Constant runny poo 9 mo puppy (sorry!)

[KeemaNaanAndCurryOn]

My dog never has solid poo, it's always yellow and runny. It's getting me down as when I take her out I can't pick it all up as its liquid and I'm having to wash down the garden as well.

We only feed her puppy food, no extras as we've been advised and that hasn't helped. She's on pedigree chum dry puppy food and has been since weaned.

I've been to the vet. She's had pro kolin, but this hasn't worked. We've wormed her using the drops and oral tablets from the vets in case that was the problem, again on their advice, but it's still runny.

Help! Does anyone have experience of this or have any ideas as to what else I can try as the vets advice doesn't seem to be working.

I should also say that apart from this she's a very happy, healthy puppy and we - and the vet - have no other concerns. It's iust this one thing.

I'd try a better food, one with actual recognisable ingredients when you read through them.

Yes I agree. You should try a better quality food. I had a similar problem. James Wellbeloved is excellent, also Royal Canin. If you decide to change the food. It is best to introduce it gradually.

i can't believe your vet has let this go on for the vast majority of your pups development, shame on them, and i bet it cost you a fortune.

Have you tried going to a real basic of boiled chicken (on the bone) and white rice? remove bones once boiled, its basically like making stock but with white rice? Its very light and the stock produced is super easy to absorb and coats the gut lining to soothe it. Please do not use a dry food whilst your pup has diarrhoea and therefore losing a lot of liquid!!

It is very dangerous for a pup to have diarrhoea without very careful monitoring and all this time is far too long; your vet clearly has no idea and you should change vet to someone who can actually help!

please avoid dry until the diarrhoea has cleared up, your poor pup's system

you should try to buy organic chicken to boil because of the good quality of the bone material and lack of AB's and added growth hormones, etc.

You are feeding your puppy the equivalent of McDonalds everyday. Try a better food, we get lovely small firm poos with Millie's Wolfheart countryside mix (order online only).

Most supermarket varieties are very poor. Look at allaboutdogfood website.

Sorry Teezy but Royal Canin is pretty crap too.

OP take a look at allaboutdogfood.co.uk. Go for nothing less than a 3 out of 5. Look for one with a named meat source as one of the first three ingredients and avoid anything with maize or wheat as many dogs are intolerant.
Price is not an indication of quality - there are plenty of poor foods with a top price tag.
In my view one of the best price to quality ratios is Skinners Field and Trial as its about the same price as Bakers/Pedigree/Wagg but far superior quality.

I have 7 month old puppy with the same problem. He's not really been on puppy food sine I got him at 9 weeks. He came with Royal Canin Junior-which was a disaster, tried some other makes. I couldn't find a dry food to suit him. Then I went through the cooked chicken & rice phase with vegetables until I couldn't keep up with the amount he needed. Ended up on Royal Canin Sensitivity Diet Tins (chicken & rice) for 4 weeks - perfect on this but is not meant for long term, the vets use it after operations etc. It was expensive as he needed 3 tins a day & a case of 12 cost £24. The vets said he should go onto Hill i/d but I told them that as he would need 5 tins a day & a case of 12 costs around £24 it was not feasible.

For the last 3 weeks I've been weaning him onto James Welbeloved dry Duck & Rice, changing him over 10% at a time til I'm now at 100% James Welbeloved since yesterday. His poo's are mostly solid but will see how he goes now he's only on dry.

I understand about it getting you down, I get anxious every time the dog wants to go outside as you never know what's going to come out his back end. It's soul destroying when yet another food doesn't work. I'm not sure if my puppy can process dry food. My garden has loads of bald patches where I've poured boiling water over what I can't pick up.

I just give him pieces of cooked chicken or turkey for training as everything sets his stomach off.

The only thing that is making me panic less is the fact I have the sensitivity tins to fall back on in case I have to start again & now keep a case under the stairs. It's been my saviour.

But like your puppy mine is perfectly happy, lively & playful. Doesn't seem to affect him at all except it's difficult to put weight on him as the food is going straight through.

Have you sent of a faecal test to the lab including giardia which is common in puppies. That would the next logical step to rule out infectious causes. The food you are feeding is not the best, but I would rule out infectious or medical causes before changing food at this point. Is your pup a normal body weight?

Hi All - thanks for this brilliant advice, I knew I could rely on Mumsnet!

Yes she's a normal body weight for her age and breed and she is full of life. She did have lab tests in Jan of this year, but that was when we poo went grey and was really watery. Then she had some medicine from the Vet that cleared that up and we had Royal Canin sensitive dog food while she was on those tablets and things firmed up for a while before reverting to yellow and runny. I can't remember what the medicine was though.

I'll look at changing the food if that's likely to be the problem. I did ask about food, but was advised that changing it could upset her stomach even more. I'll definitely look out James Wellbeloved and take a look at that website.

Would you say that wet food is better than dry? When I last had a dog, she was fed on tins and biscuits rather than dry food, but we got her as a rescue when she was older rather than a puppy, so weren't feeding her based on what she came to us on.

A dry complete is better for them really, wet can stick to teeth. I always add a splash of warm water to my dry complete.

General rule of thumb is that any food you can buy in the supermarket is not worth the money!

wet is a must with a pup with diarrhoea, and so is the most easily absorbed food... revert to the chicken and rice until things settled down, you do not have to 'introduce' it gradually its not considered a change of diet that would upset its a must to reduce the strain on the gut as a starting point to start introducing the next food you want to test and use it as your base-line till you hit on the one you want to use long-term, but always plenty of good quality liquid from the boiled chicken 'stock'.

'wet can stick to teeth' ?

please avoid dry food until diarrhoea stopped, has your vet not said this?

and yes, some of the wet supermarket food is far better than much of the very expensive dry stuff.

Avoid supermarket food, I can't think of even one that I would feed.

can't remember the names of the ones i would, definitely in preference for dry food for a pup with diarrhoea, but sorry thats not very helpful!

Wet is far too rich for a pup with diarrhoea! The only wet food that could possibly be bland enough bar boiled chicken is original Chappie at a push.

And yes, wet food (tinned) can stick to back teeth and cause decay, particularly in small breeds.

OP, it might be worth looking for a grain free fish based complete dry. This seemed to work for my pup with a sensitive tum.

To put your mind at rest, OP, my dog was exactly the same at that age - healthy, but runny yellow poo, all the tests, treated for giardia, campylobactor, slippery elm bark powder, the lot - but it stopped eventually, and now he's a massive strapping 7 year old. After trying all sorts but finding no medical reason for it, the vet put him on Hills WD which stopped the diarrhoea but I'd read so much about dog food by this point that I wasn't thrilled about the Hills, so slowly weaned him off it onto a 'better' sensitivity food. I think it was Fish4Dogs but we had to try a few before we found one that didn't set his tummy off. Slowly is the key with any change of food. Over the years he's done well on Skinners, Autarky, Fish4Dogs and now he's on Specific which he loves.

Meanwhile I'd second the advice above: bland, plain food like chicken/rice, white fish/rice or Chappie until it settles down.

Thanks everyone. I went onto that dog food site and have found a sensitive one that I can get at my local pet store that had a high score. Checked the ingredients and it's 50% chicken, sensitive, and wheat free, so we'll try weaning her over to that over the next week and see how it goes.

lilcamper just wanted to say that the dogs not going to dramatically get 'tooth decay' in eating this as a temporary measure; OTOH dehydration is a real danger in a pup with long-term diarrhoea, as is growth/long-term absorption issues.

I've tried various dry foods with my sensitive collies, and the current favourite is 'Taste of the Wild - Pacific stream formula'. It scores 4.5/5 in the reviews and my dogs do really well on it. It's easy to get hold on online and you don't feed large amounts of it so it's not terribly expensive.

Shriek tinned food is far too rich and full of crap for a pup with a dodgy belly. I did say I add water to dry food and if the pup is drinking normally dehydration will not be a problem.

Have you studied canine nutrition? I have

Just wanted to come back and give a quick thank you for your advice. We started weaning her onto the new food on Wed. It's Friday and things are already a lot better and firming up, so the pedigree chum is going in the bin.

My puppy has always been well in herself, drinking plenty of water and having lots of energy, so I've not been concerned that this had been making her really ill. I'm a lot happier at the thought of being able to take her out and pick up her poo though rather than leave a puddle behind no matter how much I try to pick it up.

Fantastic news - hope it continues :)
Pedigree chum really does belong on the bin!

shriek so do you think dry food can be ok? Something like Millies? Our trainer keeps on and on about about raw, but vet advises against.

Our 5 month old lab pup had sloppy poos until I change to a salmon and potato base dried food. She had been on chicken and rice ( same manufacturer ). She point blank refuses to eat plain boiled rice which I thought was unusual for a lab who basically eats everything else so I suspect she is sensitive to rice. It has been so much easier cleaning up over the last couple of weeks!