Rescue dog much improved ... still a little tweaking needed.

[Astrabees]

I posted a little while ago about our dog new from rescue, 10 years old, Staffie sighthound cross. She had been in rescue kennels for 10 months when we got her. the original problem was that she is very thin, and that she had loose poo, going up to 8 times a day and we would always come down to 2 poos and some week in the kitchen in the morning.

she is a delightful dog and very well behaved in all respects, and she does know how to ask to go out.We take her for a last 30 minute walk at 10pm and get up at 5am to take her for the first of her 3 walks a day. We are getting there. Her poo is now firm and she does not wee in the house at night, but there is usually one poo. How can we help her be fully clean overnight? We feed her at about 6pm, 1.5 cartons of Naturediet as advised by the rescue people, she is 16 kg.
I'm sure the naturediet suits her but wonder if the timing of the feeding might be one of the factors here.

Let her out later? Our dog has last walk at 8 but we let her out before bed at 11 ish

All that getting up at 5am means that I can't keep my eyes open much after 10pm! I suppose we could go to bed and get up at midnight to let her out again. Feeding at 7pm instead of about 5.30pm might work, but she gets very hyper for her supper now she knows that she gets it while I'm preparing ours.Our last two dogs would sleep in until gone 10am and we had no problems with them in this way, I suppose it is just training.

Feed earlier? My rescue gets fed at 4 and this has stopped him (altho he’s also more settled now so that’s prob helped too)

I’d split her food, mine are ged at 8am and 6pm, it’s a long day to wait for one big portion.

Is that one and half trays all in one sitting? She’s only 16kg, tbh that’s an odd food regime, my smallest staff 20kg, gets 1/6 of a tray and a scoop of dry twice per day, I work with rescue dogs and we always advise a dry diet unless health issues. I’d perhaps review the food; discuss with vet but not something I’d recommend as wet food only does tend to make them loose.

I'd try splitting the meals - half in the morning, half in the evening. It's a lot to fit in your digestive tract at once otherwise!

this food she has one and a half cartons. we were advised by the rescue that she needed this to help sensitive tummy, and they were quite keen to know that we could afford to feed it and wouldn't be using dry food. Her tummy has improved as she has settled in.

I agree with PP, that is just too much food in one go. Breakfast and dinner would be much better for her and would almost certainly solve the issue.

I'd also try feeding her twice a day.

All that food sitting in her stomach at night is definitely going to need to be got rid of at some stage.

I'm surprised the rescue recommended feeding once a day. These days it's usually recommended to feed dogs twice a day.

My dog eats her first meal at about 10ish and always does her daily poo after that meal.

She's fed on wet food and her poos are small, nice and firm and she rarely does more than one poo a day, very occasionally she'll do a second small one during her afternoon walk. it is a very good quality low fat wet food admittedly.

She most definitely cannot eat dry food as if causes her all sort of stomach problems.

Unusual to advise wet food to settle a tummy as it goes through quicker than dry, I’d do some research into foods for her and gradually introduce dry through a mixture of both. A dog with a sensitive gut shouldn’t be getting this huge dollop of wet food in one serving, small and often is better to build up a tolerance, some rescues I’ve come across give out awful advise, honestly have never heard of this- one huge wet food serving.

Oh yes mine have their last meal at 4pm. They have brekki about 7.

Just seen you last post OP.

Speaking as the owner of a dog with a sensitive stomach, feeding twice a day would be much more gentle on you dog's digestive system.

Definitely feed twice a day - mine get at 7.30-8 then at 4-4.30. But I also feed mine a mix of dry food (grain-free, novel protein as mine have allergies & one has IBD) and wet food. At bedtime they get a small handful of dry food too.

I would do twice a day & evening earlier.

Have you taken her to the vets? Why was she in such a poor state after 10 months at the kennels? Has she been investigated for an underlying issue, e.g. pancreatitis, IBS, other causes of gastritis?

Yes, we have been to see the vet, he has asked me to go back next week to weigh her again, but pronounced her generally healthy. she is just starting to fill out a bit now and her poo seems normal now.The rescue people said she was stressed out by being moved from original kennels to a more crowded establishment.

Did your vet do any blood tests?

No blood tests yet, he wants to see if she puts weight on.She appears to be the picture of health and is very lively, bright eyed and is getting a nice shiny coat now. there are no continuing problems with her poo except that some of it is deposited in the middle of the night on the kitchen floor!

Should mention she has been wormed and flea treated.

@boo
Losing weight is very common for dogs in kennels, her breed staffy x sight hound are very prone to kennel stress and don’t cope well. I wouldn’t be going down the toad if blood tests etc, find a good quality dry food and mix the 2 and feed twice a day, unfortunately pretty poor advice from rescue.
I have bull breeds myself and they can have very sensitive tummy.

How lovely, I've also got an oldie greyhound x staffy.

I often give mine the salmon natures diet when they've had an upset tum always seems to settle & firm them up. Usually they're mainly on dry as its more economic with big dogs.
Kennels often do feed once a day (at lunch time for ones I've visited) as it fits in better with the routine, however most owners prefer to feed am & pm.
If wanting to gain weight then smaller portions, more frequently is better so surprised the rescue didn't advise that.

Hopefully changing the feeding routine will help, if poops are normal i'd stick with same food for now you don't want to be changing too much in one go.

Another clean night last night! I have decided to split her food into 2 meals so she has had just under 1/2 the total for breakfast this morning. We have also tried leaving her fleece jumper on overnight, although it is not cold in the kitchen, on the basis she might not wake up so early if she is warm and snuggly, she certainly looks very cute curled up in her pink jumper on the kitchen sofa! Thank you for all the advice, I think we have seen more improvement this week

I think we need a pink jumper wearing doggy photo 😉🐶

That's a great update. Long may it last.

Agree, we need a photo.