I'm trying to decide how to approach Lola's poop issue, with out being too paranoid 
Over the last three weeks that we've had Lola, her poop has gone from occasionally soft to usually pudding like to (in the last few days) usually runny. Unfortunaly, we don't have the vet records from her previous owners and probably won't have them soon. :mad: So, we're operating a little blind here. I would appreciate any thoughts.:o
Here's a little info: She's eating Purina Pro for sensitive stomachs and gets occasional meat snacks or cream cheese, veggies and meat in a busy buddy. When we first got her, there was a little bit of a some prescription food left over, which we mixed with her Purina until it was gone, under the advice of the breeder. Again, no vet records means we don't know what that perscription was. She saw the vet once when we first got her, but it was a really minimal visit. Only thing a little strange was when the vet drained her anal glands and said the drainage was a little chunky.
Here are the options as I see them:
1. Feed her kibble only for a couple days and see how she does. Then slowly work in other foods and see how she reacts.
2. Take her to the vet and get a full blood work up and allergy test (paranoid option)
3. Switch her diet to homeade…rice and ground beef, or something.
Amy I missing anything? Anyone have thoughts or suggestions?
You should take the dog to the vet for a check up. Don't give her cream cheese and other unusual food. Get her on a better food, Purina's cheap. Try Innova EVO.
Thanks, nobarkus. That sounds like a good idea to me.
I'm our of Purina. Do you think it's okay to switch right…not gradually? It seems funny to buy more Purina, just to ween her off it.
It's best to gradually mix the new stuff in. Can you go buy a small bag of Purina. Basenjis love to eat any crap they find on the ground too. Old pieces of food or even cat feces. So be aware if she's doing that. But first things first for a physical at the vet as soon as possible to rule anything out.
Thanks. We'll take her to the vet right away. Yeah, we'll just buy more purina.
If she was on prescription food, you need to find out why and what kind, you maybe should stick with that till you know the "whys"?… especially before changing the diet... and when changing food you have to do it really slow...
I agree that a Vet check up is called for...
It could also be that she picked up something like Giardia. It can sometimes be hard to diagnose because the do not always shed it in the stool and sometimes it is hard to get a stool sample when it is so loose.
My puppy started having loose stools and we thought she might gotten a couple of licks of some muddy puddle. Took her into the vet and got her treated, it cleared it right up.
As for food sensitivities, a grainless food is a good option and EVO is a good grainless food.
Also, thought I should add that the anal glands are more prone to having problems like you described when the dog is having consistently soft stools. Firm stools are needed to express the anal glands.
Usually anal gland problems lead to scooting. Is the dog doing that?
Yeah, I really wish we knew what the prescription food was. The breeder doesn't know and she said her computer crashed, so the vet records are not available. Grrr. Maybe she could contact the previous owner.
Everywhere I look Innova EVO has terrific ratings. I'll get that and some more Purina to ween her onto EVO.
The vet said we should just bring in a stool sample. Is that enough? I'm not sure what I should ask the vet to do. Lola's last vet visit was my first :o
She doesn't scoot with her butt. She rubs her shoulders on the ground a lot, but not her butt.
Testing the stool is a good start, but if they don't find anything, I would insist on a more detail exam…
If everything checks out okay at the Vet. Soft or runny stools and constipation can also be treated by giving the dog or puppy a little bit of canned pumpkin several times a day.
I used to use Purina puppy food with my pups. When they changed the ingredients, every one of my puppies got diaherra. What a mess to clean all day with 6 puppies !! I took them to the Vet, got meds that didn't help, then remembered about the pumpkin and tried it with a new brand of puppy food…. IT WORKED GREAT !!
I feed my Echo, Hill's Science Diet Ultra ZD. It is a prescription dog food and is the only kind of food he can eat. He suffers from irritable Bowel disease and is also on 2 types of medication daily. I hope Molly's poop problem isn't that serious. Blue had the poops once when he was about 3 months old and I fed him smaller meals of ground chicken breast and rice and he firmed up nicely.
FYI, I changed my basenjis to the Innova EVO and it is such a rich food that they had diahrea for a while during the transition.
My basenjis have all had giardia many times even with that preventative vaccine. Very common.
We've switched over totally to Innova EVO and Lola loves it! She devours it every morning and her poops are much more normal now. They're still soft on occasion, which may be from the treats we give her for training. I'm not sure what to do about that. They're good quality treats and we need to give her something for training. Kibble only goes so far.
What treats are you giving? When it comes to training treats there are many different options and some may agree with Lola better than others.
We use Zuke's Mini Naturals Chicken Treats and Wellness Pure Rewards Venision Jerky.
Ozzie and Lacie had the same type of issue when we first got them from rescue. Eventually we switched them over from Nutro Sensitive Stomach to Eagle pack and fixed the problem. They still get it rarely and feeding them rice with a little bit of kibble or chicken for a day or two will clear up the problem.
Rascal has some serious stomach issues. The last time we fell off the wagon and didn't monitor her food intake well she developed pancreatitis. One piece of information our vet gave us, that I've begun to follow religiously, is to check the fat content in all of your treats and food. For a sensitive stomach it should be around 4-6 percent. Anything more is hard on the digestive tract. After checking most of the treats in the food aisle, and believe me I have, you'll see that the range falls anywhere from 4 up to 16 percent fat or more.
