# Exercise induced loose stools



## Kamikaze6rr

Is this normal?
Every time we go for walks her stools get loose an always has to poop. She will go before. And it will be normal. Go afterwards its normal. But during the walk, no matter where, or what intensity level, my Bella gets a stool that stinks and like a porridge consistency. If she goes again, It turns to pudding. Why is this?


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## lilyloo

I don't really know if it's normal, but this happened to Ruby when we were at the dog park last week. It was her first time there and she was playing and playing and playing and then suddenly stopped to poo and it was rather soft. I just chalked it up to her being excited.


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## redrover

There are a couple of proposed reasons for why this happens, but the long story short is that it's totally normal. People get it too, particularly long-distance runners--it's called runner's trots. One potential reason is that exercise diverts blood from the intestines, reducing intestinal activity and causing waste to move through the system faster. Another potential reason is all that bouncing up and down! It just helps move things along a little more quickly than usual.

This happens to Jasper too. He poops once before a play session or hike, then at least twice more during the excursion until his bowels are totally empty. They get looser each time. But then they're back to normal by the next time he has to go. Doesn't seem to bother him, but trying to clean up the loose stuff is annoying!


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## Kamikaze6rr

Ok that is great. does that mean i may need to wait longer before exercise or feed her less?
It would appear that whenever this happens it would be "wasting" her nutrition if everytime she gets "flushed"
or was this food that has been already digested?


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## Kamikaze6rr

But i do feed my dog at 530 am and she wont go for a walk until 8-930am.. so that has to be enough time right?
even if i exercise her prior to eating I get the same thing. i even make her poop before we go.


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## redrover

Honestly, I wouldn't worry about it. It's not really harming her. As long as she seems happy, energetic, and carries enough weight, it's fine. It takes quite a while to digest stuff, really--around 24 hours for an adult human, and it's not that dissimilar in other mammals. Morning poop might still have some dinner in it, and night poop probably still has some breakfast, maybe even dinner! But there's always going to be stuff in the bowels, unless your dog hasn't eaten for some time or took any kind of medication that is prescribed specifically to "flush" the bowels out (like before humans get colonoscopies). When I said Jasper's bowels are "completely empty" I was exaggerating a little, I think. 

My guess is that what we see as loose stool from exercise is whatever's moving through the large intestine. The majority of nutrient absorption happens in the small intestine. The material then moves to the large intestine, and that's where most of the water is absorbed and the waste packaged to be expelled. If waste moves to quickly through the large intestine, the result is watery stools.

So like I said before--normal and very likely harmless. The only way to prevent it is to not exercise her, and that's obviously much worse than a few loose stools.


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## veifera

I'm with redrover 100%. When the same thing happened to my puppy, my breeder suggested I may be overfeeding her (and looking back, it's obvious to me she was right).


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## Kamikaze6rr

Over feeding. Gotcha. Cutting back now. I feed 1.5 cups 2x a day now. Was feeding 2 cups 2x of blue buffalo wilderness. 
Will play around with amounts to see if that helps.


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## Kamikaze6rr

Cutting back on the amount of food has made a slight difference. Now i feed her one cup in the morning and two to three at night. The most exercise she will get in the night time may be a quick stroll around the house.
the exercise during the day hasnt produced as much stool as last time but still produces a softer stool than normal.
some say that it may be the high protein (blue wilderness)
still dont know what the deal is.


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## veifera

I'm a little confused. You said before you were feeding 1.5 cups twice a day. But your latest post you say you're now feeding 3.5 to 4 cups a day. I looked up Blue Wilderness and their feeding guidelines are between 1 to 2.5 cups per day for a dog that is up to 50 lbs when adult. If your V grows to 55 lbs, it's probably better to stick to the low end of the range, I would think. 

The other point - puppy food usually results in a softer stool than food like Performance regardless of you what you do - it's really really rich. And I really think you're overfeeding her right now. It's better to have a puppy on a skinnier side - it will grow slower and for a longer period of time but you're reducing the risk of environmental dysplasia because you're not forcing the baby bones to carry too much weight. 

I was in a similar situation as you are but called the breeder. Here's what I changed:

1. Reduced the food to about 2 cups a day, 1 in the morning and 1 in the evening. My breeder was very strict about feeding just slightly less than what the package says.

2. Added ground beef: one tablespoon, splashed a little boiling water over it, mashed it, then added the dog food and mixed, so the kibble is moist and there is a small amount of liquid in the dish. Beef will firm up the stool.

3. Added Purina FortiFlora about twice a week to eliminate farting (disappeared in a couple of days and I didn't use the entire package, maybe 2/3rds)

http://www.purinaveterinarydiets.com/Product/FortiFloraCanineNutritionalSupplements.aspx

4. Started giving some baby carrots during lunch time for snack (we don't use treats that much, except for training). They're great for keeping teeth clean. 

5. Switched to Purina Performance at about 6 months. That's great food, the stool immediately became "picture perfect" - firm, dark, odorless, never runny. LOL.

6. Gave one chew (bag size - petite when very young, then medium) after each meal to keep the breath fresh and remove plaque and tartar. I love these: 

http://www.virbacvet.com/products/DentalHealth/Chews/C.E.T.HextraPremiumChewsforDogs.aspx

I bought all of this stuff on Amazon, way cheaper than at the vet's. Obviously each case will be different as each dog is different. But this worked for me since the day we changed, the stool firmed up and while it was still somewhat soft, it never again was loose.


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## Kamikaze6rr

Actually I do only feed one in the am an 2 for dinner. I will post a pic of her here shortly she is not over fed. Her parents mature weight was 70 and 60 pounds and I went off the packaging on the blue wilderness puppy bag. 
Ground beef probably won't happen. Appreciate the advice but I just can't due to circumstances. 
But I will look into other things. 
I can see the ribs on this dog, so to cut back doesn't seem right. 
(IMHO)
Plus the dog is hungry all the time. 
The carrots is a wonderful idea. 
When I post the pics then you guys/girls tell me if I am over feeding.


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## threefsh

How old is she? We only feed our Riley girl (1yr old) once a day in the evening & this has almost completely eliminated the problem. Riley is the one who chose the feeding schedule. She recently started refusing to eat in the morning, but will eat a full dinner in the evening.


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## Kamikaze6rr

Does she look over fed?

Not trying to be a jerk but i really dont understand why i am dealing with loose stools during exercise.


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## Kamikaze6rr

She was born april 21st 2012 so she would be 6 months


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## redrover

It's honestly probably very likely that she is just always going to have loose stools when she exercises. If she does not have them at any other time (excluding very shortly after exercise, like 30 to 60 minutes), then I think you're fine and have nothing to worry about.

As I said before, my dog has them every time we go exercise for more than about 15 minutes--walk, run, whatever. So a couple times a day he has this, even though we usually exercise one hour before a meal, so it'll have been at least 8 hours since he last ate. He is of normal size and weight at just over 1.5 years, and he's been like this his entire life.

If you are still worried about it, I'd ask your vet. If she's having loose stools all the time, it could be a parasite or a food allergy. But if it's just during exercise, it's almost 99% likely to be fine, and something that is just going to continue to happen. As long as she's growing healthily and does not seem to express any concern or major discomfort, I think it's ok. You could try adding fiber-rich stuff to her food, like canned pumpkin (not the pie filling, just plain pumpkin), to her food at every meal and see if that helps firm it up--but again, there are times when Jasper's on canned pumpkin for loose stools and general, and while it firms up his regular poos, it does not really help with the ones that happen during exercise. Of course, fiber-rich foods are also capable of causing the exact opposite effect sometimes! You might try experimenting with different levels of it. 

Here are some articles on runner's trots, which is similar to what we're seeing in our dogs:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runner's_diarrhea
http://walking.about.com/cs/med/a/sensstools.htm
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/runners-diarrhea/AN00376

Edit to add: What a pretty girl!


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## Kamikaze6rr

thanks for the compliment


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## Kamikaze6rr

after getting her on 2.5 cups a day we still have "exercise induced diarrhea"
Maybe the wilderness puppy just doesnt go right with her stomach. any other time her stools are regular. firm side. but not super tight. i dunno what to do.


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## threefsh

Now that I think about it, we were feeding our re-home pup Cooper a Taste of the Wild formula that was very high in protein (32%) and he had exactly the same problem. We switched to a formula that is 25% protein and his stools immediately firmed up.


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## Kamikaze6rr

maybe i will back down on the protein a little. and see how she does.


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## Kamikaze6rr

kinda hard to find a quality grain free food that has lower protein levels.


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## threefsh

Taste of the Wild formulas are all grain free.


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## john_wi

I may be a bit late to the game, but I have experienced the same issue with my Vizsla.
Ragan is 4 years old, gets fed 3 cups of food/day. 1.5c at 6 am, and 1.5c at 6 pm. His daily exercise comes in afternoon between 3-5 pm. I have fed him Taste of the Wild since he was 6 mo old. Because I have dealt with this for almost 4 years, I feel that its just normal for him. He has never displayed any sort of digestive health issues. I have explained this to his Vet and the independent pet food store where I purchase his food. At one point I did think that his body was not able to process the high protein in his food. The very helpful owners of the pet food store assured me that this was not the issue. My dog gets a lot of exercise, and the high protein would be an issue if he was not as active. The days that he doesnt get his off leash playtime he NEVER has that issue, and will have one solid elimination and thats it. I know that this may not me all that helpful, but unfortunately this issue might just be something that you'll have to accept.


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## Kamikaze6rr

John_wi thanks for sharing. Pretty much this is what I figured. Haven't changed food. Gonna stick it out. She gets daily exercise and as Puppy may not need all the protein but may in the next year when she starts running with me. So oh well I will keep where I am at. Thanks everyone for the input.


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## dmak

Hey there, I haven't chimed in yet on this topic. We too use taste of the wild (bison and venison) and also experience multiple loose stools during high energy exercise. I have also noticed that they go away in the winter. I've always chalked it up to a natural reaction when his body temp is high, as it only happens when his tongue is hanging out of his mouth


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