Hello everyone. I’m a new member here, I’ve been reading all the information here but this is my first post on the board so please bear with me …

I have a kibble feeding question:

Molly is a 21 week old Rottweiler, about 45 lbs last night. She’s in perfect health and everything is going really well …except for the fact that we can’t seem to get consistent stools. When she goes out her first poop is perfectly formed, then if/when she has a second one (usually if we go for a walk) it’s pudding. This doesn’t always happen but it’s frequent enough to cause concern.

We recently switched from 3-times a day to twice a day feedings and we cut back on the amount, currently she gets 1 ½ cups at each feeding. This seems to have helped a lot (less poop and not always a soft second one) but we’re still seeing inconsistency. She’s eating ACANA Wild Prairie (grain free, all life stages) and she also gets about a tablespoon of pumpkin mixed in …and about a teaspoon of probiotic plain yogurt as well.

Am I on the right track? I’m worried that maybe the food is too rich for her but I really don’t want to have to switch her to another kibble if I don’t have to.

This is turning into a long-winded post so I’ll cut it short for now ….any other info needed just ask …

Thanks,
Dean

Hi Dean and welcome!

How long ago did you make the switch to 2 x per day feeding?

Has she had a recent fecal to rule out parasites?

In addition to the yogurt, you might want to consider a probiotic capsule daily. IMO, you get more bang for your buck than with a tablespoonful of yogurt.(higher concentration of beneficial bacteria)

Hi, thanks for the welcome!

We switched about a week ago and it seems to have made a significant difference. I don't know if that's what made the biggest improvement or if it was the fact that she's down to 3 cups a day as opposed to the 4 she was getting with 3 feedings. I can't find any suggestions as to how much she should be getting ...other than watching her stools and adjusting from there. The poor thing acts like she's starving as it is so I'm reluctant to cut her back even more ..LOL

We talked to the vet who said that it could be caused by teething (?) and since she is being wormed regularly there wasn't a need for fecal analysis.

Could it be possible that the yogurt is causing it?

I'm considering probiotic capsules but wanted to figure out what was causing it before I try adding more variables

thanks for your help

Mine always acts starving, too.

I would give it another week on the reduced portion and see if that solves the problem. I doubt that a teaspoon of yogurt would be causing pudding stools.

Re how much to feed, just pay attention to her condition. You should be able to feel and see some rib, but hip bones should not be protruding. She should have a definitive waist, where her ribs end.

That's the advice I was looking for ...as long as nobody says STOP - you're making a mistake I'll keep watching for improvement.

According to your description she's getting enough because that's exactly what she looks like. She's no thinner than before we cut her ration back, almost seems like any extra she was getting just went right through her.

I have another related question if you'd be so kind as to entertain it:

I use her kibble for tracking, but haven't tracked with her for a couple of weeks while we were going through this issue. The amount I use amounts to about 1/3 cup, and she misses a lot of it, so first question ....should the amount I use for tracking come from her daily ration or can it be in addition to the 3 cups? Second ...should I just avoid it entirely until we get her system stabilized?

 Quote: dean puttock

Hi, thanks for the welcome!


...since she is being wormed regularly there wasn't a need for fecal analysis.

Just a question about this. Did you have a vet do a fecal and then wormed her, or are you worming "just in case"? Also, how many times has she been de-wormed? And how long ago?

Is she on any other "preventatives"? ie Heartworm?

How did you introduce the pumpkin and yogurt? Did you wait for perfect stools on just the kibble, or add them in as of her first meal, and seperate or together right off the bat? Have you switched her kibble since coming home, or has she always been on this kibble?

Sorry for all the questions , but we may be better able to understand if there is something else going on.

she was "wormed" 3 times before we brought her home. During her last visit (final booster and rabies) the vet said she wouldn't need worming. A couple of weeks ago my wife was at the vet with the other dog and she got worm/flea/heartworm treatment for both animals ..it's called "Revolution" and is a topical treatment containing "selamectin" She was treated June 8th.

When her stools were the worst I read about the pumpkin and yogurt on this forum and just started adding it to her food at every feeding, when the stools started improving I cut back the pumpkin to see if the stools continued to improve ...they didn't so I started adding it with every meal again. So far so good (except for the pug who gets orange poop with too much pumpkin ..hahaha)

She was on Costco brand puppy kibble when we brought her home at 8 weeks, we switched her to ACANA the first week we had her and the intermittent runny stools started at about 12-14 weeks.

Don't apologize for the questions, I was expecting it ...I would have written out everything but didn't want to post a short story for my first post on the forum

My first thought is why was this pup wormed 3 times before 8 weeks? It seems a little excessive, but there may be an explanation.

Has she been vaccinated, if so which ones? When?

Without knowing the answer to the above questions, right now I would be looking at the possibility that maybe the food is a little rich, or her quantities are too high. If it were me, I would go back to the straight kibble for 10 days (as long as there is improvement) then start adding one thing at a time to the kibble (ie yogurt). If there was no improvement I would look at another kibble (or raw if you are up for it ) If there is no improvement or any worsening, do a overboiled, soupy rice and skinless boiled chicken diet to soothe the gut, then transition over a week back onto a different kibble.

If it worsens though, I would be looking for an underlying cause, ie : wormings, Vaccs, ingesting something intermittently (pieces of food that fall on the floor maybe)

That's the worming schedule here in new brunswick ...I may have misspoken, I think 7 weeks was her second worming and I took her for the 3rd and final worming at 12 weeks. I don't have her vet book with me right now so I can't confirm it. I am sure about the most recent worm/flea/heartworm treatment as the box is right here beside me.

off the top of my head she has had distemper, parvovirus, bordatella, and rabies ...I opted out of the leptospirosis vaccination

I'm fairly certain she's not ingesting anything intermittently as she's never unsupervised. She eats the odd flower out of the flowerbed but the loose stools started before we even had flowers in bloom.

The part I don't get is why is the first stool always good and any subsequent ones get progressively worse? It's almost as if I was to bring her in and crate her before she has the opportunity to poop again, she'd be fine?

I think the quantity of kibble I was feeding was too much for her, her poops have been good for the last 2 days so I'm hesitant to cut out the pumpkin and mess her up again

Is there any chance she is getting to eat her own poop?

A friend of mine had a situation where, she was just firing the dog out the door into the yard to do her business. She noticed a few days in that the dog was having diarrhea during the day. So she started actually taking her out and watching her. The first poop of the day was almost perfect, but she caught the dog eating her own poop. The next poop was diarrhea. So she started taking the dog out leashed and picking everything up right away. Within 3 days, everything was back to normal.

I would be hesitant to keep the pumpkin up long term (Connie where are you ) I'm not sure if their are any long term effects from it but I would want to know of any underlying condition instead of just treating the symptom. So if her poops are normal at this point, I would keep everything normal for another week, if at the end of the week nothing has changed and remained normal, then you could start backing off the pumpkin very slowly.