As you've just bought the bags of food, what I'd do is keep to the food he has but reduce his two meals down to about 150g a meal and then give him a kong midday-ish with another 80-100g. If you serve his kibble dry, I'd also consider moistening it with warm water.

If this is cause, you will see a change pretty quickly because there is nothing to 'get better' inside him if you see what I mean. And if it is this, you can then look to changing foods and giving him additional treats etc to help keep weight on him.

ETA - as for the scratching, no I mean scratching himself....food intolerance often shows as itchy skin as well as an internal reacton.

OK thanks. Will cut out Dentastix, reduce portion size to 150g each meal first and report back.

Thank you all SOOO much I feel like a weight has been lifted as at least we're talking sense!!

Is this still Arden Grange? When I feed Finn AG Fish and Potato he gets 400g a day and he is 34kg.

My two always get a bit runny after exercise and its even worse in the hot weather.

Just checked the bag. It says:

20-25kg
263-309g

We feed him 200-210g each meal, so just over 400g a day!!!! ****! I hadn't realised it would have this effect, I thought as long as he wasn't gaining weight it was OK.

Bloody hell ;o(

Blimey Pidge. I'd bet any money that this is the reason. Think what your stomach would do if you ate almost two platefuls at each meal!

Watch his weight when you reduce the amount - for a trial for a couple of days it shouldn't be a problem, but you may need to find a way to keep his weight up without giving more kibble. that could be either (1) changing to a different brand) (2) adding extra such as tripe.

I thought it was OK to feed amounts based on what they look like and that 100g extra a day with such a skinny active boy wouldn't hurt him.

I feel dreadful now.

Don't feel dreadful. Apart from some loose poo he is hardly worse for wear!

I agree that is probably too much for a Springer, as that is roughly what my 31kg Lab eats in a day.

Keep us updated on how the food reduction goes for him. If you find he is scavenging more with the reduced amount, add some veggies to one of his meals to bulk it out at bit.

Pidge I agree, carrots are hard to digest but we are not talking about digesting a meal, we are talking about a natural alternative to Dentisix for cleaning teeth.
The enzymes in the carrots help to kill the bacteria on the teeth and to leave them clean, then the carrot passes out of the body undigested in little chunks.

As the others have said many dogs have runny poos at the end of exercises, Amy always did.

I have used Wafcol salmon and potato as part of Chloes diet on the vets recommendation , she has periodic spells of colitis and I liked it though it was not easy to obtain around here and doesn't soak very well (I like to feed a moist meal because of Chloes tummy problem ) .It contains 25% salmon 20% potato and is not full of rubbish.

A good tip when looking at dog food is the first ingredient listed should be meat or fish and it should be a good proportion of the food , beware food which states things like 'animal derivatives' this can be anything, chicken feet and feathers, any old rubbish.

Ps just read the last few posts, yes overfeeding can cause diarrhoea

I agree, no need to feel dreadful - but it just shows how something potentially so simple can be so easily overlooked (even by the vet). Of course it still may not be this, but as I say, I'd be willing to bet money that it is given everything else you've said.

Stumpy is very similar. There are some foods that she reacts to, but I can usually tell these because she gets really itchy- one food she reacted badly to, she pulled out all her chest hair But I was having difficultly working out what she could eat because everything seemed to go through her. Then I worked out that quantity had a lot to do with it.

Although lots of people poo-poo (excuse the pun ) it, I do give Stumpy tinned food sometimes with her kibble - she can digest this better than the kibble.

If I am giving kibble just by itself I always moisten it. She also gets plenty of other treats during the day, so the fact that her 'main meals' are very small doesn't matter.

Hali I feed complete food as a mixer so moisten it. Burns is great for this and moistens very well. I then add a little wet food or fresh food.

I don't feed treats because of Chloe's tummy problems . I don't need them for training now she has grown up ..