soft stools

[2012voltron]

Hey Everybody. I have a food question. We adopted Loco, an 80lb male in February, straight off the track. Of course he had hook worms and "pudding poop". We have now tried him on three different foods. Diamond Naturals, Nutro Chicken flavor and now he is on Nutrish beef and pea. He now has well formed stools but most of the time they are still too soft to get them all picked up. He has tested negative for hook worms after 2 rounds of treatment. We are giving him a probiotic every morning and we are using Milk bone Minis as reward treats. Any ideas on a medium priced food that might help with this problem? Thanks.

[Time4ANap]

A negative fecal only means that the sample tested at the time was negative, not that he's clear of the hooks.   He may still have them, but they will appear less frequently depending where he is in the worm cycle, so I would suggest several more fecals over the coming months before declaring him "all clear" just to be on the safe side.  We are also dealing with hooks and are about to do the 3rd round of topical and oral treatments this month. 

Food is really trial and error, but if you want to address a soft stool, many people here will tell you that IAMS green bag is the way to go. Some have great results from it, but some also will start to see a dull coat or flaking dandruff a few months after starting it, so it all depends on the dog. 

We also had great luck with the Purina Pro Plan line with Rocket who had a very sensitive stomach and stress colitis.  There were other hounds here on GT who also had stomach issues and the Pro Plan worked well for them too. Good Luck! 

[cleptogrey]

Keep up on stool samples, Purina pro plan focus salmon and rice or even their chicken. Both are highly digestible.  The shredded Purina pro plan is not as digestible,  so make sure it's focus. Vitamin rx clay, just a small amount works like magic. Stay away from bully sticks and rich treats.

Also try to stick with one food, transition slowly, rice as an add in is easy to digest and helps with loose stools.

[macoduck]

That's a lot of food changes since February. Try the IAMS green bag or the Purina like Don said. Forget any fancy brands.

You may be dealing with hookworms for the next year, despite clear fecals. Do a search on the Health and Medical section here for hookworms to make sure you are following the most recent version of the medication treatment plan. If you are on Facebook, join the Greytalk Health and Medical page there and search for vet Jennifer Ng's paper on hookworm treatment.

[Bizeebee]

I would just echo what's already been said, as far as brand recommendations and hook protocols to look up; but when it comes to food please check out the Nutritionally Mediated Dilate Cardiomyopathy group on facebook, or read up on a lot of the same stuff here: https://taurinedcm.org/

Purina and Iams are both great recs as far as avoiding DCM risks, and Olewo carrots had helped us a lot during the hookworm protocol poops.

[EllenEveBaz]

Echoing all above.  One of my dogs does best on Purina Pro Plan Focus chicken.   FYI, if you see "beet pulp" on a food's ingredient list, that's added as a filler that tends to bulk up the stool.  Many dogs have firmer poop with that.  The Olewo carrot supplement mentioned above does the same kind of "filler" thing, as I understand it.  

Welcome to the wonderful world of poop research.  

[lukasmom]

You might want to look into Olewo Carrots. All natural, organic carrots from Germany. Company has been around for like 30 years, used by breeders and rescues. They calm the digestive track and firm up the poops. A lot of greyhound people use it.

I have used for about 5 years with great success. My hounds love it. I have recommended it so much (at least twice a week on Facebook) that the company gave me 40 pounds to use as samples.

[Keysrider3]

Our 12 year old Grey has done really well on Purina ProPlan Smartblend.  We combine bags of Healthy Weight, and Lamb and Rice (50-50), and add some cooked chicken, with just a little water.  We tried Iams green bag, and our Grey and APBT mix breeds loved it, but all were putting on unwanted weight even after meal sizes were reduced. It too provided good stools.  

[MaryJane]

Try adding some cooked oatmeal. It has fiber and it used in many of the sensitive diets available commercially.

[HeyRunDog]

I don't know if you can get it where you are but I've just put Grace onto Gain Maintenance and her stools have noticeably firmed up.