# Poop somtimes solid sometimes soft



## kfreker (Nov 26, 2013)

Somtimes his poop is sooft and sometimes its solid....he is on Acana right now switched from orijin because i thought it was to rich leading to the soft poop, but he still gets it often....hes acting normal, playing, sleeping find, and eating normal. no new treats or anything different.. should i be worried ?


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## dogsule (Nov 6, 2013)

Have you taken a fecal to the vet at all? My pup was like this when we first got her and she tested positive for Coccidia. Normally this causes diarrhea but for her it just caused sometimes soft stools and other times they were normal. Worth a try, a fecal is very inexpensive.


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## Britmark1 (Dec 19, 2013)

I'm in the same boat! Puppy was on Orijin then Acana and now on Pure Vita. I took stool sample to the vet and everything was normal. It's so frustrating though. I even cut back on the portions I am feeding thinking maybe I was over feeding him. He will even start out with a hard poo and then have a soft at the end.


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## Kyle071785 (Nov 28, 2013)

when you're switching food are you doing it right (gradually over the course of a week or so)? If not the dog will react likely with diarrhea. As dogsrule mentioned as well, take a fecal test to the vet and get it checked out for various worms (if you haven't done so yet)

when we had Jax's fecal testing done, he was positive for worms initially (at 8 weeks). 2 cycles of med's given when he ate, 2 positive tests later (to be sure none were missed) and his stools are perfect consistency. 

If your guy keeps having diarrhea then you may want to notify your vet so they can check him out


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## redranger (Sep 30, 2013)

How do you switch food? It should be done gradually to avoid stomach upsets and loose poops.


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## kfreker (Nov 26, 2013)

yeah we did switch him gradually over to his food over a course of a week. and i just got back from getting his fecal sample and he was negative. They said it could be giving him to many treats when training.. he is right now getting zukes minis peanut butter flavour. They are less than 3 cals in each one..i am going to start cutting back on the treats to see if that makes a difference. I also looked up that sometimes the high quality food like Acana can have that affect on dogs (soft stool) no? Kyle071785 you have a labradoodle...what food is he on? any other sugggestions?


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## gingerkid (Jul 11, 2012)

kfreker said:


> yeah we did switch him gradually over to his food over a course of a week. and i just got back from getting his fecal sample and he was negative. They said it could be giving him to many treats when training.. he is right now getting zukes minis peanut butter flavour. They are less than 3 cals in each one..i am going to start cutting back on the treats to see if that makes a difference. I also looked up that sometimes the high quality food like Acana can have that affect on dogs (soft stool) no? Kyle071785 you have a labradoodle...what food is he on? any other sugggestions?


Use his regular kibble in place of training treats, except for situations that are very high distraction (like a class if you're taking one).


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## Kyle071785 (Nov 28, 2013)

kfreker said:


> Kyle071785 you have a labradoodle...what food is he on? any other sugggestions?



originally we had Jax on Wellness Puppy (non-grain free) when we first got him. He was on this from weeks 8 to 13. During that time he had really bad gas and was retching quite frequently (usually no vomit, just the noise). We thought he may have had an intolerance to one of the ingredients. His stools were 100% normal though as soon as he was cleared of worms.

At 14 weeks, I decided to switch him to Orijen Puppy. He loves it and seems to be thriving on it. No more gas, no more retching...just 100% growth and perfect stools.

for training treats, he gets combination of freeze dried beef liver (main treat) and those Wellness Puppy soft training treats (we cut those in 1/2 so he doesn't take in as many calories). We mostly only use the Wellness ones on walks as they're easier to carry and make less of a mess

for chews, bully sticks, Whimzee's sweet potato chews (for cleaning his teeth every 2 weeks) and the Himalayan dog chews are his favourites. The Himalayan chew, we leave out all day and it lasts forever (current one has been going for 2.5 months). His bully stick, he'll usually get for 20 minutes each day (to make it last a week or so since they're pricey). The Whimzee chews, he'll get one every other week just to freshen up his breath.

for his "bedtime" cookie, he usually gets one of the Blue Buffalo Puppy yogurt/banana cookies...he sprints to his crate the second we pick up the bag. They're like crack for him


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## kfreker (Nov 26, 2013)

We had him on orijin puppy eariler and he had bad gass and lose stool, so i thought switching to Acana puppy would change that but still bad gas and loose tool sometimes...so now im at a crossroads, if i should switch his food again.


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## Kyle071785 (Nov 28, 2013)

kfreker said:


> We had him on orijin puppy eariler and he had bad gass and lose stool, so i thought switching to Acana puppy would change that but still bad gas and loose tool sometimes...so now im at a crossroads, if i should switch his food again.


orijen and acana are the same company. Likely, if he had an intolerance with an ingredient in the Orijen, it'll likely have the same ingredient in the Acana (since it doesn't look like a grain problem)

There are so many amazing dog foods out there that you can look into. 

Check this site out: http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-reviews/dry/ and see what your local store stocks. Stick with the 4-5 star foods and you'll find one eventually that will fit your pup's needs.

Jax did enjoy the Wellness when he was on it (despite the intolerance that annoyed his stomach), but your pup may do great on it. Let me know what you settle on

when my aunt's Labradoodle was a pup, she had her on Taste of the Wild Puppy to great results as well (has since changed to Orijen when she became an adult though)


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## lreed89 (Jan 30, 2014)

Daisy has had soft poops on and off since she we got her at 8 weeks old. She had worms one of those times, but we've taken a sample in to the vet many many times after that and they found nothing. The vet says that it may be because she's so easily excited; it messes with her digestion. We just deal with it at this point - as long as it's not obvious diarrhea and she has no other symptoms, we don't worry too much about it.


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## kfreker (Nov 26, 2013)

he does get over excited ALOT. this could be the problem. He had solid poops today, but his farts are lethal. Literally have to leave the room. Now would changing his food fix this problem, and is it necessary to do so?

If i do change his food it would be out of these 3. 

Simply Nourish Source 
Wellness
or Innova large breed puppy. 

Any comments?


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## gingerkid (Jul 11, 2012)

Lethal farts are probably linked to his food. Some people have success reducing their dog's gas by supplementing with plain greek yogurt. Not too much though, or the problem might get worse.


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## Kathyy (Jun 15, 2008)

You might try reducing his feed for a day or so. Overfeeding can make for soft poop and gas rather than fat dogs. Max only has gas if he has eaten too much and he doesn't lose weight if I cut back his ration if poop is soft. I considered soft poop/gas and such my failure to regulate the feed properly rather than the food disagreeing with the dog and with a very small sample of 4 dogs that worked. None of my kibble fed dogs ever ate anything like the amount listed on the bag to maintain a lean healthy weight.


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