Is there something wrong?

[agilitydog]

I have been trying to research and all I find is stuff on diarrhea. I am taking Toby to the vet this month for his 1 year stuff but could there be something wrong?

I got thinking about this with a comment in my other thread.
Symptoms: Completely inhales food no breaths jsut inhales. Poops about 5 times a day. He is on Canidae so it shouldn't be that often. Has extreme gas issues. He will poop almost every time you let him out. His stool is normal. I thought worms with the way he ate but I treated him for that and the shelter did too and he has put on about 5 lbs since he's been here. Could there actually be something wrong intestinally?

I will talk to the vet when I go as well but has anyone experienced intestinal problems. Or are there problems particular to pugs or beagles.

[Dax]

Ariel - inhales food! And with it they seem to get gas (if you call those bombs she lays on us gas lol).

Also had loose poops. Feeding less helped with that. Smaller amounts more often seemed to let her digestive system process the food. More pronounced on kibble than on raw (we did raw for over a month but with 3 dogs it was not feasible).

She is also worm free.

[agilitydog]

I was wondering if the gas could be caused by the speed he eats. He only gets a cup a day. And he is fed 1/2 c at each meal. I don't kow if I can make it smaller . I do put food on at night like chicken etc what ever we have left over. It sounds to me like the food is not really digesting correctly and coming right through, but 5x on a cup of food. He is only 25 lbs.

Oh and forgot to add that he is always trying to eat dog poop. Ick

[Moo]

You appear to be forgetting -



Your dog is part PUG.

I laugh but it's true. I don't think I've ever seen a pug NOT inhale his food... Or other non-food items that could possibly be eaten, come to think of it.

[agilitydog]

Originally Posted by Moo

You appear to be forgetting -



Your dog is part PUG.

I laugh but it's true. I don't think I've ever seen a pug NOT inhale his food... Or other non-food items that could possibly be eaten, come to think of it.

I was chalking his gas up to the pug
Pug and beagle. Neither breed has been known to starve

[shadowfacedanes]

To help him slow his pace at eating, you could try one of the new brakefast bowls - http://www.brake-fast.net/

To help with gas, you can always give him simethicone gels (Phasyme, gas-x or even try Beano)

Medically, if his problem worsens, their could be a malabsorption problem, which is usually rooted within the pancreas, but since his stools are normal, that seems to be unlikely.

Hannah pooped a lot on Canidae, as did all of the kennel dogs we fed it too. It may just be diet related. It is a great food, but seems to produce a lot of waste.

You could try an enzymatic product such as Prozyme, which helps with digestion.

[Heart_Song]

Hmm, we don't even have a proper name for that, should be polychezia (increased defecation). But it's not completely unheard of, though it seems there's not much in the way of a good solution. What you describe could be related, or it could be just normal dog stuff. A lot of dogs inhale their food and eat poop, but the excessive defecation is not normal, though it may not necessarily be a problem either (except for you who has to clean it up.)

But if the inhaling food, increased defecation, and eating poop are all related, I would think that there was a digestion problem. A lot of animals will eat their poop in order to try to recover the nutrients that were lost in it. This is especially true if there are a lot of nutrients in it as a result of digestion problems. The dog would also want to eat more because his body wouldn't be satisfied even from a significant amount of food. And defecation would increase because everything that is not digested has to go somewhere.

If it is a case of digestion problems, you might want to try a different food formula. A low residue formula is most often recommended, but it might also just be a matter of trying a food with different ingredients to see what he can digest better. Find out what the main source of fiber is in the food you are feeding now. Things like flax seed and peanut shells can increase defecation frequency. Remember, a lot of times quality is more important than quanitity. A small amount of poor quality fiber will produce more stool than a larger amount of good quality fiber.

When you are at the vet, you might want to ask if they think testing the liver would be helpful. There's debate as to whether or not liver problems could result in increase defecation.

[agilitydog]

Thanks SFD and Heart song. You guys gave me alot of information. I have tried putting things in his bowl and he just takes them out or tries to eat them . I am not sure if all the symptoms are related. My other dogs only poop once maybe twice a day. I am also not used to a small dog and wonder if they go more. But I do think it has something to do with not absorbing his food right. How would I know if that was it and all of these were related or if it just this dog. If it is an absorption problem, what can be done?

This is why I aksed here to see if anyone had info or if I am just relating things that don't relate at all. He acts perfectly normal. Playful etc but I started getting concerned after thinking about how much he goes to the bathroom. At first I thought it was because he was on a cheap food from the shelter so I gave it time to switch over to the food but it hasn't changed. He was on Nature's recipe at the shelter.

Here are the first several ingredients for Canidae:
Chicken Meal, Turkey Meal, Brown Rice, White Rice, Lamb Meal, Chicken Fat (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols), Herring Meal, Flax Seed, Sun Cured Alfalfa Meal, Sunflower Oil, Chicken,

[Heart_Song]

Really the only way to see is to switch food and see if it helps or not. Nature's recipe and Canidae both have flax seed in them. So that could be what it is.

Innova and Nutro are two brands that are good quality, don't have flax seed and have ingredients different enough that switching to one of them should be able to tell you if it is a problem of not being able to digest the ingredients properly.

[agilitydog]

OK heartsong you may be on to something here. I was looking at the foods and since flax seed was so far down I didn't think it would be too much of a factor. They say once past ingredient 7 the amounts are so small

BUT... I looked at what else I do. I give my shepherd missing link supplement at night for her hips and health etc along with other things. This was a sample pack to try so I give it to all my dogs and guess what. First ingredient is Flax seed. I am going to try to quit with that to start and see if that helps make a difference. Thank you for your help.