# ways to firm puppy's stool



## mee (May 28, 2010)

Hi i am looking for advice/info on how to firm my pups stools. She has had problems the whole time I have had her and I'm pretty sure its diet related and have tried different foods with not much success. The vet put her on chappie short term and that seemed to work almost instantly but now I'm trying to get her off it they are getting softer the less I give her. She is a 17 week old lab x basset.


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## 912142 (Mar 28, 2011)

mee said:


> Hi i am looking for advice/info on how to firm my pups stools. She has had problems the whole time I have had her and I'm pretty sure its diet related and have tried different foods with not much success. The vet put her on chappie short term and that seemed to work almost instantly but now I'm trying to get her off it they are getting softer the less I give her. She is a 17 week old lab x basset.


Sorry to say this but you have probably made the situation worse by offering different foods, but if it were my pup I would hammer down some chicken wings hold one in your hand until the pup gets the hang of crushing them and that should sort out the poo situation. It could be that your pup is not going to do well on kibble and may benefit from a raw diet.


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## Mumbles (Apr 17, 2011)

I had this with my Cocker Toodles and no food we gave him seemed to help, so i ended up researching the raw diet and haven't looked back since and his stools seem to be fine now.

I am assuming the vet has done the necessary medical checks re worms etc to look into why puppies stools may be loose as well?


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## mee (May 28, 2010)

yeah the vet checked her and she has had antibiotics as they thought that might help but no. 
Anytime I changed the food I did it gradually but they all gave basically the same result. I'm just curious as to why the chappie helps her I thought it was trash food an I've been trying to give decent foods like eden an mllies wolfheart. 
I have considered raw but would really prefer not to if I can avoid it.


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## pearltheplank (Oct 2, 2010)

To be honest, there are many foods way worse than Chappie! The best food for your dog is the one they do well on and if that happens to be Chappie, then so be it


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## Bobbie (May 3, 2008)

Yes I would keep her on Chappie for a while longer then try a dry if thats the way you want to go. Maybe try a fish/potato dry kibble.


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## Tamsin W (Sep 18, 2012)

A suggestion I kept hearing for helping to keep things 'regular' was canned pumpkin (not pie filling) - impossible to get in supermarkets in the UK, at least it was for me, so I ended up buying a can from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Libbys-100%...LJVC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1360852127&sr=8-1

It only keeps for a couple of days once opened, so I put it into ice trays - one can does about 30 ice cubes, and he has one 'pumpkin cube' a day. I've continued with this long after his poop returned to normal, as he seems to really enjoy it regardless, and it definitely did help.


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## Mum2Heidi (Feb 17, 2010)

If Chappie works then why change? It contains a lot of cereal but for some dogs Chappie is the only thing that works. That in itself speaks volumes to me. We all want to do the best for our dogs and sometimes it goes against what we would like.

Mine had a sensitive tum for quite some time and I had to rule out dried food. Chappie sorted her but unfortunately, the cereal made her itch. I moved to Wainwrights wet trays from Pets at Home. It had the same good effect on her tum as Chappie without the itch. May be one worth a try if the cereal is a problem.

What ever works, I would stick to for a long time before you try something new. I can feed mine an array of good quality wets without weaning her over but it took years to get here, gradually introducing each new food. I have Wainwrights trays and Bionic Biotics tummy supplement to thank for it.


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## 912142 (Mar 28, 2011)

mee said:


> yeah the vet checked her and she has had antibiotics as they thought that might help but no.
> Anytime I changed the food I did it gradually but they all gave basically the same result. I'm just curious as to why the chappie helps her I thought it was trash food an I've been trying to give decent foods like eden an mllies wolfheart.
> I have considered raw but would really prefer not to if I can avoid it.


I believe it is something to do with the Linseed and lack of sugars in Chappie. You could offer your pup some probiotic yoghurt which would balance out the bacteria in the pups gut.


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## IncaThePup (May 30, 2011)

I give my puppy probiotic yoghurt over kibble for breakfast with some dried fruit on top (apple & banana when I've done some in dehydrator) and he loves it.

JJ is on Eden at the minute and seems to be thriving on it, he's really shooting up now heightwise and his weight has gone up as he'd only gained half a kilo at one point due to soft poo's and high volumes of poo and then a couple of days of severe liquid squits..He was on Wafcol Salmon & potato grain free at the time!

He went on home cooked just basic egg & chicken and plain rice till the Eden came ..and sweet potato to try and firm up his stools. I got some wet trays to try too and he loves them as kong fillings. 

I had taken him off the wafcol cos it was going straight through so didn't go through the mixing new food with old, but just started with covering a bit of Eden in yoghurt for breakfast and mixing a bit more in scrambled egg for dinner with chicken or potato and gradually increasing the Eden and reducing the home cooked. 

For now he's on mostly Naturediet and Eden mixed... with home cooked as treat a couple of times a week depending what I'm cooking. I'm planning to reduce the wet food before it runs out and so he doesn't gain too much weight. It will just be a treat 1-2 times a week eventually for variety once his weight is stable and in normal weight range for his size.


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## rona (Aug 18, 2011)

Your pups tummy lining needs to repair and settle. If the Chappie works then stay on that for a few months before introducing anything else.

I assume she doesn't get any treats or tidbits?


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## mee (May 28, 2010)

Thanks for all the replies.
She seems to have no itching from the cereals in the chappie but my worry is does it really have enough good in it for her to grow healthy. Plus she has been having 4 cans a day an still looking and acting hungry,surely she cant need more than whats meant to be for a 40kg dog?
Even though she has had the runs she still seems to put weight on an looks fine.She in now around 13-13.5kg which I would think is ok for her age?
She does get treats sometimes but not often and I have stopped all chews etc an only use 1 type of treat when she does get any.


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## Izzysmummy (Oct 12, 2011)

Izzy had problems with recurring colitis and would regularly go through phases of having loose poos. It would last up to a week and we were getting through lots of pro-kolin.

We decided to try adding this in with every meal 
Protexin Bio Premium Companion Animals Dogs - From £11.44

It worked really well for her and from then on if she did have a loose poo it was just the one incident and she would be back to normal within a day.

We have now changed her over to raw but are still giving this until we are fully up and running with all meats introduced. We hope to eventually wean her off but it has really helped her tummy.


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