How does your dog’s poop score today?
Other than pet owners, I can’t think of any other group of people who are so interested in poop! I expect that most of us will, at some point been asked by the vet for a full and vivid description of their dog’s poo – even been asked for a sample of it. It is therefore clear that keeping a check on our doggie’s output is no bad thing (not that there is any choice in the matter). I have recently come across a couple of articles on this subject which I thought might be useful to share.
The first one is What You Should Know About Your Pet’s Poop
The author talks of the four ‘C’s’:
Colour – should be chocolate brown (doesn’t say whether that is Dairy Milk or Bourneville). LOL
Consistency – There is a number system (more about that later) but an ideal stool should be number 2: firm, segmented.
Coating: Stools shouldn’t have a coating at all and you should be able to pick it up off the ground, leaving no residue.
Contents – shouldn’t have any worms or undigested food, hair etc.
The next web page is Poop Points
It is a graphical illustration of the aforementioned scoring system, numbered one to six. It’s suggested that:
Scores one and two may indicate constipation or dehydration
Scores three and four are correct
Scores five and six could indicate a problem with the dog’s digestive health.
However, I have found that it does depend on what the dog is being fed. To illustrate this, two of my Cairns have a raw diet and their poo is small and hard so veers towards number 1. The colour is a lighter brown but is variable depending on the variety of meat/fish/poultry that they have. The third one has a dark brown kibble and her poo is always number 2, the colour being more Bournville than Dairy Milk. They are all in super health and don’t appear to have any problems with the frequency or passing of faeces.
Of course if your Cairn’s poop is persistently five or six than it might be advisable to have him or her checked out by the vet. Often a change in food will bring about an improvement in the dog’s poop but that is a different subject which we hope to cover later on.
