Newbie so please be gentle lol. 13 month old yellow male. Sorry in advance if my descriptions are too much... Stools are soft, like soft ice cream. First to come out is formed nicely but then gets thin and there's a lot of it. He will usually go, move, go some more, move again, go more. It actually seems grainy or sandy. Anyway, he was on 1 cup 3x per day of Wellness Large Breed Puppy up until he was approx 10 months. Then switched to 2 cups 2x day Wellness Large Breed Adult. Stools seemed to get thin around that time. Have since tried several foods without significant improvement. Currently on Wellness Core Ocean Adult hoping a fish based LID food might help. He likes the food but like a typical lab, he likes everything. We give him one canine probiotic capsule each day. A few months ago he had gone thru diarrhea and blood in stools which our vet looked at him for. She initially put him on bland (prescription) food; used the whole bag without much improvement. Back to vet, she wanted to go to a hydrolized food but after looking at the cost I wanted to try the fish based first. Blood is gone and stool is better (not diarrhea) but looking back, we think that improvement might be due to eliminating elk antlers, which he was shredding into small flakes and eating, obviously. At this point he's getting only food, with a fish based protein biscuit each day. So anyone have any idea where we can go from here to get back to a better consistent stool? Or is this sometimes the way it is? He just goes SO MUCH and after a little bit it just strings out. Thanks very much for any help!
You are feeding him four cups a day....that seems a lot. Maybe its too much food for him to process? Just talking from my experience with Cooper....2-1/2 years old....I had him on 4 cups a day but vet cut him down to only 2 cups a day. True,he had to lose 5 pounds,and he has,but he is quite happy and active on 2 cups a day. He also gets a Greenie after dinner and two small milk bones during the day. Try cutting down on his food and see if that works. Also, I dont know where you live....I am in the United States. Cooper has no problem with his stool. He is on half and half of Blue Buffalo Wilderness Duck, and Orijen 6 Fish. He loooooves it. I can't imagine it being OK that he has such soft stools. If cutting down on the food doesn't help I would definitely take him back to the vet. Good luck.
I was going to agree with Yvonne. I'm not sure how much 4 cups is but that sounds like a lot. Stanley is on Canagan dog food - it recommends 425g a day but he gets 300g with 100g for his breakfast, a Kong for his dinner and the rest used as training rewards throughout the day. We used to give him more but he's poo's were soft so we reduced it and he seems better
Thanks both of you. Makes sense. I didn't draw the connection (duh) because he is nice and lean and his weight is stable. Plus, he's very active. I will try 1 cup 3x a day to start. I use his kibble, maybe a handful total, as training treats plus the other biscuit daily so maybe added up it's too much.
I was giving Cooper 4 cups a day PLUS a Greenie PLUS two LARGE Milk Bones. When I told the vet this (Cooper weighed in at 98 pounds!) she told me that ONE Large Milk Bone is equivalent to his dinner!!! I was shocked.....unfortunately dog treats do not show the calories, fats,etc. per piece. Sometimes I also would give him a bully stick and then found out they have 10 calories per inch!!! so that was also discontinued!!! Try one cup less of food a day and see if that helps or less grams. My dog food states cups so I go by that.....easier!
You could also try feeding raw meaty bones and raw meat. Snowie's poos are nice and hard and very compact. When he was about 6 months old, he pooed a lot. The trainer said I was probably feeding him too much. I was! He was also overweight -- I was in denial, I thought he was thin --- haha! When we reduced his food to the right quantity for him, he pooed half as much and became the right weight. However, I'd be concerned about permanently runny poos. I really think a vet's visit is required. He might have worms, for example.
Thank you. He has been at a vet for this, twice. The last time the vet wanted to try hydrolyzed food, thinking it was a protein allergy. She and I agreed to try lid foods without chicken.
Best of luck then. If it's a food allergy they are notoriously difficult to treat. Which is why we have our boy on raw food.
Fwiw after thinking more about how much kibble he's getting for training and general good boy stuff, plus biscuit, I'm going to try feeding one heaping cup 2x per day.
To help with loose stools I'd suggest more meals a day - not more food in total, but small amounts each time to help with digestion. The other thing would be to get a stool sample and ask your vet to check it, in case it's a bacterial infection.
If he is better on the current food you might just have to stay on it. Part of the problem is you may have changed foods too many times. Couple the food that is working pretty well now with more meals and a bit less food and that may help. You have lots of options going forward. What did his blood work say? My dog had low albumin which could have been a hint of the Lymphangiectasia he developed, a severe gut issue. He's better now and a plus, no longer itchy. Food allergies are quite rare in dogs. You might consider http://www.nutriscan.org/ to check on food intolerances. We did this one. Sounds like you are in the U.S. so it would be cheaper for you than it was for us. AS per our VEt we went to a single novel protein and carb, for us turkey and sweet potato, both cooked and month and a half long diarrhoea stopped right away. AS per Vet we also gave digestive enzymes https://www.pureformulas.com/rx-zyme-for-pets-powder-120-grams-by-rx-vitamins.html and a medical probiotic. ONe of the probiotics we used was http://www.entirelypets.com/fortifloradog.html. We did slowly go raw. If there is a food intolerance or allergy raw may help as it has fewer antigen sites than kibble. HOwever raw does still have antigen sites so a reaction may still occcur, it will likely just take longer to happen as antigen build up is cummualative and with raw having fewer they will build up in your dog more slowly. The links are just so you can see what we did and used. Everything we did was through our Vet and I suggest you do the same. Good luck. Oh, it is fairly normal for the second or third poop of the day to be a little softer than the first. Especially on a walk where excitement plays a part. WE used this chart so we and the Vets could know exactly what we meant when trying to describe the consistency of poop http://www.foothillpethospital.com/pet_info-fecalscoring.html
I moved to one heaping cup morning and night with a biscuit or snack bar at lunch and the early results are encouraging. "Things" are looking better. My thanks to all!
I did the same and cut his food down. Solid 99% of the time now, unless he gets the urge after a walk.
