JD's Lima Bean Challenge, An Experiment For All Food Groupies!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Before JD was diagnosed with Inflammatory Bowel Disease in December 2011, I used to add a little of my own dinner to his dinner bowl just about every night. A particular favorite was lima beans. He always knew when they were on the menu, and was even more eager for his dinner than usual those nights.

All that stopped after the IBD diagnosis, and it had been a long time since JD got lima beans in his dinner bowl. Not so much because there is any reason he couldn't have them, but I had just not been cooking them for myself much either since my family's schedules changed and family dinners are a rare occurrence here. And I had gotten out of the habit of giving JD some of whatever I was eating for dinner, since there is so little he's allowed to have. 

But last month, I cooked lima beans and gave JD about 2 tablespoons with his dinner. 

The next morning, his poop was the same as always.Ditto the evening poop. 

But on the morning of the second day after he'd eaten them, there were lima beans in JD's poop. 

Now, the fact that the lima beans had passed through undigested was not a surprise. That's par for the course, because dogs can't digest plant cellulose. (People aren't very good at it either.) 

But the fact that the lima beans showed up in the poop about 40 hours after he'd eaten them, and that he'd had 2 normal poops in between, did surprise me. 

I tried it again this past week, and same thing.

It seems to me that in the past, they would have appeared in the next morning's poop. But I don't really remember. 

I think maybe JD's food is taking much longer to pass through his system than is normal, due to the IBD, and maybe all the meds. 

But I thought it would be interesting and maybe informative to see how long it takes food to pass through a healthy dog's GI tract. So JD and I are looking for volunteers to participate in our Lima Bean Challenge experiment. 

The LB Challenge is open to all dogs over 8 months old who do not have any current digestive issues, who do not free feed (food is eaten at regular set mealtimes), and whose owners are willing & able to immediately inspect all poops from the time the dog eats the lima beans until said beans exit the premises.

Here's all you have to do. Over the next week, cook some lima beans (we use frozen baby limas). Set aside a small portion (1-2 tablespoons per dog) before adding butter, salt, or seasoning. Let them cool sufficiently and then add them to your dog's dinner. Make a note of the day and time that your dog ate the beans. 

Then watch the poop. Make a note of each subsequent poop (day & time) in which the beans do not appear. I do not think there will be more than one, if that, but that's the point of this experiment. And then when the beans do show up, post your data here. I'd like all results by next Sunday, June 29th, please.

Yes, this is very unscientific and maybe silly, but you will be helping me & JD, and we might all learn something besides. :)

Do I have any participants? 

[Stella]

More sweet potato in the poop this morning, so at 36 hours was still being processed!

[Jill, Woody & Maxi]

Well, its been over 48 hours and our lima beans are still MIA in both Woody and Maxi..I really am shocked..especially in Woody..He eats green beans daily, and sometimes I have found green beans in his poop..so I am surprised I didn't see anything with the lima bean challenge!  I may do a re-trial in a few days!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Maybe we'll repeat the experiment next year with green beans, lol. But I have a feeling that some of the dogs here would digest those, too.

JD and I have a busy and stressful day today, but I'm going to go through these 17 pages of comments as soon as I can and try to put the results together. If anyone wants to just post a summary of their own results here (Bingo ate his lima beans at 5 pm on Monday night and they appeared at 8 am on Wednesday) that would be great. :) 

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

I haven't forgotten this challenge.   We just haven't had the Lima Beans served as much this summer. Maybe much more in the fall.    Spud ate them once and I never followed up.

So, let me contribute another vegetable until I get this assignment done.   

Two Broccoli heads, steamed,  were served at 6:30 pm and were eliminated at noon the next day as green and formed as they went in.    Not too sure, but I dont think the leafy parts of broccoli are the same waxy, cellulose makeup as cucumbers or Lima Beans.  It may have some... but certainly not as much.   I've never seen shiny broccoli either.

Anyway, that is my contribution, for now,  to the cellulose study.  

[F, Calla & Luca]

: )

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I was thinking about this "study" the other day, and I have a theory that the lima beans didn't show up for some dogs and did for others because of a difference in the individual dogs' abilities to digest plant foods. (Remember that study that came out last year about dogs' digestive systems having adapted to accommodate grains and other plant foods, that threw the raw feeders into such a snit? One thing they found was that the amount of the various digestive enzymes produced varied widely from one dog to another, and even from one breed to another.) 

Anyway, it's certainly an interesting subject. 

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

It is!   I also wonder, if those dogs who do not tolerate much in the way of diet, as Spud, don't have those enzymes, or not as  much, as others.

I remember when Spud was a pup and I first came into the FG asking for help, it was suggested I supplement with enzymes so his food did not come up later, whole.   Now I know that many in that discussion wondered if he had MESO  :(   Of course, he does not, but my description sure raised eyebrows to a disease I knew nothing about.

Anyway, I'll try later but I really get nervous giving him anything but what I give in his food dish.