Constipated dog..

curiousb

We have our new rescue Lab cross, Suzie, coming up on 2 weeks now and all is going very well.

However I have been changing her food from dry to more 'normal' food and she has been constipated for the last 2 days. Her poo on the dry food was extremely runny and seriously smelly and this is why I started the change.

I slowly moved her to a mix of cooked meat and rice, mostly mince with rice mixed through it, pork chops, sausages etc(whatever was on offer in Dunnes!). This was all cooked.

Her poo changed to a harder consistency and she would poo twice a day, morning and evening, and we are feeding her 3 times a day, about 2.5% of her bodyweight daily.

But in the last 2 days ago she pooped in the morning and nothing for the rest of the day (loads of pee though). Yesterday she didn't poop until about 10pm last night and it was mostly solid with a bit of runniness at the end.

This morning no poo on her walk, but 3 pees since 7am.

It seems she is constipated and I am thinking it could be too much rice, so this morning I gave her a mix of cooked mince and dry food, about 50/50 mix, also gave her a raw mackerel fillet last night which she wasn't too mad on, ate about half it.

Ideally I'd like to have her on a varied mix of cooked meat, veg, some raw, some dry.

Any suggestions on what would be good for the constipation? Or maybe this is normal when you are changing the diet ?

jimf

I really wouldn't describe this as constipation I would think getting used to the better quality of food maybe and no longer just running through her system

if after not going for 2days I would be saying ok maybe constipated

but if going without excess straining and showing no signs of discomfort id just be keeping an eye on the situation if I think any of mine are in trouble that way I just add a spoonful of liquid paraffin to their food morning and evening and it has never let me down and seems easy on their systems

curiousb

Thanks for the feedback. We're new dog owners so only learning the ropes. What you're saying makes sense.

aonb

Would agree with Jimf - our dogs would only poo once a day, or maybe twice but the 2nd would be v.small... they are fed cooked chicken/rice type food. Make sure to throw in a bone (raw) for calcium etc - and you should prob include some veg. for fibre etc. Cooked potatos through the meat will be good - oh and brown rice is far better than white.

JimF, liquid paraffin has always been used in my family (rem my grandfather and uncles swore by it) for constipated dogs. Is it actually ok/still safe to use do you know?

jimf

aonb

im like yourself it has been used for years in my family as well I was always told to put it on their food and not try and give orally in case it was ingested/aspirated into the lungs

as far as safety is concerned I have never heard otherwise maybe others on here will know

anniehoo

aonb wrote: »

Is it actually ok/still safe to use do you know?

It is safe but as jimf said, it's recommended (especially for cats) that it's put in food and not given directly into the mouth as it can cause aspiration pneumonia. Lactulose is normally what vets would use in practice.

SillyMangoX

I find salmon oil does the trick as well, I suppose it lubricates everything as it passes!

chocoroll

Insted of using liquid parafine you can use normal sunflower oil or olive oil. Give a dog 1 or 2 (depending on size) table spoon per feed per day. And personaly i would think about a good quality dryfood instead of cooking for her. I get that you changed because of the smelly en thin poo but there are loads of difrent dryfoods what will work perfectly for your dog. Dogs need to crunch there food to make sure the teeth stay healthy and clean. And that just wont work when they only get soft food.

aonb

Good to know that liquid paraffin is still ok to use, and yes, always on their food, have only used it when elderly dog was obviously straining/constipated - i.e. rarely.
I had been giving my guys organic extra virgin coconut oil, but have stopped recently because of Peppers illness, must get back to it, now that we are back to normal.

CuriosB, how old is Suzie? And what dry food were you feeding her?

More problems come up on this site, over bad quality foods - really the quality of dog food is such an issue, and most dog owners never give it a second thought - until there is an issue/problem - then the issue is invariably resolved by improving the quality of the food. This is just a general observation - Im not commenting on ANYONE!!!!!

cocker5

I feed my guy salmon oil each day in his dried food (taste of the wild), its excellent for them

http://www.zooplus.ie/shop/dogs/supplements_specialty_food/hair_skin/more_skin_and_coat_supplements/139892

:P

jimf

it may not be very technical aon but I always consider the conditions of the dog runs to be a great guide to the quality of the food they are eating very little poo and solid good nutrition and well absorbed

I know theres a lot more to it but its a guide line

curiousb

chocoroll wrote: »

. And personaly i would think about a good quality dryfood instead of cooking for her.

I don't like the idea of exclusively feeding her on dry food, I like the idea of plenty of variety, i.e. dry, cooked, raw and plenty of bones for the teeth. But as I said, I'm new to this so will be figuring it out as I go along, so I might end up doing just that. I know there's huge debate on other threads re raw versus dry so I'm constantly learning.

CuriosB, how old is Suzie? And what dry food were you feeding her?

Suzie is about 2 years old. She's a rescue dog with no history so that's an estimate by the rescue centre. They had been feeding her on Select Gold (adult) and we kept her on that.

cbd18

I recently went thru this with my dog as I moved to Ireland and the food I was feeding back in the US isn't available here I had to start from scratch in the quest to finding a balanced diet for my fur-baby. I had a hard time finding a decent dry food to feed in Ireland (tried three brands and had problems with each), I started feeding Orijen to my dog and haven't been happier. Before I tried Orijen I had her on a couple other food brands available through pet stores here and had so many problems- one problem so bad that she didn't poo for four days, her stomach was very bloated and gassy and she ended up having to have an enema at the vet. Orijen is quite expensive but in my opinion it's the best food available- there are a few companies that stock the food (which is imported from Canada) and will deliver anywhere in Ireland. Some commercial dog food is packed full of ingredients hard for the dog to digest with little nutritional value so it's best to do some research before slowly changing over your dogs diet (people usually recommend 2 weeks to slowly switch over). My dog is a 6yr old husky and I've always had her on a grain-free food. If you are completely creating your own food for the dog it's important to do research to make sure the dog is getting the balanced nutrition and vitamins it needs - there are a lot of websites that can help with this. If feeding bones for extra calcium be really careful, the bones can splinter and can also make dogs quite constipated. To help with diarrhea or constipation pure canned pumpkin is a savior (I usually keep a can in the press) but is difficult to find in Ireland so I have to order it off websites that import it (amazon.co.uk or http://www.americanfood.ie/product-p/a-l001.htm). A few times a week I might add in some cooked fish, raw apple pieces or carrots. During the summer she loves seedless watermelon as a treat.

Here are some links I found useful when I was trying to decide on feeding choices

http://raisinghealthydogs.com/discover-the-health-benefits-of-canned-pumpkin-for-dogs
http://animal.discovery.com/pets/healthy-pets/grocery-store-vs-specialty-foods.htm
http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/best-dog-foods/best-grain-free-dog-foods/best-grain-free-dog-foods-dry/
http://www.whichdogfood.co.uk/

There's a lot of good information but also a lot of bad info on the best choices for feeding your dog, so it's a matter of finding what works best for you and the dog. Best of luck.

curiousb

cbd18 wrote: »

I recently went thru this with my dog as I moved to Ireland and the food I was feeding back in the US isn't available here I had to start from scratch in the quest to finding a balanced diet for my fur-baby.....

Thanks cd18 for the detailed response. I will check out that dry food you suggest. I'd like to find a good quality dry food and supplement with home cooked natural food.

Rips

I'm not a proponent of raw feeding, or indeed home cooked, but feeding a dry processed food and raw food (or to a lesser extent, cooked food) at the same time, or in 50/50 rations is a particularly bad idea.

Sausages are not the best choice either, tend to have a high fat content, and pork can disagree with some.

If you are really committed to switching to raw or even home cooked - you would do best to find a good quality commercial wet food, before switching to a good quality commercial raw food before implementing or substituting portions of the diet itself.

They are available, both my cats and dogs eat commercial diets made with quality cooked meats, with no additives, or by products. I can substitute raw or cooked titbits as I fancy, usually what is left over in the freezer, or if I run out of food.

Raw still seems to disagree with the dog, and neither have a particular taste for it - cooked food, like boiled chicken, is always fine though.

curiousb

I've decided not to switch to raw at the moment. There's too much new things at the moment for all of us, to be able to do it properly.

What brand of wet food do you use or recommend? I'd like to check that out.

Also, why do you say mixing dry and cooked/raw is a bad idea? That's what I have been doing for the last week and she certainly loves it, but I wouldn't want to be doing anything wrong in the long term.

StompToWork

OP, we went through the same thing with our LabX. He still has a bit of a sensitive tummy to this day (he's 16 mths now), especially if we change his food for any reason.

From my experience, consistency is the key here. Make sure you feed him the same food at the same time every day. After about a week, things should get better.

When he gets older, and again from my experience, stay away from rawhide. Anytime Deefor got it, it was like living in a sewer.

curiousb

StompToWork wrote: »

Anytime Deefor got it, it was like living in a sewer.

We had an episode this morning Luckily she made it out to the patio before her rear end exploded. Poor thing couldn't really figure out what was going on...

I think I was introducing too much too quickly so I am going to step back and simplify things. Find a good dry or wet food that agrees with her 100% and use it soley for a few weeks and then introduce slowly some variety and see how she gets on.

Rips

curiousb wrote: »

I've decided not to switch to raw at the moment. There's too much new things at the moment for all of us, to be able to do it properly.

What brand of wet food do you use or recommend? I'd like to check that out.

Also, why do you say mixing dry and cooked/raw is a bad idea? That's what I have been doing for the last week and she certainly loves it, but I wouldn't want to be doing anything wrong in the long term.

The carbohydrate content and other additives in heavily processed dry food can slow gastric emptying among other things, or in poor quality food, change the acidity of the gut so it unable to digest food as it should. If you then feed raw, the gut can't handle the bacteria and could certainly cause issues in the longterm. Cooked food isn't as bad, more of a short term consideration, but sudden changes like feeding different varieties or a pork sausage could cause mild gastrointestinal upsets.

My GSD is on Arden grange, which we buy locally, its expensive but its an excellent food, he tends to suffer with his skin on poorer quality food.
I haven't looked into ordering online. The wet food range is constitutionally better then the dry, though he does well on both. I feed 50/50. Some won't agree with the added grains, you obviously don't have issues feeding rice.

The cat on a food called Thrive, again, its expensive, but we buy it in bulk from Zooplus. He is completely wet fed, again, its just what suits him.

They do a dog food aswell, though again, their dry food ranges, are not as good as their wet, and I haven't looked into it as haven't needed to change.