I wonder if anyone can cast any light on this ... Wilson is now nearly 20 months old and doing really well. He's never had really firm stools but firm enough so they can be picked up fairly easily. He's on mainly kibble with additional fruit (banana and apple) and veg (cucumber, carrot and peas) and, once or twice a week, either a little roast chicken meat or cooked salmon. For some time his stool in the afternoon has ended in a rather sloppy mess that can't be picked up. We've tried removing additional elements from his diet with little impact. The only thing that helps is adding a spoonful of pumpkin puree to his morning and evening meals. He has most of his food in the morning and evening although some of that is used for training throughout the day. He also gets a small lunch of a little kibble with cucumber and occasionally a Babybel cheese. I've read in other posts that overeating can cause loose stools but we find it hard to keep his weight up anyway - he's very lean (the vet is pleased with him but he's definitely on the lean of lean side) so I can't see that we're feeding him too much. When I've increased his food slightly he has still never put on weight. But is he eating too regularly I wonder? Should we drop the lunch (although that would be very hard as he is very demanding at lunchtime). I'm starting to wonder whether it's a wheat allergy as I read a lot about that too but just wondering if anyone has had anything similar and has any potential solutions. if it continues we'll go to the vet, but it seems weird that it is his afternoon poo that is the problem. Morning and night time ones seem to be fine. Thanks for reading this far and for any help.
Hi @Jenem Is there a possibility you dog is lactose intolerant. Fruit should be no more than 10% of his diet. I wonder whether you are overdoing the fruit, which will result in soft stools. I would keep track of the different things he is eating and when. As a rough rule what he defecates is what he ate 10 to 12 hours before. Admittedly, not all foods do so on such a time frame. But with a bit of detective work you might be able to get an idea what is resulting in the soft stools.
Thanks so much for replying Michael. We did cut back on the banana he has every morning and stopped his apple at night but it didn't seem to make much difference. We didn't try stopping the banana altogether though because he absolutely loves it (he has to get it out of a puzzle toy) but perhaps we should just use softened kibble in that for a while and see if that helps. We have also tried not giving him the Babybel cheese but again saw no difference. The roughly 10 to 12 hours passing through info is very helpful. I had been wondering what digestive times were in a dog. You're right, we need to do some proper detective work, stop all extras and then introduce them again one by one to see what is the culprit. Thank you.
Just a thought, but could it be an 'excitement' poo? My boy will sometimes have a second slightly loose poo after a normal poo when he's having a good run around. I've been told this is quite common.
That *is* a good thought, thanks. He has a longer walk/run around in the morning and about half an hour in the late afternoon which is when he tends to do his softer poo, so could definitely be the case. He's so fit and healthy in every other way - no symptoms of anything amiss - so it has been a bit of a mystery. Perhaps this is it! We'll do a bit more detective work on his food as well just to be sure. Thanks again.
