[NicoleJ]

Hi all,

I’m new here, was just looking for a dog forum that encompasses health and diet and had a number of raw feeders so hopefully I’ve come to the right place.

My dog’s name is Dacey, she is a coming 13 year old miniature smooth Dachshund.

Earlier this year she was very “off”.. depressed, lethargic and seemed to be in some sort of discomfort. Her poops were very abnormal ( mostly very thin, or absolutely FULL of hair). But after she passed a few hair balls she was back to her normal self after a few days. Then, about a month later, she had a mysterious front leg lameness(she wouldn’t put any weight on her right front) that also went along with her not pooping for almost 2 days. When I took her to the vet and we determined there was nothing obviously wrong with her leg, but her anal sacs were full.. he dealt with those and voila, she can walk again! LOL. But her poops still aren’t entirely “normal”. She is still having intermittent narrow poops, or very dry “pellet” poops, or very mucusy wet poops, and she still has a lot of hair in them! (im guessing she must be picking it up off the floor, but it’s still weird cause some poops are really full of it and I have never seen her walking around eating things off the floor, so she must be doing it when I’m not home? ) She is raw fed… I’ve been trying to make sure she isn’t getting too much bone material in her food because that definitely causes very dry hard poops. Years ago when she was kibble fed I had to make sure she was getting a high fibre diet because her anal glands would randomly leak if she didn’t get at least 5-7% fibre. But she also pooped 3-4 times a day with that diet. Now she only poops once a day most of the time, and they are much smaller and harder, but she doesn’t have the anal glad leakage either, actually the opposite problem, her anal gland secretions are very thick and may be blocking her ability to poop properly.

I’ve also notice she isn’t drinking nearly as much as she used to. At first I chalked it up to the amount of extra moisture she gets from the raw food, and less fibre, but because she is having these pooping issues, I’m not sure she is getting enough water. She used to drink tons, I’d always have to keep a water dish full in my car for her and now she rarely drinks at all even if we are gone all day on road trips (she is my sidekick, always comes with me for work). When I give her the pinch test her skin isn’t snapping back into place, it hasn’t been for quite a while, but isn’t too bad. She still is full of energy, eats well etc. It’s just the weird pooping issues which makes me think she isn’t drinking enough due to the consistencies. Today I started adding water to her food and will see if that helps. I’m not used to having an older animal who isn’t drinking enough, usually it’s the opposite- Kidney issues and drinking a ton!

anyone else deal with these issues and an older dog?

thanks
Nicole and Dacey

[pugmomsandy]

What exactly is she eating?

[Dori]

Have you asked your vet to check her kidneys? Is she having any skin issues or anxiety of any kind that she would be licking herself and ingesting her hair that way? Just trying to think of things off the top of my head. My girls are on a raw diet and true they don’t drink as much water as they used to when they were on dry but they certainly do drink enough that I’m having to give more water. Is she urinating as she should and are you able to tell if her urine has gotten any darker?

[NicoleJ]

She is peeing normally, normal amounts, normal color/smell, regular frequency.

She did start licking her paws this past year, could be anxiety related, she has been going a bit senile the past year so things that didn’t use to bother her seem to. But the hair that is in her stool is a mix of her hair and human hair and it’s quite a bit of human hair, so more than just the odd piece stuck to her foot. She did have some kidney work done not too long ago and everything was normal, she was suffering from spay incontinence. I am wondering if there is some sort of hormonal imbalance causing many of these issues as a year and a bit ago she had a mystery illness that ended up being mange which obviously shouldn’t be happening unless there was something messing with her immune system. She has about 20 skin tags as well… had a UTI along with the spay incontinence… so something is out of whack. And I know that hormonal issues can cause digestive problems… so makes me wonder if there is a tumor or something messing with the endocrine system.

As for what she eats… it’s a mixed bag LOL.. I get my raw food from a local raw diet company, they do frozen premixes so I tend to grab a variety. At the beginning of the year when the stool issues were first starting I believe she was getting turkey, with organs, some veg and cranberry, I also throw in sardines here and there, and was giving her canned pumpkin when things were causing issues but it made no difference. Since then she’s had a few other things… chicken, lamb, beef, goat, venison, duck. Doesn’t seem to matter what she eats, her stools don’t change, the only time they do is if she is getting too much bone matter ( I give her a marrow bone to chew on every day, and have to make sure there isn’t much “powdery marrow” or her stools will be little chalk balls.)

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