Poop is still soft & I'm out of ideas.

[Ron Roberts]

I have spent many hours reading all the discussions & posts. Feel like I know more than when I started but still don't have an answer.  I need your help !

Odie is an 18 month old Labradoodle. He is completely healthy, has lots of energy, weighs about 65lbs..etc.  We got him at about 8 months old, from the people who got him from a high quality breeder.  The Breeder fed all pups Black Gold.  The couple we got him from said they had always given him IAM's.  He had a problem with soft Poop from the start and so I got him away from the IAM's quickly.  Let me clarify that; he doesn't get Diarrhea but his poop is too soft to pickup.  We live in Suburbia & I want to pick it up from the neighbors yards.  Plus, I didn't think it was a healthy sign.

We've always fed him dry kibble.  I've tried the Kirkland (CostCo) chicken & rice, after a month tried their Lamb & rice.  Neither helped.  Then a petstore person suggested California Natural chicken formula. It didn't fix the problem.  Next the same petstore person suggested Taste O' the Wild meat product.  I thought we had a winner but after a couple weeks it got soft again, then back & forth. Along the way I started adding a tablespoon or more of Pumpkin with each meal (Have always fed him twice a day - quantity as indicated on the bag). I tried their other 2 formulas (poultry & fish) but the results were the same.  And I'm sure I am leaving out a couple other experiments but you get the picture I'm sure.

A friend suggested I try a different store, biggest in town, that had a great reputation for knowing their business.  I went there, got hooked up with their #1 dog food technicians, and explained the complete history to them.  They believed the problem was caused by the high protein level in the Taste O' the Wild (28%).  They recommended Duck & Potatoe formula from Natural Balance. Good News is (Drum Roll Please) it fixed the problem !  Completely !  Bad News is ..... he hates the food !  He will only eat it when he's really hungry.  I made him go through a large bag to see if he would get accustomed to it. He didn't. Went back to the store & explained the new problem.  They suggested the Venison & sweet potatoe formula.  I tried a big bag of that.  He likes it a little better but still really doesn't like it. It's getting steadily harder to get him to eat.  He used to jump up & down when he heard me open the bag of Taste O' the Wild.  In fact, he's always been a good eater until now.

I'm at my wits end.  Don't know what to do/try next.  Please help !

[Lynne B]

You could cut something really yummy up into tiny little pieces and mix it in with his kibble, just make sure the pieces are so small that he can't just pick those out and leave the kibble. Or, if his weight isn't an issue, you could pour a teaspoon or so of bacon grease over the kibble.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

No bacon grease! Foods that are high in animal fats increase the risk of pancreatitis and bloat. And high fat foods cause diarrhea in everybody, humans and dogs alike. There are other healthier things that can be added to entice a dog to eat.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

The problem with the Natural Balance food is that it's very low in protein. In fact, it's called Sweet Potato and Duck, Sweet Potato and Venison, not the other way around, because the potatoes are the first and main ingredient in the food. This is not a good thing. Starch should not be the most abundant ingredient in a dog's diet...protein should be. 28% is NOT high protein...it's actually quite low for a grain-free food. Orijen is 40% protein and my dog has very small, hard poop on it.
The store may be the biggest, but they definitely don't know anything about canine nutrition. If Odie's stools firmed up for the first couple of weeks on the Taste of the Wild, obviously it wasn't the high protein or the food that caused them to become loose again, since he had soft stools before he started eating it.
How many times a day does Odie poop? When did you last have a fecal test done? What else is Odie getting to eat in terms of treats, fresh foods, table scraps, bones, etc?
Lots and lots of these dogs have digestive issues, and many of them have Irritable Bowel Syndrome; Odie may be one of them. If the pumpkin didn't help either, I suspect there is more going on here than not being able to find the right food. Some of our Food Group members have had great results with feeding their sensitive stomach doodles a home-cooked diet. I would have the vet run a fecal to be sure there isn't something else going on, and then I would try a good grain-free food like EVO or Orijen, or investigate homecooking. The prepared raw diets also seem to help dogs with digestive issues.

[Tina J.]

Karen, where do you buy Orijen and/or EVO? I found it on Amazon, but shipping, I'm sure, would be outrageous. (we live in the Boonies... but I can get to Denver pretty easily...)

I've been homecooking for a couple of months now. Boo LOVES it. She wasn't much of an eater at all til I started cooking for her and now she's a major Chow Hound! But her poops are very soft. (easy to pick up now because it still freezes here every night... but come summer, it's gonna be yucky.) I tried giving her pumpkin and she loved that too but didn't firm up the poop, only made it a lovely pumpkin orange color! lol

So I'm thinking maybe a combination of a really good high quality dog food and homecooking might do the trick? Whatcha think?

Tina J.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

I am homecooking for Guinness. I started because of his IBS diagnosis. It has made a huge difference. Always solid poops...not too hard or too soft. I'm wondering what home cooking you're feeding. It took me a couple of weeks to get the right composition of protein, carb, and fruit/veggie. I now do about 40% meat or other protein, 50% carb (rice, whole wheat pasta, oatmeal), and 10% veggie. If I give more veg than the 10% his stools get a little soft. I also give about 2 tbsp cottage cheese or no fat yogurt each day for the extra calcium.

[Tina J.]

I've just recently increased the protein to 40 or 50%. I wasn't doing quite that much before... And I have decreased the veggies. And just switched from white rice to brown on this last batch of food. So maybe I should give that some time and wait and see.
I still would feel better having an easy dog food fall back in the house for times when Mommy isn't here to cook for everyone...
Also Karen said something about too much fat possibly making poop softer. I make the doggy rice with the stock from the slow cooker in which I've just cooked their meat. All those meat drippings go into the rice. Am I over-doing the amount of fat they're getting maybe?

Tina J.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Karen or Lynne are probably better equipped to comment on the fat, but my gut tells me that if the meat is fatty then the "broth" from the cooker may be too high in fat for them. If I cook chicken I do use the broth in the "batch" of food. If I cook beef or lamb and there appears to be fat "floating on top", I skim that off before I pour any of it on the food.

[F, Calla & Luca]

I find with human cooking the best way to get fat out of liquids is ti refrigerate them overnight and then you can just take the solid layer of fat off the top.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Tina, I agree with what Jane has said about sticking with the homecooking and tweaking your recipes to try & improve the stool consistency. A good homecooked diet is better for almost any dog than even the finest quality dry food. Do try to cut back the fat in your recipes, it is definitely contributing to the soft poop, and too much saturated fat (animal fats) is not good for other health reasons.
It is a good idea to have a commercial food to fall back on during emergencies; you can check the Orijen and EVO websites for store locations. Basically, they are not sold in large chains like Petsmart, Petco, etc. You will generally find them in smaller, "boutique" type pet supply stores and "farm & garden" type stores. EVO seems to be more widely available than Orijen. Orijen also has a sister brand, Acana, which is also an excellent food.
Here's a link to the Champion (Orijen/Acana) site:
http://www.championpetfoods.com/
And the Natura (EVO) site:
http://www.naturapet.com/where-to-buy/

[Tina J.]

Cool. Thanks for the advice and information, everyone!! I'll look into the dog food for emergencies and continue doing what we're doing, tweeking and see what happens. I love that she's such an enthusiastic eater now. It's really fun to cook for her.

Tina J.

[Ron Roberts]

Karen thanks for your comments & suggestions. And many thanks to all who replied to my post. The response is very heartwarming.
I knew I had forgotten something earlier; We took him to our Vet about 4 or 5 months ago He could't find anything wrong with Odie. He commented a couple times on how energetic he was. He also did a fecal test and results were negative.
We don't have a fenced in back yard so I take him on walks twice a day. He always poops twice in the morning (Second one is always softer) and goes once in the evening. We keep treats on hand, usually made by same company as the food he's eating. He gets them sparingly. If I remember to buy them, we'll give him little Carrots as treats also. Costco has bags of "Retreiver Rolls" which is a rawhide roll that is 12" long & 2" thick. No flavoring. Odie loves them. He will chew on a new one for hours. That's really about all he gets...no table scraps at all .... an occasional potatoe chip but very rare.

Thanks again for your advise !

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

I bet if you eliminate the rawhide, you will see an improvement....in my experience, they produce soft poos!