Flossies and Loose Stool

[Amanda and Cody]

Hi everyone,

My goldendoodle Cody is 6 months old.  He has always had soft stool and tends to get very runny stool often.  I think he has a very sensitive stomach.  Sometimes I could trace the obvious cause such as when he went into the pantry and ate a bag of marshmellows!  Recently I gave him a Flossie chew (which he loves) and he had loose stool again.  My vet seemed to think this was the cause because these chew toys like bully sticks are very fatty.  Has anyone had the same experience?  What chew toys would be good for him?  My vet recommended Nylabones but he doesn't seem very excited about them.  I have been feeding him Chicken Soup for the Puppy Soul and am now transitioning him to Orijen Puppy Food (upon the recommendations from this forum).  Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Amanda

[Carol and Banjo]

Hi Amanda - Your Cody sounds VERY much like Banjo in his earlier months. We had been feeding him Chicken Soup as well. Once we switched him to Taste of the Wild and eliminated bully sticks and other similar chews his stool has been perfect. As for chews he has deer antlers and LOVES them. They are expensive but last a long time and provide minerals and are great for the dog's teeth as well! Good luck with Cody and be patient you'll find the right food I'm sure. I know others have had good luck with the Orijen as well.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Merrick Flossies are beef tendon, not "bully" stick, and they are extremely low in fat...at only 1% fat, they are lower in fat than any kibble. Jackdoodle does very well with them, but we recently tried another brand and he had terrible digestive problems.
Is Cody teething? That can be the cause of loose stools, too.
You can try antlers, knuckle bones, marrow bones, shank bones, Himalayan chews, etc. We have dozens of discussions here with recommended products for long=lasting chews. Just go back to FG Discussions, click "view all" and type in a search term.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Did you ever find made in the USA tendons?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Yes, but they are hard to find and do not agree with JD's digestion. Those ones i bought the other day turn out to be made in Argentina, and he is so ill he may actually have to go in for xrays today!!!

[LG & Sadie]

Oh gosh Karen-so sorry to hear that!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

And it turns out now (yes we did have xrays, because I do everything if there's even a chance that somethings' wrong) that it wasn't the tendon at all that caused the problem. It was the ham bone he got last week. So much for "edible bone", he was vomiting up splinters that could have sliced through your hand. It's only by the grace of God that he isn't in surgery right now.
I am done with any kind of bone other than marrow bones.

[Kim]

OMD!!!!! I'm so glad he will be ok!!!!

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Karen, I've been waiting for you to post something on JD. It is a miracle that these splinters didn't do any internal damage. How is he doing now?

[Clifford, Cloud, Jake..and Kim]

I'm glad JD is okay. I've got some marrow bones in the freezer, have to figure out if I'm going to cook them lightly or give them raw - and figure out if the two doods will be able to co-exist while eating bones! Get some rest Jack, your tummy must be feeling pretty bad right now.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

He's okay, resting after his ordeal. He did not like being on his back for the xrays, but he bore it with his usual good grace. He has a big hump on his back from the sub-cu fluids they gave him. I have to leave him to go get some more hamburger and chicken, and it's killing me.
The vet doesn't want him to have anything to eat other than "real" food, and the problem is treats, beacuse i have the other two dogs here and I can't just stop giving treats to everyone. And I'm certanly not giving treats to the other two and not to JD. So the vet said to give him plain chicken for treats. Jack loves his vet, lol!!!!!

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

I'll bet he's pretty exhausted after all of that. I wonder if he'll even feel like eating. Tell him his buddies Guinness & Murph want him to "feel better fast".

[F, Calla & Luca]

Oh JD! So sorry to hear all this. Hope you have a speedy recovery. Last year sometime we had the bone splinter vomit from a store bought hip-like bone gift. No vet, no x-rays but scary. Sorry you all had to go through this. I'm also wondering what it was about the US tendons that made him ill. My doodles managed to crack one marrow bone in big pieces after I made them last time but I think it may have been a fluke and luckily, as they say on the sportscasts, no one was hurt. I did make them special holiday marrow bones today and so far so good. That's why for treats nowadays it's strictly Zuke's, dried Trader Joe chicken or homemade chicken, carrots etc. It ain't easy....