmth seemed to make it smell a bit more appealing, I guess.
He gave it another sniff… and then he started eating! Slowly at first, but he ate it. Success! It was such a relief to see him eat something.
I fed him small amounts of this chicken and rice mixture for the next couple of days, maybe three or four small meals instead of his usual two big ones. Slowly, he started getting his energy back. After about three days, I started mixing a tiny bit of his regular kibble back into the chicken and rice, gradually increasing the kibble and decreasing the homemade stuff until he was back on his normal food.
Worked like a charm. Way cheaper than the vet food, and honestly, pretty easy to make. Just boiled chicken and rice. Sometimes the simple stuff is the best.
