What should my puppies poop look like? Simple and Effective Tips

What Should Puppy Poop Look Like?

Puppy poop tells a lot as it is the direct result of the things they ingest. As a new and young puppy parent, you probably are more familiar with your pup’s mess; after all, you must be cleaning a lot of it every day.

If you are well-attuned to the poop’s appearance, you may be able to see poop that just looks wrong sometimes. But for you to notice that something’s not right means that you must be checking for something, right?

Well, when evaluating your pup’s poop, here are some of the things you should watch out for.

A healthy puppy stool should range from medium to a chocolate-brown color. Any color besides brown should be alarming.

A dog’s normal digestion involves the gall bladder releasing bile juice to help break down the food. The bile juice has a pigment known as bilirubin that causes abnormal poop color, which could be due to diet, hydration, or dyes in your pet’s food.

Some of the alarming color patterns include:

Black – A dark or nearly black poop is an indication that the pup is bleeding high up in the gastrointestinal tract. It may result from ulcers, cancer, or a tumor in the stomach or small intestines.

Red or Blood Streaked – A red tinge in your puppy’s stool could be fresh blood, which is a sign of bleeding in the lower part of the digestive tract-probably the large intestine or anal glands. However, the red coloration could be because your pup has ingested something with a robust dye or medication. Similarly, bloody stool could be a sign of parasite infestation as parasites like giardia and coccidia produce blood in the poop. Parvo also causes blood-streaked stools and may require surgery. The good thing is, you can’t ignore a bloody puppy poop because, while regular poo has an odor, the blood-streaked stool has a nastier smell.

Grey or Yellow – Although rare, grey or yellow dog poo that appears greasy may indicate issues with the pancreas, liver, gallbladder, or food sensitivity that warrants immediate medical attention.

Green – If you notice green matter, then your puppy is eating plenty of grass. Although grass isn’t much of an issue, it could indicate an upset system.

White – White puppy stool is normal, especially if it’s been sitting on the ground for some time. Sometimes, puppy stool turns white if it eats lots of calcium from feeding on too many bones or a raw diet. You may want to puppy-proof your home because white poop could also result from eating paper towels or tissue paper. Although not alarming, if the matter begins showing in the stool, your pet could be constipating due to blockage.

Usually, vets use a numerical system from 1-7 to assign scores to a puppy’s stool. A score of 1 indicates hard pellets, while 7 is a puddle. An ideal puppy stool score is 2-a firm, not soft or hard, and a segmented piece that often appears caterpillar-shaped.

Formless and Soft – This is often a score of 7, which means the puppy is suffering from diarrhea, a liquid puddle of poop that has no form at all. Formless stool means that the large intestines are not reabsorbing excess water or the pup has ingested something other than puppy food. Watery diarrhea could be a sign of parasites or a viral infection such as parvo. And, if other symptoms such as vomiting accompany watery diarrhea, check for dehydration. Dehydration is common in puppies and may require emergency vet care.

Hard Stool – Hard poo that is painful to pass may indicate constipation. Most constipation causes include stress, mainly due to moving homes, lack of fiber in the diet, and lack of water prompting dehydration. Constipation also occurs if your puppy swallows a stiff object that blocks the intestinal tract or if matted-hair blocks your pup’s anus. You may require to clip or shave the fur around your puppy’s anus to create room to pass poop. A super-hard or super-soft stool is usually no cause for concern, especially if the pet’s behavior is regular. However, find a vet if it persists for over a day.

Unfortunately, puppies are curious, and just like infant humans, there’s no telling what they may swallow as they explore their surroundings.

However, there’s only one way to get the inside of a poop-dissecting it. Normal stool shouldn’t look otherwise on the inside, but here are some peculiar contents you may find:

Intestinal Parasites – You may find roundworms, which look like long and skinny spaghetti-like fragments. On the other hand, tapeworms appear tiny and rice-shaped and usually come out in segments. Check for signs of worms, although they do may not always show beforehand. Once they start showing in your pup’s poo, they’ve been in its body for quite some time. You may also notice eggs around the anus after it releases the segments.

Foreign Materials – You may not know that your puppy is digging in the trash until you find bits of grass, sock bits, rocks, tiny sticks, bits of bark, seeds, and plastic. Most dogs experience pica, the eating of non-food objects. Luckily, seeing them in the stool means that your dog may not need surgery to remove them. Also, you may notice whole pieces of food in the stool, which may result from absorption and digestion issues. Whole food pieces are typical among young puppies as they are still getting used to ingesting solid food, and their system is still adapting to the switch from milk, to soft food, to kibbles. Plus, dogs generally find some foods like corn, wheat, or soy difficult to digest, and you may require to reconsider your puppy’s diet altogether.

Fur – If you notice hairy stool, it is a sign that you need to groom your puppy. Puppies may ingest excess fur in their food due to stress, allergies, skin disease, or even loneliness.

Mucus – Puppy stool shouldn’t have a covering or a film such as mucus over it. A filmy appearance or if you tend to leave a trail after picking poop indicates that bowel inflammation or parasite infestation. Diarrhea and blood-streaks often accompany such stool, which indicates that your puppy is straining to defecate.

Greasy Appearance – A greasy stool is a sign of too much fat in the pup’s system. You could be feeding it excess fat or an indication of an underlying health problem, although liver problems and pancreatitis are most common in mature dogs. Consult your vet if it persists for over a day.

Usually, greasy poop isn’t a major health concern. It may mean that your puppy has been consuming too much fat. It may be from their dog food formula or because they got into your trash can and ate some greasy leftovers.

If your dog has worms, you’ll notice it. They’re white and stand out against the brown color of the stool. In many cases, they’ll be wriggling around and even make their way out of the poop. When worms are present in the poop, it means that there’s still some inside your pup.

While dog poop isn’t the sole indicator of your puppy’s health, it’s one of the few things you can see every day. The appearance of your canine companion’s poop can vary from day to day.

There are a number of different species of worms that make your dog’s intestines their home, but only two can be seen in poop. Roundworms are the most common and look like thin smooth tubes.

Mucus is another story. Typically, mucus is generated within the intestinal tract because of irritation. When your dog consumes something their body doesn’t agree with, the intestines may swell up and produce mucus to protect the absorption cells.

Under normal circumstances, dog stool is a chocolate-brown color. During normal digestion, the gallbladder releases bile to aid in the breakdown of food. Bilirubin is a pigment in bile that affects stool color. The stool may have some minor deviations in color due to diet, hydration, or dyes, but you shouldn’t see substantial changes. Abnormal color patterns that should catch your eye include:

Poop should not have a coating or a film over it. If you’re picking up your pet’s stool off the grass, there shouldn’t be any sort of trail left behind. A coating of mucous often accompanies large bowel inflammation, and often occurs concurrently with diarrhea. Small streaks of bright red blood may also show up on occasion, usually secondary to straining to defecate. A single red streak isnt a cause for concern, but repeated red streaks should trigger a call to your vet.

Fortunately, the vast majority of issues related to dog poop resolve on their own in 24 hours. If your dog is eating, drinking, and behaving normally, giving her a day to sort herself out should be fine. However, if he or she stops eating, seems depressed, or continues to have digestive symptoms after a day, it’s time to call the vet.

Your dogs poop can give your vet a tremendous amount of information about your dog’s digestive and overall health, which is why your vets office will routinely ask you to bring a fecal sample along to office visits.

Vets also look at the actual content of your dogs poop. The inside of a stool shouldn’t look any different from the rest of it, so finding any of the following in your dogs poop may signal an issue:

Dog Poop Color Chart: What It All Means

Wondering how healthy your dog is? The proof is in the poop. The below infographic shows how the shape, size, content, color, and consistency of a dog’s poop can give clues into any internal problems you and your vet may have missed or may need to investigate.

For instance, watery stools may indicate an intestinal problem, while small pellet-like poops can mean your dog is dehydrated. More serious issues that warrant a veterinary visit include mucus (possible inflamed colon), blood, white bits (may be tapeworm), or black, coffee-like stool (possible internal bleeding.)

Also, look at the color. Shades that may be problematic include orange/yellow (possibly caused by biliary or liver problem), green (possibly caused by a gall bladder issue or eating grass), or gray or greasy (possibly caused by a pancreas or biliary problem).

So what’s a perfect poop? It should be brown, solid but a bit squishy, in one log-like piece, and sized proportionate to the amount of food your dog ate.

That’s why although everyone poops, including your dog, taking a closer look at what comes out can give you insight into your dog’s health.

And remember, if you notice any changes in your dog’s elimination schedule and you haven’t changed his food recently, it may be worth contacting your veterinarian to rule out any potential problems.

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