15 month old golden toilet habits

[Summermum479]

Hi all,

TMI WARNING!

We have a 15 month old male golden who, up until recently I thought was having normal toilet habits but over the last few weeks I’m starting to worry.

He eats dry food (AVA golden retriever) twice a day but he is pooing on average around 4 times a day (2 morning and 2 evening). The poos are absolutely fine (albeit quite big), not runny or anything like that but a couple of people have said he should only be going 2-3 times a day. He has also recently lost a bit of weight but is completely himself and had some bloods done 2 weeks ago (as part of his annual health check) and everything was fine.

Could it be his food? Honestly he’s been like this for as long as I can remember but he has been on that food brand since he was younger so I’m starting to think maybe it’s never agreed with him?

Anyone else experienced this with their golden or dog in general and any advice/reassurance?

Anyone?

I'm no expert at all but recently swapped to Butternut as dog completely went off her dry food and for a labrador to refuse to eat....

The dog minder recommended butternut but also said she would poo less. Which appears to be true.

Your dog sounds perfectly healthy but you don't say why he has recently lost weight? If there's been no change to diet and exercise that's worth checking out.

If he's pooing a lot and losing weight but eating the same, it could be that he's not absorbing the food as he should - but if he had any intolerances to something in the food you'd expect runny poo.

Our springer we think has quite a few intolerances and is on a hypoallergenic fish food which is the only thing that gives her solid poo - but we had months of sloppy poo on numerous other foods before this. I don't think your golden would have normal poo if he was intolerant to the food.

Have you checked the food to make sure the recipe hasn't changed/calories reduced or anything that would account for the weight loss?

we had a young dog (not a golden) who pooped several times a day. She was very lively and after running around out in the parks would always poop. We put it down to adrenaline/excitement. A bit tiresome but generally she was always fit and well. Has now settled into a stable pattern of two poops a day usually, from age of around 4. We also add a tiny bit of Protexin to her food in the evening but literally 3 tiny pieces, about a third of a teaspoon, whereas the dose is a couple of soup spoons full.
If your dog is losing weight or seems unwell then get it checked by the vet.

I have two GRs, I have looked briefly at the ingredient listing of AVA and I wouldn’t be happy feeding it. On the face of it the protein content is OK although the majority of it is meal rather than fresh meat content. There is waaaaay too much potato/sweet potato (42%) for me, that may be why he’s pooing more frequently as that’s a lot to absorb. My own are on a kibble mix which is 50% protein, 30% of which is fresh meat content, and 23% potato. I’m really happy how they both look and perform on it and they poo once/twice a day.

We’re currently not sure why he’s lost the weight, we took him the vets as he was getting his ears cleaned so weighed him then and that’s when we noticed it. The vet didn’t seem too concerned because he’s acting completely normal and not gone off his food but we’re due back in on Monday for another weight check so if he has lost anymore at that point, we will be having further testing done.

Yeah his poo’s are completely normal there’s just quite a bit of it when he goes and it’s 4x a day on average. Just concerned and hoping it’s nothing serious 😔

@Withnailandeye oh really? I thought the carbs was a lot when I checked it tbf. What are you currently feeding your two goldens on?

Hopefully it isn’t, it certainly wasn’t anything serious with our dog. However check out the food issue pointed out by the previous poster with your vet. 42% sweet potato does sound out of balance.

When was the last time he was wormed?

What are his poos like? They should be firm and consistent and only leave a tiny scraping on the ground when you pick them up.

I also know dog owners who swear by fresh meat diets and say they reduce poop levels but we have always stuck with kibble, but good quality Hills ID - it is expensive.

@coffeecupsandwaxmelts he’s wormed monthly and due his next lot the beginning of next week. As mentioned his poos are fine, exactly as you have mentioned above.

You say they're big though - is that just lots of normal poo or are they at all soft and squishy?

I think it’s good that his poos aren’t runny at least?

My golden boy had terrible issues in that department as a pup and teenager. He’d been on Royal Canin since a puppy, but then we put him on Millie’s Wolfheart (riverside mix) and he literally has never had any problems since. It’s pricey but I think all good doggy food is tbf.

Worth it just because we never have to clean up after his terrible explosive episodes that he used to have regularly.

How much does he weigh? Mine is coming up for 5 and is about 43kilos.

Bella and duke raw has worked wonders for my dogs poop! Price isn't to bad if you have the freezer space to buy a bit at a time.
The food you are feeding him has a massive amount of carbs in and sounds like it's not agreeing with him.
This website is good for checking nutritional content of food

www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk/dog-food-reviews/1918/bella-and-duke-superfood-enriched-dog-food

Mine are on:
pipspetpantry.com/product/grain-free-working-adult-dog-duck-15kg/ - I’ve been feeding it for about 6 years, I contacted pip after I was struggling with a very similar thing with my older girl and although it’s more expensive I wouldn’t change as they do so well on it. I think applaws and fish4dogs have fairly similar protein content.

@coffeecupsandwaxmelts Yeah lots of normal. He has had episodes where they've been runny as I'm sure most dogs have but he's got over them pretty quickly after going on chicken and rice, probiotic etc.

@PuppyMonkey That's what I originally thought but now I'm concerned of about Malabsorption. He had routine bloods done 2 weeks ago, would they have checked for that then or do specific tests need to be done for that? He's currently 34.40kg (Down from 35.20kg when he was last weighed on 26/01). Your boy is very handsome!

Yeah I think his food is definitely going to be switched now. I will speak to the Vets on Monday about it as well and see if they can recommend any specific food for him.

** 34.60kg not 34.40kg

That's not really a huge amount of weight loss in a healthy young adult dog, though I understand why you're a bit concerned.

I would look at switching to a higher quality food with more protein.

A wouldn't ask the vet about diet unless your dog is diagnosed with something. In my experience most vets don't know much about nutrition and will usually recommend the food that there practice sells!

The vets will push you towards one that they sell and get commission on. Usually Royal Canin, which imo is shit
I agree with the others that the food you are using may well be the cause. As per other advice, compare yours to others on allaboutdogfood to get a better idea. My preference is for high meat content/veggies and lower carbs. my 2 are on Millies wolfheart 60% meat and go twice a day
I really don’t think a weight loss that small is significant though unless accompanied by other symptoms though. In the kindest way possible, I think you are overthinking this.

Our lab sometimes goes 4 times a day (before breakfast, after breakfast, once about tea time and once before bed). I've never really considered it an issue. If poos are all ok otherwise I wouldn't really consider it an issue. I know some dogs that go three times on a single walk so I'd never thought 3/4 a day was a problem.

That sort of weight loss wouldn't register either, our pup fluctuates between 24.5 and 26kg.

Ours all did very well on James Wellbeloved.

We tried quite a few things and read many labels.

One local vets here pushes 'science-plan' (a suspicious trying-to-influence-you name if I ever heard one). Our dogs didn't like it - we didn't like the smell and it didn't seem to have all that much good stuff in the ingredients.

Whatever you change to - do it slowly. Sudden changes always upset ours.

Yeah pretty sure Royal Canin is what they sell so I won't be going with that at all. I've since spoken with the breeder and he has recommended Markus Mühle natural dog food. Said he has used it for my dogs mum always and recommends. When I checked its around 45% meat and 19% carbs which is a massive difference to what he's currently on so thinking about giving that a go. I have seen/heard good things about Millies Wolfheart as well though so will do some further research before making a decision.

Yeah it's highly likely I could be overthinking it tbh! It's just when the vet saw the weight drop they said it was 'significant' which obviously made me panic. He is completely himself so think I'm best just doing some research into higher protein diet for him and seeing how he gets on with that :)

@currantbee Tbh at the time it didn't really register that much with me but the vet seemed to be concerned which made me feel concerned. They said because he is only 15 months he should still be growing, not losing, but then just left it at that and said to come back next week!