Dog Community

Is food the cause of his soft poops?

Posted : 6/22/2009 12:30:09 PM

I've had my dogs on TOTW on and off now for a while and they do great on it. We were on Natural Balance (just one bag) and no one seemed to care for it, so we went back to TOTW this time. When I brought Finn home late-May we were on NB and he had very soft poops, so I thought when we switched over to TOTW his poops would get firmer, nope. He also has pretty bad gas. Is it the food?? I was thinking of going with Blue Buffalo, which I've never tried, or back to Chicken soup (which all the dogs did great on in the past). But I really liked the TOTW because it is an all life stages food and I have a puppy, an adult, and 2 seniors.

When we were at the vet she said it could be the food. When we had a stool sample tested, it turned out he had coccidia???? I think that is it. Correct me if I'm wrong! So he was on 5 days of antibiotics, then a week break, and on Tuesday he starts his second round of antibiotics.

I'm guessing that if I switch foods and the food agrees with him, I will see improvement pretty quickly, right?

Thanks for your help!

ColleenC

Posted : 6/22/2009 1:25:34 PM

What did they give you for the coccidia? I've never heard that specific treatment for it and it will definitely cause loose stools.

georgie4682

Posted : 6/22/2009 1:46:08 PM

They gave us Albon Tabs. But he had soft poops from the time we got him, so I don't think it's from the antibiotics

erica1989

Posted : 6/22/2009 2:44:28 PM

coccidia can be pretty hard to completely get rid of... I've always done a 10 day treatment, and then retest. it can sometimes take a few rounds to really knock it out - and that WILL cause soft, smelly poops, gas and vomiting...

georgie4682

Posted : 6/22/2009 3:10:54 PM

Wow! I wish my vet would have told me all of that! She was treating it as a pretty common thing among dogs who come from shelters and didn't really tell me anything beyond that! I usually do my own research, but for whatever reason, didn't this time. So does the method we are using to treat this, sound familiar? We don't have another vet appointment until July 14 when they will do another fecal test.

erica1989

Posted : 6/22/2009 3:17:32 PM

Coccidia is pretty common in cats- I've honestly only seen 2-3 pups with it in the past year or so. I've heard of different treatment methods - 5 days on, 5 days off, 5 days on - being one of them. Not sure what the reasoning is behind this...

you can also treat it with panacur (safeguard) - it's just not labeled for that, so most vets wont use it. It's a bit cheaper, so if the albon doesn't work the first time around I usually go to panacur for 5 days. I hate to see a kitten pumped full of antibiotics for 20+ days (and albon IS an antibiotic!)

georgie4682

Posted : 6/22/2009 4:00:10 PM

Thanks for the info. I just know that he can't be comfortable with the way his stools have been. Hopefully he feels better soon...