# Puppy problem with dry food & loose stool



## Conalex (Jan 4, 2012)

My SBT is now 13 weeks old and ever since we collected him he's had poblems with his poo. In the beggining we had him on Barking Heads Puppy but he was pooping 4 - 5 times a day and it was very loose. Our Vet told us to feed him just rice and chicken which we did for a week and then lowly introduce a different dry food. After a few days of rice & chicken he was still the same and then we noticed there was blood in his stool. 

After he was sick a few times I came to the conclusion I was over feeding him so started feeding him less, bad owner!! . Low and behold within a few days his poo was brown and solid for the first time. 

A couple days ago I started to introduce Orijen Puppy into his food. 10% the first day, 20% the second day and so on. Now his poo is loose again and he's been two times already today! Plus he has really bad wind. 

Will it settle down? Is the Orijen no good as well? I only went for that as it's meant to be the best there is...


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## Nix56 (Sep 16, 2011)

I had the same sort of problems with my Vizsla. He is now 9 months old and we have finally cracked it! I tried various dried foods but always found that after a few days/ weeks he had very loose poos, wind etc. and there seemed to be more coming out than was going in!! The solution for him has been feeding Natural Dog Food Co. dried food in the morning and Natural Instinct raw food for his his dinner. Obviously your pup will still be on 3 meals a day so you would have to factor that in. Took me ages to take the step to change to part raw but am so glad that I have....may even go on to fully raw some time in the future!!


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## Mum2Heidi (Feb 17, 2010)

You could try soaking the Orijen in warm water or feeding with a bit of good quality wet food like Naturediet, Natures Harvest etc. Perhaps water down a chunk of wet and mix the kibble in.

There's a possibilty if he's finding the dried food too hard to digest, adding water or wet could help. Another thought is cut back the amount of orijen slightly. If you go back over some older threads, you will find that's sorted the runny pooh issue sometime.

I tried all sorts of kibble with mine, cereal free to Acana and lots in between. All ok for a short while and then we ran into probs. Put her onto an all wet diet and she's much better


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## Snoringbear (Sep 26, 2008)

I feed Orijen. When I swapped over there was a couple of days where they were loose. Orijen is a very rich food so it is important not to overfeed it, you probably only need to give about a third of the amount of the previous one. I would be concerned if there is blood, as that could indicate something far more serious. You might also want to consider a digestive supplement like bionic biotic.


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## Sled dog hotel (Aug 11, 2010)

Conalex said:


> My SBT is now 13 weeks old and ever since we collected him he's had poblems with his poo. In the beggining we had him on Barking Heads Puppy but he was pooping 4 - 5 times a day and it was very loose. Our Vet told us to feed him just rice and chicken which we did for a week and then lowly introduce a different dry food. After a few days of rice & chicken he was still the same and then we noticed there was blood in his stool.
> 
> After he was sick a few times I came to the conclusion I was over feeding him so started feeding him less, bad owner!! . Low and behold within a few days his poo was brown and solid for the first time.
> 
> ...


All the foods you have feed him are the better end of the market, his original food Barking heads I believe is one of the more natural ones with nothing artificial in it. 4/5 times a day for a pup to toilet, whos fed 4 or at least 3 meals isnt a lot its probably pretty normal to be honest as regards times to go. Pups when they first arrive can be loose owing to stress of leaving mum and litter mates and finding themselves alone in a strange place so again for the first week or two loose poos, providing pup is bright lively and otherwise well isnt usually a big concern. A lot of people do panic start chopping and changing food thinking its that and it just exacerbates the problem, changes in food can upset their tums and make them loose so on top of the re-location stress it can be a disaster. Diets can take 4/6 weeks before the dog settles to them.

Another consideration though could be worms. They will cause loose stools, diarrhoea and even vommiting if pup has a worm load. Do you know for sure he has had a proper worming programme. Breeder should have started him at 2 weeks of age, he should then have been wormed every 2/3 weeks until he is 12 weeks old, then monthly up to 6mths and then every 3/4mths like adults.

other causes of loose stools and diarrhoea in pups can also be a protozoa parasite like coccidia and giardia, normal wormers dont do these, although Panacur Paste will do giardia as well as round and some form of tape worm.
Yet another consideration that can cause digestive problems is bacterial infections, one called campylobacter can need long and precise antibiotics to clear up.

If your pup now has flecks of blood and Mucos in the diarrhoea or loose stools it sounds like Collitis, collitis is inflamation of the bowel and sometimes needs veterinary medicine in conjunction with a resting diet like chicken boiled or grilled no skin and white rice, white boiled fish and rice, or even scrambled egg and rice.

protexin in proKolin is good to keep in for stomach upsets where the dog is otherwise well and bright and themselves. its natural calms the gut, solidifys the stools and puts back good gut bacteria. Online Vet | Get Cheap Pet Medicine and Treatments Online From Vet-Medic - Vet-Medic is one place to get it. This and the resting diet usually clears up tum problems. However if there isnt at least an improvement after 24/36hrs, the diarrhoea is worse, or other symptoms appear especially vommiting and lethargy and the dog is depressed then always consult a vet.


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