My 3 year has always had off and on diarrhea. He might be good for a month or 2 and then it comes back. Besides the runny stools, we see him squatting and nothing coming out. During these bouts he's more likely to have problems at night while he's created. On several occasions I've had to throw out all his pads/carpet/etc. because I didn't hear him to get up and let him out.

We've always fed him high quality kibble with Stella and Chewy's meal mixers and peanut butter. Lately it's been Orijen. During the bouts he's usually acting normal otherwise. Sometimes he might loose his appetite but often he's normal. We keep up on all his shots, de-wormer, etc.

Is this normal or anything to worry about? Has anyone found a diet fix?

I'd ditch the toppers. Particularly the peanut butter. My guy had pudding poop the first few months we had him. Until I noticed that his poop looked just like the food going in - flecked with cracked corn grain. I switch to a movie without cracked corn and all is good now. He also gets a frozen beef bone a day, that also may be helping. You could try adding a small spoonful of bone meal to his food just make sure it is food grade and not agricultural use.

Spider does that where its loose and then it seems like she is straining. It takes her about 5 minutes to poop and after the initial big turds she does this walking squat for the next 5 minutes dropping what looks to be almost diarrhea in coin sized drops. Also we deal with random vomiting. Usually she acts 100% normal.

I was told by 5 different vets to basically get used to it. What spider has is a residual effect of parvo. Sometimes adding pumpkin helps sometimes it doesnt. So we just spent almost 7k ripping out carpet and putting down vinyl.

So how long have you had your pup and where did he come from. Also ibs has similar symptoms but is treatable. I would also ditch the peanut butter and food toppers because it could be an allergy and if that is the case, its not always easy to figure out and you may find entire brands unusable.

@amymeme you bone comment made me cringe because last time i gave spider a raw bone i ended up at the vet at midnight on a Saturday with a potential bloat that turned out to be severe constipation.

Lach will be 4 in April. We got him from a breeder at 8 weeks. He came with vet records and was supposed to be up on shots etc. but I recall we had to treat him for some stuff right away.
He's 70-75 lbs and gets 2 cups of kibble once a day.  We'll try dropping the PB right away. It's messy and leaves his muffin tin greasy...maybe growing bacteria.


 Thanks!

How tall is he at the shoulder? If less than 24" I would cut the food quantity to maybe 1.5 tho 1.75 cups per day. And maybe a try of dividing his feeding into twice a day.

As for the bone meal, I'm talking teaspoon to no more than a tablespoon. Start small. But try cutting his portion before doing that, he may just be eating too much.

I would definitely get rid of the PB and cut back on the topper. My male is pushing 90 pounds and gets 2 cups of kibble a day with a little origins 5n1. No extras. Whereas the issues are intermittent and not constant it's a little harder to track but I would personally probably drop both toppers and find a good probiotic or top with a quality yogurt instead if he's not a fan of plain kibble.

Thanks you guys. Since splitting into 2 meals and getting rid of the PB, Lach's stools are back to firm and he's eating his food as soon as we give it to him.

He might have recovered anyway as it's always been an off and on thing. I'll report back in a few months.

I probably should have posted this in the Feeding and Nutrition...if any Admins care to move it please feel free.

Lach's still getting occasional stomach issues. My wife thinks he's still munching cat poop out of the litter box so we're going to block his access and see if that helps.