FIRM up a SOFT stool?

[Pam and Ginger Snap]

Ginger eats Blue..puppy lamb and oatmeal....and she has soft stool.  When she was on EUK. things came out just fine.  She also gets some carrots everyday  and a Kong with PB once a week.

I have read conflicting things about pumpkin...some sites say it softens, some sites say it firms up..so I am confused.

Is there anything I can add that will help? 

 

Thanks

 

[Pam and Ginger Snap]

thank you so very much!  I will look into this

[Pam and Ginger Snap]

what did you use instead of PB

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

I stopped using the kong.  She got antlers for chews. The bully sticks caused runny poo also.

[Maryann,Roo and Tigger]

Tigger consistently has loose stools.  He has nothing wrong with him, its just messy to pick up.  I have been giving him 1/2 teaspoon of Honest Kitchen's (internet)"Perfect Form".  He doesn't notice it or likes it, can's say.  But I love it.  Stools are not as firm as Roo's, but hold together enough to pick up easily.  It is just slippery elm and other herbals - no doubtful herbs in it. 

[Kaytlin and Cooper]

I agree with removing ALL treats til you find a food that works well, then slowly add treats back in..... quite often its the treats not the food that is the culprit.

 

Lamb is a complex amino acid chain protein, as is other red meats. Fish is the shortest chain and therefor easier to digest, poultry meats are in between the 2, so maybe try an easier to digest protein if cutting out the treats arent helping (give at least a week without treats)

 

Pumpkin is one of those magical foods that helps with diarrhea AND constipation! 

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

When my dogs chewed bully sticks, we had this problem. Don't know if you use them, but we had to stop. My dogs get a little Peanut Butter everyday and we have never had a problem. Also, there is a Poop Group on DK and you might find more information there.

[Ginny Nightingale]

Pumpkin (NO SPICE, JUST PURE) works great for all of my dogs--vets recommend it as well.

[Barbara B., Sasha & Oliver]

I have the exact problem with Oliver, I have tried everything under the sun. What works best for him is pro-biotics. I tried a couple of different brands but Purina brand fortiflora works best and immediately. Oliver had the 'watery" poops real bad in the fall, I took him to the vet and she gave me fortiflora and it immediately stopped the poops and firmed them up real well. Probiotics is a supplement that contains live active cultures to promote intestinal health & balance and promotes a healthy immune system. I also have Oliver on a limited ingredient diet as well. The only place I can get Fortiflora is on line and at the vets which is expensive. I do not give it to him everyday but when his poops get looser than usual I mix a packett in his food. My other doodle Sasha has never had this problem and her poops are firm, hard and so easy to pick up in the yard. I think this problem is just in the DNA of the dog itself. I tried different high quality foods Wellness, Neuto, Blue Buffalo, Royal Canin. Oliver is currently on Neutro for puppy right now until he is a year old (June 30th) then I will switch him to Neutro adult. Sasha is on Wellness adult and does fine but Olivers poops were very soft on Wellness. Good luck and keep me posted...... its conforting to know other people are going thru the same situation :(

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Barbara, Nutro is really not a high quality food at all; you might want to check our Food Group Recommended Foods list for some better alternatives.

You can also buy less expensive probiotics at pet boutiques; the one I use is called Gentle Digest, and it's a capsule. Plain low-fat or fat-free yogurt also provides probiotics, which as you mentioned are simply live active cultures of the 'good" flora (bacteria) normally found in a healthy gut, although not in the concentrated form that a supplement does. Fortiflora contains some not so great ingredients including animal digest:

From The Dog Food Project Ingredients to Avoid:

Animal Digest

AAFCO: A material which results from chemical and/or enzymatic hydrolysis of clean and undecomposed animal tissue. The animal tissues used shall be exclusive of hair, horns, teeth, hooves and feathers, except in such trace amounts as might occur unavoidably in good factory practice and shall be suitable for animal feed. If it bears a name descriptive of its kind or flavor(s), it must correspond thereto. A cooked-down broth made from unspecified parts of unspecified animals. The animals used can be obtained from any source, so there is no control over quality or contamination. Any kind of animal can be included: "4-D animals" (dead, diseased, disabled, or dying prior to slaughter), goats, pigs, horses, rats, misc. roadkill, animals euthanized at shelters, restaurant and supermarket refuse and so on.