Possible watery stool culprit

[Anthony8858]

While the most logical thing to do, is to eliminate the possible culprits, I thought I'd ask here first.

Kira was on vet prescribed ID canned wet food for exactly two weeks.
During that time, each meal consisted of a half can of the ID wet food, and a half portion of her dry purina pro plan. During that two week period, she had normal stools.
I might add, that during that two weeks, I continued training with treats. Her treats were samples from EVO red meat dry, and or hotdogs.

Two days ago, the wet food ended, and we went 100% dry Pro Plan. I'm only continuing the pro plan, because I have a 30 lb bag, and I figured it agreed with her. I wanted to switch towards the end of the bag.
Not thinking anything of it, I picked up a roll of Natural Balance dog food. It looks like a bologna roll. I cut it up into small bits, and used in place of her hotdogs during training. I'm thinking anything is better than all the preservatives in hotdogs.

Well, anyway, yesterday, and now today, her last 3 bowel movements were soft yellow, and almost watery.

If you had to take an educated guess about the culprit, what would you suspect?

[LaRen616]

All of the above.

Purina Pro Plan is not a good kibble to feed. All Purina products are .

I wouldn't feed wet food, it can give some puppies and dogs the runs.

The Natural Balance might be too much for her system or you might be feeding her too much with her kibble and the treats combined, too much food can cause runny stools.

I would get her on a nice quality kibble with limited ingredients.

[Emoore]

I've had that happen a couple of times-- good stools on the prescription diet, then back to watery poop when off the prescription food.

With one dog, the culprit was grains. I found, through trial and error, that he was unable to digest grains and when I put him on a grain-free diet the problem went away. Has she ever had firm stools on the Pro Plan, or were they always watery? If she's had normal stool on it before and this diarrhea is new, we can probably say that's not the culprit. If she's always had poor stools on it, I'd say donate the rest of the 30lb to the shelter and get her on a limited-ingredient diet.

With the other dog, he ended up having colitis. He needed a course of antibiotics to get rid of the infection, then probiotics to re-build the healthy flora in his gut.

You might want to use something very very bland and basic like boiled chicken breast for training until you get her stomach settled.

[WVGSD]

Since she was doing fine on your previous regimen and the only change was the Natural Balance roll, that would be my guess as the culprit.

Which Purina Pro Plan kibble do you have her on? I have used their Selects line with lots of success with my dogs and use their Sensitive Skin and Stomach kibble for my German Shepherd with bowel disease. My show dogs look great and my rescues improve dramatically in terms of their weight as well as skin and coat conditions. All Purina Pro Plan is not the same and it is not all bad.

When you do change her kibble diet, I would do so very gradually and you might want to consider keeping her on the same protein sources (chicken, fish, turkey, etc.) in the new kibble until you determine whether or not she has any food sensitivities or intolerances.

I hope that your puppy is doing better quickly.

[Anthony8858]

First, I'd like to know what it is about the prescription diet that keeps the stools firm?

Second, I've been wanting to take her off the ProPlan. I have her on large breed puppy ProPlan. I know I could do better.

I've started numerous threads about this, but I've been waiting until I finished her prescription. ( which we just finished).

It seems that no matter food I read about, there's something wrong with it.

There is no perfect food.

I'll go with an easily accessible grain free food. Few people recommend Fromms large breed puppy gold. That sounds like a nice food, but no one has it around here.

I'll look into other options for grain free.
I'll cut out all the treats, except hotdogs. .

[Emoore]

Originally Posted by Anthony8858

First, I'd like to know what it is about the prescription diet that keeps the stools firm?

Insanely high fiber, plus it's very bland. You can get the same results with boiled chicken breast, rice, and a bunch of canned pumpkin.

Originally Posted by Anthony8858

It seems that no matter food I read about, there's something wrong with it.

There is no perfect food.

100% correct.

[msvette2u]

I'd second getting her off anything with corn in it.
Avoid corn, wheat, soy and by-products.
I like Kirkland Signature myself, we've also fed Diamond Naturals, and we have used Blue Buffalo in the past and had good luck with it (wilderness formula for the kittens).

[JakodaCD OA]

just throw this out there ...a friend of mine's cats (2) have been on pro plan kitty dry and canned for a few months, one is vomiting constantly after eating,,she's had numerous testing done, they find "nothing",,so she's messing around, she stopped the canned, dry only, no vomiting in a week..(this cat was vomiting on a daily basis)..

Now maybe not the same as what Kira has going on, but for some reason pro plan isn't agreeing with her cats, atleast the canned anyhow.

[Emoore]

I don't think Anthony is feeding canned Pro Plan, I thought the only canned was the prescription diet from the vet?

[msvette2u]

Heh...I bought some canned Pro Plan at the grocery store for this senior foster dog we have. We have some "good" food cans, too but I figured he's old enough (11yrs...his owner died and he has no teeth left) to deserve some junk food now and again.