Mysterious raisins

[Nancyj]

I everyone! I want to apologize for being away so very long. My husband has alzheimer's and it has been a difficult and challenging journey. He still is at home and has good days and bad days.  Brinna is now 10 and doing very well.  This winter, I would find a lone, small, roundish, piece of dog poop on the rug.  It would happened every few days or weeks.  Increasingly, it became more frequent, to the point of several a day, but no more than three.  I had two things that I could perhaps relate it to. One is I give her freeze dried dog food and had alternated the chicken with beef. Whenever I gave her the beef, she would hunch up like her stomach hurt, so I stopped it for a few months, then started slowly adding it to her chicken and oatmeal. It could have been around that time, the mysterious little poop balls started appearing. We were in the middle of having our kitchen gutted and totally remodeled, so I don't really remember for sure, but it was during that six month construction ordeal.  We also have a reinforced cat bed in the window above our love seat that she jumps up and down on. There is a foot stool in front of the sofa, so she doesn't have to jump so far.  Lindy, our Cairn before Brinna had back problems, that was treated with NSAIDS, after which she was diagnosed with IMHA at five years of age. We took her to CSU after the diagnosis and her disease was brought into remission after three years of aggressive treatment. Lindy died of kidney failure at 14.  Two months later we found Brinna, a retired six year old show dog, that her owners wanted a forever home for. 

Back to Brinna. I have totally taken her off of the freeze dried beef dog food and removed the doggie/cat bed from the window and have cushions on the love seat so she isn't jumping up and down from that. Since I've done this, there have been two little poop balls since Sunday.  Has anyone else had something like this happen and should I be worried and taking her to CSU to have her checked out? 

I am sorry this is so long! Thanks.

Nancy and Brinna

[pkcrossley]

i mean... when you say little, you really mean little, like raisins? are they very dry? does she ever have symptoms of constipation?

[Nancyj]

They are mostly the size of grapes, but some are raisin size. They are fairly dry and no she isn't constipated.

[bradl]

Is/was the freeze dried raw? Ground bones included or no?  Are the pellets/grapes somewhat crumbly?

My only point of reference is that when we feed raw, including ground raw (with bones) some straining is not unusual and may be beneficial for keeping anal glands from impacting.  The small size and pelletization while not typical is not uncommon either. More of the food mass is  nutritionally available and there are less fillers to pass as stanky wet logs. Waste volume is reduced considerably.  When feeding raw we fed a large variety of different foods in daily rotation so poops were endlessly variable, but I've seen plenty of grape-sized pellets. No harm in our case but of course I can't know Brinna's actual condition or situation. 

If it were me, I'd just change up her food as you have done and let that ride for a while to see what the new normal is. If the poop thing is unrelated to the food itself, then maybe I'd get deeper into it, possibly with a vet to determine if it's an actual problem or just a thing dogs do from time to time.

Best of luck solving the mystery!

[Nancyj]

HI Brad,

I stand corrected: The dog food is Raw Dehydrated Grain Free Dog food.  I'll try to attatch a picture if I can figure it out. 

Brinna has been on this food (chicken and turkey) , except for the beef, for four years. There are no bones in it.  I'll keep doing this for a week, then try letting her back in her doggie/cat bed, see what happens and if no problems arise, take the Raw Dehydrated beef back to the company in Boulder that I get it from, as I've not opened the latest bag.   

The poop is not crumbly, but mashes out in a circle holding together. 

I can't figure out how to make the file small enough. (:

[hheldorfer]

It's great to hear from you again!  Very sorry to hear about your husband's Alzheimer's, though. 

Once in a great while Buffy produces those "poop raisins".  I know they're Buffy's because I find them near her favorite sleeping spots.  We've been feeding her the same food for years.  I have a theory, for what it's worth:  We sometimes give Buffy and Ziggy table scraps and Buffy sometimes gets a bit gassy.  I honestly believe the "poop raisins" are the result of the . . . um . . . *expelling* of the gas.  I may be completely wrong but that's my story and I'm sticking to it.  

[Nancyj]

Hi hheldorfer! It is great to be back. I'll try to be around more unless things suddenly get worse. Thanks for your comments on Buffy's poop raisins. It sounds exactly like Brinna's.  We never give her table scraps. My husband just couldn't stop with what he gave Lindy, so I just said this one has never had table food, so we won't start it with her. He so far hasn't forgotten.  This last winter, our son thought 1/4 cup 2X a day was not enough, as she was quite thin. I upped it to 1/3 cup 2X a day, and then her former owners gave her a high grade kibble for treats, so we continued with that. Now and then I give her a bully stick.  So, either it was the beef, or more food, or she has some nerve issues from jumping down off of the back of the love seat.  The poop raisins appeared 4 times in the last seven days.  I'll give her another week to see if she continues to do it less. I'm back to a heaping 1/4 cup of the chicken and oats. How often does Buffy leave the "raisins?"

[hheldorfer]

Oddly enough, Buffy left me a raisin last night.  It happens very infrequently, maybe once or twice a month.  (Of course it may be happening more and either Buffy or Ziggy decided to eat it as a snack. )  Because it's not a regular occurrence I've never been able to find a direct connection between the raisins and what she has eaten.  

[Bridget]

I had a Corgi years ago, who would do this from time to time, except for him it was always when he was running.  He would take off running through the house, until he was worn out, and sometimes later, when I'd go into the living room there would be a trail of hard pellets. I just called it "pooping on the fly".  I never knew why.

[Nancyj]

Cute story about your Corgi, Bridget.  I've only seen Brinna lose one once. She had just gotten up and I was following her to open the door so she could see out and as she walked one fell out. She kind of missed a step, but never looked back.  Sometimes they have appeared where she sleeps on the bed.  It is totally random.  She's due for her three year rabies booster and a yearly heartworm test, so I'll talk to her about it when I take her in.  It has lessened since I took her off of the beef and kept her out of the dog/cat window bed, but it's not stopped.  

Thanks for letting me know that it happened to your dog, too.

[Nancyj]

Update. I took Brinna to the vet, yesterday. Her neurological functions were normal, as was everything else.  The vet put her on a probiotic, as she had treated another dog with the same problem with probiotics and the unexpected poop balls stopped.  I told her I gave Brinna a teaspoon of Greek yogurt daily and she said that they have never done studies to see if the yogurt makes it to the lower gut without being killed off before it got there.  

I even had a little ball of poop to take with us, as Brinna had produced one after she got up. The vet checked it for blood and anything else remarkable and found it to be normal.

 

[hheldorfer]

Thanks for the update.  Glad to know Brinna is A-OK!

[Nancyj]

An update on Brinna's occasional "raisin" she leaves around the house. Both Brinna and my daughter's dog, Ellie have been on Only Natural Raw Dehydrated dog food for the last five years. This summer, Ellie was losing so much weight and when I started watching her this fall, she would vomit up her morning meal, mid afternoon. It had not even begun to digest. Marsha changed her dog food for sensitive stomachs, at the suggestion of our vet, and skinny little Ellie started perking up and gaining some weight. I had bought some canned pumpkin and gave it to both dogs. Brinna's stopped leaving little poop balls. I had recently purchased a new bag of  raw dehydrated dog food, so have kept her on it, but need to start switching her over to something else. The vet says some dogs can start to not tolerate  food they have been on for years.  Anyway, the poop balls aka raisins are returning. I need to get on the food change over for Brinna. 

Edited October 22, 2017 by Nancyj

[Sam I Am]

Feed raw? Lots of moisture in that