[ahorn66]

I have two Pugs, and one has an iron stomach and she’ll eat anything, but my male is sort of finicky. Recently, we switched from Wellness in the purple bag to 4Health Small Breed, and that was oh maybe 2 months ago. Mugsy’s stools are always wet-looking, like he’s not getting all the nutrients from the food that Macy is. Would switching to 4Health grain free do the trick? He doesn’t seem to have any other complaints, and his energy level and appetite are fine.

[Hound Dog Mom]

Hi ahorn66 –

Switching to grain-free would help if he has an intolerance to grains. Regardless of what food you feed, I’d suggest adding a spoonful of plain canned pumpkin to each of Mugsy’s meals and getting him on a high quality digestive supplement with probiotics and digestive enzymes. Give things a few weeks and see if they clear up. Loose stools could be attributable to a few different factors – a food intolerance, unbalanced gut flora, need for increased levels of fiber, etc. Whatever the reason a quality digestive supplement and pumpkin (fiber) should help. Have you ever brought a stool sample into the vet and discussed this issue with your vet?

[ahorn66]

He has an appointment for the annual “oil change and tire rotation” LOL on Friday, and thought I’d mention it. If he had outright diarrhea, he’d already have been seen, but absent of any other symptoms, I dismissed it as sort of minor. Think we’ll try the pumpkin and probiotics and see how he does. Thank you!

[pugmomsandy]

ahorn66,

He might just need more time or he might need less volume of the new food. One of my pugs took about 2 months on a mixture (25% old/75% new) before eventually going to a new food which happened to be a high protein, grain free food. And I didn’t know about probiotics or digestive enzymes or pumpkin or other fiber back then. Right now my foster pugs eat Nutrisca or Nutrisource grain free Lamb or Heartland Select and one eats some Brothers Complete. I give ground psyllium when they first come to my house to help them with their stools. But definitely add a probiotic.

[Author]

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