Hi everybody - my pup, who I adopted just over a month ago and who is about 8 months old, has soft stools. Not diarrhea, but not firm logs either... soft mushy logs, and it's been that way since I got her. She seems to be in good health otherwise but I'm wondering if I should be concerned and/or if there's anything I can do to firm them up.

I've been feeding her mostly Honest Kitchen with Wellness puppy kibble, and I've been putting the kibble in her Kong with some Wellness puppy canned food for when she's in her crate. She also gets various treats when training, and bully sticks for chewing, and I have been slowly working her into raw food by occasionally giving her cornish game hen RMB with her Honest Kitchen rather than the kibble. She is a small lab mix (50 lbs) and not a heavy duty chewer so I don't think she can handle raw chicken RMB at this point. It takes her a while just to eat the cornish hen.

Any suggestions are appreciated. Do I need to take the vet a stool sample? Feed canned pumpkin? Yogurt? Probiotics?

How much are you feeding her? And how often?

That seems like a lot of different kinds of food. It's possible that she's unable to handle all of it, even if you are spacing it out. Have you tried cutting back to just one thing at a time?

Pumpkin is your friend.

 Quote: Wendy Lefebvre

How much are you feeding her? And how often?

 Quote: SamanthaTopper

Have you tried cutting back to just one thing at a time?

HUGE ditto! One balanced food, nothing added (maybe the Wellness kibble in the same recipe as the canned Wellness in the Kong).

And I'd start with a day of half the amount you are now feeding (total) and look at the resulting poop.

Variety is wonderful, but there's no way to find out where the mushy stools are coming from this way.

My personal guess is overfeeding, period. However, starting with one item, keeping a simple poop log (haha), and not adding additional food or additional food items until you have perfect logs is your one foolproof diagnostic tool. For one thing, it can also help you to identify whether or not food actually is the culprit (rather than a pathogen, parasite, etc.).

I agree that pumpkin is a good thing, but I'd say not here. This is chronic, and you need to find out what's causing it without adding still another item. JMO. I always keep pumpkin around, but it's more for acute bouts, the way I use it.

I would do what I outlined for the rest of today and all of tomorrow and then post back about the poop results. Don't forget the journal (what was fed and what the poop looked like).

My dog can't handle the bully sticks too often.
You have to really pay attention to the dog with those if he's an agressive chewer. If they are swallowing large chunks it can effect their system.
Tucker is 80lbs and if i do buy bully sticks I buy the biggest ones I can find and don't allow him to chew off too much of them at once.
follow Connies advice. Keep the pup just on kibble for a couple days. And please post back telling us the total amount of food this dog is getting at one time.

Thanks guys - I'll try doing just the kibble for a few days.

I've been feeding her 3/4 cup of the kibble, 3 times per day. The bag says that for her size and age, she should get 3.5-4 cups per day but that seems like too much, especially when I'm giving her the kong and treats and something to chew (bully stick or bone).

Actually, I should clarify: I give her the *equivalent* of 3/4 cup, 3 times per day -- so, 1/4 cup THK and 1/2 cup kibble, or 1/2 cup THK and 1/4 kibble, usually.

One other thing, I found out from the shelter where I got her that she was being fed Pedigree food there. She was only there for about a month though, and nobody knows what she was being fed before that.

ok, so feed her just kibble for now.
once you get firm stools, for a few days...like 3-4 (make sure they are FIRM, im not talking semi firm)
Then you can gradually add in the THK. Like a tablespoon at first.
Remember to remove from the amount of kibble what you are adding in for THK.
If there's no change in her stool after a day or two and it's still firm after adding a Tablespoon ad in another. Wait another day or two & so on & so on.
This way you can determine what is causing the problem.

You said you are slowly working her into raw....I would stop doing that right now. it's either one or the other. You shouldn't be mixing Raw & kibble. And if you absolutely want to do that wait till you have the stool figured out.
You are feeding raw & kibble at seperate feedings, right?
Hours apart.

Adopted shelter dogs often have kennel bugs, hookworm, giardia, coccidia. Sometimes subclinical (soft stool, dog not sick) salmonella.
Do diet changes as recommended. If improvement does not occur within a reasonable period of time ( a week or so ) consider a trip to the vet and a possible course of medication to treat these conditions. The shelter folks might let you know if other pets adopted there have had any of these readily treatable conditions.

Thanks for the info everybody. So far, feeding only the kibble, the results are inconclusive but trending positive. I'm still seeing some mushy stools, but I'm also seeing much more firm "logs" too. Probably 50/50 right now.

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"You are feeding raw & kibble at seperate feedings, right?" -- yes when I was giving her raw, I was giving her pieces of cornish game hen with honest kitchen. And then a separate meal would be honest kitchen with some kibble. Currently I've got her on basically only kibble, with the exception of some training treats.