Suggestions to stop sloppy poos!

[Shpongle]

Looking for some advice. We have a 7 month old Border Collie puppy. We started feeding her 80/20 Green Dog Food but had to change because her poos were so sloppy they were impossible to pick up which makes it very difficult to go anywhere. We changed to 80/20 Akela Salmon puppy food but have exactly the same problem. The weird thing is, her first poo in the morning is fine, but the later poos get more sloppy and on occasions she will  do 11 tiny cow pat type poos. Are these 80/20 foods too rich? We are now feeding her a gastro friendly food recommended by our vet and she seems so much better but we want to get her back onto a more ‘normal’ dry food. Has anyone here experienced anything similar?

Many thanks

[Lewie0205]

Hi. I’ve experienced this problem over time with my dog. My problem seems to be linked to over feeding. I had many problems when he was a pup but I know now that whilst I was feeding him an ok amount of food, the treats to reward good behaviour took his food intake way over his daily requirements and thus he had a good poop first thing but then they got progressively worse. I’ve since discovered he has numerous allergies too and these don’t help as when he gets a flare up, he gets a runny bum. He’s now on Akela  (nearly 5 years old) and doing well on it. But I don’t feed him much at all. He weighs 17kg, is very active but only has 160g per day which I reduce further if he’s had lots of treats. Have you contacted Akela to discuss your problem? I have always found them very helpful.

[Shpongle]

Hi. Many thanks for the reply. I may well give Akela a call. I certainly come into the category of using high reward treats during training. The vet didn’t seem to think she was overweight though? It’s an interesting point you make though because yes, we are feeding her her full quota of Akela food as recommended for her weigh 240g per day but I am giving her quite a few treats during training as I’m very much from the school of positive reinforcement. She had a problem when very young with a parasite in her bowel called Cryptosporidium but we got the all clear on that. I did thin that for a 5 month old pup, she was doing a hell of a lot of poo. As I say, things have improved since we started giving her the gastro friendly food and we are feeding her the full amount and still giving treats. Maybe cutting down on the food will help? Seems weird the first poo is fine?

[Dottie]

Possibly Lewie0205  has hit the nail on the head so to speak. Many people have to feed far less than the recommended daily allowance when feeding these high quality foods. Good idea to talk to Akela staff. Perhaps also consider a good quality pre/probiotic. YuDigest has good reviews.

[Shpongle]

Many thanks. Yes, we have bought some YuDigest although the vet didn’t seem to think they do much good. Things have improved over the last few days by using the vet recommended  Virbac HPM Digestive Support food along with the YuDigest. Not sure what to put the improvement down to? I do use quite a lot of high reward treats when training such as Chicken along with Liver cake. Wondering if the combination of 80/20 foods along with these treats could be the cause of the problem?

[Dottie]

I think you are probably right. That is a lot of protein to handle. I am optimistic that if you can get the quantities right it should help.

[Anita...]

Go easy on the liver cake. One of mine are the same when I  give her a little too much. Akela is a fantastic kibble, but don't overfeed. Acana grasslands ( the chicken one) has more fibre which could help. I had my 3 toy dogs on this for years with homecooked food mixed in and they never had a problem. There's plenty in the press about Champion petfoods atm but personally I don't think there's much around to beat their quality.

[Lewie0205]

I too believe in high praise/treat but have you considered using part of the daily allowance of food as treats? Chicken and the like then become a powerful treat and not a treat to be expected at all times.

[COASTER]

I have prior fed Akela fish to adult lab without loose stool issues. I was, however, mindful not to overfeed.

Dogs can produce loose stools If over fed and from my experience, feeding dry extruded is a bit of a balancing act when wanting to mantain or add weight to a dog needing it.

I fed Akela because on paper it looked good. In hindsight I reflected that the composition list appeared to tick a lot of boxes that would qualify it here for a top rating.

When I called them to discuss I only managed to speak to sales staff & not anyone who convinced me they were over knowledgeable.

I would still recommend this brand if someone was adamant on feeding a dry extruded kibble but not to the extent of disregarding other products of acceptable "on paper" composition.

I can't comment on what you have switched to for now as I am unfamiliar with it.

One final thing......Collies can be a bit hit and miss with food and other products fed or used on them. You may end up with some trial and error before settling on long term food.....The proprietor of CSJ  dog food was very much a collie owner and has prior spoken of understanding collie diet needsa......maybe worth a call if so motivated.