Soft Serve...From bad to worse

[Puppy Madness]

I'm not sure if I am posting this in the right area or not. I was split between here and the food group...anyway. We have had Darcy for 11 days. She is perfect in every way, but her poo. She is 12 weeks old and weights 8.4 lbs (mini f1b). She was tested for coccida (negative) and given meds for it "just incase." She was on the meds for 3 days with no improvement. I am feeding her 4health puppy formula, which is what the breeder was feeding. She wasn't eating it well, so I started mixing ProPlan puppy food in with it and she gobbles her food now. She has had one "normal" poop since she came home. All of the rest have been soft and greenish yellow. I gave her a bit of the canned pumpkin with her food last night and it's gone to straight liquid now. I'm at a loss. I don't know what to do. I have some Blue puppy food for sensitive stomachs that I got from PetSmart after talking with the lady there about my problems. Darcy is eating and drinking well. Her food is just going straight through her. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I don't want her to get dehydrated and I'm worried she's not putting on weight like she should....Thank you in advance.

[Star and Goldie]

I'm sorry to hear your having these issues.  It sounds like they may be a combination of adjusting to a new environment and the food.  You should not make any food changes for at least 2 weeks when bringing a new puppy home- even if the breeder was feeding a lower quality food.  So that really may be part of it. You want to stay away from Pro Plan. That is a junk food. Check out the recommended foods list in the food group.

http://www.doodlekisses.com/group/thefoodgroup/forum/topics/recomme...

If by "Blue puppy food" you are saying Blue Buffalo then that is one of the recommended brands.  That is what I feed my doodle. She eats Blue Buffalo Basics Turkey and Potato and does great on it. Just be sure not to overfeed- even just a little over feeding of higher protein brands can tend to cause some softer stool.

Good luck and keep us posted!

[Star and Goldie]

How long have you been mixing the ProPlan in? At this point you are just a few days away from the 2 week waiting period and you don't want to have 3 foods involved in a transition so if you haven't been mixing the proplan for more than a couple of days I would start to transition the BB. Or quite honestly you could make a cold turkey switch right now. Goldie was on ProPlan from our breeder as well and from the advice of a very knowledgeable DK member I went ahead and switched cold turkey (although that's normally not recommended).  Give her some fat free plain yogurt to help. I put a small scoop on top of her food when I switched her to BB cold turkey.  And Goldie gobbled up the proplan too... it's junk food and they love junk food... don't we all? ;)

You can also get her on a good probiotic to help digestive concerns (and just for overall good health).  I recommend iflora. It's great. It will also help firm things up. You can buy it online.

[Nikki and Wookie]

We experience similar issues with our springerdoodle, Wookie. She was on meds, I was frantically worried and switching foods to try and help her. And then I realised the only constant thing... the small cheese pieces she loved as training treats.

We had no ides but, apparently, dogs lack an enzime in their gut to digest lactose and some (including our Wookie) can be lactose intolerant. Within a day of stopping the cheese, we've had nothing but firm poo!

Good luck with Darcy's tummy issues.

[Bonnie and Kona]

I would take a fresh poo sample in to the vet right away Monday morning to check for giardia. Do a search for giardia on DK to learn how best to deal with it. Sorry I'm goong someplace so cannot go into detail.

[Gail and Bailey]

Please post this in the Food Group (if you have not done that already)!  Karen is our expert and she will guide you in the right direction!  Hope Darcy improves soon.

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

That's exactly what I was going to advise... Karen in The Food Group will help immensely.

[Lynne A]

Hi Leslie -

Saw your post earlier but couldn't respond until now. Nutmeg's poops are still pretty soft, but nothing like you describe. She also is not pooping nearly as much as she did the first couple days.(For others reading, Nutmeg is one of Darcy's siblings and was diagnosed with Coccidia earlier last week.)  I also have concerns about how little she seems to be eating and her general disinterest in her food (Blue Buffalo Wilderness for puppy). I was mixing the BB with the 4Health food, but just finished it today. I decided to experiment and bought one can of Wellness for puppy canned food today. Just fed her dinner of BB mixed with a small bit of warm water and a couple tablespoons of the canned food. Man, did she gobble that down! I gave a her a bit more because she hadn't eaten so much earlier in the day. So for now, I'm going to stick with this system. I'll see how her poop looks later tonight and tomorrow. I know the Albon is a broad spectrum medicine, but I don't think it kills giardia, if that what it is. I'm wondering why your vet wouldn't have seen the giardia the other day though, if that's what it is.