(UK) Pedigree Pug With Funny Tummy - Help!

[RobynLeanne]

Hi all,

I'm sure you've heard this 100 times before but I have a 5 month old pedigree pup and recently, nearly all of his poops have been really runny.

Ever since I've had him we've had problems with his tum and we've been back and forth to the vets who helped him in the past with Pro-Kolin, but this time around, its not working at all. I've also got pots to collect for a fecal sample to rule out anything like salmonella, and in the mean time he's been getting boiled chicken and plain rice but nothing seems to be helping.

As this has been an ongoing issue, I'm wondering if its simply a case of a really sensitive tum. Does anyone have any recommendations that may work better than chicken and rice?

He's currently on James Wellbeloved Turkey & Rice Puppy dry food. Have given him the wet food in the past but that didn't sit well with him either. He's due to move up the the 'junior' food at 6 months so if its food related, now would be a good time to start introducing a new one I suppose?

He's absolutely fine in himself. His behaviour hasn't changed and vet said last week he's healthy and happy enough, temperature is fine, can't feel any inflammation in his tummy.

Help please :(

[AmyR]

I think I'm right that you haven't had the stool test done yet? When it's done, I'd advise you to ask them to test for giardia and crypto which both can cause tummy upsets. It could be food related but I have recently been tearing my hair out as I was in the same position as you not knowing why my pug had constant runny poops. Changed his food etc only to realise he has the giardia bacteria! Both involve a short course of meds to treat.
If that's not your answer, I'd maybe try a grain free or even raw food and do an elimination diet to see what's bothering him.
Hope you get an answer soon and I'm sure others will offer more advice too!
Eta: others things we tried were adding pure pumpkin to his diet to firm up his poop and also psyllium husks. The pumpkin worked for so long but then I ran out as its extremely hard to find over here!

[RobynLeanne]

I think I'm right that you haven't had the stool test done yet? When it's done, I'd advise you to ask them to test for giardia and crypto which both can cause tummy upsets. It could be food related but I have recently been tearing my hair out as I was in the same position as you not knowing why my pug had constant runny poops. Changed his food etc only to realise he has the giardia bacteria! Both involve a short course of meds to treat.
If that's not your answer, I'd maybe try a grain free or even raw food and do an elimination diet to see what's bothering him.
Hope you get an answer soon and I'm sure others will offer more advice too!

Currently collecting stool samples at the moment. Have to do it for the next 3 days then getting it sent off to test for everything (I'm sure the vets has mentioned both of those bacterias previously so hopefully a full test will cover those)

The food he's on is natural and hypo-allergenic so it literally has nothing in, other than some whole linseed grain. No wheat, no soya, no dairy, no eggs etc. But the linseed and rice he's currently on are both obviously grains so maybe they're not helping him at all!

Here's the food ingredients, in case anyone can spot anything irritable in there -
rice, turkey meal, oats, pea protein, turkey fat, whole linseed, turkey gravy, alfalfa meal, natural seaweed, sodium chloride, omega oil supplement, chicory extract, potassium chloride, calcium carbonate, yucca extract

But I think you're right, I'll wait for the test results back and then maybe try raw for a while and see how he deals with that and slowly introduce some more dry food.

Thanks for your help :)

[AmyR]

Good luck with it all! Lots of people on here pointed me in the right direction when I was having a dog poop related meltdown!lol :)

[Snifter]

I mentioned the JWB grain free option on your other thread.

My Toddy has a very sensitive digestion and we went through the same. There were no answers - all samples tested negative.

I would suggest you try a different protein, though, since it is possible that the turkey doesn't suit him. Maybe fish? Mine do well on that.

[Stazz]

Our pugs were n the fish and veg JWB and were good on it, and even better on fish4dogs.
Yoda can't eat anything except chicken and fish based foods, anything else is too rich and has allergies to.
Good luck!

[shaynapug]

Seeing you finding the right answers!