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The doghouse

11 month old with intermittent diaorrhoea <sp?>

8 replies

flapperghasted · 13/06/2012 10:34

My mongrel (cavalier x poodle) has had a delicate tum since we had her. She always has soft stools every few poos, but generally, they've been firm enough. Every so often, though, she'd struggle with her poos and eats grass. Vet says it's not an issue. She was spayed a few weeks ago and she's fit and healthy, energetic, etc, so it's not causing huge difficulties.

However. On Thursday I decided to change her diet. She eats wet food and was on Butchers. I wanted something with a greater meat content and ended up finding James Wellbeloved puppy trays in Pets at Home. It seemed ideal, so I tried her with a little on Thursday, last week, and she wolfed it down. I told DH we'd have to introduce it slowly, but he gave her loads of it on her first day. Next day her stools were text book perfect, so DH said, just give her the Wellbeloved. I know I should have eased it in, but she was enjoying it so much and all seemed fine.

Anyway...Friday night (early hours) she woke me up twice and did 2 really sloppy poos outside. Next couple of days were fine, then last night she did a tiny bit of firm poo in my living room! Then, again, she woke me at 2am and 3:45 to do sloppy poos outside. She's sleepy this morning, but often doesn't get moving til this time of day. I feel the same after waking up twice, but she doesn't seem ill. She's up to date with worming. No blood in stools. No worms I can see. Some mucus, but vet said last time that wasn't too serious. If she follows the pattern, she'll have a couple of days with softer stools, but nowhere near as runny as they were last night, then she'll start firming up again.

So...question is, what do I do? Do I leave her on Wellbeloved? Do I go back to her old food, even though she rarely ate it? Do I swap her again?? I'm really struggling, so would appreciate any advice.

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daisydotandgertie · 13/06/2012 11:14

I wouldn't leave her on the food that's causing a dodgy bum. Which variety of foods have you tried so far? Lamb? Chicken? Turkey?

She doesn't need to be on puppy food any longer, so move her onto adult food as a starter.

But, there's clearly something in her diet which she is struggling with, so I would change tack completely and try her on a dried food - Wainwright's salmon and potato from Pets at Home as it sounds like you have one near you. Fish4dogs is an alternative - or Burns pork and potato.

It is of course possible that she's just getting too much food. That's causes a dodgy bum too. Most dogs can tollerate Chappie - how much is she fed and what does she weigh?

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flapperghasted · 13/06/2012 11:44

Thanks for the advice daisy

She was having a half a tin of food a day with a handful of biscuits mixed in. She's just under 10kg I think.

Now she's having a tray a day with biscuits mixed in. She's increased the amount of food she's eating just because she likes this stuff and wasn't ever keen on the Butchers. She'd eat the Butchers every third or fourth day. In between, she might have left over chicken mixed with it every Sunday/Monday, then she'd clear her bowl . A couple of days of starving, then back in with the chicken mix or sometimes lamb.

The flavoured food she's having is duck and turkey (separate flavours). She's wolfing it all down and loves it way more than anything I've given her before.

She's been for a poo just and it was firm enough to pick up from concrete without leaving a trace, though still on the soft side. That's what baffles me. If it was constant dodgy bum, no question, she'd be at vets before you could blink. But it seems to be one day off, one day on...

I thought it was best to give the food a week or two to settle? And because we didn't introduce as gradually I was definitely working on that premise. Is that wrong then??

We did try her on a dry food...Arden Grange, and she's just not interested at all. If we mix it with the wet, she'll eat a little, but never much. We tried to introduce that on a gradual basis, decreasing the amount of wet food and upping the biscuit content and she just picked around it or left it.

I've got to go to work now, but please tell me if I'm being an idiot with this. I know I'm not the best pet mom in the world, but I really want to get it right!

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flapperghasted · 13/06/2012 11:46

I did check if this was a problem, the eating/not eating thing with her and apparently it's quite common with poodles who tend to be picky eaters anyway. She is definitely more poodle than cavalier, so we are getting a lot of the tendencies for that breed. Makes her a bit giddy, anxious and velcro like as well as picky with her food. Just like my daughter really (except for the anxiety and the velcro thing...maybe not like her at all then!).

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daisydotandgertie · 13/06/2012 12:15

You're not being an idiot at all. And the usual advice is to change foods slowly, so there's nothing wrong with that.

Are you leaving food down for her, or putting it down for a short period and then taking it away?

I am a bit of a hard hearted hannah with food for the dogs - it goes down for 15 minutes and if it's not been eaten by then, it comes back up and they are fed again at their next normal meal time. If food is left out for them to pick at it very quickly makes a fussy dog.

I'm also sure that a dog will eventually eat if it's hungry (obv providing there's nothing actually wrong and you've already said your vet is happy), so reduce the quantities a bit for the next few days - feed wet only, twice a day and see what happens. No treats, no left overs, no nothing else.

She will not come to any harm - she may just not need much food.

I'd also recommend adding some slippery elm bark to her food Dorwest do some to help calm her insides.

With regard to the food you feed her, keep the quantities small and maybe stick with the JWB for a week or two. If she doesn't adjust even when you've added the slippery elm, then I would definitely change her food. I would giver her chance to settle before doing anything drastic though.

If you do change, avoid similar ingredients - so I would move towards fish and potato based food, rather than rice, cereals and meat.

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multipoodles · 13/06/2012 12:18

To be honest I think she is getting too much food, which will result in messy frequent poos. I would be inclined to reduce the food, split over two smaller meals a day. If this doesn't work then I'd try a different food, but changing too many variables to begin with will make it harder to define where the problem is. Dogs digest food much quicker than we do so what goes in comes out faster than you think. None of our poodles are picky, but my Mum's last one was.

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flapperghasted · 13/06/2012 15:00

Thanks all. I'm at work at the moment, but have officially finished for the day, so thought I'd check in. Pff to check out Dorwest. I do think it's increased intake, which is why sometimes it's more solid. I have to say I'm finding parenting a pup way more difficult that parenting a child :) DD was so easy in comparison, even if she is a fussy eater and I've had to be so much more regimented with the dog than I ever was with my girl. She's so adorable though. Wouldn't change her for the world (except for the pooing of course). Thanks again for the sound advice daisy and multi. Off to tell DH not to keep feeding the dog titbits!

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daisydotandgertie · 13/06/2012 17:12

Ooooh. Is he feeding her scraps and titbits?

That, along with a bit too much food may well be the root of your problem.

Her appetite will be teeny, so she's probably sated with a few scraps throughout the day.

Tell him to pack it in, just for a while and see what happens.

For a little perspective, my labs who are more than twice her size (between 22 - 27 kgs) are fed 10g per kg body weight of dried food or they'd have half a tin and mixer of wet food each.

Rather than being fussy, she may have a dodgy bum because she's been a little bit of a piglet.

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flapperghasted · 13/06/2012 19:44

LOL daisy. Thing is, before the Wellbeloved she ate next to nothing! I thought she was going to be one of those dogs that's not motivated by food at all. Got that one wrong then :) DH has been telled. Portion size is smaller from teatime. Titbits are definitely off the menu for now. Thanks so much for the kind advice.

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