So I just got back from the vet again, since putting her back on a kibble diet she has been peeing every 15 minutes or so. The UTI came back clean, she said the pee looked great. The kibble has reverted her back to a pudding type poop. The vet recommended a hypo allergenic kibble diet made by purina.. I spoke with her about costs and what not and we settled on trying natural balance limited ingredients. All it has is canola oil, flaxseed, fish and sweet potatoes. She also wants to put her on tylan powder.

She also recommended a fecal culture, while she looked at two different samples including one today and found no signs of anything unusual she wanted to do a culture to rule out everything.

As of currently the puppy is hydrated well, is peeing an enormous amount. She has also went back to having somewhat uncontrollable pudding poop.

What are your thoughts on this Connie?

More details.

Did you put her all at once back on kibble at the normal-size meals?

If you did as suggested and started with very small kibble meals, at what point did the log-poops deteriorate? Meal one, meal two, when?

What happened about the crystals?

Sorry -- I'm getting confused....

i put her on kibble by mixing it in smaller meals with the rice. She went back to pudding poop after the first meal, the first poop. The crystals seem to be clearing up and the vet seemed to think they are a non-issue now given the diet change.

I am getting confused as well so I will answer all the questions as best I can. This is all a confusing endeavor because I want to make the best decision possible but the advice is a bit conflicting, and I am leaning towards your guy's advice more-so then the vets.

What it basically comes down to is I think the vet really has no idea why she is having pudding poops, and now were just trying to eliminate the possibility of her being allergic to something. This new food with 4 ingredients should eliminate most possibilities of any allergies.

 Quote: dale stoneburg

i put her on kibble by mixing it in smaller meals with the rice. She went back to pudding poop after the first meal, the first poop. The crystals seem to be clearing up and the vet seemed to think they are a non-issue now given the diet change.

I am getting confused as well so I will answer all the questions as best I can. This is all a confusing endeavor because I want to make the best decision possible but the advice is a bit conflicting, and I am leaning towards your guy's advice more-so then the vets.

What it basically comes down to is I think the vet really has no idea why she is having pudding poops, and now were just trying to eliminate the possibility of her being allergic to something. This new food with 4 ingredients should eliminate most possibilities of any allergies.

1. Dale, what kind of crystals were they? Can you ask if you don't know? (You could call and say "I forgot what the vet said: what type of crystals were in her urine? Was is 'struvite'?") This answer has huge bearing on whether a food change affected crystal formation.

2. "Clean UTI" -- a urinalysis and a culture were done? (This will say on the bill.)

3. Was it the new food that she started pudding poop after one meal?

4. When will you have the fecal culture results?

Sorry about the long wait, been a bit hectic with this and Christmas. I think it was struvite crystals, it seems to be less of an issue now as from what I understand they are going away.

A urinalysis and culture was done and both came back fine.

She did start having pudding poop after one meal yes.

I havn't ordered the fecal culture yet for two reasons. 1, is I wanted your opinion on whether you feel it is necessary, also the cost. This is adding up pretty fast, the fecal culture was estimated at $150-$200.

I do have high hopes currently, after just two days of being on this limited ingredient diet she is having much nicer poops, they are still a bit soft but are actually obtaining a log shape. The vet did also make the comment that her poop was extremely gassy smelling. Like unusually gassy, which she was a bit confused by.

I am still confused about the food. It wasn't this new food that she had immediate pudding poop on? If not, what was the food that she had pudding poop with?

Struvite crystals, again, from my earlier post:
"Struvites are indeed generally caused by a pH imbalance, and that pH imbalance is nearly always the result of a UTI. The bacteria causes the alkalinity (not the diet, as is often believed). The discomfort on urinating is not at all unusual with a UTI. ... Treating a struvite-causing UTI will treat the struvites. While it's true that there is such a thing as sterile struvites, that is so uncommon that I have never even seen an actual case history. Infection-induced struvite (the overwhelming category of struvites) is often associated with urease-producing staphylococcal UTIs."

So if she had struvite crystals and then did not, both after the clavamox was done, that's pretty confusing. "Going away" is good, but the reason I keep bringing it up is because struvites are usually a symptom of UTIs. (Sterile struvites are extremely uncommon.)

Some questions:

1. What food was she eating when she had gassy poop?

2. What food was she eating when she had pudding poop?

3. What food is she eating now?

4. Is she still urinating more frequently than usual?

5. Does she seem to have discomfort urinating, and does she seem to be unable to hold poops now? Or are frequency and comfort back to normal?

6. Is she now on any meds?

These questions really do speak to your own question about a fecal culture, Dale.

She was eating The rice and chicken broth and yogurt when she had gassy poop.

She was eating Chicken soup for the large breed puppy BEFORE she was treated for the spiraketes? After she was treated I tried taste of the wild which she also had pudding poop.

She is currently eating Natural Balance Limited Ingredients, which is solely duck, sweet potatoes, canola oil and flaxseed oil.

Her urination seems to be returning to normal as well as she seems to no longer be in pain.

She is no longer on any meds, although the vet wanted her to be on tylan powder I have not ordered it yet.

Today has been an absolutely great day. As I mentioned earlier her poop was firming up, she now has pretty much perfect poops. She seems to be able to hold it, and has went all day without doing either pee or poop in her crate. For the first time I woke up at 3:00am, went to her crate and found it to be clean. She then went right out side and went poop and pee and everything seemed perfect. Given these new circumstances do you think I should continue this regimen and skip the culture and tylan powder?

I'm certainly no where near as knowledgeable as Connie but, reading your most recent post, I would certainly keep her on the current regimen and not add anything to it (food/meds-wise) at this point.

 Quote: Elaine Haynes

.... I would certainly keep her on the current regimen and not add anything to it (food/meds-wise) at this point.

Ditto!


Sounds like she may not react well to yogurt (a few dogs don't tolerate even fermented dairy well), so I'd file that mental note for the future.

Canola and flax are not good Omega 3 sources for dogs, but I'm with Elaine all the way. Don't change anything.

When you have a history of perfect poops every day, maybe in a couple of weeks, you might want to post back about fish oil and a source of probiotics that isn't dairy, but not right now.

What a relief, huh?