Poo Problems

Well, I guess that the title says it all. My Cosmo has more soft poos than normal ones, and it's been going on pretty much since we got him. At first, we took him to the vet and they discovered coccidia. We gave him meds and it cured that.

After that was cured, he still had runny poo. Took him back to the vet, they ran all kinds of tests on him and all came up negative. They gave us persciption Science Diet food. That worked for a little while, but when we eased back into the regular dry food (Precise Puppy) he got the runs or soft poo again.

Called the vet again. They gave us more of the Science Diet, but even with that he still never got normal. Now that we are easing back to the dry food again, the problem is getting worse again.

I don't give him any table food. The only bad habit that he seems to have is that he's always trying to eat leaves out in the yard.

Any suggestions or similar experiences?

Thanks!!

Mine are eating leaves too-- this is giving them diarrhea too. Our littlest girl vomited leaves on Tuesday morning-- she had eaten them Monday night. Ewww.

I'm sure that the leaves aren't helping, but he had the runs before the leaves started falling. I can't imagine that they taste very good.

What a great discussion, I hope no one is watching me.

Luke needed to get firmer poos (just last month) and what is working for me is a tablespoon of plain pumpkin puree (from the can) in his dry dog food each day and one Sam's Yam (great alternative to rawhide too) treat http://www.frontporchpets.com/ They are both great sources of fiber and low calorie options. Both of these together are working for me.

Adding more fiber to Cosmo's diet is one way to firm up the poo.

I have also read on other threads that 5 or 6 mini plain shredded wheat cereal also works.

With the pumpkin, you just have to slowly figure out what works for Cosmo. Too much pumpkin will make his poo loose, so you have to find the right proportion for him. Luke weighs 20 pounds and I give him 1 tablespoon of pumpkin per day. I read on a website that for an adult cat you should give 1/8 teaspoon per day.

CosmoKC said:

I'm sure that the leaves aren't helping, but he had the runs before the leaves started falling. I can't imagine that they taste very good.

Click to expand...

True: but there are MANY things that can cause loose stool.
losing teeth, stress, sensitivity to a food (which can get worse over time), eating foreign objects(leaves, hair, coins etc...), microbiotics- bacteria, viruses, molds etc... having diarrhea can cause the bowel to be irritated and spasm- causing more diarrhea.
My vet is very particular in what antibiotic he will give a pup.

What was in the science diet prescription food __ you may have to play detective and figure this out piece by piece. Did you buy a new bag of the puppy food or did you start him back on the old one-- sometimes there are bad bags of food.
We had a pup that had Coccidia, was treated for it (at the breeders)and the symptoms kept coming back even tho the test said it was negative. We kept him on the antibiotic for a longer period of time and his immune system seemed to get a handle on it.
Probiotics (given at a different time than antibiotics) seems to help a lot if the stool looks slimy.
Sorry this is so long-- FWIW

Can I ask where you're located please CosmoKC?

I'm located in a suberb of Philly.

The reason I am asking is because I used to have the same problems with Kosmo. No matter what I tried he would get runny poo and I couldn't figure out what was causing it. During this phase I tried many many different foods and he seemed to hate all of them. When I put him on a certian food he got a really bad rash on his body (even his eyes turned red) and it was suggested to me that he may be allergic or have trouble digesting grains. I researched foods and listened to the general advice on this board and came across one called Innova:Evo. He's been on it for around 3 months now and his poo has never been firmer. It is the picture perfect poo almost 100% of the time. I know a few other people around this forum who also feed Evo and their poos are wonderful as well. I don't know if it's the food specifically that could be causing your Cosmo's problem, but it really has seemed to work for us. good luck in your search and let us know what you find out!

I've had poo problems with Jake pretty much since day one. It's been over a year since we've had a problem. What finally solved it for us was CA Natural chicken and rice, a spoonful of pumpkin and probiotics. I hear so many times about puppies with soft poop. Not sure if it's the breed or what but it's totally not uncommon. The trick is finding out what is causing it. I think Jake just had a sensitive stomach (the smallest bit of anything out of the ordinary would set him off for days, when that happened he would get chicken and rice. Now if there's a problem I give him science diet cannned i/d and nothing else for two days) and finally outgrew it. Good luck, this is a pain and an inconvenience, but hopefully you can figure out what is causing it.

I'm going to try following some of the advice that some of you wonderful folks gave me. I went and got a bag of the Innova Puppy food and a bag of the Sam's Yams. I will phase him into the food over the next few days and cross my fingers. I was going to get the Innova Evo, but they didn't have a puppy food version.

Thanks!!

Good luck..... Ozzy had the runs the other day, have no idea what he had eaten, luckily we have a bag of Royal Cannin Sensitive which seems to work for all three of them.