Water and Stools

[Rebekah Hartman]

Has anyone ever heard of a correlation between stool consistency and amount of water consumed? We've switched foods three times now between good brands, but all seem to produce runny stools. I've noticed that when we restrict (really restrict) water intake, the stools are more normal (but I have a thirsty puppy). How much water should I let him have per day? If he drinks too much will that make his stools runny?

[Chris Smith]

I don't know about water intake with loose stools. I do know that when Nalu drinks tons of water versus very little water, his stools don't seem to change. And you probably don't want to mess with dehydrating your dog.

Have you thought about the treats that you are feeding him instead of his food? Many treats will cause loose stools. If you are doing training with him regularly and feeding him treats, you might want to change those or lay off for several days and see if that makes a difference.

Also, rawhides, greenies, and those types of chew bones will also cause loose stools for a day or two after they have them.

[Rebekah Hartman]

Thanks, Chris. We actually don't use many treats with training (we found a trainer that likes to phase out treats very early). He gets a few a day (very small pieces), but I don't think that's the culprit. He does get some canned food frozen in a Kong twice a day, but the loose stools don't really seem to correlate with that, either.

I'm trying to have water available at all times during specified hours of the day so he just drinks little sips at a time to see if that helps. Prior to this, I'd just give him water when he "asked" for it (picking up his dish), but he seemed to drink every drop with that method and I don't want him to think he will ever be left waterless.

[Hee Yung Lee]

Rebekah,

I noticed your other thread in the food section too. It seems like the main meat source in the foods you have tried are all chicken based. When Bogart was on Nutro (large breed puppy which is chicken based) he had soft stools. We thought it was the brand of food, so we did some research and decided to try Solid Gold, which he does great on. We discovered later that it was actually the chicken that was causing him to have an upset tummy and not specifically the brand. Had we known this before, we would have stuck with Nutro and just tried a different formula, but we are on Solid Gold, he does great on it, and so we are just sticking with that. Now I think it is rare for a dog to react that way to chicken, but it could very well be the same with your dog. Maybe try switching to a food that has a different meat source and see if that makes a difference. Good luck!

[Chris Smith]

Hee makes a very good point! And it reminded me that I tried 3 types of "good and super good" food with Nalu (including Chicken soup like you mentioned) and they produced loose and runny stools. Their common ingredient was also chicken.

I switched him to a lamb and rice formula (cold turkey since he was so messed up already) and there was an immediate change. I don't know for sure it was the chicken, since I wasn't willing to test it out, so I just stick with the lamb. And his stools are normal.

[Rebekah Hartman]

When I've "homecooked" for Samson, I made chicken and rice and he did great on it, so I assumed chicken was fine for him. The weird thing is that it seems that his stools become more runny after he's on the food for a while (3-4 weeks) and he does well on them initially. Today we have normal stools again (same food and plenty of water), so I'm having some difficulty determining what's going on!

[Nicole Leveque]

Have you had the vet check his stool for worms or coccidia? Zoe had coccidia and it was the source of her loose stool for months. When it cleared up, her stools normalized a lot more.