Soft Stool Hard Stool cannot find a food that doesn't upset her.

[fromohiousa]

My 11 month old Shi-Poo has food issues. She was on dry Nutro Natural Choice and had the softest stool. She couldn't stop going outside and the mess was horrible. We switched to dry Science Diet and the opposite happened. It bound her like a cord of wood. Her stool became hard and after a couple months eating it, she really decided that she wanted to eat much less of it.

Now my dog is hungry and her stool is irregular.

We've done the wet prescription food with success but it is terribly expensive. There must be an alternative we can afford.

Is it normal for my dog to eat only ONCE a day?
Is it normal for my dog to have a bowel movement only ONCE a day?

She seems to be active but this irregularity and turning her nose up at the food has us at our wits end.

I know she wants to eat because she'll pick up anything she can on walks or in the yard and try to eat it.

Help...

 

[Dekka]

I would try a good food.... SD is NOT a good food!! Neither is Nutro. Check out the feeding section here on Chaz. You can spend your money much more wisely.

A small dog should eat 2x a day, and one or more bm a day can be normal.

Did you adopt your shih tzu/ poodle cross from a shelter or get from a 'breeder'? If from a 'breeder' I would contact them and find out if this is a normal health issue in their lines. If it is and not the food you should be entitled to at least a partial refund which would help you pay for the vet to diagnose the problem. A dog should not need to eat a prescription diet for life.

 

[fromohiousa]

SD should be good food, I'm paying through the nose for it. I got my dog from a shelter at 4 mos old. The shelter referred me to a vet that gave her the prescription wet stuff.

I will do some more searching. I see a lot of people here rally behind their foods but its hard to see any clear winners.

Any suggestions you might have would be appreciated.

For every good thing I see about one food, I see two others that are bad about it and then the cycle begins again. I know it is a "what is best for your dog" but there has to be something a Shih Tzu owner can say, "hey Shih Tzu Bits works for me".

 

[Dekka]

Cost is no indication of quality.

Eukanuba is expensive.. but you pay for advertising. With SD you are paying for the 'swag' vet students get to try to woo new vets into peddling their foods.

With good foods you are actually paying for the quality of the ingredients. There are lots of good foods out there. Not any ONE brand will work for all dogs. And it has nothing to do with breed. A Shih Tzu will need the same nutrition as a JRT as a lab etc etc.

I can tell you what works for me out of the good foods... I LOVED Orijen (grain free, all human grade foods, small company etc) I liked EVO rm (another grain free) I liked Innova (not grain free but still all human grade ingredients) The old Wellness worked for us.. the new one doesn't so well.. but it still works for many.

Right now I feed raw and my dogs are doing better than ever...

stay away from foods that have by products, corn, lots of sugars, dyes, salt etc. Don't feed foods that are primarily grains... dogs are not herbivores (seems obvious but dog food companies don't seem to care... grain is MUCH cheaper than meat)

 

[fromohiousa]

Thanks. Based upon your input and my searches this morning I think I'm going to see if I can track down one of the following at my local store:

Orijen

Innova Evo red meat

Kirkland

Taste of the Wild

Acana

Hopefully I can buy a small enough bag for our trial. I have a half of a huge bag of SD left along with half a bag of Nutro. Ugh.

 

[Dekka]

Those are good... Kirkland is a costco brand. I think you can only get it there.

 

[fillyone]

Has a Giardia antigen been run? Not the regular Giardia fecal but the antigen??????

I went through probably close to a year of bad poops with my German Shepherd and spent hundreds and hundreds of $$ on testing and different foods - turns out it was Giardia the entire time!! 2 regular fecals came back negative and finally when the antigen was done it was positive.

A couple rounds of antibiotics and the healing process was able to start.

I had to watch fat % and feed x3 a day for a time until his gut was fully healed and mature - there has not been a bad poop in well over 3 years!!!

 

[fromohiousa]

Yes, we did that test. She went in for two stools at two vets before I had someone explain that the stool test isn't enough. They still gave her an anti biotic and she went on bland food for a month even though it came out negative.

 

[ihartgonzo]

It's good that you've gotten all of her testing done at the Vet.

Honestly, working at a pet hotel, I see dogs every day that eat Science Diet (it is the food that we carry... and so many people feed it) and worse foods and I am HORRIFIED by the consistency of these dog's poops. Not to mention the color - and the smell! I also notice that they eat barely any of it, yet manage to have massive, unhealthy looking movements. D;

I feel like I'm lucky! And, I wish I could personally talk to each of those dog's owners about finding a food that is healthier for their dog's digestive system. Nothing compares to Raw poops, but my dogs have small, firm, nearly odorless poops on Acana. They are second best to Raw, but that's really good. I have become a poop connoisseur of sorts since moving into an apartment and having to pick up poop instantly instead of letting it fertilize the woods in my family's backyard. *le sigh*

Personally, I would recommend switching her over to one of the foods you mentioned ASAP (Acana & Taste of the Wild are my faves), cold turkey... invest in a good digestive aid to ease the switch and to boost the good bacteria in her system, along with supplementing her food with a bit of plain yogurt and some plain canned pumpkin.