Constipation
Submitted by Deb and MacKenz... on October 26, 2011 - 2:11pmOK raw feeders! MacKenzie is having some real problems with constipation and too firm of poops. I started him on some pumpkin yesterday so will see if that helps. Any ideas on what I can use for him as a stool softener? He pooped on Monday and it was a big round poop for my little guy. Not sure how he even got it pooped out. Sorry to be so blunt! Yesterday he was just squeezing out drops of runny stuff and he is really straining to go.
I worry about him because he had that blockage and lost about 6 inches of his intestine so I'm wondering what to do to soften him up. Oddly the opposite probelm with him then most everyone else has.
first stop the pumpkin.....
pumpkin makes the stool firm,,,and if your already firm you dont need pumpkin......how much bone??...it sounds like to much bone if he is constipated....give only a meaty dinner with no organs and no bone till poop comes soft.....my guys drink less water on raw so make sure he is dinking....mix a little chicken broth (low or sodium free) in his dinner.....
i boil some chicken so i have on hand a natural chicken broth....it freezes really nice.....
Pumpkin
Judy - my understanding is that pumpkin will work both ways and I just checked with my raw food forum and they suggested pumpkin. But he is getting more bone then he was. He has free access water and they do not drink much at all. So I have suspected maybe not enough.
I have some chicken quarters I can boil so I will give him just chicken meat for a couple of days and see how he does, and add a little broth as well.
Thanks!
When Kofi's poops
seem to firm, I can give her a few raw chicken livers, and that does the trick.
Do you leave the skin on the chicken?
I also cut back on the bone in for a day or two.
Hope this helps.
Thanks Carol
No skin! So far I'm haven't been brave enough to do whole parts and bones unground. But the ground chicken I got through the co-op has some pretty big chunks of bone. I have some chicken livers in the freezer I can give him. Thanks for the help.
We all know it's no fun when you can't poop, LOL!
Deb, I also leave some
skin on the chicken when poo's get too hard.
Actually, the way I moniter what to feed is by watching her poo's.
Glad I could be of help.
its the best way to gauge bone.....
leaving the chicken skins on..will help....are you grinding yourself? tell me how if you are...like do you grind a whole chcken breast and just feed that....or do you add a meat to that ground chicken breast?? always have your 10% oragns in your grind..that helps .....another way to know you have to much bone is if the poop comes out white... also back off from bone.....if you see that......
i never knew to use pumpkin to loosen poop!!!! thats intresting to know...i have only used it in my sb to keep poop firm.....
Chicken
The chicken I got from the co-op is ground course with bone, breast and organs. When I grind mine I take the skin off and grind the whole chicken. I was worried about too much fat with the skin on and I'm not sure my grinder will do ok with the skin...but I can try the next time. I chop it up in parts and grind everything, rotating more meaty parts with boney parts for a more even blend. I keep the organs separate and chop then up separately so I can tell how much organ I'm feeding. I buy separate chicken livers and mixed beef organs. I still weigh everything so I make sure I add 10% organ. From what I have read is that the whole chicken is 10% bone. But I'm thinking that what I'm buying from the co-op has more bone then what I grind up.
I have had White poop on Ester, not the other two and only when they have been chewing on beef marrow bones.
I have been feeding more of the beef and tripe....so it is a good possibility that the beef has caused problems a well.
I hope I can get a real poop out of him soon. I know he's not totally blocked because he is squeezing out some runny poo and he is releasing gas...which I'm guessing is a good thing.
I'm just wondering if I could give him the Magnesium Citrate stool softener.
chicken backs are almost 20% bone.....
thats alot of bone...just stop any bone useage till poop is back....if the others also have white poop coming from them .....way to much bone....i posted last year a bone content of items i will try to find it again.....i dont give my guys bone every day.....so for a couple of days meat and oragns for everyone.....and then things will set right.....a softner wont hurt use 1/2 the child doseage...and dont worry we have all been their...
here are the bone %
back meat & skin 44%........drumstick meat&skin 33%....thigh meat&skin 21%.....leg meat &skin 27%......neck meat and skin 75% .....wing meat and skin 46% now with the wing if you leave the skin off its 68%.....the difference is the fat.....
breast meat $ skin 20%........
your pre made will have the correct amounts of bone to meat....when i see my guys poop getting loose i throw in some chicken and turkey necks...they eat them like pop corn.......
Hum ... I'll have to find
the article I read that the whole chicken was 10% bone. So it is actually more like 40% bone. I do leave the skin on the wings. Good thing I have been giving them beef and tripe with no bone as well.
NO NO JUDY
You are not reading my posts very well or I'm not explaining well. None of them have white poops....(I have been doing this long enough I understand when there is too much bone). Ester on a few occasions has had whiteish poops....only when she was also chewing on a raw marrow bone...because she can chew off pieces of bone.
On a regular daily basis none of them have white poops.
ok i misread...
some times its hard to get the understanding......i think your doing a great job.....we all have to adjust here and their......when i first started i thought white poop coming from the dog was good....now i know better......
I'd say...imho
That more meat is needed as it seems to cause the stool to loosen up a bit.
I give everything in the bag with chicken quarters, skin fat and all, I chop them a little with a hatchet.
I'm also giving [some] beef liver daily cut into pieces and frozen on wax paper and put in a storage bag for the week. I find a little is good, too much is not.
Tonight it was chicken thigh and around 3 oz beef steak roast or something I got at Safeway, and a snack of liver later.
Thjis morning it was chicken thigh and liver with a squirt of Salmon oil.
Now, if I fed Brother more meat he would get the runs. And he seems to gain weight quicker. So I assume the extra meat would help your dog. Also I find overfeeding loosens the stool....lol, so don't go over board on beef. Right now I'm not feeding any pork, and probably won't.
Like I say I'm no expert just what works for me, and Buddy eats everything he sees, garbage gut I call him he hasn't found anything that doesn't agree with him, but dog food.
Good Luck
Steve
Mean people still suck
Update - At the vets
I took him in on Saturday and we tried some other options before doing xrays, which didn't work. So he is back at the vets this morning being roto rootered. The xrays showed a huge poop and some bone in his colon that he can't pass. So it may be this raw stuff is not going to work for him. The vet wasn't opposed to the raw diet and suggested more fiber with pumpkin daily. So I will start with that, but now I'm gun shy and thinking he should just go back on kibble. He never had problems with kibble and he doesn't have allergies. The chicken from the co-op must have more bone % then I was giving with my grinding, and I did add more beef and tripe. I feel bad for MacKenzie...I was trying to do good, save some money on my food costs from the prepackaged raw and this has cost me a good $500 bucks likely more. Bummer :( Thankfully he will be fine, as long as he comes out of the sedation ok.