Puppy Loose and Normal Stool

Hi All:

We have a 5-6 mth old female Pekingese approx 10lbs - for the last month she has been having loose stool squirts through out the night - waking us up approx every 3 hrs and only poops a little squirt. She does not seem to be in pain but we do hear a little grunt every now and than as she tries to get the poop out.

She has pretty normal poop at maybe 7pm than at 10-11pm she'll have another poop which will be pretty much normal but have a tinge of liquid squirt at the end.

However after that she will wake us at approx 1am 3:30am and 5:30am each time having very very tiny liquid poop.

The next day the cycle repeats with a very firm and normal poop untill the night time hits.

She is currently teething and has lost two canines already. I've heard that some pups have this problem while teething.

My wife is starting to get a bit concerned but I see no blood and she is happy and playing all day. No loss of appetite either and is drinking as well.

One odd thing is that she tries to eat the liquid poop and we have to stop her. The firm poop she does not try to eat.

Currently feeding her about 1/2 - 1 cup of Iams Smart puppy. Wondering if we should try to change the brand to a better quality of food but breeder is recommending that we keep her on IAMS.

Any Advice would be appreciated.

TIA

I'd definately switch to a higher quality food, to start with. It may not help this problem, but it will definately help her health in the long run.

Do you leave anything in the crate for her to chew on at night? Sometimes chewies can cause diarrhea.

No chewies in the crate right now. Although she has a rawhide bone that she chows down on once a day. We are guessing her teething is about to hit full stride as she really like her rawhide bone.

I would suggest having her vet checked,,she may also need her anal glands expressed.
diane

Anyone else with a similiar story - the poops did firm up a little than we took her to her puppy kindergarden class and gave her some doggy treats - poops got a little soupy again.

We're trying to move her to a more quality food as well.

I would change your puppies food. Like previously mentioned it may not be the main cause of the diarrhea however it would help her health in the long run.

I assumed You're feeding Iams Smart small breed puppy, so...
There's just little *good* protein in this food, and the only good source isn't a meal, so there actually a lot less protein in this food. When ingredients are listed as a 'whole' ingredient, like just saying "Chicken" in the first ingredient, since the ingredients were weighed before the processing and all the moisture has been since lost, there is a lot less protein than you would get with Chicken Meal, because it's rendered and highly concentrated of meat. So, you always look for protein sources ending in meal (but never by-products) in atleast the first two ingredients in the food.

The next ingredient is Corn meal.. well atleast they didnt even split the corn up! Corn cannot be easily digested by dogs, heck it most *people* can't even digest corn. The reason corn is used is because its super cheap and can raise the protein percentage on the crude analysis. Basically.. there is no reason for corn to be the second ingredient in the list, and because if you account for the chicken losing moisture during, the chicken goes down the list about 4-5 spots, which means corn is the main ingredient in this food. And it provides no nutritional value.

The chicken by product-meal is just gross. It's stuff that would regularly be thrown out by the suppliers, but instead it goes into pet food. Viscera, chicken feet, beaks, snouts.. etc. It's not a valid source of protein.

ground Whole grain sorghum.. it's just a grain used as a filler and also used to manipulate the protein level on the crude analysis.

Iams/Eukanuba is made by Proctor & Gamble. P&G is well known for their questionable animal testing with their many products. One of the *worst* companies for it. Not to mention, although this particular food shows mixed tocopherols, Iams/Eukanuba has known for awhile that their fish supplier uses ethoxyquin to preserve their fish, and continues to buy from them, and do not have to show ethoxyquin on their ingredients list. Ethoxyquin has been linked to organ failure and cancer.

She eats a whole rawhide every day? That could be the problem. Rawhide is very hard for dogs to digest, and while it's fine for some dogs, for others it causes diarrhea and sometimes vomiting. I'd suggest not giving her rawhide for a week or two and see if that clears it up. You can give many different treats as alternatives to rawhide - kongs stuffed with biscuits, dehydrated chicken strips, carrots, knuckle bones, raw bones, etc.

Oh.. I wouldn't be giving rawhide at all, actually. If the dog swallows a large enough piece it can expand 5 times it's size inside the dogs stomach. Rawhide from Asia is also very commonly cat or dog hide.