aliwake Posted July 14, 2014 Share Posted July 14, 2014 Nixon always used to poo quite easily - everything would come out pretty quickly and he'd move on. A couple of times recently I've noticed that he will do the majority of his business quite easily, but then he'll stay in 'the position' straining for quite a while, and he may have a couple of runny drops come out eventually. The other scenario is he'll do a big pile, then 5 mins later a small runnier pile. Do I need to be concerned? I'm assuming it's food related at the moment, but are there any other issues I should be concerned about? He used to be fed RC lab junior, and about 6 weeks ago transitioned onto the RC maxi adult food (I decided not to go with the adult lab food because they recommended feeding about 6 cups a day for his size, where as the maxi adult only suggests 4 cups). I assume that means there's a heap of filler in the lab food. He gets a lamb neck every couple of days, and gets carrots most days as treats too. He also gets yoghurt daily because it helped him so much after lots of tummy upsets when he was a pup. I'm happy to try another food if people think it will help? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dotdashdot Posted July 14, 2014 Share Posted July 14, 2014 (edited) I can't comment on the poo side of things, but on the food side of things I will offer my opinion. Here are the first five ingredients side by side RC lab: dehydrated poultry protein, maize, rice, maize gluten, animal fats RC maxi adult: maize, dehydrated poultry protein, maize flour, animal fats, dehydrated pork protein Both have a fair amount of corn in them. I would try another food, see if it changes. I think Holistic Select Large and Giant breed would be a good one to try. Here's it's first five: Chicken Meal, Ground Brown Rice, Ground White Rice, Oatmeal, Chicken Fat Again it has a bit of filler, but at least it's rice rather than corn. My personal favourite dog food is Earthborn Holistic, but they won't have a large breed variety here until October. Edited July 14, 2014 by dotdashdot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aliwake Posted July 14, 2014 Author Share Posted July 14, 2014 Thanks for the food suggestions! I find the whole food topic very overwhelming to be honest. We originally tried RC after he refused to eat Eukanuba as a pup - I read quite a few comments on here about RC palatability, and thought I'd try it, and he was instantly a lot happier with the taste, and his condition was good, so we stuck with it. I do feel like there would definitely be better options out there though, so thanks for suggesting the holistic select. Will try some when we finish the current bag (unless the poo situation becomes more dire before then!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panto Posted July 14, 2014 Share Posted July 14, 2014 as long as he doesn't have reactions to dairy, try a spoonful or two of yoghurt for healthy digestion and movement! :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aliwake Posted July 14, 2014 Author Share Posted July 14, 2014 Thanks Panto, he gets yoghurt every day already. I might give him some extra probiotics for the next couple of days though, and see if that helps! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yonjuro Posted July 14, 2014 Share Posted July 14, 2014 The kibbles I like the most are Taste of the Wild and Sunday Pets, no corn in either of them. I think Holistic Select looks good too. A small amount of raw liver will also loosen up stools. In prey model raw, it counteracts the constipation some dogs can get from the bone content so it should give the results you want. You would only need around a sliver the size of a little finger. Get a liver and freeze portions in an ice tray or little freezer bags. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aliwake Posted July 14, 2014 Author Share Posted July 14, 2014 To be honest, I'm not entirely sure he's constipated - he gets most of the poo out fairly quickly, but for some reason he seems to feel like he needs to keep straining after that for a while. The last part of the poo tends to be small and runny, but the first part is nice and solid. I don't really know... all I know is it's different, and I'm not sure if I need to worry or not?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tara8430 Posted July 14, 2014 Share Posted July 14, 2014 Hey Aliwake, Abbey used to do this also when she was a pup though once I fixed her diet it stopped. Question - Is this only happening when you give meat? The reason I ask is when I had Abbey on part kibble part meat diet whenever I would give meat her body would over react, once I changed to complete raw it stopped. Im wondering if you went one way or the other if it would make a difference? Or did he have giardia? I cant remember if this was Nixon or not... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aliwake Posted July 14, 2014 Author Share Posted July 14, 2014 Yes, he did have Giardia when he was a pup - that was probably about a year ago now. After he recovered from that it took ages for his poo to firm up, and I found yoghurt made a huge difference. Having said that, he seems to be more bullet proof now, and eats all sorts of horrible things including other dogs' poo, and possum poo, along with chewing on random sticks etc. I don't get to watch him poo all the time, but both days on the weekend I noticed it. I don't think he got any meat on those days though. I will keep it in mind though and see if I can make a correlation. I wouldn't think so though, because he's been having bones regularly most of his life, and this poo problem has only started recently. The only other thing that's different is he did have a course of steroids towards the end of May for a cough that wasn't clearing up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tara8430 Posted July 14, 2014 Share Posted July 14, 2014 His system may have been a bit overwhelmed from the steroids maybe… Im just trying to think what point i was at with Abbey when she was doing that, had so much going on when she was a pup its turned into a blur… Maybe try some slippery elm to just sooth his irritation Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simply Grand Posted July 14, 2014 Share Posted July 14, 2014 Sort of OT but 6 cups per day seems like a huge recommended amount! Even 4 cups seems a little on the high side to me for a lab (I'm assuming he's 30 something kgs?) My 21kg Aussie Shepherd is only on 1 - 1.5 cups of kibble plus around 1 cup of "extras" (meat/fish/veggies + treats) and even our biggest shelter dogs generally only get 3 cups per day (although obviously they have very limited exercise). Not aimed at you in particular Aliwake, but is that kind of amount what other premium foods recommend and people find their dogs need? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aliwake Posted July 14, 2014 Author Share Posted July 14, 2014 That's why I didn't want to use the adult lab food - 6 cups is ridiculous! He currently gets about 3 2/3 cups a day and weighs about 34kgs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serket Posted July 14, 2014 Share Posted July 14, 2014 Interested to see what people suggest as my little one is having a similar issue the last few days, no change of diet as such but more treats than she'd be used to which is what I've put it down to and tried using her kibble more as a treat to firm it back up. Seems to be working so far. Of course she's only little and a small amount of treats makes up a big percentage of what she eats and can easily have an impact. On the topic of how much food, my adult GR (5yrs) gets 1-1.5 cups of proplan salmon kibble, plus some sardines or similar small treat added each day and is around 24-26kg depending on how many extras she gets and whether I forget to reduce her ration when she's had a lot of bones. I can't imagine feeding 4 cups a day and certainly not 6! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dotdashdot Posted July 14, 2014 Share Posted July 14, 2014 I've found RC does seem to recommend a huge amount of food... the most I've fed an adult dog is when using Eukanuba and that was 3.5 cups per dog per day (although Nala did put on a bit of weight with this amount, Cleo did not - and Nala's the entire one!) now we're on Advance and we've cut down to about 2-2.5 cups a day. The least amount I've fed is on Earthborn and that was 1.5 cups a day, but I find that that kibble is so energy (protein) packed that they do well on that small amount. I will say too, I never follow the guides. My base to start is 1 cup in the morning and 1.5 at night and I work it up or down from there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cavNrott Posted July 14, 2014 Share Posted July 14, 2014 The more food they recommend, the more food they sell. I would never feed a dog the recommended amount stated on the back of the pack. It's always far in excess of the dog's daily requirements. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aliwake Posted July 14, 2014 Author Share Posted July 14, 2014 We were away on holidays for the first few weeks on his new food, so we're still playing around with amounts. We're actually trying to drop a little weight, but he certainly isn't putting weight on feeding the amount mentioned. We're still on the road to finding the perfect amount, but obviously that's going to change on a different food. dotdashdot - advance was the other main one I was considering when switching to adult food - you're obviously pretty happy with it? Last night at the park he did the big pile, then little pile 2mins later scenario... Have given him a probiotic this morning, so hopefully that will help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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