What the poo?! Is it the food?
WTH. Am I not keeping her on the chicken and rice alone long enough? Transitioning too fast back to kibble? I usually do: 2 days chicken and rice only. 3rd day 1/4 kibble, 3/4 chicken and rice 4th day 1/2 kibble, 1/2 chicken and rice 5th day 3/4 kibble 1/4 chicken and rice 6th day Kibble Only. So help me god, she starts with the squirts as soon as you add kibble in at all. UGH. How do you know if it's the kibble? How do you know if a dog has issues with a food? Do they usually poop like crazy, or is it usually a skin chewing thing, or do they barf, or what? I don't want to change her food if I don't have to - she's always been on the Blue Buffalo Large Breed Puppy. Which is Chicken and Rice. HELP! |
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| Sensitivities can show up as skin issues or digestive issues. We've home cooked ostrich and potato since February 2011... believe me, I feel your pain. It might just be you're trying to reintroduce the BB too quickly. Is she perfectly fine on chicken and rice? If yes, ask about keeping her on just rice and chicken for a while longer... maybe 7 days if that's acceptable so you allow her digestive tract to settle. It'll also help you to verify that her system can work properly and it's not something else that's just cycling around another time. Then, if you haven't done this already, buy a new bag of BB (to be sure there's not something wrong with just the particular bag you have)... it might be better to choose a new kibble all together if adding just a little new BB is causing problems... and very slowly reintroduce the kibble the way you were doing but give her 3-4 days on each level. If neither works, it's time to look more into other causes. Have you asked about a probiotic? Did they do a stool culture/testing? But of course, run all this by your vet first. |
| We've done several stool cultures - nothing there, at least no parasites. We do have probitoic, which she gets once a day. I'm not going to stunt her growth by keeping her on the chicken and rice for 7 days, and then taking a long while to transition back am I? She's a growing puppy, I just worry so much. Honestly, I think I *might* know what the problem is, but I can't confirm it. She's a cat poop eater. And I have three cats. We've blocked off the dang litter boxes, but she occasionally will find cat turds outside and she thinks they're mmmmmmmmm tasty. Gross. Too bad I can't find something to feed the cats that makes their poop unappetizing to sheepies, lol. Will try your suggestions Jaci, I just worry about her  |
| We had this too with Chowder. Nothing in her stool samples just couldn't have a solid poop except on chicken and rice. We finally switched her to the ID food from the vet even though we didn't want to after looking at the ingredients we couldn't take it anymore. She was on the ID for months. At just over a year we SLOWLY, very slowly switched her to an adult food. It took awhile but we found Purine Pro Plan with the shredded chicken works. She is normal height, if not taller than many of the sheepies we've been with but only 55 lbs. The vet likes her weight, says its better than a overweight dog and cannot directly connect it to her stomach issues. |
| If you are going to keep on chicken and rice, make it brown rice (since it's a bummer to cook, do a bunch at a time and freeze in portions.) Also add a bit of veggies, cooked....just a teaspoon-tablespoon at a time. Sweet potato, pumpkin puree, cooked carrot, spinach, etc. If there wasn't such a controversy about baby foods these days I'd suggest a few small jars. There are doggie vitamins.....but your probiotic might already have some. For calcium either some caplets or try some canned salmon whizzed up bones and all in food processor. Yeah, you'll think you are spending more for doggie food than people food. I like idea of ID food. Check your kibble ingredients....you may find wheat, corn, soy......three grains I've had trouble with over the years with various dogs. |
| Ok... and I know how you worry. Definitely check with your vet first but I don't think you're going to stunt her growth with 7 days of chicken/rice, then reintroducing kibble. Maybe try just 5 if you think you've discovered the cause. As it is, she's loosing the benefits of kibble anyway because it's quickly running through her... along with fluids. And yeah... cat poo may be too rich.  Try the zero cat poo tolerance thing when you begin to reintroduce kibble again... even if just for a couple of weeks. At least this way you'll be able to say for sure either it is or isn't the kitty snacks causing it.  Hoping you'll get it figured out soon.  |
| Make sure it isn't kittie crunchies she's eating......the stuff in the kitty litter. yeah, kittie food is too rich. Maud and Basil used to sneak over the neighbors and eat their cat's food......stinkers. |
Quote: How do you know if it's the kibble? How do you know if a dog has issues with a food? Do they usually poop like crazy, or is it usually a skin chewing thing, or do they barf, or what? I don't want to change her food if I don't have to - she's always been on the Blue Buffalo Large Breed Puppy. Which is Chicken and Rice. Sensitivities to ingredients tend to show up as vomiting, diarrhea, etc. Allergies tend to manifest as chewing, licking, hot spots, etc. Have you tried other foods at all? BB Large Breed puppy is Chicken and Rice, BUT it also has barley, oatmeal, potatoes, sweet potatoes, etc. It could really be any ingredient in the whole panel, but those listed are ones that I have seen cause issues. It could just be that your girl needs to be on a limited ingredient diet, which is hard when you have a large breed puppy, as limited ingredient diets tend to be "all life stages, all breeds" which I sometimes have issues feeding to dogs that are going to get as big as an OES, depending on the formulation. If the runs start EVERY time that you add the kibble back in, I would probably be looking into some different kibble. My personal suggestions would be Canine Cavier GF Duck, it is one of the few non-LBP specific foods that I would feed to a LBP, and it is about as limited ingredient as a kibble gets. However is tends to be very pricey and hard to find. |
| Gosh, I would begin to suspect this specific kibble if it happens repeatedly when you reintroduce it. Check with your vet about their recommendations on changing kibble. I am sorry I am fairly new to the forum, so I don't know how old your puppy is. I only feed puppy formula (or large breed puppy formula) for about 3 months, then I switch to adult kibble as I want to keep the protein a bit lower than what is found in puppy formulas. The % of protein in the food you are feeding is 28% which is higher than what I think is necessary, even for a growing puppy. I know that is not what the dog food companies tell you, but I have raised several OES (and a Saint Bernard) puppies over twenty-five years and had the best results getting them off puppy formula kibble fairly quickly. You might want to try a "limited ingredient" kibble such as the Natural Balance lamb and rice formula. The "limited ingredient" formulas can be really helpful if you are dealing with allergies and trying to define which ingredient or ingredients are causing problems. This one only contains lamb as a meat source and rice as a grain, it does not have any oats, barley, corn or wheat that some other "chicken and rice" formulas contain, even though they are called "chicken are rice" they include other ingredients sometimes. http://www.naturalbalance.net/dogformul ... g_LBB.html The protein is 21%, much lower. The other thing that comes to mind is that perhaps her tummy is feeling better, but not completely recovered and then when you re-introduce the kibble it the digestive system just can't quite handle the switch, even though it is gradual. I you think that might be the case, I would introduce a human pro-biotic (refrigerated) such as Bio K available in Whole Food Market or other health food stores, giving 1/4 to 1/2 the human dose daily (going by the assumption that your puppy is about 1/4 to 1/2 of normal adult body weight and making the appropriate adjustment) for 3 or 4 weeks to see if that helps the digestive tract get back to totally normal. Of course, please check with your vet before you do anything like this. But again, my experience has been that it can be very helpful. And yes, I might toss the bag of open kibble you have been feeding on the chance that there is something wrong with it. Did you sniff it to be sure it does not smell even a little bit rancid? And check the date code on the bag. Sometimes it is possible to get an old, stale bag of kibble that has been sitting in the store even though you just purchased it recently. And do check the FDA site for recent recall information just to be sure this particular kibble has not been recalled. Best of luck. I'm sure there is an answer coming soon. Then you will ALL feel much better! Linda Zimmerman & Hudson, Chloe & Kristy |
| And we can't discount heat. If she's exercising a lot outside during the hot times, her body needs time to cool before food. Over eating will also cause the poohs. I suspect, as Linda said....and others...she needs time, like a week or so on the bland diet. I'm sure she won't mind  I just went thru a day with MO......I gave her wheat, shame on me, I know better. Wheat plus I didn't reduce her regular kibble....too much for her sensitive tummy. BYT, she's a duck and sweet potato kibble girl. |
| I am having this at the moment with Summer. So she is having extra cooked rice mixed in with her kibble.... |
| We fed Eevee cottage cheese instead of the bland diet, it worked very well for us. She is back on all kibble now. We did plain cottage cheese (no kibble mixed in) for three days. Then we started mixing in Fromm's one handful at a time, while also reducing the amount of cottage cheese. One handful per meal the first day (she's eating three meals a day), one and a half the next day, two the day after that, three the next day, four the day after that, and finally five handfuls and no cottage cheese. My vet said using cottage cheese is better than chicken/rice because it gives more protein, plus it goes through the digestive system a little slower. You might want to try that instead. The Fromm's food has probiotics in it, which I figure could help. We love Blue Buffalo (grain free especially) for Bailey, because it helped her a lot with her itchy skin, but if it isn't working for Ava, it isn't working. Also like Linda said, check your bag for expiration date/recalls! There was a recall a long time ago for Blue, it's possible you have a bag that was recalled that got through somehow. I've also heard of people getting expired bags at like Petsmart. |
| Unfortunately, we have extensive experience here with tummy troubles. Oscar has an autoimmune disorder, which causes his body to attack his small intestine (IBD), and pancreas, as well as making him susceptible to drug resistant infections. We have been dealing with vomiting and diarrhea since he came to us when he was ten weeks old. When a dog has tummy troubles, it can manifest itself in different ways, depending upon where the inflammation is occurring. I was told that vomiting alone usually indicates issues in the stomach, or esophagus, while diarrhea alone indicates issues with the large intestine, possibly colitis. (Diarrhea is a result of food moving too quickly through the digestive tract for the water to be properly absorbed, for whatever the reason.) Oscar had both vomiting and diarrhea, plus tummy rumbles, vomit burping, and gas, which indicated an issues with the small intestine. Sure enough, when we did the endoscopy, his small intestine was severely inflamed. We did at least a dozen food switches, with different protein sources, as well as trying all of the prescription foods, and found venison works best for him. Based upon your description, it sounds like the kibble is your culprit. Since she is having normal, solid stool with the cooked chicken and rice, I do not think that you are transitioning too quickly. I think the kibble is simply disagreeing with her. Could be a bad bag. Could be another ingredient that she isn't tolerating well. Is there a canned version of chicken and rice that you could try? Canned food is definitely easier to digest than kibble. We switched Oscar to canned food after a terrible bout of pancreatitis, and we never switched back to kibble. For a long time, vets were against canned food as they said kibble was chewed and cleaned the teeth better. Since Oscar's kibble always came back up whole  , it blew that theory out of the water.  Also, make sure that she isn't getting any other treats (even kitty ones ) that might be causing her trouble. I learned the hard way to only do one thing at a time, or it's almost impossible to determine which things are causing which positive or negative outcomes. If you continue to have trouble, you might want to try a limited ingredient food with a different protein source, like venison, duck, or rabbit. Since she does fine on the home cooked chicken though, I don't think the protein source is your problem. Hope you figure this out soon. Laurie and Oscar |
| No advice really, but to say we're going through the same kind of thing with george (now 8 months) He was on james wellbeloved and started off on good stools but was always very temperamental so we eventually cut out treats and changed him over to royal canin. That really helped, 80-90% of his stools were formed and firm, but at the weekend he was just sending out basically water. the vet says allergies have ruined the lining of his stomach so he's on anti biotics and probiotic stuff for a while and we've switched him to royal canin sensitive. Stool sample was gettiing sent off today so we'll see what comes back. |
| oh I hope George is a bit better. Summer was firstly on James Wellbeloved for 12 months, then she had pancreatis and was hospitalized. I changed her to Arden Grange, now we are on Green Dog. Her tum has settled down. Yesterday she had a tiny bit of tinned puppy food (I got it for the tortoise) and today her 2nd poo was not nice. So back to just Green Dog and nothing else... |
| Hello. Our last 2 OES had James Wellbeloved turkey + rice,they were joy to walk etc as poo was "perfect". Sprocket came home to us on Purina Pro Plan. He was fine on that but husband wanted him to try JWB. He was okish,bit soft at times,then a friend told us they use Trophy-had never heard of it-a man brings it round-they do so many different types,we tried Duck + Veg as Sprox was scrating a lot-didn't make any difference so switched him to their "Sensitive + Shine, chicken + rice and he has stopped scrating and poos have firm up. I would recomend Trophy to anyone-they have only natural ingediants,gluton,cereal free and whatever your dog needs they seem to have a meal to suit. Allyson.x |
| going off to google Trophy x |
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