With Gut Health Testing, Your Dog’s Poop Can Tell You Even More
Since your dog’s poop is about 50% microbes, even a small sample can provide a lot of information about your dog’s unique gut microbiome—the diverse community of trillions of tiny organisms (microbes like beneficial bacteria, virus, fungi, etc.) that live in their GI tract. The gut microbiome is involved in almost every aspect of your dog’s well-being, including digestion, immune response, longevity, and even mental health.
By sending AnimalBiome a pea-sized sample of your dog’s poop for analysis, you can get a detailed picture of your dog’s gut health. Find out whether the bacteria that make up their microbiome are out of balance, and get personalized advice if a gut microbiome imbalance is causing your dog uncomfortable symptoms, like diarrhea or itchy skin. Gut microbiome testing is an easy, noninvasive way to find out exactly what’s going on in your dog’s gut. Using DNA sequencing, our scientists will identify all the different types of bacteria present in a sample of your dog’s stool. Then we will compare those results to our reference set of all the beneficial bacterial groups we expect to find in a healthy dog’s gut. Here’s what you can learn from gut microbiome testing: Your Dog’s Unique Microbial Community. By identifying all the different bacteria in your dog’s stool sample, we can give you a detailed picture of their unique gut microbiome. Missing Bacteria. By comparing your dog’s results with the healthy reference set, we can tell whether your dog is missing any important beneficial bacterial groups. The absence of certain groups may be a result of antibiotic use, diet, illness, or other factors. Harmful Bacteria. Microbiome testing will also identify problematic groups of gut bacteria. These may be pathogens that don’t belong in a healthy dog’s gut or normal members of the microbiome whose populations have grown too big. Imbalances. If important beneficial bacteria are missing, or harmful bacterial populations are too big, the gut microbiome is out of balance. As a result, your dog may experience distressing symptoms, such as diarrhea, constipation, itchy skin, or even behavioral issues. Identifying imbalances early allows you to make changes to your dog’s diet or lifestyle that can improve or even prevent symptoms.
Your Dog’s Diet. Every gut microbiome is unique. Different dogs need different dietary adjustments to support the growth of specific beneficial bacteria. Our microbiome testing report includes food recommendations based on your dog’s individual results to help you make simple changes that can improve their gut health and overall wellness. Microbiome testing is easy with our DoggyBiome Gut Health Test kit. The kit contains everything you need to collect a small stool sample and send it to us for analysis. You’ll get your dog’s results by email within two weeks, along with personalized recommendations for diet, supplement, and/or lifestyle changes to improve your dog’s health.
Does Your Dog have Soft Poop?
Often, soft poop is just a sign that a dog’s diet doesn’t contain enough fiber. Brown rice, apples, carrots, and cooked sweet potato are some of the fiber-rich foods that are good for dogs.
Adding a little inulin or psyllium husk powder to your dog’s food may help, since these fibers help absorb excess water in the large intestine, allowing more solid stools to form. They also act as prebiotics, meaning that they support healthy digestion by nourishing the beneficial bacteria that live in the colon. FOS is another prebiotic fiber that can help improve stool consistency. Our DoggyBiome S. boulardii + FOS Powder is a great source of this prebiotic.
If the soft poop came on suddenly, chances are it’s diet-related. Pay attention to any indiscriminate browsing your dog might be doing. Check the ingredients of any new treats. Many “semi-soft” or “semi-moist” dog treats contain glycerol or glycerin, which may have a mild laxative effect, or even propylene glycol, a controversial pet food additive. Discontinue any newly added food item temporarily and see whether the stool becomes firmer. Then reintroduce that food item and note any changes in stool consistency.
If your dog’s stools are chronically soft, there are some other possible causes. If your dog has been frequenting dog parks or areas known to harbor parasites (like Giardia), then ask your veterinarian whether a fecal parasite screen might be warranted.
The volume of poop should be proportionate to the amount of food your dog usually eats. A lot of fiber in the diet will result in a larger volume of poop. Fiber is a type of carbohydrate that isn’t digested by the body itself but relies on the gut microbiome for processing.
If your dog seems to be producing a lot of poop, or you notice a change in the amount of poop, it may mean your dog’s digestive system isn’t processing their food thoroughly. This means not all the nutrients are getting absorbed.
Veterinarians associate poop volume with the location of GI distress: a large volume of loose stool at once is associated with small intestinal issues, while multiple loose stools of small volume are associated with issues in the large intestine.
Mucus in the stool may indicate an infection, such as canine colitis (inflammation of the large intestine). It could also be caused by parasites or a foreign body in the intestines. Let your veterinarian know if you see mucus in your pup’s poop over the course of more than two or three bowel movements. Stool with a greasy sheen could mean there’s too much fat in your dog’s diet or their pancreas isn’t breaking down fat correctly. Greasy poops can also point to a bile problem.
White specks in fresh dog poop may be parasites. Tapeworm segments, for example, often look like grains of white rice. Take a stool sample to your veterinarian for parasite and pathogen screening.
If you want to read similar articles to My Dogs Poop Smells Really Bad, we recommend you visit our Intestinal problems category.
Any disturbance in the digestive system can cause a dogs poop to smell bad. In dogs this situation is not uncommon because they have a tendency to ingest even the smallest seemingly edible substances. This can include garbage from home or the street, any leftover food even if it is mouldy, plastics, weeds or even dead animals. Although their stomach is well prepared to digest this type of material, this may cause irritation and lead to rapid transit with foul-smelling diarrhea, since they have not had time to eliminate the water.
Any change in a puppy’s poop should be reported to a veterinarian, especially when it is more vulnerable during the first few months of life. One specific disease known to cause stools with an unmistakable odor: canine parvovirus, a very contagious and serious viral disease.
This disorder is generally mild, and can be solved with a day of a soft food diet. However, if there is a lot of diarrhea and the dog does not replace the liquids lost, it could become dehydrated. Special attention should be paid to puppies, weaker adults and older dogs. In these cases, you should not wait for it to resolve itself but go to the veterinarian.
Remember that foul odors in your dog’s poop, like the smell of spoiled milk, could also be explained by overfeeding. In these cases, your dog will produce a lot of shapeless poop. Adjusting the rations to the manufacturers recommendations should solve this issue.
Does Your Dog Have Stinky Poo | How to Eliminate The Stink
No one expects dog poop to smell like a bouquet of roses, but there’s a difference between stinky and foul. If your dog’s poop wages war on your nose, you don’t have to grin and bear it. Most of the time, ultra-smelly poop comes from a diet or medical issue that can be rectified.
Do you get the first dry food you see at the grocery store? Often, the main cause of smelly stool is diet, and although low-quality dry foods might fill your dog’s belly, that doesn’t mean they’re healthy. Many dog foods are full of fillers that your dog can’t digest or fail to give them a balanced diet, leading to smelly stool.