# Soft Poop (8 Months Old)



## samchu_mammy (Jun 20, 2008)

Sam didn't do good on Science Puppy Large Breed, and he had very soft poop. I changed to Nature's Receipt, it helps, but still a bit soft. A friend of mine told me that most puppy's poop are soft/loose, and I am not very sure about it, hope someone here can help me as well!


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## Brady's mom (Dec 20, 2007)

Have you ruled out parasites like coccidia and giardia? Taking a stool sample to the vet is a good idea.

There are two things that give our similarly aged puppy soft food:

--Too much food, either in the form of kibble or treats. 
--Too many meat chewies like pigs tails.

Could you be overfeeding your dog?


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## BeauShel (May 20, 2007)

Hello and welcome,
You might wait alittle while before changing foods again. All the changes to your pups stomach cannot make him feel good. Like they said rule out that there isnt any parasites causing it. You can add plain yogurt to his food or canned pumpkin to help firm the stools up. Use the canned pumpkin not the pumpkin pie filling (has spices). And in about a month if he is still having problems you might try and switch him over to a little higher quality dog food. There are alot of great foods out there that are very good for them. You will find alot of information about them in the dog food section. 
Good luck and cant wait to see pictures of your pup.


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## Jon Zaremba (Jul 16, 2008)

Thanks for all of the quick replies. I know i'm not overfeeding Dougal. He's a very lean dog. Not thin, but lean. All of that original puppy chub is long gone. I free feed him throughout the day but he doesn't let himself over eat. Maybe a cup of food in the morning and perhaps 2 cups of food in the evening.

I hope that it's not a parasite. 

I'll try adding a bit of canned pumpkin to his food this weekend and see if it helps. If that firms things up, would it rule out the possibility of a parasite?

Thanks Again....


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## norabrown (Jul 20, 2007)

All of the above is great advice. (Do them) and also add a probiotic to his food.


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## KonasRents (Jul 15, 2008)

Hi Jon,

We found out last week our 8 week old puppy had coccidia. I was worried about her soft stool too, but everyone kept telling me it was probably the stress of leaving the litter, small changes in food, the new home etc. Unfortunately, we waited to long and had to bring her into the emergency room in a panic. She's been taking meds for the disease and seems to be recovering just fine now - thank dog. After my horrible experience last week, if things don't harden up soon, I'd bring your puppy in, just to make sure! I'd hate for you to have to go through what we did.


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## martinrt (Jun 24, 2008)

I've had similar issues with Allee, who is now just about 10 months old. Allee had it a bit worse though where there were semi frequent flare ups. The vet ruled out any standard issues and was ready for more extensive testing but I didn't want to go there until I tried a few more different types of food. The people at the vet store actaully recommended a allergy test they did in the store called a bioresonence test. We did it and found she was allergic to all grains. We put her on a grain free food and saw great improvement. A lot of dogs have problems with specific grains and nailing down exactly which one can be difficult. You may want to try a completely grain free diet and just see if it works. On a different note, my vet told me that just generally soft stools for puppies is fairly common. Even soft with a bit of mush at the end.


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## Jon Zaremba (Jul 16, 2008)

Thanks for the additional responses...

I put some canned pumpkin in his food and it made a huge difference! What a great idea...thanks, Carol. I don't want to make this a regular thing though, so i took him to the vet yesterday.

The vet didn't want a stool sample. He pretty much made it sound like he's too young to do much. He said that to keep him on the same food for now and gave him some antibiotics in case he has a parasite of some sort. I'll try these meds for 2 weeks and see if things improve. If not, then there's a different antibiotic that he'll try. If that doesn't help after 2 more weeks, then the vet said he'd start some diet recommendations. 

The vet didn't want a stool sample for some reason...

So we'll see how it goes. Dougal's perfectly healthy otherwise. But i know that this issue is uncomfortable for him. Some days he'll go poop 6 or 7 times.


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## martinrt (Jun 24, 2008)

My vet tried the same things. After so many stool samples, they're just not interested in it anymore. Mine said they'd just treat as if Allee had something and we also tried a few different antibiotics. While there is improvement while taking the meds, if it is a bigger issues then the stools will go back to soft right when the meds are done. I didn't really like that logic from my vet, treating something that may not even be there and then treating again if the first time doesn't work??? My vet didn't want to switch to new foods either, she said I'd tried 3 and that was enough, but I'm on the 4th now, grain free Nature's Variety Chicken, no meds, and Allee is doing much much better. If you don't feel comfortable continuing with the meds then I would definitely look into either simpler diets (California Natural has very few and high quality ingerdients, good for dogs with senstive stomachs) or grain free. I know it's different for every dog, but this worked for me...so far.


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## AmyinAr (Feb 26, 2008)

so glad the pumpkin helped him! here's a website in case you need to switch foods again, it has lots of good info
dogfoodanalysis.com
good luck!


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## Gus's Mom (Jan 16, 2008)

Hi Jon,
We had problems like that with Gus our now 9 month old 75 lb beautiful full of himself Golden. We switched him from Nature's Recipe to Pedigree adult kibble per our vets recommendation, they also tested his stool 1 last time for use when he was 3 months old and he had a parasite that they treated twice. Since then he has gained weight and slept through the night. Prior to that, he was pooping almost every 2-3 hours so big change. Now just twice a day, he feels better and so do we. 
We still give him probiotics daily (he loves plain yogurt with his food). 
Good luck,
Alisa


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## Tanyac (Jun 18, 2008)

Brady's mom said:


> Have you ruled out parasites like coccidia and giardia? Taking a stool sample to the vet is a good idea.
> 
> There are two things that give our similarly aged puppy soft food:
> 
> ...


I would probably agree with this reply, overfeeding. Maybe the food's too rich. Also, if he's got a sensitive tum, don't be tempted to change the food too often as this can make it worse. My boy has similar problems but it's mainly due to him eating/scavenging on stuff when he's out and about. Chewing sticks (might be toxic) eating poo (various different animals). If he's a bit of a hoover, that might be your problem right there. My vet even suggested muzzling Obi to stop him vacuuming anything and everything after he almost died from intestinal infection.


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## Jon Zaremba (Jul 16, 2008)

Hi everyone...just wanted to touch base on this again.

It's been a week that Dougal's been on Metronidizole (500mg twice a day) from the vet. I've seen almost 100% improvement so far. He has one more week to go of these meds and i think that parasite will be a gonner!


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## Turbo22 (Jun 16, 2008)

I'm having the same problem with Turbo right now. The vet suggested feeding boiled chicken with rice. It hasn't worked so far. 

I found this great website that has a lot of detailed information on dog food.. thought I'd share it:

http://www.dogaware.com/dogfeeding.html#TopCanned


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