Pudding poops

So besides his diarrhea last week, Payton has pudding poops... it's gone from every few days (before the diarrhea even, this has gone on for a few months I think) to at least once a day now. It doesn't exactly seem like diarrhea in that he can't hold it, but half the time he gets over towards the door and just starts pooping before even telling me he needs to go out. Yesterday I had to clean up pudding poops twice from the entryway (which of course is carpeted because my parents believe every surface except the kitchen and bathroom should be covered in wall to wall carpet.)

We ran a fecal for coccidia and that came back negative. Negative for worms.

Now what? I cut his food back last week thinking that was it but that hasn't changed it. I asked Auggie's holistic vet if she recommended any particular probiotics. They have one at the vet clinic there or even Culturelle from the drug store will work. I think I'm going to pick up Culturelle and start giving him that. How much should I give?
He had some pumpkin this morning because Georgie is constipated so she was getting some, so I put a big spoonful on his breakfast while I was at it.

Anybody else have ideas? =/ He's on TOTW wetlands. Maybe he's allergic to chicken?? I want to put him back on the bison but they didn't have that variety last time I went to the store so I just got more of the wetlands... should I switch foods or try the probiotics or try for both at the same time?

Ugh, puppy pudding poops.

I'm not sure how much probiotic to give, but I'd try that first. I don't think you'll OD him on it; when Keeva was only 8 lbs she 1/2-1 probiotic tablet and that went down fine.

I'd only do one thing at a time (add probios or switch food) just so you can cut it down to one variable and see what really helps.

I'd try the probiotics for a week or two and see if that works. If it doesn't get better, I'd consider having a fecal PCR sent off. We've seen a LOT of dogs and even a couple cats with clostridial infections lately, and Logan had it shortly after I got him.

The one thing that clears up my dogs pretty much immediately after a bout of diarrhea is canned chicken (I use Evangers) mixed with canned pumpkin. One or two meals and they're back to normal.

You could also try slippery elm. But I would try one thing at a time.

Well, when I came home from work and let him out, it was mostly watery. =/ So I called doc and was like "uhhh wtf, any ideas?" While on the phone with doc he had watery diarrhea on the kitchen floor - thank God it was on the kitchen floor and I could clean it up and then bleach the floor.
No food for Payton tonight, I probably won't feed him tomorrow morning either. We're getting an rx of metronidazole to see if that helps, and doc wants to keep him on boiled chicken and rice until his poop firms up again. I asked about a chicken allergy and he said possibly but is inclined to think something else is going on. Most likely bacterial overgrowth that has now gotten out of control.

My poor guy. =< I was literally standing in the kitchen talking to doc and went "oh, oh, uhhh... yeah it's definitely watery" because we were debating "watery" versus "pudding poops." Guh.

Poor Payton Knox had the "almost water but not quite, but definitely not pudding either" poops the other day. Fasted him for 24 and ~touch wood~ but it seems to be better.

I'm also changing his food though, he's not had really firm poops since putting him on this food called Healthwise. It's not the greatest, but it's not terrible either, so I'm pretty sure the "dire-rear" came from the abrupt switch to TOTW.

He threw up a bit while stuck in the kitchen with me. I'm sure he just doesn't feel good. When he squats to poop I can actually hear his belly gurgling. =< He had one small squirt in the yard after I got home from shopping (needed more bleach cleaner ) but hasn't pooped since. Might be empty now, but looks like I gotta drag Auggie's crate in my room for another night.

I can't decide if I should try switching the food or not. Doc said maybe the TOTW is too rich for him. But what else would I put him on that wouldn't be so rich?? Everything I can think of is probably worse. =P he is on a high protein formula now so maybe just lower protein..?


The worst part is, since I thought he was maybe overeating and that was making him sick, and I cut back his food... he's skinny again. I finally got him up to a decent weight and now he's all skinny mini. I don't want him off food too long so I hope he is good to chow the boiled chicken tomorrow. =/

Honestly I'd be more inclined to think bacterial overgrowth than the food is too rich. TOTW is one of the less-rich of the good foods, so although I guess it's possible, I don't think it's likely.

My friend's dog has problems with any food containing chicken. The only food she can give him is TOTW Pacific Stream (salmon). If he eats this, the problem goes away.

Well, things were great after the abx... until tonight. Yesterday he was having really stinky poop smelling farts again (the kind of farts that make me look around thinking somebody pooped in the house) and he just had puddingish poop by the door again. He doesn't potty in the house unless it's pudding poops like these. =/ I went downstairs to get the spot cleaner and came up the stairs and he was squatting and a few dribbles of liquid came out. I sent him outside... where he proceeded to have completely normal poops.

W.T.F.

I was already planning on taking him in Tuesday to meet Auggie's chiro DVM so I guess it's good. =/ Looks like we need to investigate further. The only other thing I can think is maybe he just can't have treats like most dogs can?? He has been getting several small handfuls of treats while we work on shaping his cop-cop trick...

What kind of treats? Knox can NOT have commercial dried chicken or and kind of jerky that isn't meant for humans to eat. Gives him pudding poops to the max. He can have Zukes and Bil Jac without an issue though.

It's a mix... Crazy Dog treats in all four flavours, Zukes (I think I had peanut butter and chicken this time), and Premier Every Flavour Treats. I cut 'em all in half and chuck them in a big jar and shake it up to mix them all up together. I don't think it's the Crazy Dog treats, when he was a puppy he had those almost exclusively for a little while. Though maybe not quite so many in one sitting. I'm wondering if it's more just the volume of treats than the treats themselves, like he's okay with getting a few throughout the day but training heavily with them is too much?

I would try using just one at a time for a bit to see if he's maybe developed an intolerance to something in one of them. If so, that's an easy fix.

Will he work for kibble with the occasional nomnomnom type thrown in, or does he need something higher value?

I second sending off a fecal culture to the lab.

I had a puppy come here from Korea this summer, and he had HORRIBLE pudding poop but clean fecals. We pup him (work at vet) on Flagyl and after 2 weeks no improvement. Sent out culture and he had a significant bacterial overgrowth, probably from Korea's "rainy season".

It took another week of Flagy to see an improvement, and it was scary.

Good luck, hope you can find an answer!

Hmmm... the run of Flagyl we did was only seven days. Maybe he just needed to be on it longer? It did appear to clear everything up, this is the first pudding poo we've had since the first of the month, but I guess it's possible it didn't knock it out and we're back to square one again?
It's definitely not horrible yet, but I am worried that if I don't look into it now, we will get right back to the point where he is pooping all over the carpet at least once a day and it eventually turns into watery poops. Hopefully we can figure out what's up before it gets that bad again.

He will work for kibble, but I will need higher value stuff eventually when I start needing to transfer some higher value to stuff. Kibble is good for tricks at home, but that's only going to be a small portion of stuff we do together of course... I may just have to nuke the crap out of chicken and cut it into chunks, or try cheese sticks. Hot dog will probably be too much if there's a question about richness. I could also just try those Natural Balance rolls, they are probably less rich than normal treats...

I would like my dogs to just have simple problems for once. ;P

I feel for you!

Discuss with your vet doing the Flagyl for longer, it can help. My boy was on Flagyl, and Amoxi at the same time. We stopped the Amoxi after a week and continued the Flagy. Scary time, that puppy stopped eating.