Watery diarrheoa . . . sorry!

Cox has it today, and did so about 4 or 5 times on walks. It's watery, very smelly, and has undigested food bits in it. No form to it at all. His poos are usually pretty good. The only different thing he had yesterday was a marrow bone. That couldn't have caused it could it???

Anyway, hopefully it will sort itself out today and tomorrow. I will go to the shops and get him some rice and chicken in case it doesn't. I don't have any in the house today and I can't leave the house today, I had a defrosted chicken carcass, which he has everyday with some mince. I've just given him the chicken carcass, and withheld the mince on the basis that chicken is pretty straightforward food, and the bones might help bind him a little.

Any other suggestions to help him get back to normal?

Shamus does this (all wind & water) regularly - mainly because he scavenges...dead crabs, discarded burgers, muffin cases...
As long as he`s drinking, I believe the best thing to do is not feed the dog for 24 hours. I can`t do this or Shamus gets frantic, but luckily his system seems to sort itself out.

Me too, and I'm sure shepherds suffer with it a lot more than other dogs, they are known for their dodgy digestive systems. I can't withold food either unless they're not interested, then I do! I find mashed potato is great for not only binding them up again but sorting things out, but being on cooked now, I use shredded up chicken with my mash. They're terrible scavengers, and I only know that since having this current dog, he'll find just about anything that he thinks is worth eating no matter how vile!!!

Just check that it doesn't turn into watery blood, coz then you do have problems (I've had that too with my previous dog!) HOpefully it should all settle down when he gets whatever it was he ate out of his system. Some live yoghurt wouldn't go amiss either!

From what I've read and also experienced, diarrhoea can be caused by too much food in one sitting, so basically the body says 'whoa, too much to handle, just pass on through' type thing. This would also fit with your seeing undigested food.

Did he have an exceptionally large meal, or perhaps consume too much marrow?

This cause of diarrhoea tho is usually associated with youngsters or new to raw dogs. Is he either of those?

I would fast for at least 24 hours rather than trying the various band-aids to stop him up. I always feel it's better to let the system clear itself out. As long as he drinks plenty of water he should bounce back quickly.

I also wouldn't do the extra bone thing to stop him up as excess bone can irritate the GI tract further which could encourage the diarrhoea, cause blood and/or swing him between diarrhoea and constipation.

As a rawfeeder, after the fast, I would put him on a very bland diet such as raw chicken breast, no rice and no cooking!!

Let us know how he goes.

Thanks for the help. He is drinking and was his usual self on his morning walk today. He did give me his 'sad eyes' expression more often today though! lol! He is sleeping now with his tummy gurgling away (which I've heard before btw).

He had the normal food portions he is used to yesterday, and he is not a scavenger (thankfully). In fact, there was nothing unusual in his diet yesterday apart from the marrow bone (first time) although he has only been on a new delivery of raw food for two days.

Raw chicken only might be the way to go as you suggest Ziva. But I'm tempted to cook it and add rice just to make it easier to digest and just to be sure that at the mo there is no salmonella/e-coli getting into his system until it settles down. I think I will get some probiotics and tree bark powder to have on standby in case it happens again. Hopefully it settles down before I can get me hands on it this time round.

I'll let you know how he gets on. Fingers crossed.

Too much marrow could be the cause..I know the first marrow bone Lola had was rather "nasty"..

Do you give him a full bag of mince and a carcass?? That sounds like a lot..mine only get a bag of mince for a meal..OR a carcass..

Hi Louise

Could be the marrow then, although he only got one bone and only scooped out 1/2 a handful of marrow.

He gets 1/2 bag mince plus carcass or turkey neck in morn and same again in evening. He is rather lean (ribby) so don't really want to reduce it. He is out on walks for around3 hours a day so he is burning quite a lot of energy.

Let me know what you think though.

I wouldn't add rice - it is actually harder to digest so will hinder rather than help!

Whether to cook it, me personally I wouldn't as unless he's very new to raw the stomach acid is strong enough to kill any nasties.

Cooked meat is often cited as being the equivalent of partially digested and therefore easier on the stomach. I tend to think it's less helpful as the water content has gone.

That does seem like alot of food. How old is he? If that's the food he needs, and he's still young another option would be a third meal at some point in the day, whenever it fits around your schedule.

My rescue pup had all sorts of digestive problems in the beginning as she had a suppressed immune system, lots of small meals sorted her out.

BTW - tree bark powder (slippery elm?) is excellent, and yes definitely worth keeping indoors for such occasions!

OK, I'll try him on raw chicken breast for a couple of days if he is no better tomorrow.

He's 2 now - and is on 2 meals a day - he has been on raw for about 7 weeks now and has been absolutely fine so far (bar bringing bits of bones and bile up a couple of times first thing in the morning) so I think this is just a one off thing.

Another reason I feed some mince with the carcasses usually, which I forgot to mention is that if I feed carcasses alone for one meal he passes white pellets only with some difficulty and groaning, so I figured the proportion of bone to meat needed to be adjusted for him.

I took him out for a 1 hour walk about 10 mins ago and no squits - in fact nothing whatsoever. Let's see what tomorrow brings.

Yes, try the boneless chicken breast, and if all ok, move onto chicken breast with bone in (it'll be the softer ribs), and then if all ok, you can feed normally.

The returning of bone and bile thing does happen in the beginning - theory is it's while the stomach adjusts it's acid after the more alkaline requirements of kibble. I'm not sure about that although it certainly fits with what most people see. You will get some bone back in the long term too - my female quite often returns the knuckle part of a chicken leg the morning after. I figure she swallows them whole and they must be too dense for her.

Feeding too much bone is a common thing particularly in the beginning, and it certainly sounds the case here. Where did you get your original raw feeding advice from - do you have a book or access to a diet guide? Most people use the 10% of food as a bone content measurement guide which is loosely based on the percentages in a typical prey animal. When you consider that a typical butchered chicken works out somewhere around 35% bone, it's not hard to see that frames will be significantly higher.

Also, if you increase the meat and fat content and reduce the bone, you'll probably see his weight increase nicely

I'm not crazy about giving diet advice on open forum these days as it's very often misconstrued by non-raw feeders. However if you would like a raw feeding mentor, I'd be happy to help - just PM me and I will send you my email address.

HTH