Guest zoolaine Posted August 24, 2011 Share Posted August 24, 2011 Zuki has always had a lot of poop and usually soft regardless of the many types of kibble I've tried with her. It has been especially bad over the past few months with diarrhea every day - which I've had to clean up at lunchtime. I tried probiotics and several different diets including: bland diet of rice and chicken, rice and hamburger, kibble of duck and potato - all without improvement. Saturday I started her on oatmeal and hamburger and her poop has been solid and firm, probably about 90% of what it should be. What does this mean? Is it the fiber of the oatmeal? Can she not tolerate chicken, rice, or potatoes/sweet potatoes? What do I do next with her? I don't see a dog food with beef and oatmeal but did see with Nature's Variety Prairie with Venison, millet, oatmeal and barley - not exactly the same but as close as I've found. I am sure this food is quite $$$$ so if she can tolerate something less expensive I would prefer that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Lovey_Hounds Posted August 24, 2011 Share Posted August 24, 2011 Find a butcher near by and see if they can sell you the ground up beef trimmings and organs for a decent price and then mix it with rice and other veggies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cleptogrey Posted August 24, 2011 Share Posted August 24, 2011 i've been using hollist select(eagle pack) duck and oatmeal for my sensitive stomach dog. works well, maybe give that a try if you can locate some. he has a better coat than when he was on pairie venison. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaryJane Posted August 24, 2011 Share Posted August 24, 2011 (edited) The oatmeal is a fiber which helps to firm up the stool. The bland diet of hamburger/rice is easy to digest and IMHO, can cut down on the inflammation in the digestive tract but, is not necessarily going to firm up the stool. Once the inflammation is in check, the oatmeal can help to "firm things up". If the combination of hamburg/rice/oatmeal does not work over a few days then your dog may be allergic to one of the ingredients and then you should consider an elimination diet. Note, for dogs not used to oatmeal I would use the hamburg and rice for a few days before i start to add in the oatmeal. The nice thing about oatmeal is that it (in conjunction with fish oil) has given my dogs a pretty lush coat. I forgot to add that sweet potato also has a good amount of fiber so you might want to consider a limited Ingredient dog food like natural balance Venison and sweet potato - I have used this for some of my fosters and had good luck with it controlling their "digestive issues". Edited August 24, 2011 by MaryJane Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest zoolaine Posted August 24, 2011 Share Posted August 24, 2011 I've tried duck and sweet potato which didn't work for her. I'm confused on what it is that is giving her the diarrhea - was it the duck? rice? potato/sweet potato? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaryJane Posted August 24, 2011 Share Posted August 24, 2011 Did you try the Natural Balance venison and sweet potato? This is a limited ingredient food and as such, less to be allergic to. Most other dog foods might have 1 main protein source but, if you check the ingredient list you will see that they will still have some of the other proteins .. so a food labeled a beef might still have chicken in it ... You mentioned that she is on beef and oatmeal now and the stools are better. If you want to find out what the allergy is to try adding some cooked sweet potato and see how the stool is 24 to 36 hours later - if it gets runnier, then that food is likely a cause. But you need to start off with small amounts and gradually increase so just checking one food could take 4 to 5 days. I've found that 1 cup can be a tipping point where they will get the "runs" the next day if they are sensitive to that food. Do the same procedure with chicken and see how the stool is the next day. This would be an elimination diet where you go through different foods and see what causes a reaction. Note, between the switches make sure that the stool gets back to being good... I've done this with most of my own dogs and it can take up to a month to go through most of the basic foods and get a good baseline. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cleptogrey Posted August 24, 2011 Share Posted August 24, 2011 a round of flagyl?? sometimes their gut just needs to be cleaned up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DesiRayMom Posted August 24, 2011 Share Posted August 24, 2011 Desi had soft stool on Duck & Potato...so much so that I carried a paper plate around to catch it. He's on Venison & SweetPotato now & has perfect poo. I never thought perfect poo could make me so happy. Quote Blessed is the person who has earned the love of an old dog. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoundHeavenAZ Posted August 24, 2011 Share Posted August 24, 2011 Ditto on the good luck with the Natural Balance venison/sweet potato. That has worked great for the last 5 dogs that I've had on it. Good luck! Quote Jody, Leah & JimmieYou left us much, much too soon Lima & Chip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeorgeofNE Posted August 24, 2011 Share Posted August 24, 2011 Look into Solid Gold's Mmillenium formula; it's beef and barley, I believe. George loved it! Quote Susan, Hamish, Mister Bigglesworth and Nikita Stanislav. Missing Ming, George, and Buck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tabby Posted August 25, 2011 Share Posted August 25, 2011 the only thing that keeps Tabby's poo firm is Oatmeal. She did good on the Nutro but I have to drive 30 min to get it. I discovered chicken soup b/c it has oatmeal and is pretty cheap. she does great on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Batmom Posted August 26, 2011 Share Posted August 26, 2011 What all foods have you tried? If I want to feed a commercial food and the first two I try don't work, I start putting them in a spreadsheet -- protein, fiber, and fat %; all the ingredients except vitamins/minerals -- and pick something very different for the next try. Be careful because you can see output from a given food as long as 48 hours after eating. So for example, if the dog has mushy poop right after eating a duck-and-rice meal, it likely wasn't from the duck-and-rice but rather from whatever the dog had the previous day. I have had a dog who did fine with rice as a commercial food ingredient but who always had rather mushy poop if given homecooked rice as part of a bland diet. Usually if I'm cooking rice for a dog, I make sure to add extra water so that it gets quite soft; that helps in many cases. Most of the time when I've wanted to feed a commercial food and have had trouble finding one that works, I end up with IAMS. And I usually kick myself for not trying it first. Green bag (Adult Mini-Chunks) or red bag (Adult Lamb & Rice). It has a nice fiber profile that works for many dogs. Quote Star aka Starz Ovation (Ronco x Oneco Maggie*, litter #48538), Coco aka Low Key (Kiowa Mon Manny x Party Hardy, litter # 59881), and mom in IllinoisWe miss Reko Batman (Trouper Zeke x Marque Louisiana), 11/15/95-6/29/06, Rocco the thistledown whippet, 04/29/93-10/14/08, Reko Zema (Mo Kick x Reko Princess), 8/16/98-4/18/10, the most beautiful girl in the whole USA, my good egg Joseph aka Won by a Nose (Oneco Cufflink x Buy Back), 09/22/2003-03/01/2013, and our gentle sweet Gidget (Digitizer, Dodgem by Design x Sobe Mulberry), 1/29/2006-11/22/2014, gone much too soon. Never forgetting CJC's Buckshot, 1/2/07-10/25/10. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest sirsmom Posted August 26, 2011 Share Posted August 26, 2011 Yes, Iams really works and within 2 days. The lamb in the red bag has lower fat which sometimes helps with soft poop and like Batmom says, its the fiber in it. Worth a try if all else fails. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest zoolaine Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 I have tried the green Iams and it was still mush. We have tried: Green bag Iams Kirkland Chicken Kirkland Lamb Natures Domain fish Natures Domain Turkey Pedigree Natural Balance Duck and Potato California something something in lamb Zuki is still doing fairly well on the oatmeal and hamburger. I am thinking of trying the Natural Balance Venison or the Buffalo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaryJane Posted August 29, 2011 Share Posted August 29, 2011 Look into Solid Gold's Mmillenium formula; it's beef and barley, I believe. George loved it! This was another "great" food (IMHO) that I tried on my fosters. It has limited ingredients (no chicken)and you can read (and understand) most of the ingredients. In my case it seemed to be too rich for some of the fosters so I couldn't use it for all the dogs like I could for the Natural Balance Venison and Sweet potato. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.