Dog food and sloppy poo (sorry!) - anyone switched to Wolfworthy?

[SybilThePup]

All about poo here 🤢 sorry!

Our Springer Spaniel pup is 4 months old now and still fed on Butchers Puppy Perfect and Skinners Puppy kibble which is what the breeders had her on.

She's in perfect health - active but calm (ish) at home, eats well, sleeps all night, perfect weight, glossy coat. But her poo is awful and seems to be getting worse. It's really really soft, at times straying into actual diarrhea. Impossible to pick up basically. It's driving me crazy.

She's fully wormed, she's been to the vets twice and treated for Giardia and other things just in case. Tried adding carrot and sweet potato to her food. No difference. The vet wasn't hugely helpful but was fairly unconcerned and said it was possibly overfeeding (I don't see how, her weight is perfect, tending to the slender side if anything) or maybe it's just her due to her breed - as a Springer she's constantly on the go, doesn't get much chance to fully digest everything and it might settle as she ages. He said the food she was on was fine and didn't suggest changing it.

I've been researching dog food though in case this is the issue and Skinners doesn't seem very good on All About Dog Food. I would love to feed raw but it just wouldn't work for us. I've been looking at Wolfworthy and considering trying it but it's so expensive compared to what we pay now I want it to be worth it and not just be drawn in by good marketing!

Has anyone switched to WW with similar issues and did it help? Any other recommendations at all?

Honestly, my greatest wish in life right now is to be presented with nice firm dog poo to pick up 🤦🏻‍♀️😂

We had this with our lab. We still check for giardia but get the tests through wormcount (online). Finally established he has a chicken intolerance and may have others. It's pretty much taken a year. He's now on purina ha hypoallergenic and we will start reintroducing food once he's consistent for 6-8 weeks. If you're not happy with your vets advice, you could /should get another opinion.

Assuming it isn’t anything medical have a look at the Nature Diet range , for the quality it is really economical and our dog has lovely firm poos on it .

Mine was on various foods when she was a puppy. She was very fussy and it was hard finding something she would eat happily. I eventually put her on Millie's Wolfheart which she has been on for about 8 years. It was trial and error with the amount to feed her. Too much and she had runny poos, too little and they were very firm. She weighs about 12kg but I feed her for a 10kg dog and that seems to suit her. She has treats through the day so this seem to be the right amount for her to maintain. I recently tried her on Tails but she started to have huge poos and they smelt quite strong, so I am now just using that for her treats when out for walks.

From what I've read overfeeding in pups can lead to loose poo as it transits through their system too quickly. Feeding less won't actually mean losing weight and absorbing less calories.

Has she been checked for allergies?

Canagan dog food was fantastic for firming up GS puppy poo but unfortunately rocketed in price to about £90 per month.
Currently buying from Tails and poo less firm but not too bad. £60 pm 42kg dog.

Another vote for Millies Wolfheart- no grain or chicken which lots of dogs have intolerance to, DDog loves it and the poos are well formed and easy to pick up

Took ages to solve similar with my dog who, along with sloppy poo, developed large weeping sores.All kinds of brands, home cooked meat n veg, all were hopeless until Butchers Grain Free Tripe Loaf did the trick. So I feed him that. Most treats are also reactive, so he gets an occasional raw veg, carrot or apple, or a beef only meatball. Good luck.

We switched to Wolf Worthy and I was really impressed for quite some time. But then we started getting inconsistent batches, some smelt and looked burnt, TerrorPup was much less keen. I also noticed her general condition dropped, it was impossible to keep her at a health weight (she was classified as underweight by the vet).

We now feed Eden which is actually working out cheaper, no longer have to add veggies (we do occasionally because she enjoys them). She loves it, her coat is amazing, her weight is perfect, teeth great etc.

You can buy giardia and coccidia tests online. I’d do a test yourself as they can be hard bugs to shift. I’d rule these out first.

over feeding can cause soft stools but not usually proper diarrhoea.

My pup (now 7 months and full grown at 4.5kg) was on Wolfworthy. He was full of beans and his coat was beautiful, perfect poos too, but after a couple of months he developed reflux that made him absolutely miserable.

Switched him onto Celtic Connection salmon and trout kibble and he’s never looked back. His coat is super shiny, perfect healthy poos, no more reflux and he is thriving.

I’m not 100% set on grain free, so he also gets an occasional sardine/brown rice and quinoa or egg/brown rice and quinoa meal as well.

Having spoken with other people that have the same breed (ETT) it seems possible that if could have been the chicken in Wolfworthy, so we are sticking with fish based products only for now, as they obviously seem to suit him.

Having said all the above. Has the vet ruled out campylobacter? One of my rescue pups came to us with it and had very similar symptoms to your pup.

My puppy was the same earlier this year. It turned out he was sensitive to chicken. I swapped him to a fish-based kibble and hey presto, firm poo where I wasn't washing the lawn several times a day.

We tried wolfworthy and didn't get on with it.
Another vote for Millie's Wolfheart. He has the obedience mix and loves it.

Oh.. and never buy him anything with chicken in. He is gutted about that but has saved my garden.

Our golden retriever switched to Millie’s Wolfheart as he was alway having terrible tummy troubles previously - absolute game changer, we’ve never looked back.

Same here for Millies Wolfheart.
It's scary once you research what is in a lot of these foods.
Hoochydog is fine on it, healthy for the past eight years.
Also treats, she only has dried sprats and crunchy fish bits 🤮 (for me not her 😂)

We had the same with our springer. Changed to orijen (expensive) but almost overnight the difference was noticeable.
Unfortunately our springer will eat anything - tissues, receipts, fox poo, cat poo, grass and soil with alarming speed when out on a walk so we do still get the occasional splat on the grass! But so much better when we get a week with no rubbish eating!

My 2 were on skinners/Dr johns for years with massive soft turds...

Swapped to millies wolfheart, they are in amazing condition (couldn't get one to gain weight and couldn't get the other to lose!) and they poop so much less with harder poops too!

We tried skinners, eden, millies wolfheart riverside before settling on millies wolfheart countryside which gave us perfect poos.

It is a case of trial and error, but when we changed to mwh countryside the improvement was within just a couple of days.

Be careful with Wolfworthy, it is very high in fat at 19%. I lost my beautiful Cavalier to pancreatitis after 12 months on Wolfworthy. Would never buy it again.

We're in almost exactly the same boat.

6 month old flatcoat. We had her on Butternut Box, which was fine, although my preference is raw. I've been keeping on cooked as I want to do therapy dog training with her. She hit a growth spurt and wasn't gaining quite enough weight even on the maximum amount of BB with olive oil, etc. added. So on the vet's advice we supplemented with Essentials puppy kibble. That went fine, her weight improved, and then all of a sudden, about a month in, constant soft poos.

We've now tried Forthglade, The Innocent Hound, James Wellbeloved, turkey, duck and lamb, avoiding beef and chicken, and nothing's worked and I'm tearing my hair out.

Just dropping three days of poo samples to the vet tomorrow, but if that doesn't turn anything up I'm about to give up on the therapy thing and put her on raw.

I read this thread a few days ago and it described my dog exactly.

I had never thought of a chicken allergy but I changed his food to pork and potato and within days he has normal firm poos!

So thank you everyone who suggested that it's made a huge difference to him and he's so much happier.