Suggestions For Diarrhea/soft Stools?

[Guest Cindysgreyt]

We adopted our dog last October. She is 5 now. She was fed regular adult Science Diet dry food at the rescue. (where she lived for 8 months) Once she came home....stools were always very, very soft, and sometimes diarrhea. We used a small bag of the food she had been on at the rescue and slowly started adding new food in the mix. We tried several types of food....Blue Buffalo, Nutro, and several others (the names escape me!). We even went back to the regular Science Diet but that didn't work either. Tried using pumpkin....she loves it but it doesn't help a whole lot. We tried limited diets and grain free and all that jazz. Vet put her on W/D which is a prescription diet by Science Diet. It's a low fat/diabetic diet (though she's not overweight or diabetic). The food is high fiber and full of fillers but it works like a charm. Stools went back to normal immmediately but I swear she poops almost 7 times a day now. No joke. Plus, the stuff is pretty expensive. Our vets says that some greys always have to be on that food....but I would really love suggestions on some others to try. I know soft stools can be an issue with greys, and maybe we just haven't found the right food. It's a hassle having to only buy from the vet or have a prescription to get it at the pet store. Any tips? I'm open to try anything we haven't already!

[Houndtime]

For diarrhea you can try slippery elm bark; worked well for Fuzzy when he had the reaction to deramax. Also something like FortiFlora, or Missing Link. I think the foods you were using were very rich. Anything that adds fiber will make larger poops. Good luck.

[Walliered]

I had that same problem with my first grey. I now feed only TOTW Pacific Stream. Dick Van Patten's Sweet Potato and Bison are also very good, but TOTW is about $8.00 cheaper. I do mix in a little can food with the kibble and use Dick Van Patten's Bison and Sweet Potato for that. I give my two only the Dick Van Patton's Sweet Potato and Bison treats. My dogs have gone from many stools per day down to about 2 each per day. Have you had a stool checked lately? Even though it may come back negative for worms, I still worm mine and for the first time my second hound has normal stools..however, he has just recently been diagnoised with IBD. Good luck.

[Guest Cindysgreyt]

I had that same problem with my first grey. I now feed only TOTW Pacific Stream. Dick Van Patten's Sweet Potato and Bison are also very good, but TOTW is about $8.00 cheaper. I do mix in a little can food with the kibble and use Dick Van Patten's Bison and Sweet Potato for that. I give my two only the Dick Van Patton's Sweet Potato and Bison treats. My dogs have gone from many stools per day down to about 2 each per day. Have you had a stool checked lately? Even though it may come back negative for worms, I still worm mine and for the first time my second hound has normal stools..however, he has just recently been diagnoised with IBD. Good luck.

 

Yes, she was checked and initally came back positive for giardia. We treated once, it was positive still. Treated again and came back negative. She was tested again a few months later and still negative. But, anytime we tried a food other than the W/D the runny stools came back. I will have to see if I can find the Pacific Stream food. I've heard of it but have never seen it around here. Maybe a specialty pet food store will carry it. Thanks!

[OwnedBySummer]

If you can find ANY flavor of the TOTW food at your pet store, they should happily bring in the particular flavor that you want. I don't think you should need to source it from a boutique or specialty pet store and pay even higher $$$.

[Guest PawPrintsLife]

I'm very confident that this will work. It's the best food I've found anywhere. It has worked to firm up stools (and solve many, many other problems) for hundreds of dogs that I know of. It's holistic formula. Oh, I could tell you so much about it. Please give me a call at 937-436-5788 if you'd like to know more.

 

Please, please check it out. It makes SUCH a difference for our three greys and for many other dogs that I know of personally.

 

Rebecca Forrest

 

Logan (male brindle, 7 years old)

Zelda (female parti black, 4 years old)

Jordie (male brindle, 3 years old)

Izzy (female lab/beagle, 4 years old)

Lucy (female tabby cat, 17 years old--don't tell the dogs she isn't a greyhound)

Edited April 20, 2011 by GreyTzu
Link removed.

[FiveRoooooers]

TOTW here also. The company is terrific, if you email them they will send you several sample bags of each flavor. TOTW linky

Good luck with your girl!

[greyhead]

We wasted a lot of time changing foods, protein sources, home cooking, etc. Then we tried raw and the stools became logs the next day! But that quickly passed. Finally we did a poop culture and found a massive bacterial infection in the small intestine.

 

Now, this was preceded by hookworm, which had taken months to return a positive culture fecal test; and it was followed, alas, by the discovery of IBD. So I just can't keep myself from suggesting that you have a poop culture done and perhaps do another fecal for worms, because a dog that has had diarrhea and soft serve for months on end probably has more than a food problem. (And btw, a negative fecal culture does not mean that a dog does not have worms.) Indeed, food choice still becomes critically important if they have intestines that have been compromised by any of these causes. But trying to fight these problems with food alone does not work, in my experience, and can cost a lot of precious time. I DO hope your dog has none of these things I've mentioned, but I'd feel remiss if I didn't mention them.

 

Edited cuz I goofed!

Edited April 18, 2011 by greyhead

[Guest Cindysgreyt]

TOTW here also. The company is terrific, if you email them they will send you several sample bags of each flavor. TOTW linky

Good luck with your girl!

 

 

Thanks! Just sent an email! I checked and there are lots of places to buy the food where I live. I wasn't sure it would be available. Let's hope we find the magic solution!

[Guest Cindysgreyt]

We wasted a lot of time changing foods, protein sources, home cooking, etc. Then we tried raw and the stools became logs the next day! But that quickly passed. Finally we did a poop culture and found a massive bacterial infection in the small intestine.

 

Now, this was preceded by hookworm, which had taken months to return a positive culture; and it was followed, alas, by the discovery of IBD. So I just can't keep myself from suggesting that you have a poop culture done and perhaps do another fecal for worms, because a dog that has had diarrhea and soft serve for months on end probably has more than a food problem. (And btw, a negative fecal culture does not mean that a dog does not have worms.) Indeed, food choice still becomes critically important if they have intestines that have been compromised by any of these causes. But trying to fight these problems with food alone does not work, in my experience, and can cost a lot of precious time. I DO hope your dog has none of these things I've mentioned, but I'd feel remiss if I didn't mention them.

 

 

I totally agree and yes she did have a culture done. We treated the giardia (that she had when we adopted her) several times and she was also treated for other types of worms even though her regular fecal was negative. Her annual shots are due next month....I'll probably have her tested again.

[macoduck]

All the high end brands made my greys worse. Plain old Iams (small kibble, green bag, healthy wt formula I think) fixed them nice and firm.

[Hubcitypam]

All the high end brands made my greys worse. Plain old Iams (small kibble, green bag, healthy wt formula I think) fixed them nice and firm.

Ducky, many thanks for not making me be the one to say it.

[Guest Cindysgreyt]

All the high end brands made my greys worse. Plain old Iams (small kibble, green bag, healthy wt formula I think) fixed them nice and firm.

 

 

That is worth a try as well. Thanks for all the suggestions. There's gotta be something that works for her.

[Hubcitypam]

When Poodle was diagnosed as diabetic my vet pushed the w/d on me...it is what the front desk person's diabetic poodle ate.....

 

I'll feed my dogs a lot of things including by products and leftover Chinese food in small quantities but I refuse to feed them cellouse...especially when it is second on the list and the only protein is by products and they are third down. Cellouse is most often wood pulp but can be a lot of things including cotton. Just not going there.

 

w/d ingredients --

"Ground Whole Grain Corn, Powdered Cellulose 17.1% (source of fiber), Chicken by-product Meal, Chicken Liver Flavor, Soybean Mill Run"

 

Poodle eats Natural Balance Ultra Light and the other two eat green bag Iams.

[macoduck]

All the high end brands made my greys worse. Plain old Iams (small kibble, green bag, healthy wt formula I think) fixed them nice and firm.

Ducky, many thanks for not making me be the one to say it.

I was tired of waiting for you, Pam.