The Battle Of The Soft Poops

[Guest mgodwin]

Ginny has been home for about 9 months now. I started out feeding her Eukanuba large breed and that did okay once I started adding in Olewo carrots. Her stools were never perfect and "bouncy" and bit on the soft side, but I could pick them up without leaving much behind. Eventually she started having pretty terrible gas so I decided to switch to something else to see if we could get rid of the gas. So I switched her over to TOTW High Prairie to see if maybe the grains were an issue. She was not as gassy but the poop didn't improve much.

 

Well, last weekend she had a case of the runs. After fasting her for 24 hours and putting her on a bland diet of boiled chicken and pureed pumpkin, she started to come back around and when her poop finally firmed up, they were the most perfect stools I've ever seen out of her. Naturally, I began to add back in the TOTW. Unfortunately, this morning her stools were back to the softer but still formed stools that I could still pick up. So, this may not be the best kibble for her. In an ideal world I would love to do homecooking for her but frankly I don't have the time or the resources to do so.

 

I'm considering trying something like the famous "Iams Green Bag" or similar to see how she does on that. I realize that I probably won't achieve the same quality stools I got with the chicken and pumpkin but I'd like to get as close as I can. So, with that in mind I'd like to know what your opinion is and what experiences you've had with trying to find that "perfect" food.

 

Thanks in advance!!

[locket]

It might not be the case for you, but I'll jump in with my experience.

We got Jack wormed, then started feeding Kirkland lamb and rice. He had horrible gas, but that subsided once he got settled (2 months). He had formed, but soft stools, so we added in the Olewo carrot. Yipee! Superb poops! That worked for a few months, but then the gas came back, to a new level (7 months)! It kept getting worse and worse! So we decided to try Nature's Domain Salmon and potato. We had horrible diahrrea. So we put him on a bland diet, perfect poop! (8 months) A week later we started ND again, terrible diahrrea again! Stools sample negative, we decided to worm him anyway since he had lost so much weight and changed his food again to Kirkland's Chicken and Rice. He had diarrhea for a week, then one morning it was a perfect poo! We stayed giving him only kibble, then started adding other treats here and there. It stayed formed and good! (9months) we followed a worming protocol and since we started worming him, he hasn't had any gas, or any diahrrea.

I wanted to tell you because your story is so similar to mine. Has she been checked for worms? If not, Iams did not worked at all for us (go figure) but Kirkland's brand is also a popular one among the Greys

[Guest mgodwin]

It might not be the case for you, but I'll jump in with my experience.

 

We got Jack wormed, then started feeding Kirkland lamb and rice. He had horrible gas, but that subsided once he got settled (2 months). He had formed, but soft stools, so we added in the Olewo carrot. Yipee! Superb poops! That worked for a few months, but then the gas came back, to a new level (7 months)! It kept getting worse and worse! So we decided to try Nature's Domain Salmon and potato. We had horrible diahrrea. So we put him on a bland diet, perfect poop! (8 months) A week later we started ND again, terrible diahrrea again! Stools sample negative, we decided to worm him anyway since he had lost so much weight and changed his food again to Kirkland's Chicken and Rice. He had diarrhea for a week, then one morning it was a perfect poo! We stayed giving him only kibble, then started adding other treats here and there. It stayed formed and good! (9months) we followed a worming protocol and since we started worming him, he hasn't had any gas, or any diahrrea.

 

I wanted to tell you because your story is so similar to mine. Has she been checked for worms? If not, Iams did not worked at all for us (go figure) but Kirkland's brand is also a popular one among the Greys

 

That does sound eerily similar! The one difference is that she isn't loosing weight which is a good thing. She was given a dose of panacur when I brought her home and she's had at least one fecal, maybe two since then and both were negative. I realize a negative fecal doesn't necessarily mean she doesn't have worms. She is also on Heartguard Plus which, in theory, should kill hook/roundworms. That would still leave tapeworms and some less common parasites but with tapes I would expect her to lose weight.

[Time4ANap]

Been there - done that - done that too - etc...etc...etc...

 

It's often just a matter of what agrees with the dog, and if it;s the Green Bag, there's not a thing wrong with thatif it works for your dog. We tried all of those rich kibbles and some not so rich ones. What worked for Rocket ultimately was Precise Foundation Chicken Meal and Rice (might be called Precise Naturals now). As he got a little older, he started picking up weight so we switch him to the Precise Senior Formula. We rarely have an issue any more that's related to food,.

 

We do use the Olewo carrots as well. Rocket is also on Tylan because the recurring bouts of Big D and bloody stools were determined to be Stress Colitis. We have not had to change foods in several years though after changing to Precise.

[Guest wolfood]

We have been battling the Greyhound loose stool syndrome for 2 1/2 years.. Almost every major food brand was used to no avail. A friend suggested Fromm Gold lamb, chicken etc. it only helped a little. Fromm has been family owned for years. It is sold in some stores but I buy it on line at Chewy.com. I contacted the family and they suggested their 'Prairie' formula which does not contain chicken but has beef and pork. We have almost finishing transitioning to the prairie food and stools are firm!!!!!!

[Feisty49]

Getting too many recommendations can be a pain. Nonetheless, if you're still floundering, I suggest trying Diamond Naturals Grain-Free Whitefish and Sweet Potato flavor (don't know if it's true, but I'm told that whitefish is gentle on the digestive system). I'm not saying that grain free is the way to go. I don't buy into that hype. This was recommended by another GTer a while ago and just happened to be grain free. Annie had been on Iams Green Bag and was not liking it much as well as it stopped doing the job of firming up her poos. She *loves* the Diamond Naturals and her poos are good, except for the last one of the day which comes out ice cream coney but can still be picked up.

[Guest xengab]

Just like people some can be allergic or sensitive to grains. You'd be able to tell if you switch from one type of food with grains to the same type of food without grains and the poop firms up. Or the skin gets dry and flakes.

 

I'd look at what protiens you've fed. Have you tried kangaroo? There are some brands that have this and some dogs do well on it because none have ever had it before thus no reactions to it. Also most is not fed with foods that are full of chemicals.

[cleptogrey]

Stool sample to your vet and ask if your dog might need a round or two of flagyl. Also note the odor and share with your vet. It sounds like something bacterial. hope your local pet store is refunding you for your partially used bags of foods, mine does.