Inconsistent poop consistency!

T is fed predominantly 'raw' (if hes in the mood or cooked if not - hes not one for keeping weight on, so missing a meal using the take it or it gets picked up method isnt really the way forward in his case i dont think, hes not a big eater anyway)

Was feeding him asda smart price lamb mince which he loved but his food bill was coming in on average £70 per month!

Got some Landywoods meat (thanks daneman!) and tried that, he like the chicken if it was cooked but due to the high bone content this wasnt the best (got a scratched bottom ouch!) He has had the Landywoods Lamb and is now LOVING their beef. Once a week he has JWB and a tin of tuna and other days a small handful of JWB thrown in with 2lbs of meat (2lbs seems to be his limit)

Now, his poops tend to be, the first small bit reasonably firm then the rest very soft or all VERY soft/runny and by the end of his walk squirty!

he was fed twice a day but due to his lax eating habits I was coming home to a bowl of meat with fly eggs on it in the warmer weather so he was changed to a small handfull of dry for breakfast (which he rarely touched) and then his meat when it had cooled down later in the evening and after his exercise.

His poop is general quite a 'bright brown' colour and I would say of what I would call an acceptable consistency about (what am i saying!!!) about 10% of the time. I have started to pour off all bar a bit of the fat that comes off the meat when it is cooked in case it was too much for him.

Hes wormed and happy as larry but his bottom would say otherwise.

After spending hours cleaning the livingroom carpet with hired cleaner on saturday i came home in the evening to find 2 lots of poop in the livingroom and one could only be described as jelly/snot like in consistency and didnt smell like regular poop (def came out of back end) and on sunday his breath smelt (he breath doesnt smell as a rule so it was v noticeable) had a fine day playing with friends dogs and running around and licked his bowl clean last night (am praying for clean carpet today!)

He will be 3 in Oct and standard Dobe height and weighed last week at 35.2kg (i think he needs more on but puzzled as to how to do it!)

He does have raw chicken thighs now and again but its not practical for him to have something with bone in everyday (bone seems to help the bottom end?) as he doesnt eat it straight away and buries it in the garden or in my bed.

Any ideas? Would bonemeal be an option?

hi,
if hes bouncing about and is fine,rest his belly till tommorow it sounds like something has not agreed with him(this can happen if you chop and change the diet too much) i would just give him water today,give his guts a chance to slow down,then tommorow underfeed him slightly and divide his food into 4 easier to digest 'snackettes'
also,he has not matured fully yet so i wouldnt rush his weight,he doesnt sound particularly light,you should be able to feel his backbone and his ribs(i think alot of people think dobies should carry more weight than they should) but im sure a dobie and raw feeding 'expert' will come along and advise you more than me
happy poop-a-clearing

Hi

Yep apart from yesterday am (ala stinky breath) he is his usual self. hes not big on eating stuff whilst out (bar a bit of rabbit poo). the jellyish poo is occasional but as a rule very soft light coloured poop is 'normal' for him.

After jelly poop saturday night the sunday poop (after no interest in breakfast - well i say breakfast we didnt get up until midday ) was soft and a dark grey/green colour

Is there something missing that I need to give him?

he has a pack of grilled liver per week and cottage cheese occasionally

imho very soft light poop is not 'normal'

I think somebody should write a book on dog poop coz I'm getting just as obssessed about it with my two at the moment! I just want the dark brown hard kind that I pass most mornings on our walk, but no, I get it like yours, it's too light in colour, and mostly it's far too soft, apart from the very first morning one! When will it end I ask!!!!

From what I can gather, I agree with T here, you are probably changing far too often. Is it possible for you to stick with something he likes, and then use something else as a special meal, say once a week or something? I'd cut out that cottage cheese too and swap it for maybe goat's yoghurt (bit expensive I know) which I've recently found out my dogs love and it cuts out the dairy in his diet, coz my vet told me last week, not to give Diary if the poo is not firm it makes it worse.

I've just spent a whole week or examining different offerings from both my dogs, and some of it was quite vile, being like sloppy mustard with bits of chicken in it, so you could be getting worse than you are. When you mention about the smelly breath, I'm just wondering here whether he's maybe started eating some of it??? That of course, would cause the next lot to be less desirable yet again which you are seeing. What about putting some pro biotics into his food once a day, just to build up the good bacteria in his gut, which helps with just about everything in the digestion process? I'm doing that with Lacto-B powder from the vet but you can buy this online and there is another one which I've forgotten. It could help you lots, it seems to be doing the trick with my two and they've only been on it for about 5 days now.

It's quite a nightmare isn't it, but I'm sure if you stick to one thing, or maybe two things, feed less at any one time, so it makes it easier for the gut to deal with you could be on a winner! Good luck

yep h is correct,simplicity is the key.(also very good point about the breath!)
youve forgotton the name!!!! helena54 you have not done your revision properly
pro biotics(also claimable on insurance if these brand are used) my personal 3 favs- lacto-b protexin professional and canigest.
if his poos do not firm up i think you should make an appt with the vet to be on the safe side.

Contrary beast poop was of acceptable consistency this am!! He had less meat last night and more JWB and he also had some wainwrights treats when we were training (hard biscuit type)

He has been on mainly meat for a long time now and it has been predominantly lamb (as id like a bit more weight on him) but as i thought maybe the high fat content was causing the soft poop then he was changed over a few days onto chicken mince which had adverse effect (very crumbly hard to pass poop due to bone content) so he is now on beef which he LOVES (not a big eater but the beef = bowl licked clean) he has started scratching a bit, could this be the beef? he is flea free and he did have similar scratching when he used to have beef chunks last year.

Could lack of fibre be the problem? poop is better when he has had dry but the problem is he doesnt eat it all up and after say one meal where he will clear his plate the rest of the time he will eat round the JWB and it goes in the bin.

At 35.2kg i estimate he should be having approx 900gms of food per day (2.5% of his body weight) is that about right?

What % of this should be meat and what % should be bone/other? I wondered whether bonemeal would help when something with bone in /carcass isnt practical (he buries and sits and stares at chicken thighs before eventually getting round to eating them, and during the day whilst i am at work they get buried all over the house!)

Glad to hear today's offering was of a better consistency My gsd puppy (8 months) only gets 625 grams a day of her puppy food and she's a growing girl who now weighs 32.75 kgs as of last week when she was ill.

I'm now beginning to think you are maybe giving too much in one meal, and if you feed too much, this can in itself cause diarrhea, the body just can't cope with it. On doing some googling last week about diarrhea, I did also read that too much MEAT can cause it too, so that could also be your problem. I honestly don't know what the ratio of fibre to meat should be, I haven't looked into that one coz I feed a special kibble and they do the job for me!

If it's weight you want to put on, then giving an abundance of food (different ones at that) could cause you big problems, less is more, you would be better off spending your money on something highly nutritious and feeding less of it, and I'm sure you will get to the root of your problem with your boy. I friend of mine with a big mastiff, used to feed nothing but tripe and biscuits and that dog always looked amazing, glossy coat, good weight on him, fantastic! Have you tried the minced tripe yet? That's a good weight gainer, and if you mixed some of that in with a good kibble, it would stick to the kibble and your dog would eat it all up (this is what I do when I feed tripe/minced fish) I like to make sure my growing puppy is getting her correct food, so the tripe which she's always had, is just added as a taster to get her interested, or the fish when her tummy was upset.

If you want to stick with raw, then you're going to have to go into it in great detail to make sure you do the right ratio's of meat and bone and whatever else they feed with it to put some fibre into the meal, probably veggies. If it's weight you're looking for, then find something like tripe which is going to put the weight on, instead of giving all that fat which could cause pancreatic problems. I know they say dog's have cast iron stomachs, but I beg to differ with that one, having had gsd's all my life who are renown for their sensitive tummies, I have to be very careful myself, otherwise squits it is!

I'm sure somebody more in tune with feeding will be along to help you out, I only know about the bits I've posted up, which I hope are of some help.Good luck.

I don't know about raw feeding.. It seems too much like effort and science for me. I like my food to come in nice easy to manage kibbles all science done by someone the other end, I always mix one tin of good tripe tinned meat between the three with their dinner to make it yummier....

But to enter the ever fun poop debate... Selkie suffered from jellyfish behind when she was a pup.. I took her to the vet and £300 later she was diagnosed as intolerant to gluten and fat. We moved to JWB chicken and rice and all more or less settled down... So it may well be the fat that is causing it in your boy as he is not getting gluten...

Kismet had dodgy poop consistency too.. she was already on gluten free and low fat diet, so after some searching we moved to Skinners Salmon and rice. Now! Perfect!!! Proper little hard easy to pick up small poop! Wish I had found Skinners 10 yrs ago for Selkie..

Guess my advice is... drop or reduce fat... add natural yoghurt and offal (They need offal sometimes for nutrients and stuff - don't ask me the science). Add some bone but not all boney meat, so one thigh with mince rather than all thighs...

or..

Get a good healthy kibble like Skinners and just mix the tripe or mince in with it to make it more palatable.
also
If any of mine get an upset bottom for any reason I always make sure that kibble the next day is mixed with a pot of natural yoghurt to replace the good bacteria...

Thanks guys!

Mr Fussy pants has a take it or leave it attitude to kibble for eg he would only eat it say 1 meal out of 5? no matter what it is mixed with. ive tried the 'if he doesnt it take it away option' but he would still turn his nose up at it when dinner time comes round. He used to eat tripe but went off it and refused to touch it despite my best efforts. Hes picky about consistency too (i tried the tripe chunks - no luck!). Asda lamb mince (the stuff that comes frozen in bags) is what i would call 'formed' mince and he wolfs that down and also the smart price beef mince but give him the landywoods raw and he wont touch it hence having to cook it.

He will eat 2 chicken thighs with the bone in (after random staring/burying behavour) and thats his limit on raw.

He has been having JWB Turkey large kibble, I know he isnt a large breed dog but my reasoning is that is has a higher fat content (and after a trial pack he prefered it the standard kibble) and i was trying to get his weight up.

Right based on what everyone has said..

I will try reducing the fat content right back
Lower volume (or try and see if I can split meals again)
Bit of bone (in the evening so I am there to make sure it doesnt get hidden down the back of the sofa - he actually did this whilst i was sat on the sofa once! stuffed it down behind my back and then covered the hiding place with MY cushion, its was v funny if a little gross!)
Slowly change him on to a diff kibble/mixer (his breeder gives hers wheatmeal biscuit)

I shall see if i can find some goats cottage cheese he used to have goats milk as a bambino but thats another thing he went off! Offal isnt a problem as long as it is grilled (any alternative cooking options gratefully received that will help reduce the loss of nutrients etc)