Picking Up Runny Poop Sucks.. Food Suggestions?

[Guest HeatherLee]

Hi everyone.. I adopted Gambler (64lb male) about a month and a half ago.. and here's the run down.. I'm pretty sure he was eating kirkland salmon and rice at his foster home (anyone from gpa-az on here probably knows for sure). I switched him to natures recipe salmon and sweet potato blend when he moved in with because that's what the other dog in the house ate and it was easier to avoid jealousy and theivery by feeding them the same thing. He loved it, gobbled it down every morning.

 

But i noticed he was VERY gassy. I'm sure a lot of this was caused by nerves and change of environment. So I tried giving him a tablespoon of organic low-fat greek yogurt with his food.. and wow did that make his gas worse! I also noticed his poop was green and loose, which of course is strange, dogs aren't supposed to poop green. I just decided to give him more time to adjust and added some pumpkin to his food. His gas situation improved when he adjusted to the house and I stopped giving him yogurt. But his poop was still green and loose. It wasn't much of a big deal since i lived in a house with a dirt yard that i could let it dry out for a day before i picked it up.

 

BUT, he since then suffered a serious gash from fight with the roomates dog, went to the vert (who stitched him up and did a fecal float for me) and had to endure me moving out and adjusting to another house. Fecal float was fine but the vet said there was some bacteria, so she gave me so she gave me an antibiotic, and probiotic (along with other drugs for pain and inflammation).

 

it's been about three weeks since his fight, he's drinking enough water, but his poop is orangey (i'm guessing from the sweet potatoes) and I've switched him to natures recipe chicken and sweet potato since I discovered his LOVE of all things chicken flavored. And well, now he has lovely lush grass to poop on around the apartment complex, and it's pretty gross having to pick up loose stool from fresh grass. Not to mention I feel bad more poor baby is having stomach problems. He's also started burping?

 

I'm open to suggestion. I'm not terribly attached to being grain free, but would like a decent quality food I can afford (I work at whole foods, I'm kind of a food snob, but really, whatever he'll like that makes him feel better is fine). Sorry for the novel, I know he needs time to adjust, but after all this i can't help but point to the food since he's been mostly pretty chill throughout everything and seems to be doing fine emotionally.

 

thanks!

[Hubcitypam]

I tried a lot of "better" foods and Iams was all that worked for Rex. YMMV.

[Time4ANap]

Too many changes in a too short period of time.

 

You need to make one change at time in order to know what is causing the problem. With a recent adoption, my first thought would be to de-worm again with a round of Panacur even with the negative fecal, just to be sure. It won't hurt anything. The fecal test will be negative unless you hit the perfect stool sample that happens to have a worm or eggs in it.

 

Some of the foods you mention are very rich, especially for a hound recently off the track. Some people will say that IAMS will fix the problem, others will recommend other foods. It all comes down to trial and error and what works for your hound. We feed Precise Foundation Chicken Meal and Rice and have firm, kickable poop. Again, that food came after much trial and error and after feeding foods that worked well for months, until they didn't. We've fed Blue Buffalo, TOTW, and many others until we found that the Precise Food worked best. We've been feeding it for over 2 years.

 

Treats and chews can also cause major issues. You will need to restrict treats until you figure out what works, or you won't know if a treat is causing the issue. When we need to restrict treats, we just use a few pieces of kibble as a treat. He won't care what it is as long as he gets it.

 

Good luck and don;t let it stress you. Runny poop, AKA BigD is a normal conversation around here. Others will chime in with what has worked for them.

[Guest HeatherLee]

Too many changes in a too short period of time.

 

You need to make one change at time in order to know what is causing the problem. With a recent adoption, my first thought would be to de-worm again with a round of Panacur even with the negative fecal, just to be sure. It won't hurt anything. The fecal test will be negative unless you hit the perfect stool sample that happens to have a worm or eggs in it.

 

 

So how long does it take to notice a change just from food? A month? I'm seriously considering Iams green bag since it has so many rave reviews here. I could transition to that, then wait a month to see improvement before I deworm him?

[JJNg]

I would try deworming sooner rather than later. Won't hurt, and there are some who believe that chronic parasite infections can predispose to IBD if they are not resolved quickly enough.

[Greydawg]

 

Poop Pick-up Tip I learned from Heisman's foster mom when we first adopted him...

Put newspaper down just when dog positions himself. Then gather it up into your bag and go. It is much easier and more sanitary, no matter what the consistency.

 

It is not uncommon after first adopting, so be patient. I struggled with Heiman's poop at the beginning... Trying to find the right food for him was a challenge. The expensive dog foods were the worst for him. I ended up with using balanced dog food found in most grocery stores and everything normalized. More economic too.

 

Hoping he"ll have perfect poop soon! Good luck.

 

[3greytjoys]

I agree, it's most important to get the medical problems resolved ASAP.

 

Also, too many food changes in a short time. Hopefully, you'll find one that will show improvement within a month or so. Kibble transitions are usually recommended to accomplish slowly -- minimum 10 days, better if transitioning over 3-4 weeks, gradually adding about 1/4 of new food each week while reducing old food.

 

California Natural (lamb and rice) has helped resolve many Greyhounds soft stools and gas problems. CA Natural chicken and rice is okay too. California Natural is a simple ingredient kibble that often helps newer hounds who are reactive to other kibble brands. Higher nutritional calorie content = less daily feeding quantity. Smaller stools (without excessive low quaily cereal fillers of some other foods).

 

Beware of foods with "by-products" or any type of corn-related ingredients, both are lower quality. Specific named meat is good; however, anytime you see a particular named whole meat in the ingredient list, (i.e., "chicken") be aware that it's weighed/measured for the printed ingredient list when the meat is raw and full of water. Once cooked (dried) that whole "chicken" amount would drop dramatically down in the ingredient list, raising the quantity level of other ingredients (possibly fillers) that were originally lower down the ingredient list.

 

In contrast, when a food lists a specific meat ingredient like "chicken meal," the term "meal" means the meat was weighed and listed at dry weight after cooking, so you're getting a true placement level on the ingredient list.

Long term, imo, it's good to change kibble brands periodically over the lifetime of the dog (unless a dog has inflammatory bowel disease, or similar medical condition).

If additional vet prescribed meds are needed (that loosen stools), ask your vet if a stool firming medication might help during treatment. I understand your situation. Good luck with Gambler.

[DesiRayMom]

Everybody else has pretty much covered the food issue........I'll just add another tip for clean up.

I've found that cheap paper plates work better for us. I can't seem to get a newspaper in "position" quick enough,

and if there's any breeze, fugetaboutit. FWIW, anything "fishy" gives Desi horrible gas, Right now, he's on

TOTW Canyon Country and his poops are "logs." Good luck.

[a_daerr]

So how long does it take to notice a change just from food? A month? I'm seriously considering Iams green bag since it has so many rave reviews here.

 

Do it! I used to be a food snob too, until I realized that the grain-free, organic, wholistic, mumbo jumbo just wasn't meant to be.

[Guest FinnsMom]

If he was eating Kirkland salmon and rice in his foster home and doing well on it, why not just go back to feeding him that rather than trying other foods? Feed the dogs in a separate area to avoid food aggression that might occur over jealousy.

[Guest borzoix4]

For what its worth, I feed and very happy with the Kirkland. Its the same rating as Blue buffalo, with obviously half the price. The main reason is it seems more digestable. If you can get the Kirkland, sold exclusively at Cosco, I would suggest you put him, as mentioned above, back on the food he was eating.

 

The only one in this house that isnt eating the Kirkland is my old boy Zubin, and that was a recent change. We put him on Natures Receipe senior. No issues with any of the others eating something else than he or vice versa. My dogs each eat in their own area, and none can go to anothers bowl as I pick up the bowls after eating to wash the bowls.

[Feisty49]

You may have to experiment, slowly I suppose, though there are some people who think otherwise. I have no firm opinion about length of time to decide if a new food is going to do the trick. Whatever works for your dog is what to do.

 

Annie had pudding poo issues on and off for the first two months after adoption in July 2011. Long story short is I discovered for her that if there wasn't improvement in her poo within 3 or 4 days after introduction of a new food, it wasn't going to do any good. I tried a few food suggestions I read about on here. I finally read about Iams in Green Bag and while it helped, it didn't give great poos. She also didn't like it on its own.

 

The final recipe of kibble she eats is half Iams and half Nutro venison with brown rice. That made her poo much better, acceptable even, but what really firmed her up was a month on FortiFlora and a couple of tablespoons of beet pulp put in her food every day. Most of the time she now has perfect poos (as most of us will testify, as the day goes on, poos often get softer) and she eats it up most of the time.

 

Ha! Just realized that I used the word "most" a lot but we all know how our houndies can be. Today breakfast is great; tomorrow "I'm not in the mood to eat it, mom." The day after that, b'fast gets chowed down like it's ice cream.

[Guest BrindleBabes]

At my vet's suggestion, I moved my grrls over to 4Health from Tractor Supply (they have several varieties). I think it's made by Diamond, a maker of several brands, including Kirkland. Half the price of the high-end stuff and no fillers. The downside is you can only buy it at Tractor Supply and they don't always have what you want in the size you want, so plan ahead.

 

And according to my vet, dogs do not get bored with their food, so try to avoid mixing things up once you find that magic kibble.

 

I also give them Tylan once every three days. I don't know why it works, but it seems to help.

[Guest jschwe]

Superbird has been on the same food since we got him in December and his poos were terrible at first, and then dramatically improved, but still were softer than "normal" dog poo. I picked up a bag of chicken feet and have been giving him one a day as a treat. Almost immediately his poos became solid, perfect dog poos and they have remained that way for three weeks now! Very exciting.

 

That being said, we have noticed a direct correlation between a stressful event and a very soft poo, so it is not always the food's fault.

[Guest WhiteWave]

I have found that psyllium powder works better than yogurt/pumpkin. Just get the plain and start with 1 tsp over the kibble (but you do have to add water). My new foster had liquid poop. I wormed her and it wasn't getting better. First dose of psyllium and her poop is formed and easy to pick up and has been since then. Plus she is going 2x a day instead of 3-4 liquid piles.

 

I had gotten it for Joey at the recommendation of a vet who specializes in nutrition for performance dogs. Joey has always gotten diarrhea when he ran hard and being in FL I was concerned with dehydration. So he recommended adding the extra fiber to his diet and it solved our problem.

[Guest OPointyDog]

Zoe had runny poo for MONTHS after we got her, and I totally feel your pain about trying to clean it out of the grass. It's horrible. I tried 4-5 different kinds of food over about 8 months. I carried small paper plates around for awhile and would stick them under her - worked well but still not ideal.

 

She had hookworms when we got her, and was dewormed with several negative fecals, and nothing seemed to help the runny poo, though I noticed that the poop seemed firmer after I gave her the heartworm pill each month and wondered if it was a low-grade worm problem. Finally I read somewhere here about how hard hookworms are to get rid of and how hard they can be to detect and convinced our vet to give her another round of deworming, this time more aggressive. A few weeks after the last round, her poop suddenly firmed up. She doesn't seem to tolerate chicken very well, and is on the red bag of Iams and it works well. She also gets 1/2 packet of fortiflora. I could not be happier!

 

Now, of course, we have a new dog, Mika, who has bright yellow runny poo and walks when he poops, so the plate doesn't work. Tried him on Iams, but he just poops twice as much, but still runny. I'm in the process of trying a different protein for him.... Maybe I can convince the vet to deworm him as well. He had tapeworms, but has always been negative for others.

[Guest GreytBengalMom]

We adopted Eddie from GPA, and I remember seeing Gambler's pictures when we were looking to adopt. He is a super cute boy!

 

Eddie's been with us for 5 weeks now, and he came to us on Nature's Domain. That's the grain-free Costco food I believe the majority of the foster families feed the hounds. While I'm sure it's a good food, it just didn't sit well with Eddie. His poops were consistently loose. I tried adding plain yogurt to his food, but it made him super itchy and pink. After a trip to the vet, he was given the "all-clear" for worms and other digestive bacteria issues. The vet said he was still adjusting to life off the track, so we did a round of metronidazole to help settle his tummy. When that didn't help, we tried pepto for a couple of days. When that didn't work, I tried switching him over to Iams in the green bag.

 

The green bag worked for his tummy troubles, without a doubt. However, Eddie became pink and itchy all over again. This didn't happen after we tried out the small bag, either. This happened after I went to Target and bought the biggest bag they had since he had done so well on the small bag. So it took about 9 days for him to get pink and itchy. His hair also started falling out. I realize this isn't the case for everyone, but unfortunately this was the case for poor itchy Eddie.

 

We're slowly transitioning over to Natural Balance - lamb and brown rice. Unfortunately we're on day 3 and the loose poops are starting (and he's only receiving about 25% Natural Balance). I picked up some canned pumpkin, so we'll be trying that as well.

 

I reached out to the lady who helped us at GPA, and she is incredibly helpful. Unfortunately sometimes these guys just take a while to adjust, and finding the right food can be tricky.

 

If you live in the Ahwatukee area I would be happy to give you some of the Green Bag food since I have a ton that Eddie won't be able to eat.

[Guest GreytBengalMom]

 

So how long does it take to notice a change just from food? A month? I'm seriously considering Iams green bag since it has so many rave reviews here. I could transition to that, then wait a month to see improvement before I deworm him?

Also, even though Eddie tested negative for worms, I thought he may have them after reading so many posts on this forum. I talked with my vet who was going to de-worm him, but before doing so I reached out to GPA to confirm if he had already been de-wormed. I was told that worms are not normally an issue with these dogs (not sure how they know that exactly); however, the dogs are all de-wormed. Once my vet learned Eddie had already been de-wormed once in the last couple of weeks, he suggested we wait. You might wanna talk to your vet/GPA before going the de-worming route.

[Guest nonna49]

My life revolves around dog poo. I AM the Poo-Poo-Princess. it seems as though poo is the first topic I discuss with my vet. My high school Latin has improved too, coccidia, giardia, clostridia...and the list goes on and on.

 

We have fed Eukanuba or Iams since 1994. Which type depends on availability in our rather rural neighborhood. Currently it's Iams Naturals. I add a spoon of yoghurt and about 1/2 tsp of psyllium powder once a day. The evening feed is plain. All systems in all three dogs are working fine, one 14 year old, husky/grey, one 7 year old grey and a 22 month old grey. Treats are limited to 1 small Milk Bone Granola style treat as an afternoon snack, no people food at all, and ice cubes now and then as a super treat. The baby, supplements her ice treats with outdoor snow-clumps and ice sheets from the outdoor water dish. She's cute and loveable, just not terribly conventional ;-)

[GreytTerp]

Everyone has their own experiences with different foods and what works for your dog, but I think all of us have been through the "pudding" (or worse) poop stages. I am happy to share what has worked for us. We also live in a townhome/apt community, and there is nothing worse than trying to figure out how to scoop up what you can...and being embarassed about what you can't...

 

What worked for us: More Fiber!

Most dog foods, no matter what brand, usually have between 3 and 4% fiber. Just adding a scoop of mashed sweet potatoes or some oatmeal to Marvin's dinner, we saw a big difference (though yes, the sweet potatoes will make things very, very orange). I read nearly every bag of decent food at the store, but I managed to find a few that have fiber content on the order of 7-8%. There was a noticeable difference within 48 hours of beginning to change Marvin's food to the higher fiber food. We're not talking "sidewalk-bouncing", but consistently easy to pick up completely.

 

We are currently feeding Blue Buffalo Wilderness Large Breed, which is grain-free and chicken-based. We didn't need to go grain-free, but the Blue Buffalo grain-free options were about all I could find at Petco with significantly more fiber. Marvin doesn't eat a ton, only 1.5 cups twice a day, so we don't have any trouble buying him a 24lb bag once a month or so.

 

Good luck!

[Guest HeatherLee]

We adopted Eddie from GPA, and I remember seeing Gambler's pictures when we were looking to adopt. He is a super cute boy! .If you live in the Ahwatukee area I would be happy to give you some of the Green Bag food since I have a ton that Eddie won't be able to eat.

Thanks he is a very cute boy. Sorry for taking so long to respond! I didn't do the green bag but went to the iams sensitive formula just in case. It also has beet pulp in it. After just two days his poop was just fine! He's got more energy now and his breath is a little stinky but he's continuing to improve! So happy! Sorry to hear about your troubles with Eddie though I do live near Awahtukee though, just took him to the pecos dog park for the first time tonight and it went quite well, though I'm sure he wouldn't mind another grey to run around with

[Guest GreytBengalMom]

Eddie is actually doing much better this week, so I'm optimistic.

 

We go to the Pecos dog park fairly often. Eddie is always the only greyhound, and i know he would love to play with another grey! We should coordinate a day to bring the boys there. I usually bring him on Sunday afternoons.

[Guest GreytBengalMom]

I don't think we have the option to private message each other since we're still new to the forums, but feel free to email me to set up a future playdate. KerryWalker39@yahoo.com. (My name is Kerry, BTW.)

[Guest juliewicz]

I can't believe my first post is gonna be about poop!

 

I just wanted to say THANK YOU to everyone for the notes about sticking a paper plate or something under before they go.

 

My guy came home to me with a resistant strain of Giardia & in all my research on here about that (so much to learn!), I read this thread, not needing at the time. This is our third (and hopefully final round of treatment) and the vet doubled him up on Panacur & metronidazole. The metro turned him into a faucet. I leash walk him around the neighborhood & now that the snow is melting, I was embarrassed when that started up! I got as much as I could, but still felt bad. I would have never thought about sticking something down, so thanks for the great advice! Some times, it's the little things that help the most! Looking forward to "logs"!

 

This board has been a huge help in learning so much about my first grey!