Is Your Canine Feeling Under the Weather? FiveSibes Canine Cooking Corner Presents Boiled Chicken & Rice (BCR) Stew.

Is your canine companion feeling under the weather? Has tummy troubles suddenly reared their ugly heads? It's no wonder with all the crazy weather we've been having across the country this year. Just like their hu-family, our furbabies have some "blah" days where they don't feel well. Recently, upset tummies, Giardia, and ear yeast infections have made their rounds to several of our FiveSibes, where they are either afflicted with vomiting or diarrhea, or both, thus resulting in one or more being put on a bland diet of boiled chicken and rice. Some have asked me just how we prepare ours so the Sibes eat it. So this week, we will be featuring what we refer to as BCR Stew, for our Canine Cooking Corner (which is now a monthly Tuesday feature).


To give an overview, when stomach distress hits, I always check in with my vet. Depending on the diagnosis,  with most average tummy troubles your vet may suggest withholding food for a day to give the intestinal tract a rest. But always be sure to keep fresh water around to avoid dehydration. However, for us, since one of our Sibes is on medication and gets very sick if he doesn't take his pills with food, so I go right to the BCR diet and do not withhold food from him. The BCR diet means no fat or oils at all. We use fresh chicken (breast or thighs) cooked in water only.

In most mild cases of stomach upset, the BCR diet helps to calm down the intestines and tum-tum, and aids in stopping diarrhea. If your furbaby still won't eat, as was the case of my Gibson and Bandit a few weeks back, I put the chicken pieces into a food processor and whirled them up into an almost chicken paste. Added that to the rice and fed them a little bit at a time by hand. A hint for the rice I got from my own vet is to have it as starchy as you can get it. If you have a steamer, that works great. If you microwave it, it's a bit of a trial-an-error to get to the perfect rice consistency. After quite a bit of practice, I have discovered that two cups of uncooked rice (not instant) plus four-and-a-half cups of water (for microwaving) seems to work best. The reason for the regular rice versus instant? The regular rice is starchier, while the instant rice will go right through them, which defeats the whole purpose of the BCR diet.

After not having symptoms for a 48-hour period, we reintroduced dry kibble (a little at a time) into the BCR, eventually upping the amount until back to normal amounts of kibble are achieved with no ill side effects. But please, always be certain of why your dog is sick to begin with by discussing it with your veterinarian.

We hope pets everywhere are feeling just fine - and here's wishing for a little more stable weather (snow is OK, wind and ice can just blow away!)  Join in our hop, and if you have a home remedy for an ailing pet, please feel free to share. Until next time - stay healthy!

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Comments

  1. Great advice! Mom gives me rice done by the steamer once in awhile too. It's not only yummy, but it keeps my tummy problems away as well. :)

    I hope the weather there gets better soon! Our weather here in Singapore isn't that bad.

    Woofs,
    Pepsi

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  2. Our humans eat rice everyday and so they have a rice cooker which is pretty much easy for them to cook rice.

    Hope all the fivesibes are all well now.

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  3. this was a great post! we are big fans of bcr here and would also recommend it- Isis is an iron gut but RA is so finicky to begin with and is prone to the siber-upset-tummy. cheers!

    oh ps, we love the snow fall on your page!!

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  4. We do chicken and rice a lot here for Phantom. The picky boy doesn't always eat it, but when he does, we can tell he enjoys it. We had a rough weekend with him and a sick tummy, but he seems better this week.

    It's snowing here:) Hopefully no ice or wind.

    Woos ~ Phantom, Thunder, and Ciara

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  5. We had to do chicken and rice for about two weeks here when Riley had the loose stools for so long. Our cooking method is similar to yours. I'm so glad she's back on kibble again!

    Elyse and Riley

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  6. I was sick for about two weeks back in January. I ate lots of chicken and rice. It is no fun being sick!

    Your pal, Pip

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  7. Rice and chicken! Super yummy!
    Thankfully I almost never have tummy problems but my grandma gives me chicken with veggies soup every day at noon, and sometimes she adds rice too!
    Thanks for all the info.
    Kisses and hugs
    Lorenza

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  8. Thanks for the great post.:)

    Love,
    Teddy Bear

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  9. Great advice! Thanks! We seem to be having a time lately and running back and forth to the vet. It really has been a bad winter. Lots of love, Holly and mom

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  10. great post. I think if I wasn't home with C&L all day long they may be depressed. It's been a long winter and they both hate to go out when it's cold.

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  11. Whoa! Sounds yummy. My Human said she used to have a doggie with a sensitive tummy and cooked that rice and chicken broth for him.

    I have food allergies and now that they've found a food that works for me guess they'd have to put me on starvation. Hope I never get an upset!

    Y'all come by now,
    Hawk aka BrownDog

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  12. Excellent advice - I love the idea of a monthly cooking segment :)

    I hope everyone's better soon - nothing worse than a sick baby.

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  13. woooo great post thanks for this. As you know I often get that Sibe tummy and love my chicken and rice. In fact hu'mum thinks I have it on purpose as I love chicken so much :)

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