Can’t stop the loose poop - help?

[jerusa]

hey everyone —

I fed my 80lb 1.5 year old lab, Rusty, grain free chicken dry food mixed with chicken dehydrated (add water) raw food. i noticed if i ever fed him just the dry food without the wet, he’d get very loose poop almost 100% of the time.

this lead me on my journey to attempt fixing this. so in order here are my moves —

-moved him over to grain free beef (fromm’s beans). the transition period went alright. maybe things were slightly better. too soon to tell. then we go to the vet for a couple updated vaccinations and they tell me he need to be on dry food with grains and that both beef and chicken have the highest rates causing a sensitive stomach.

-begin transitioning him over to fromm’s lamb with grains

-we’re 4 days in and things aren’t going very well. first poop starts solid and ends very runny.

with all these switches i’m completely lost now. if we switch, i don’t know what i should even be using for transition food considering all the switches. ive ordered a dog stomach sensitivity test online, so that’s our next move to try to figure out how this can be fixed. it’s breaking my heart. i want my boy to have great poops asap. any advice??

 

[pevalwen]

@jerusa I feel this one. My 3-yo Golden has had issues ever since we got him at 12 weeks. It started out as about 14 runny poops/day. Through a lot of trial and error, we've found that he's allergic to poultry and dairy. We've also been to an animal dermatologist who did the environmental allergy tests, and my boy is allergic to just about everything under the sun.

I've tried it all. Single-ingredient unique protein (think crocodile, kangaroo, etc), grain food, grain-free, and finally we went to hydrolyzed (which requires a vet prescription). I've recently switched to raw food, and he's down to pooping fairly normal poops 2-3 times a day, which is amazing for him!

My suggestion would be to order a proviable (not probiotic) since probiotics have casein powder and give that to him daily. If you have a food that seems to be ok, switch to that and don't worry about transition, since his stomach isn't doing well anyway. A spoonful or two of canned pumpkin with food can help firm things up, too. Once you have things under some control, you can find a food that makes your vet happy (you can eliminate proteins or certain grains if you have a starting point).

Good luck!

 

[fromrobbiewithlove]

@jerusa If you get hold of it: PRO PLAN Veterinary Diets Canine HA Hypoallergenic Dry Dog Food. My dog has so many allergies and we tried everything from grain free to raw food plans. This is the only thing that worked. Sometimes the protein in chicken or eggs can make things worst instead of better (found out the hard way!). Best of luck.

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@jerusa Been there… lamb is so rich and even a healthy gut might get the trots with that diet.
I’ve tried grain free diets, home cooked diets ( including all the nutrients: bone meal, sardines, salt sub. , vitamin, etc.)
Pumpkin works to clog and un-clog the doggo.
Blue Buffalo grain free kibble, fresh pet refrigerator dog food, homemade dog food ( try ground Turkey, maybe Doggo allergic to chicken?)
Always consult your vet
Perfect poops = Happiness
Good Luck

 

[trekee80sgirl]

@jerusa I had this problem with my make GSD. I used to make sure that I had 6-7 bags when we went for a walk. I tried everything, and I mean everything. Nothing helped, until…
The vet recommended Hillman’s Science Diet GI Biome. It was magical.

 

[christina564]

@jerusa Has your dog had lamb before?

4 days in terms of transitioning is nothing, and if lamb is a new protein it can be rich for the digestive system and may take a while to settle. I would keep transitioning to lamb for now and give it two weeks to settle. If its still loose then you can look at alternatives.

In the UK, orijen, arcana, eden and wolfworthy are all fantastic kibbles which my very sensitive pup has had no issues with

 

[justpassingby]

@jerusa My breeder had me get Life’s abundance all stage dog food, it’s probably a Ponzi scheme food where they get a kickback of sales but my English lab loves it and it works for him. 60lbs 10 months old

 

[valda]

@jerusa Honestly, given he only had troubles originally when you omitted a regular food, and then when you changed food, it doesn't sound like allergies, it sounds like he just really needs absolute consistency in whatever you feed him, including treats. Four days is definitely not long enough to know whether the new diet will work; you really can't rush his tummy building up the right flora to process foods. If you give it a couple weeks and still struggle with loose stools, I have good luck with Purina pro plan sensitive skin and stomach for my dogs who struggle a bit.

 

[langcy]

@jerusa My 13yr old coon hound had similar issues. Finally got so bad we had to take him to the vet, those idiots said his kidneys were failing and we'd have to put him down. So we weren't having it.. took him to the emergency vet and they said he had IBD. We started making his food with the powder/protein from https://www.justfoodfordogs.com/ and almost all his issues went away. Still loose poops once in a while but hell, he's still alive. Vet said he needed to be on a novel diet I think? Which is basically just protein he's never had, which would be anything other than chicken and beef.

 

[childofgod1970]

@jerusa Hills science dog food changed my dogs poop within 3 days. It’s expensive but best investment I’ve made for my dog. Her coat is more shiny and she’s lost a little weight too. She was a little chubby. She’s a 5 year old golden.