My girl is 9 months old. She had some bowel issues starting when we got her at 8 weeks. She had worms that took forever to get rid of, and then seems to have some lactose intolerance issues. She had pretty bad diarrhea and did a round of meds to try to re-establish normal flora. I cut out the dairy and started her on a probiotic and changed food, and now it seems she's pretty consistently having good stools. But sometimes she goes over 24-36 hours without pooping. Is this normal for Huskies? I always hear how dogs poop every time you walk them, or certain times of the day...she has never fallen into those patterns and some days I'm not sure if she went because she went to daycare. I'm just curious for the future, at what point should I start to be concerned, after how long without stools? Thanks for any info.

I have always heard to switch to cooked rice and boiled chicken (no bones) when dogs have stomach or poop issues. Also canned pumpkin (not pie filling- actual pumpkin) to help get things flowing.

I would think if the poop is normal looking, I wouldn't get too worried.

Sorry, you kinda hit one of my points - once a dog has matured out of puppy hood, most dogs are lactose intolerant, it's a natural part of maturing.  So eliminating the dairy from his diet should help.

Take a look at this WebMD video which explains why and what can result from what feeding your dog dairy product.  (note, the text on the page follows the audio of the vid)

Most dogs generate enough lactase so that small amounts of dairy aren't a problem - a tsp of yogurt for example but too much (which will vary from dog to dog) can result in undesirable 'effects.'

ETA: Sorry, I got sidetracked and didn't even hint at an answer to your question.

I'd be very concerned if the pup was trying to defecate and couldn't - constipation.

If the pup is eating normally and skips one day, I wouldn't be too concerned; if they skip two or more then I'd be wondering why - blockage?

Since Sibes have a bad habit of going off their food for two - three days, if he didn't defecate during this period, I'd not be surprised or concerned.

Depending on if they eat for the day it will determine if they poop the next. Miya will go off food for a day or two and she will not poop a day or two after. If she is eating daily, then she goes poop daily. She typically goes once a day, when eating right. Pure pumpkin is a great item to have on hand, it helps with both constipation and with diarrhea. A healthy dog should go once or twice a day, as long as they are eating. At 9 months old I am guessing your pup is eating food that works best and is forming a routine, having adult digestion. If your pup is eating normally and has not gone for 2 days I would be concerned about a blockage. If you feel like your pup may have ate something that shouldn't have and hasn't gone in 2 days, and is eating normally I may would take pup to the vet and get tummy checked. If pup is eating normally, hasn't gone poop in 2 days and starts throwing up that is a sure sign of a blockage.

Since you used the phrase "sometimes"( she goes over 24-36 hours without pooping) I'm assuming that she poops in between those times/this "schedule" has happened more than once, in which case a blockage would be ruled out, in my opinion. Perhaps a partial blockage wouldn't be ruled out (I'm guessing) but you say her poops have been pretty good. I'm wondering though, since dogs do generally have a pooping schedule, is if she has a pretty set routine as far as eating at a certain time, going on walks at a certain time, etc. I'm also wondering if there is any possibility you are just somehow missing some times of visually seeing her poop. I'd think though that you'd find it somewhere in the yard or something though, unless you have other dogs and the poop out there just gets attributed to them. I'm mostly wondering about a set schedule of eating though because if it's pretty set, than I do think it's odd she hasn't set up her own poop schedule.

Thanks for all the replies guys.  I appreciate the input.  I will try to answer some of the questions.  Unfortunately our life is very UN-routine.  I worried about that before we got a dog (pretty much the first dog ever for my husband and for me too, both about 50 years old) , but when I talked to several people to get opinions, they all said oh, no worries, the dog will adapt to the lifestyle, so I hope we didn't do her a disservice by bringing her into our very busy and very little routine type home.  I'm a nurse, and I work multiple different shifts, sometimes 8 hours, sometimes 12, sometimes 16, days eveings and night shifts.  I usually work 3 days a week, so I am home on the other days.  On those days, she eats at the same time, we walk in the morning and evening.  On the other days, she might be crated for 4 hours in the morning while I sleep after working night shift, or she may go directly to daycare after breakfast; she might be at daycare 5 hours, or she might be there 10 hours, depends on our work schedules.  My husband owns his own business and if there is a lot of work, he may work 16 hour days.  It's just he and I, so we try really hard to coordinate so that she is never in the crate more than 5 hours at a time, and pretty much no more than 5 hours total in a day besides sleep.  We make sure that one of us is always there otherwise.  The only consistent thing really in her life is bedtime.  Every night at 945-10pm she goes to bed.  She usually sleeps until about 730-830ish.  I hope that our crazy life is doable for her because she's now my baby and no way I'm giving her up.  We just work hard to do the best we can by her.  I try to keep daycare to 2-3 days a week because I feel like if she goes too much she is overtired.  

Her stool consistency has been mostly good for a couple of months now, and she does not appear to strain.  One evening on our walk she kind of sniffed around and even started to "assume the position" lol, but she did not go.  We walked an extra 15 minutes and still nothing.  So I put her to bed with no poop.   The next morning I was expecting constipation, but the stool was just a normal stool.  I also did not know that they can "go off their food"--this would make a little more sense in my mind, since she has had periods where she just doesn't seem to want to eat much for a day or two.  

About possibly missing the poop in the yard--she is either walked on a leash or sometimes put on a lead in our yard, because we do not have a fence (unfortunately!). She gets at least 20-30 minute walk in the morning and again in the evening all summer with it being so hot, that will increase this fall when it's cooler. She most definitely goes at daycare I would think but they really don't keep track of poops so it's impossible to know.

I'm sure it is probably related to our inconsistent life and the feeding schedule which we try to stick to at home, but daycare has different feeding times that we can't match at home. I don't want to try, they wake their boarding dogs at 6am, feed everyone breakfast, and then once the day pups get there, they feed lunch at 11am and dinner at 4pm.  She doesn't even wake up till about 8am, and is slow to eat her breakfast so done about 845-9ish, then lunch about 1-2pm  and dinner about 6-630p.  Again, this is only on the days she is home, which completely varies every single week.   So if we feed her breakfast at 830amat home, then take her to daycare at 930am, she doesn't want lunch when they feed at 11am.  It's just all screwy.  She had problems as a very little puppy with eating too fast/throwing up, so we went to 3 smaller feedings a day.  Now I'm wondering if it would be better to go to twice a day, maybe we could get a little more consistency, I just don't know.  

We actually considered giving her up just because of our busy life, and inconsistency.  But we just couldn't do it.  She seems happy and well-adjusted, and sleeps well at night, and loves daycare but also seems to love her lazier days home with me, but I do make sure she gets walks/play/training every day.  I feel like she has a pretty good life with us and I don't want to lose her now!  So I'm hoping no one says OMG this is TERRIBLE for your dog!  We really are trying our best!

Well, I'll make you happy, just because, "OMG this is TERRIBLE!!!" and now that that stupidity is out of the way, I'll explain that I am probably one of the more irritatingly<??> facetious people on here.

"She seems happy" dogs don't do well at faking happy, if she seems happy then, it's a safe bet she probably is. If day-care isn't complaining that she's "over the top" when it comes to the other dogs then she's obviously pretty well adjusted - and since Sibes tend to be hyper (they tell me) they would let you know.

So .... let's tell you a little about me. I'm a retired old man (old fart) who should probably have a little terrier or some such, but I don't like little dogs. Primarily have had Black Labs until about 12<?> years ago when I rescued my first Sibe (she's no longer with me) but in the meantime have rescued three more Huskies. I get up when I get up (or they decide it's time) and I go to bed when I go to bed - no set times at all, bedtime may be 20:00 or it may be 03:00. Wake up is probably the most regular part of the day at somewhere between 07:00 and 09:00. One of mine get two meals a day, the other two get one - and I decided that if they didn't want to eat breakfast then they could wait; the other one gets two meals because that's what she wants - no big deal.

If I go into town - either the one 18 miles away or the one 80 miles away - Avalanche goes on his lead off the front porch, Sky goes into her crate, and Sasha is left to roam and often one of the crew will go with me depending on the heat. I may be gone an hour or I may be gone 5 or 8 hours (and next Monday I have a Dr's appointment so it'll be 12+ hours) they're happy to see me come back whichever it is.

Your schedules might be more odd then mine, but if she's happy and glad to see you, if she isn't *over the top* running and jumping on you when you get home then she's probably doing well. The fact that you've noticed something that may be a problem and come to talk with us says that you're a lot more concerned than some dog owners are which says a lot about your care for her.

Some dogs are as regular as clockwork - about almost everything; others are about as regular as a broken clock (well, it's right twice a day) and they're doing fine. *To me* it sounds like you're happy with her and she's happy with you so why stress?

As far as feeding times go, if she starts leaving food at one of her meals - or just doesn't "seem interested" you could try dropping it - she'll let you know if she really wants it.

I think you are doing great, and that you have yourself a good little girl there. While your schedule/routine isn't set in stone, it's all she's ever known so it's probably pretty normal for her. Since her pooping "issue" didn't sound like a medical problem, to me, when I read your post, about the only other thing I could think of is that her eating schedule and such could possibly be less routine than the average dog.

I thought about your wondering if you should change her feeding from 3 to 2 times a day and in my opinion, I'm not sure it would make much of a difference, so as long as she does poop when she has to, and shows no signs of distress or anything, I'd just keep things as they are. Your call though, of course.