Loose Stools

[Guest mritter]

We adopted our three year old Greyhound in May, and began to feed her Purina Lamb and Rice food. She had loose stools, so we changed her food slowly to Nutro Ultra Adult food in July. She still is having loose stools, and not sure why. We give her 1 and 1/3 cups of food at 8:00 AM, and the same at about 5:30. She also occasionally will not eat her breakfast until later in the morning.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Edited August 26, 2009 by mritter

[ahicks51]

Loose stool in the retired racing grey is a very common problem, and just about every potential solution has been offered here at one point or another. Just a few suggestions.

 

1) Try changing food. And changing food. And changing food. Repeat ad infinitum. A common component that causes this problem: grains. Grain-free food is pricey.

 

2) Try add-ins, like yogurt; pumpkin; and beet pulp (pellets available from feed-and-seed stores, very cheap; soak for a bit to make sure they won't break any teeth). The problem seems two-fold: food with TOO MUCH fiber causes loose stool, but adding even MORE fiber seems to turn it around for some weird reason. Main drawback: huge poops.

 

3) Probiotics (Purina Fortiflora, for one) have been recommended by at least one vet I know of.

 

4) Feed raw food. Pretty radical, fairly involved, and can be expensive depending upon how and where you source the components. Has the added side-benefit of keeping the teeth cleaner than grain-heavy foods. The added cost of raw food may be offset by what one saves in dental cleanings. Another advantage: persistent loose stool is handled VERY effectively in this fashion.

 

Good luck.

[Guest LindsaySF]

I'll add #5. Use a dewormer.

 

If after 2 treatments for worms the stool is still loose, maybe another food change is needed.

 

 

[MaryJane]

You mentioned that she is getting 1 1/3 cups twice a day - this seems a little on the light side to me although each dog is different with the amount of calories they need. I usually average about 2 cups twice a day for most of my fosters but, a good number of them do need to gain some weight. You mentioned that she eats her morning meal later in the day ... so it doesn't sound like she is really hungry ... maybe you want to pick up the food after 20 minutes if she doesn't eat.

 

An easy way to get some more fiber into her system is to give her some oatmeal once a day (in the morning meal). Make it the old-fashioned (5 minute cooking time). Give her about 1/4 oats cooked with 1/2 cup water added into her morning meal for a few days. You should see some results within a day or two if it is going to help. The only time this hasn't worked for one of my fosters was when the dog had worms - so make sure that you also do a stool sample to rule out worms.

 

 

 

[Guest Fasave]

I feel for you. I have a 10 year old who I adopted four years ago. He was on Old Roy food when he came to me. Like everyone else here said, it's trial and error. I few things that worked for him are as follows:

 

1. Wysong C-Biotic - This is a probiotic that really did a great job balancing out the "flora" in his digestive track. You can order on line at www.wysong.net. There are other probiotics out there as well.

2. A couple of scoops of canned pumpkin (not the pumpkin pie canned) can also add a fiber.

3. As far as the amount of food, good quality food will list the kcal/cup. Foods vary greatly an therefore the calories in a cup. One of my guys only eats two cups/day and he could stand to lose a few pounds.

 

Lastly, over the years I've learned to accept soft poops especially if there is a change in schedule or the 2 or 3 poop on a walk. I have learned to rate their bowel movements by consistency, frequency and urgency. If consistency if off but they are not pooping frequently or having accidents in the house (urgency), I don't get too concerned.

 

Good luck with your pup and keep us updated.

[Guest Energy11]

Loose stool in the retired racing grey is a very common problem, and just about every potential solution has been offered here at one point or another. Just a few suggestions.

 

1) Try changing food. And changing food. And changing food. Repeat ad infinitum. A common component that causes this problem: grains. Grain-free food is pricey.

 

2) Try add-ins, like yogurt; pumpkin; and beet pulp (pellets available from feed-and-seed stores, very cheap; soak for a bit to make sure they won't break any teeth). The problem seems two-fold: food with TOO MUCH fiber causes loose stool, but adding even MORE fiber seems to turn it around for some weird reason. Main drawback: huge poops.

 

3) Probiotics (Purina Fortiflora, for one) have been recommended by at least one vet I know of.

 

4) Feed raw food. Pretty radical, fairly involved, and can be expensive depending upon how and where you source the components. Has the added side-benefit of keeping the teeth cleaner than grain-heavy foods. The added cost of raw food may be offset by what one saves in dental cleanings. Another advantage: persistent loose stool is handled VERY effectively in this fashion.

 

Good luck.

 

 

Ditto! Alll EXCELLENT suggestions! My friend had to put his GH puppy (18 months now) on Whitefish and Sweet Potato kibble, due to a food allergy, which caused skin problems and diarrhea. Good Luck!

[Guest swindypops]

I was also having probs with loose stool and after much research and very good advice from this forum I opted to change to raw feeding, the benefits for us are great, no loose stool ever and lovely clean teeth no bad breath or wind from the other end. Also cause im not buying expensive dried food from the vet I have saved some money and I also dont find it to expensive or time consuming to do , once you get used to it it becomes routine and easy.

[PrairieProf]

Plenty of dogs don't do well on lamb, and if I remember right Nutro Ultra has a ton of different ingredients -- I could pretty much guarantee my girl would have loose stool on it! So it's very likely you haven't found the right food. It takes many of us many tries to find the one a dog does well on. I would personally suggest trying a fish-based kibble (Pro Plan Sensitive Skin and Stomach is one, Taste of the Wild Pacific Stream is a grain-free one that isn't too expensive) as that seems to work well for a good number of dogs (mine included), though again nothing works for everyone.

Edited August 26, 2009 by PrairieProf

[SAVED2]

One half a TAGAMET a day cured my Sonny.

[Guest kydie]

I too think the pup need more food, doesn't sound like enough food to me, and I would worm the pup too.

[Guest mritter]

Thank you all for your help, and advice!

Our Grey is a small girl (61 pounds), and was eating 1 1/2 cups of Purina Lamb & Rice. After we put her on Nutro Ultra, she needed less food so we only give her 1 1/3 cups. She has trouble finishing this amount.

She was dewormed and is worm free. We have her on Interceptor also. I think we'll have to change the food again.

mcritter

 

 

 

We adopted our three year old Greyhound in May, and began to feed her Purina Lamb and Rice food. She had loose stools, so we changed her food slowly to Nutro Ultra Adult food in July. She still is having loose stools, and not sure why. We give her 1 and 1/3 cups of food at 8:00 AM, and the same at about 5:30. She also occasionally will not eat her breakfast until later in the morning.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Thank you all for your help, and advice!

Our Grey is a small girl (61 pounds), and was eating 1 1/2 cups of Purina Lamb & Rice. After we put her on Nutro Ultra, she needed less food so we only give her 1 1/3 cups. She has trouble finishing this amount.

She was dewormed and is worm free. We have her on Interceptor also. I think we'll have to change the food again.

mcritter

[Guest mritter]

We adopted our three year old Greyhound in May, and began to feed her Purina Lamb and Rice food. She had loose stools, so we changed her food slowly to Nutro Ultra Adult food in July. She still is having loose stools, and not sure why. We give her 1 and 1/3 cups of food at 8:00 AM, and the same at about 5:30. She also occasionally will not eat her breakfast until later in the morning.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Addendum to the problem as of 8/30/09:

We have had some very hot days here in Binghamton, NY. Suddenly, is has cooled off ans my Greyhound's stools have firmed up 50%... They are still not golf balls, but I am happier with the results! I will take your advice also! Thank you!

 

 

[ElizabethGPAPS]

I think everyone has a loose stool story and something different that fixed it. Mine is as follows:

 

For several months Simon had a very predictable output of 2 days good, 1 day bad. Yes - drop and rolls for 2 days in a row, and then the 3rd day it was the hershey-squirts. Like clockwork. And since he's been on the same food forever (Nutra Nuggets Lamb & Rice) and done okay on it, I just knew it was something else. So he goes on flagyl. Immodium. He gets dewormed. Dewormed again. Flagyled again. Immodium/Kao/Pepto with every flare-up. Fiber added to the food. Still the same! So aggravating! Then, after reading several posts here I decide to just take a wild stab by switching him over to Iams (it has fixed much Greyhound Big D, it seems). I started giving him half Nutra Nuggets and half Iams and he has NEVER had another bout of diarrhea. It's been weeks and weeks of fantastic poop! I put poor Simon through all that squirtiness and myself through all that cleanup for want of a crappy, grocery store food! So he's still getting half and half - I tried him on full Iams and he had loose stool. We'll just continue with the way things are then.

 

The moral of the story being that it's all about experimentation. What works for one will not necessarily work for another.