Dog Poo Question?

[cascy]

Ok, this is kinda gross but I feel I need to figure it out...

One of my dogs, and I'm not sure which it is because I've not actually "seen" them yet... At night I put down a "potty pad" incase either of the dogs "need to go" and can't wake us up.. Well, the last couple mornings there has been poo on the pad (that doesn't usually happen, but the last two mornings they have so that kinda struck me as "odd") but then I noticed something else really wierd...

The Poo is like white and really dry looking when I know it's not been there that long...

So what could cause that? I don't think they are dehydrated, I mean, they have water available 24/7? Anything else it could be or am I just "over worrying"?

[farmergal]

Have they been chewing on any bones? I know my Maltese will have stools like that when she has eaten bones or rawhide chews.

[calicocalgirl]

Mine get like that when they eat Ziggies. I dont give many rawhides so never noticed if that happens.

[KatieMae]

I think it happens with elevated protein intake... Like farmergal said, her dog gets it when she eats rawhides... Rawhides = lots of protein...

[wildcat180]

It happens with my dogs when I give them smoked bones. The smoke flavoring dries them out quite a bit. (Doesn't happen with unsmoked bones.)

[cascy]

Hmmm... Well they havn't eaten anything out of the norm that I know of....

Just dry dog food....

[doyle82]

Have they been outside where they could potentially be getting into a pile of something?
Just asking because animal that eat deer etc will have feces like this when they eat the bones.

BTW - the subject line definately piqued my interest!

[version1955]

Oh Goody - a poo question! The stuff of gods

There appear to be three issues; one is that a dog is poo'ing during a time of day that is not usual, two is that the dog is poo'ing "out of place", and three, the color and consistency of the poo.

I'd be tempted to deal with the first two issues first. Excuse me for not keeping up with you and your dogs, but are these guys puppies? And that's why you use a pad? Adult dogs ought to be able to hold it. Since you said this is a new occurrence, are they getting a higher volume of treats in the evening without a chance to go outside?

I feed Schoen in the morning, we go for our walk and he poos twice during our walk. I do not treat in the evening... usually... I try not to

Second, if you "allow" them to pee on the mats, it seems to me they can't distinguish between being "allowed" to pee versus poo. I can't see dogs making that distinction.

Now, the color and consistency. In my experience white is from bones and the dryness is also from eating bones because bones are dry. As a kid I type-cast small dogs, particularly poodles with white poos.

I found an article on comparing fecal characteristics for different sizes and breeds of dogs on dry and canned dog food, but there wasn't any mention of white poos or dry poos. Only that different dogs have different poos for the same diet.

Here's the summary of the article, it may give you some insights into your dog's poo

The digestive capacity of dogs varying in body size was tested. Digestive experiments were conducted with 10 different canine breeds (n = 66) with body weights ranging from 4.2 to 52.5 kg with 4–9 individuals. The animals were fed a canned or a dry commercial diet with a constant dry matter intake of 13 g/kg BW/day, except in Irish wolfhounds, which ingested only 10 g dry matter with the canned diet. Faecal dry matter was around 14% (absolutely) higher for the dry diet compared to the canned food, with a tendency in the larger breeds towards higher faecal water contents, less favourable faecal quality and increased numbers of defaecations. The Irish wolfhounds, the largest breed tested, had faeces with considerably lower water contents compared to Labrador retrievers, indicating that body weight is not the only factor to be considered. There were only small differences in the apparent digestibility of crude nutrients amongst the breeds. Sodium and potassium absorption was higher when the dry diet was fed compared to the canned food. In conclusion, breed and individual factors have to be taken into account when performing tests with dog food. Test panels for evaluating commercial diets should include breeds of larger body size and higher sensitivity to dietary disorders.

[cascy]

No, they are not puppies... One is about 8 and the other 5 or 6, both are rescue pups so I don't know thier exact ages, but that was the vets best guess... One chihuahua and one weeny....

I always have a pad out, but the don't usually use it.... They normally prefer to go outside to do thier "buisness", but accidents happen and I rather them go on the pad inside if they have to. They usually get on the bed and wake me up if they need out and it's night time, but when brad is home they can't always get past him (he can be a bit of a violent sleeper) So incase they can't wake me... there is a pad. They have food and water 24/7 so I don't monitar their meals.... But like I said, this has never been an issue before, they usually go outside.

They do go outside some during the day but I havn't seen anything dead around the yard, and they don't go far from the house.... So??? Maybe they found a bird or something and I just havn't seen it yet? Could it be thier age that is contributing somehow?

I don't know which one is doing it.... hmmm.... Think I'm gonna go walk the yard and see if I can find anything....