ick! soft poo

[kastle]

For the past 2 weeks, Lucy's poop has been extremely soft. So soft that it is almost impossible to pick up. Thank goodness for the dead leaves on the ground because I usually take a pile, throw them on top, then pick the whole pile up leaves and all. It seems to work better than just the poo. Anyways, I feed her Kirkland lamb and rice. She gets 100% pumpkin with her food and a probiotic. Still no change. I'm not sure what else to do. Change her food? I can't really afford the more expensize brands now that it's colder and my husbands construction business slows down to an almost stop. I feel really bad when out for a walk because there is no way to pick up after her without leaving a skid mark behind. She's also has a lot of gas. She's been to the vet and they didn't find anything. They suggested I try a probiotic. Any suggestions on what I can do to firm things up?

 

[NessaM]

I'd bring more than one stool sample into the vet. Parasites like tapeworms, giardia, coccidia etc can be difficult to spot in a single stool sample. With tapeworms, they don't pass sections every time your dog defecates, so there might be nothing to find in one sample, and something to find in the next. Generally, my vet has me bring in samples once a day for three days, if he suspects that my guy has some kind of tummy bug.

In terms of supporting her stomach you're doing everything right - additional fiber for intestinal health and probiotics to help her break down food - there's nothing I can think of that you ought to be doing differently there.

Or Lucy may have developed an intolerance to one of the ingredients in her food.

 

[SunnyD]

What is the protein count on the food? I have noticed that Rosie does not do well on high protein foods. She did not have firm poop on Orijen 6 fish so I had to drop her down a level.
Just a thought...

 

[NinaA]

Mine don't do well with high protein. I agree with Tricia. Especially if a second sample shows nothing.

 

[twright1231]

Our guys both got mushy on the Kirkland brand. We had to change.

 

[nowhavethreebears]

How much pumpkin how often? It is great for getting them regular when they have a problem.
But it is a lot of fiber and feeding too much or feeding it every day may cause a laxative effect.
If you have a TSC (Tractor Supply Co) store near you, you might consider their 4Health kibble.
No corn, no menadion, and reasonably priced at around 30-34 dollars for a 30 lb bag.

 

[OurnewfDarwin]

We had Darwin on Orijen 6 Fish for a couple of months--but the expense was getting to be a bit much. We decided to try the Kirkland Salmon and Sweet potato food. We found that he was slightly softer than it was on Orijen, but that was a good thing, because his poop was so so firm on Orijen that it actually BOUNCED on the sidewalk when he went on it. One issue we've found, though, was that his eye boogers returned when we took him off the Orijen. We probably wouldn't have made the connection, though, until someone on Newf-L pointed it out.

But I absolutey feel you on the frustration--because I had to clean up soft poop for three months before we found that fish based food helped us.

 

[Erika]

I'd bring more than one stool sample into the vet. Parasites like tapeworms, giardia, coccidia etc can be difficult to spot in a single stool sample. With tapeworms, they don't pass sections every time your dog defecates, so there might be nothing to find in one sample, and something to find in the next. Generally, my vet has me bring in samples once a day for three days, if he suspects that my guy has some kind of tummy bug.

In terms of supporting her stomach you're doing everything right - additional fiber for intestinal health and probiotics to help her break down food - there's nothing I can think of that you ought to be doing differently there.

Or Lucy may have developed an intolerance to one of the ingredients in her food.

I agree , went threw this with gandolph......he had giardia and coccidia when we got him from rescue. Took a few samples to detect both.

 

[Bär]

Could be food intolerance of something in the Kirkland if the vet cannot find anything wrong.
Could also be a bad bag of food. We had a bad bag of Kirkland puppy in 2008. Kirkland is made by diamond.
You could try to double cook some rice & either chicken or hamburger rinsed. Feed that & see if it improves, if it does improve try adding the Kirkland again in small doses, if loose poo returns, you have your answer. If the homemade diet does not help, may more testing is in order.
Hope this helps. We struggled for almost a year with Bär after he had giardia. He is now on raw & if he does have an issue I always go back to the meat & rice diet for a couple of days give his tummy a break.

 

[tux]

we are also doing the kirkland lamb and rice, and beau is having a hard time on it. beau is nearly 6 months and has never really had hard poos, so we are still struggling at finding something that works for him

tux on the other hand is doing great on kirkland lamb and rice..

 

[kastle]

Thanks for all the advice. The kirkland is only 23% protein so I don't think that is the problem. She gets probably 2 tbls. of pumpkin in her food. I brought a second sample to the vet for testing. I'll see how that comes back. I'm going to start giving her some hamburger and rice for a couple days and then reintroduce the kirkland. If the issue comes back, I'll have to switch her food. Should I try the Kirkland chicken, look for natures domain, or just go with something completely different?

 

[ardeagold]

Tux...part of Beau's problem may be that he's teething. Frankie was "soft" until his adult teeth all came in. Give it a bit before switching.

 

[sendchocolate]

Our breeder said no lamb for Poppy. I wonder if you switched to the chicken and rice if that would help? TMI, but I cannot eat lamb, AT ALL. I get the same problem that your dog gets. Lamb is too rich and fatty for me. Poppy's stools were softer on the Canidae chicken & rice. We switched her to Whitefish and Sweet Potato from Wellness Super5 and now they are beautiful. (as beautiful as poops can be, I mean)

 

[padkins]

We just went through really bad diarrhea with Cosmo, but he started with coccidia. Once we battled and got rid of that he still had diarrhea. The vet put him on an antibiotic because he felt that he might have picked up bacteria when his colon was fighting the coccidia. The vet also put him on a probiotic. His poo firmed up and is wonderful now. Good luck! Runny, soft, anything but perfect poo is no fun.

 

[chumleysma]

You might want to ask your vet if he only did a float to check for ova and parasites. In our lab you had to pay extra for the direct smear which was a better way to check for the smallest of microorganisms such as giardia, trichomonas, spirochetes (only seen with very fresh specimen), abnormal bacteria, yeast, WBCs and RBCs since the specimen is not diluted out and viewed solely at higher magnification. If you don't have a fresh specimen, your vet could get some off the rectal thermometer. It's enough for the direct smear, but not the float.

 

[NewfieMama]

Maybe the lamb is too rich for her? How old is she and what was her previous food based on? It sounds like something is not agreeing with her, or as others have said, she's got some bugs of some kind.

To help firm her up you can add some plain cooked rice to her food...but if she's reacting to the food itself that won't solve the problem.

We use NZYMES Bac-Pak for Cooper (probiotics) and have had very good results.

Good luck! We did this for over a year for Cooper before finding a formula that works for him.

 

[Crosslake25]

Chance was on Kirkland lamb and rice when we got her, and her poo was very soft. Switched her to Acana and it is firmer, but not "bouncing off the pavement" (Steve's does this though, so he gets a bit more pumpkin or squash).