Poo Dramas!

[Guest TheWeskells]

Hi Everyone, I'm fairly new here but I'm getting heaps of great advice all ready, so thank you everyone. It's been nearly four weeks since we adopted Toby (2.5 year old grey) and since he's been with us he's had very soft poops. Mustard and cow patt like.

 

He was on pedigree kibble and Chunkers some other aussie supermarket meat, with the foster carers, but he did have a very shiny black coat and supposedly normal poos. Anyway I've heard bad things about those brands, so we transitioned him to Advanced kibble and raw organic chicken mince but like I said he's poops were really sloppy.

 

I read about the chicken and rice diet and we've been doing that for a week. The poops are still mustard yellow and soft, but definately more formed, is this progress?

 

Also, although his first poo of the day is usually formed his other poops are usually browny/orange, small, watery diarrhoea, with bits of mucus in them. The vet says keep going with the chicken and rice, what's everyones thoughts?

 

Finally, I'm not sure about the advanced. Any Aussies on here use black hawk? If so what are your thoughts.

 

Thanks!

 

 

[DofSweetPotatos]

I am of the thought, if the other stuff worked, why change?

Also, rice might be tough for him. Oatmeal is sometimes gentler than rice.

[XTRAWLD]

As a bandaid solution if you have access to the Green Iams bag, try that for now. It has a wonderful combination that greys seem to do well on and they do have a rather sensitive stomach compared to other breeds. He's also still transitioning. Once his poops settle down on while on the Green Bag, I would slowly reintroduce your other food of choice back in and then work from there. Fairly new and runny poops are normal as their system is making a complete adjustment but 4 weeks of D is getting a little much, and something medical can be going on as well. I've had interesting food trials with my boys and one will do better than the other on a different food, they are all different. Sweet Potato and Fish by Natural Balance worked out well here. I'm now a raw feeder though, but I do remember how hard it was to find a kibble that just worked, so be patient. You can also test Toby's stool to rule out any parasites.

 

And this is gross, (and we've had interesting conversations about it) but the longer to the poop is in the system, the more formed it will be. Needs more time to cook....ewh I know. So the poop mid-day being runny while morning is firm makes sense.

Edited June 30, 2017 by XTRAWLD

[JohnF]

You could also give him one of those probiotic and kaolin binders for as couple of days. Your vet is sure to have some.

 

 

But don't discount that he could have picked some kind of bug or protozoan up and that it would then be real diarrhea needing real diarrhea treatment

 

If feeding chicken when he's off then remove the skin (it is way, way too greasy). Frozen chicken breast isn't too expensive and takes about 40 minutes to cook in the oven.

[juliemac]

​If you cook the chicken (some folks do raw meats), you can make your life easier by cooking larger batches in a crock pot (I put a crock-pot of meat together when I get home from work and it is fully cooked when I go to bed. I debone the meat and portion it in the morning after it has cooled down). You can add rice, pasta or oatmeal to the meat while cooking if you use skinless chicken, and don't forget to remove the bones if you use bone-in meat (bones need to be cooked in a crock pot for ~2days to disintegrate, but that is definitely an option if you like).

good luck, and when you get enough posts, please make sure to share pictures!!!

[Guest TheWeskells]

Thanks for the advice everyone. Toby's bowels have finally come good. Yay! We are now feeding him black hawk grain free kibble (Salmon) and a mixture of raw and cooked chicken from an independent pet food supplier (Scruffies) here in Adelaide. Hoping to transition to just raw meat instead of the cooked, but taking it slow. So happy that he finally seems to have settled. Thanks again x

[Guest Islandhopper3]

Our grey also had soft-to-sloppy poos, and we tried a number of things. What worked for us was going to a lower protein, higher fiber kibble, Iams Large Adult (green bag). Our girl gets the dry kibble mixed with 1/4 cup canned chicken-as-the-first-ingredient-listed pate (we're using Purina One "ground" chicken and veggies), and about 1/4 cup warm water. After a week her stools are firm, and formed, she loves the food mix, and the kibble is large enough to use as a healthy treat that helps clean her teeth.

Edited July 19, 2017 by Islandhopper3