Pup's sloppy stools

[toasty]

My 5 month old Lab pup, Phoebe, has rarely got a settled stomach. She seems to poop 5-6 times a day and mostly it's pale porridge like consistency.

The only food that seems to give solid stools is boiled chicken and rice but this is a pain to do on a regular basis.

We've tried a few different dry puppy foods but mostly it's the same.

Any suggestions?

[scirocco265]

Questions:
How long has this been going on for?
Is it always sloppy, no exceptions?
You don't mention wet dog food - what effect does this have?

My pup went about the same number of times daily up until about 4 months, other than that, doesn't sound right at all.

Get her down the Vet.

[bexVN]

Have you sought veterinary advice.
Pups are prone to carrying camplyobacter and/ or giardia. It may well be worth getting a 3 day pooled faecal sample collected (ie 3 lots of poo in one pot) sent off for analysis.

We see a lot of cases of campy in pups.

If this is all clear you need to look closely into diet, what makes of dry food have you tried, more importantly what treats do you give, when do the episodes occur (morning/ after exercise/ randomly etc) Does she ever pass completely normal faeces and if so how many days for. Do you stick to the same diet for any length of time or do you chop and change it?

As you see, lots to check out. You can get prescription diet foods ckn and rice based to save you cooking up nutritionally inadequate food all the time and will probably work out cheaper.

[toasty]

She did have a case of blood in the stools a month or so ago and was on antibiotics btu that doesn't happen any more.

There are normal stools occasionally but 70% are sloppy. We've tried to keep her on the same diet but have tried different things since the sloppy poops.

There's also a lot of it compared to the food she eats.

I'll get her off to the vets one evening.

Thanks.

[bexVN]

Can you give me examples of makes of food you are giving, large stool volume can often indicate poor quality diet or a diet too high in insoluble fibre, could be relevant.

Blood in stools often due to straining (diar or constipation) not usually a problem in itself unless poorly as well.

[toasty]

bexVN said:

Can you give me examples of makes of food you are giving, large stool volume can often indicate poor quality diet or a diet too high in insoluble fibre, could be relevant.

Blood in stools often due to straining (diar or constipation) not usually a problem in itself unless poorly as well.

Thanks Bex,

She's been on the local Pet Shop's Premium Puppy Mix, Pedigree Chum Puppy Mix and currently a Co Op Chicken and Rice Mix. She's been having trouble with all of these but for the first few months was on the Pet Shop PP Mix with no problems.

She was running a temperature when the blood was present but vet gave her the all clear a week later.

[itsnotarace]

Sounds like giardia or some kind of infection to me.

Does the dog drink a lot of water? Been wormed recently?

Get a stool sample to your vet for analysis really.

[Zaxxon]

Pics?

[itsnotarace]

You want pics of runny dog stools?

[bexVN]

toasty said:

bexVN said:

Can you give me examples of makes of food you are giving, large stool volume can often indicate poor quality diet or a diet too high in insoluble fibre, could be relevant.

Blood in stools often due to straining (diar or constipation) not usually a problem in itself unless poorly as well.

Thanks Bex,

She's been on the local Pet Shop's Premium Puppy Mix, Pedigree Chum Puppy Mix and currently a Co Op Chicken and Rice Mix. She's been having trouble with all of these but for the first few months was on the Pet Shop PP Mix with no problems.

She was running a temperature when the blood was present but vet gave her the all clear a week later.

Pedigree notorious for being to rich for many pups, poss premium puppy is for her aswell.It can take a while but assuming it's not campy or giardia then need to change diet. As I said start on something bland see what your vet stocks, eg Hills ID, RCW sensitivity control or PVD EN (We use EN very successfully at our place) then consider trying one of the diets leading on frome these, from personal experience of owning a puppy with a sensitive stomach I found Pro Plan puppy (in your pups case large breed) worked brilliantly, my dog has been on this make for over 7yrs and does fantastically on it, he did not do so well on hills puppy or James Wellbeloved, once I swapped to Pro plan I never looked back.

There are so many makes out there and lots of dogs do well on lots of different makes and others are fed raw food diets etc but try and start off simple, don't chop and change too much, wean food over very slowly, take 10 days before pup is onto a new diet completely, avoid treats except small bits of cooked ckn for training purposes and give new diet a chance preferably a month unless doing really badly on it!

[toasty]

Phoebe went to see the Vet this evening and she's running a slight temperature.

She's having a sample analysed so hopefully we'll find the best way to treat her soon.

Thanks for all your advice.

[ClassicMercs]

I think you are still looking for the right food for your dog - and its going to be one of the premium brands I'm afraid.

Our red setter was fine until he moved over to junior food. First few weeks of life on Arden Grange as that was the breeders choice. We moved to puppy Wellbeloved as its easy for us to get. It was after the shift to junior Wellbeloved that things went wrong.

You mention 'sloppy'. How sloppy ? And is the weight still going on ? Ours was actually falling.

After several months of cooked turkey mince, potato and tapioca he moved to the Wellbeloved Meat and Veg bags and we haven't looked back.

In our case the setter has a 'gluten related villus atrophy' - the dog version of human ceoliac disease. The red setter is the only dog breed proven with this - but its amazing how many people say 'sounds just like my dog'. The only time he is sloppy now is when he has eaten too much - or we have given him a naughty treat or two. And he is now near normal weight at three.

[toasty]

ClassicMercs said:

I think you are still looking for the right food for your dog

You may well be right on this. She's back on the vet's recovery food and all is back to normal again.

By chance, we bumped into one of her sisters from the same litter while out for a walk yesterday and her owner said she'd been on Salmon and Potato Young Dog food so we're now trying that mixed in with the last of the old food and the Vet's recovery food.

There certainly doesn't appear to be any loss of weight (18Kg) or energy (still as scatty as ever) so I'm not overly concerned but still want her to be in the best of health.

[Mrs Grumpy]

I would say this is food related too unfortunately. Many dogs do well on the cheaper types of dog food, but they can cause allergy flare ups, itchy ears, sloppy (and in some cases green!) poo. They often have grains and fillers, which can cause dogs to react. They can also cause behavioural issues.

You may well have to switch to a premium brand and give her a while to settle on it. It can take up to six weeks I believe for the other food to totally leave the system.

[bexVN]

toasty said:

ClassicMercs said:

I think you are still looking for the right food for your dog

You may well be right on this. She's back on the vet's recovery food and all is back to normal again.

By chance, we bumped into one of her sisters from the same litter while out for a walk yesterday and her owner said she'd been on Salmon and Potato Young Dog food so we're now trying that mixed in with the last of the old food and the Vet's recovery food.

There certainly doesn't appear to be any loss of weight (18Kg) or energy (still as scatty as ever) so I'm not overly concerned but still want her to be in the best of health.

Normally I'd say slow wean off old food but in this case as she's already better on the vet diet just mix this with the new food, and chuck the old stuff away.