Hi all, hoping for some advice please. I’m going to give a bit of a long story but hopefully it provides the whole picture and might help you figure out what’s going on. My boy Mylo is 12 weeks old today and is a fantastic little fella. He’s extraordinarily attentive and very well behaved for a puppy but perhaps that could change through adolescence! When we picked him up around 3 weeks ago the breeder who had several working dogs was feeding him very cheap commercial puppy food from the local farm shop. I think it was around £12 for about 15kg. His stools at that stage were a little pale and similar to a sort of mousse texture. I wanted to transition him to something of better quality and pets at home gave us a free puppy pack which included a small bag of their own brand ‘AVA’ formula. This was only going to be temporary while I looked for a high quality food but despite a gradual transition it unsettled his tummy and he had bad diarrhoea including 2 very bad and uncharacteristic accidents in his crate overnight. We switched him to chicken and rice for two days to try and settle him which stopped the accidents but didn’t improve consistency of stools much. After doing some research I got some orijen delivered and again transitioned him off the chicken and rice over about 2 days. By the 2nd day he had an absolutely perfect poo, dark and well formed and I was well chuffed with the change. Unfortunately though within a day or so this went back to extremely runny diarrhoea but the colour stayed dark. This new food also made him absolutely stink!!! I’ve since read orijen can be too rich for some dogs. Great! £65 well spent so I’ve been experimenting a 50/50 mix and 60/40 mix both ways between the orijen and the AVA we have left over effectively to reduce the protein content down slightly and settle his tummy. It’s just over 3 weeks we’ve had him now and his poo is still very wet. Not quite diarrhoea but not well formed either. It kind of looks like when a ragworm has burrowed in wet sand. Before I go out and try yet another brand Acana, I wondered if anyone else had any suggestions? He saw a vet about 2 weeks ago for his first jabs who was very happy with his health and weight although he’s not put as much as maybe he should have since. He’s about 6kg now at 12 weeks but he looks perfect around the ribs area. He’s quite a tall slim build if that makes sense. I do worry though that if his stools are always so wet and he’s going 5 or 6 times a day he’s not absorbing as much nutrition as perhaps he should be. Should I go back to 4 feeds? I’m currently giving him 75g of the mix I mentioned above 3 times per day and he’s always hungry and will eat all his poo if I let him. I’m told this is quite normal behaviour. Do you think moving to acana is my next move? I’m loathed to try a raw food diet as I’d be worried about getting it right plus we have a 3 year old in the house who’s mitts will often find their way into dog bowls and puppies mouth! Any advice greatly appreciated. Thanks, Dave
Hi Dave... Thanks for all the details, it makes it easier to help. I'm not sure why you've assumed the problem is his food? Rather than other issues? The most common cause of runny poo in puppies is either coccidia or giardia, but worms or parasites can also cause it. You can feed him every food on the planet but if the cause is one of those, it's not going to get better! I would start with Panacur 10% - which you can buy online without a prescription - following the giardia dosage on the data sheet. This is a very gentle wormer which will treat all the usual worms, in case that is the cause - but it will also be effective against giardia. If this doesn't work, then you will need to go to the vet and request a stool sample to see if that sheds any light on things and he may need a course of antibiotics. Good luck.
I'm certainly no expert but I would say three different foods in three weeks is not helping the loose stool. I would suggest staying with the Orijen ( since you purchase a bag already)but for a for a few days feed ground chicken & rice. When he has solid stool gradually add in a few kibble each day. Slowly increasing the kibble and decreasing the chicken &rice. Hopefully this will give him a chance to get used to the kibble.
Thanks for the advice both. I guess parasitic/bacterial issues never occurred to me as we were advised he was wormed by the breeder and in addition we had him wormed again by the vet just to be sure. I’ve now read that giardia can take a while to clear up though including multiple worming treatments so perhaps he got unlucky. I’ll go back to the chicken and rice thing too thank you and be a lot more gradual with the reintroduction of the orijen. I guess I was slightly concerned about how long the chicken and rice would be ok for a growing puppy, thinking I had to get him back onto a good quality kibble ASAP. It’s so difficult at this stage to isolate the issue when there could be so many causes like food changes, vaccinations and all the weeds, dead leaves, twigs etc they eat in the garden!
My puppy was wormed by the breeder as well and was fine the first time we took him to the vet. Then he developed Giardia later, which had to be treated. Like Jo said, I highly doubt it's the food. My other advice would be to take Jo's advice. lol
Giardia is not covered by the majority of worming treatments. When someone says they have "wormed" a puppy, they are not talking about giardia. They are talking about roundworms. That is what the breeder would have treated for, and that is what your vet would have treated for. Out of regular wormers, only Panacur treats giardia - moreover it needs to be given for 3 days (at least) and not just a single dosage, as is given for worms and parasites. If you're in the US, it is called Safeguard there. The active ingredient is fenbendazole. If you're in the US, I believe you can get Panacur but it comes as Panacur C granules instead of as Panacur 10% - alternatively you can buy it as Panacur 10% for cattle and horses but I'm betting many people aren't going to want to do that although it's what experienced folk do. Which is all to say - if you're in the US, go to your vet and ask about a course of fenbendazole or a stool sample. Puppies really need to get the nutrients they need from their food, they are in an important phase of growth which can't be compensated for later - so do stop adjusting various food related things and take the risk of giardia or coccidia seriously by going to the vet ASAP.
The best discussion of giardia from a US beagle breeder, including recommended treatment: https://www.beaglesunlimited.com/health/giardiasis-diagnosis-treatment-and-prevention Panacur C granules: https://www.revivalanimal.com/product/panacur-c-canine-dewormer?sku=31450-530 Panacur 10% suspension: https://pet-healthcare.revivalanimal.com/search?w=panacur If that doesn't work, see the vet - it's quick and easy to try Panacur and it is a gentle wormer anyway so there's not much to lose by trying it first.
Thanks for all the info it’s been very helpful. I’m in the uk and have just purchased the panacur online so will try him on that. No other symptoms giving me concern, no blood in stools etc but I will observe over the coming days. Will keep you posted!
Well I hadn’t anticipated an update quite this quickly but 2 meals of rice and chicken seems to have allowed him to have his 2nd ever solid stool! Very quick change. The panacur comes tomorrow so I will administer this as precaution anyway but it would appear that the food is playing a large part of the problem. At the moment, any kind of kibble appears to be causing issue. I will give him full chicken and rice meals today and then from tomorrow will perhaps just add 10g of his kibble at each sitting and see if his stomach can handle this. If he does ok I will continue to be more gradual with the transition than I had been last time. Thanks again, Dave
Dave, if you find that it is the kibble, it could be the grain in it. You may want to avoid grain, or move to a more natural raw diet. It could be proteins too, but the grain would be a good place to start.
