Hello all, My name is Nicole and my husky (Cali) has been having consistant stomach/stool problems for almost 8-9 months now.

Quick back story.. We started with Blue Buffalo Large Puppy Breed food. All was good, got to our second bag and we started having issues. Loose stools, decreased appitite, etc. Took Cali to the vet, and the vet completed a stool sample and blood work and cleared her with "no issues". The vet suggested maybe she got into cat liter or ate something that upset her stomach. I continued with the current food but the issues continued.
I took Cali back to a different vet. The vet cleared her stool sample once again but suggested a different brand of food (Purina Pro Life Lamb and brown rice base). We weened her on that and all seemed to go well! Increased appitite, more solid stools (YAY!). But not so fast, after about 2 weeks, runny stools started up again (and by runny stools I mean runnnnnnyyy stools, and shooting out of her like lava . I continued with the Purina Pro life thinking maybe she got into something she shouldn't have. Her stools continued to be very inconsistant. one day she's somewhat normal stools and the next it's lava again.
Took Cali back to the vet (I know, a lot of vet visits), the vet put her on a medication to ease her stomach and firm up her stool. The medication did not work.
After 4 hours of research on this forum about the variety of dog foods and the pros and cons, i decided on TOTW pacific stream grain free.
Before transitioning her to this brand, she was on a strict rice, pumpkin, and boiled meat diet for ~3-4 days. Stool firmed up! Slowly started adding TOTW into rice and meat mixure, all appeared to be good for ~ 2-3 weeks (with rice, meat, Pumpkin, and TOTW mixuture). Stool was good, I could finally pick up her poop! Then BOOM! AGAIN HER STOOL TURNED TO LAVA  MY POOR BABY. I have no idea what the heck to do.


So at the end of that (not so quick) back story. Cali continues to have stomach issues. Very runny and "explosive" poops reguardless of medication, and diet changes. I wake up in the morning to find her now pooping in the house. I can no longer pick up her stools because they're so runny. She is not eating any table food, I am trying my best to stay strict with her on her meals (her apitite is still good, eats all her food every night). Im just at a loss of what to do to help Cali to feel better. Especially confused that her blood work, stool sample, are always negitive.
Please Help!

Has she been checked for allergies or any diseases or conditions unrelated to her intestinal tract?  There's a whole list of things that could cause the diarrhea that have nothing to do with her digestive tract.  

Misty has chronic pancreatitis, so we have to keep her on a low-fat/fat-free diet or she gets diarrhea too.  Any dog food she eats has to be 9% or less fat content.  Not too many dog foods are that low in fat, but they do exist ("weight management" foods) and don't require prescriptions.

Misty, No Cali has not been allergy tested or anything like that. I honestly didn't even think of something like that. I'm a little frustrated that the vet (all 3 times i went) never suggested an alternative issue of that sort. I will most definitely have to look into that because I need to figure this out!
Thank you for your input!

How old is Cali?
How much does Cali weigh?
How much do you feed Cali per day?

Overfeeding can cause issues like this, and most dog food bags suggest more food than what a husky typically needs. Are you sure Cali isn't getting any extra food? (eating a lot on walks, getting into the garbage or other food source at home, someone slipping extra treats into the diet)

What boiled meat are you doing? Some huskies don't do well with chicken or turkey.

Allergies is a possibility and something you may want to look into.

Best of luck in finding a solution soon!  I'd have a vet do some blood work and check for pancreatitis, diabetes -- anything that looks unusual.  Enzyme counts can tell a lot about a dog's health.  In the meantime, you might want to try weaning Cali onto a low-fat food.  Low-fat foods do tend to help with many potentially inherited conditions that can give a dog diarrhea.  In commercial dry dog foods, look for a "weight management" food and check the label for the Guaranteed Analysis table.  There should be a listing for "Crude Fat not less than," or something similar.  The percentage given should be 9% or less.  Most commercial dog foods are 14% fat or more.

Oh! Almost forgot -- All of this also applies to TREATS. Your dog could also be having an adverse reaction to what's in her treats.

If you decide to try the low-fat approach, any treats that are high in fat or sugar should be avoided, too. The good news is that there seem to be many more commercially-available low-fat, low-sugar dog treats than there are dog foods.

It would be helpful to answer Dave's questions, example how much food are you feeding? ETC. I would invest in a product called animal essentials this https://www.chewy.com/animal-essentials-plant-enzyme/dp/49371?utm_source=google-product&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=hg&utm_content=Animal%20Essentials&utm_term=&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI3eKItM6W2AIVWZ7ACh2yeQ5qEAYYAiABEgIMWvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds it sounds to me like she had an issue early on but no probiotics was given, so the tummy issues continued. This product should help in getting the tummy settled and also help if she is lacking in certain enzymes. I would also assess how much TOTW you are feeding and continue feeding it along with the animal essentials, give the combo 4 weeks, if poops do not firm up and stay consistent, then I am going to suggest The Honest Kitchen with the animal essentials. THK is very simple to use and have read great success stories on firming up poops. Altho Faye's suggestion is a good one, I think, at least imho, a puppy needs the fat that is provided in standard dog foods, you can opt to see the vet and ask about running tests on her pancreas, since pancreatitist and another issue called EPI can be ruled out, both have similar symptoms to what she is going thru. I also am questioning why nothing like Metro was not prescribed or some other antibiotic, since parasites like giardia can give false readings, and it also sounds like she could be bothered by a bug that is causing the continuous upset. I hope some of the things that has been mentioned can help. Poor pup.

Cali is 1 year and 5-6 months old. she weights 50lbs. the suggested serving size for TOTW is 2 1/3-3 1/4 cups per day for a pup her size. I give her about 1 1/2 cups per day because i mix the dry food with rice, pureed pumpkin (able a tablespoon), and boiled meat. The boiled meat I use varies but I normally end up getting ground beef.
She is home all day with her dad so we always have an eye on her and have never seen her digging in the trash. occasionally she eats grass on walks but not to frequently.
If over feeding can cause this problem, I can try to break up her meals to smaller portions throughout the day?

Renee is right that pups need their fat -- I forgot we were talking about a dog that's less than two years old. Cali is over a year old, and she's had this problem for 9 months?  Did she have any changes to her diet or environment 9 months ago?  As for overfeeding, does Cali tend to eat everything in her bowl, or does she stop when she's had enough and leave food behind?  If she eats everything in front of her, then overfeeding is a possibility.  Misty is a self-feeder and rarely eats everything in her bowl.

How much rice and boiled meat are you giving? You may be over feeding still. My 5 year old eats roughly 1-1.5 cups of TOTW and 6-8 ounces of meat, she gets 2 hip treats total of 20 calories and some other snack in the am so I end up feeding 100 calories n the morning. Normally it is a sweet potato dehydrated treat. I have also had better success with TOTW new line Prey since iy has a slightly higher fiber % than the normal TOTW. So back to the drawing board, lol how much rice and meat are you feeding. Oh and btw my husky mix girl weighs about 65-70 pounds so you may still be over feeding.

Misty and Renee,
first thank you for your input! I havent seem to get much useful advice from the vets so all this information is useful and appreciated.
But after talking to you guys i think i may be overfeeding Cali. At this point, Cali only eats at dinner. This is mostly because when i was feeding her twice a day she would not eat the morning meal and it would sit all day. Now, Cali does frequently leave food in her bowl then will return to it an hour or two later. But i would say 75% of the time she finishes what is in the bowl.
I give her about a cup of rice, and about 5 ounces of meat along with the ~1-1 1/2 cups of dog food everyday.

Hey CaliGirl!!!

It's funny you're posting this, because this is EXACTLY what happened with Echo. But I never went to the vet to check his stools, because it just didn't make sense for him to firm up and have amazing poops only to repeat again after a week or two. 100% it was all diet related.

Between the constant trips outside, the constant fear of him pooping in the house, actually pooping in the house, and the final straw was when he squatted right over the only shag rug I have in my loft and had a waterfall of diarrhea right over it. I was like F*** this!

My solution for you is to switch to a RAW diet. After fasting him for 24 hours, and feeding him his first meal. ROCK SOLID POOPS 12 hours later. It was like rainbows shooting out of his ass. I never looked back. While it is a bit more work, and more expensive to maintain, this has singularly been the only thing that has worked to get him to have normal bowel movements. I don't know why but Echo's stomach has just been so sensitive to anything and everything. I now maintain him on a strict RAW only diet with absolutely no human food, just fruits and vegetables from time to time and even his treats are all dehydrated meats like liver, kangaroo, lung, etc...I never feed more than 3 or 4 slivers a treats a day, and maybe a slice of vegetable from time to time. While this may seem very restricting, I'm just so over having Niagara Falls coming out of his ass.

If you do choose to try raw, I can't stress the importance of making sure you fast your dog for 24 hours and make sure you switch cold turkey. Don't mix his regular kibble with raw, don't add rice, etc...just fast for 24 hours and switch 100%. If your dog is anything like mine, start with Turkey for a week, then slowly introduce other types of meat. Also stay away from beef, for whatever reason beef makes echo have the runs (no idea why, but i've tried it several times and always bad poops). MIxing beef organs with turkey or chicken is fine, just no large whole meals of beef. =P. But you can experiment what works and doesn't work for your dog.

Cheers!

Good Luck!

Cali, before doing any drastic food changes, I agree with BChan if raw is easy enough for you it is a great way to feed, however there is a lot involved when you start out. So yes I think you are over feeding still. I would go down to one cup of food a day, eliminate the rice, and feed the 5 ounces of meat as an individual meal like in the morning. See how that goes, it would be also wise to get the animal essentials that I suggested above, it will help calm the tummy down, it is fairly inexpensive. I would try that for about 4 weeks and see if there is a trend on firmer poops.

Thanks MiyasMomma!  Yes just CONSIDER my suggestion, there are lots of options like different kibbles, reducing the amount fed, etc...Feeding RAW is very daunting at first what with the meat to organ to bone ratios, making sure you have all the required supplements and nutrients, feeding calculators, and blah blah blah...I can't be bothered with all that with my schedule.

IF you want to consider my option know that there are a myriad of companies out there that have everything all pre measured and pre-packaged for you so all you have to do is thaw and serve which is what I do. MUCH easier and takes the stress of meal prep out of the equation.  I also find these companies much cheaper than doing it myself too (at least where I live) because they can buy and sell in bulk.  They also usually do the whole hormone, antibiotic free local organic stuff which is a bonus, unlike the stuff  you go to the grocery store to get.  When you start feeding your dog RAW, you realize he/she really does eat better than you do.

I find it fun once you start. Cause then you can start mixing in different meats, adding eggs, different supplements, and raw bones to spice things up. Their meals end up looking like something you want to instagram regularly!

Goodluck with everything!

Thank you both for your input! i have considered the possibility of going raw but i just don’t think i can swing that right now !
but in the meantime i’m going to try feeding cali in the morning as well as dinner time and trying that probiotic ! i will update everyone in a few weeks ! fingers crossed !

Cali, there is an option in between kibble and raw, I suggested above, but have seen marked improvement in other groups I am in with dogs that have had similar issues as yourself. They went over to The Honest Kitchen. There are plenty of options within that line, by either using a premade mix and add your own meat in or getting the already made. So it is a nice step towards feeding raw. So if the kibble and the probiotics I suggested doesn't work after 4 weeks, hop back on and we can assist going towards raw.

sounds perfect thank you !

Hey CaliGirl,

Another option you can try feeding is freeze-dried RAW food. It's more expensive, but still the convenience of kibble with the benefits of raw. Just reconstitute with water and serve!

Another option you might consider if kibble isn't working.

For anyone who is interested...
It is coming up on 3 months since i switched up some stuff and took advice from some friends on this post, and Cali has been doing GREAT! very rare occasions of runny stools and overall is doing great! i now feed her a meal in the morning and a meal around dinner time and in the dinner time meal i put a teaspoon of Animal Essintials plant enzyme probiotic . we are still on TOTW and doing great! I also switched her treats to sensitive stomach/limited ingredient treats and she seems to love them! thanks everyone for your past advice!