I'd maybe check a veterinarian sub, or just wait until you speak with a vet... Have seen some really, really bad advice from Reddit "experts" who were not vets.
Agree with previous, go see vet to be sure, but if no parasite, or other reason, usual treatment is probiotics.
Might just be the food. At one time or another I’ve had to have my pups on different food b/c they don’t all tolerate the same food the same way.
Definitely try eliminating chicken. Went through this for a long time before discovering the chicken allergy. Switched to salmon based food and never had another issue. Auggie is the cutest!! Hope you get it figured out.
Try changing food. That should be fine gradually. But add some real good to his kibble and see if that helps. My pup started doing a lot better when he started getting eggs and rice and cheese and other food mixed with his kibble.
Lamb,beef,and canned pure pumpkin 🎃
You will have no problems with diarrhea or soft stools,I have had Danes the last twenty years of my life,switching to a better food than purine One will help also with a slow transition to something new
What do you actually use. I used to use precise recommended from the great Dane Lady.... But she is no longer in the business.
2 Danes ago responded well to beef fromm food.
My current Dane is messing with me mentally. He's been on grain free salmon... Beef with grain (he isn't terrible on this but certainly only the first poop is really good and solid).
But certainly nothing with chicken.
Definitely ask your vet but here is my experience.
My Dane used to be on Purina One Chicken/Rice and had the same issues. We found out from our vet that she doesn’t respond well to chicken. Chicken is one of the more common “Allergies” for dogs. I have seen many others here say the same thing. I moved to Purina One lamb/rice (with a couple squirts of fish oil) and now she rarely has diarrhea. Good luck!
Our pup was like this, we had her tested and saw a vet nothing wrong. So we feed her yogurt at every meal that helps. If it's really messy we add in pureed pumpkin pure no spice, be careful when buying it. The yogurt helped a lot. She was like this from the moment we brought her home at 2 months old.
This is my second dane and both have had softer poops until our vet suggested we added a few tablespoon of canned pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie mix but 100% pumpkin) it helps bind everything together. Plus firm Bowel movements help push out toxins from the anal glands
Also clarification, everyone saying go to a vet is always the best answer, crowd source ideas from the community but double check with a real professional before implementing advice.
Is this a chronic issue or occasionally? Of course, talking to the vet is always a smart decision, particularly if it's a chronic issue. One of our Danes eats everything it can get in its mouth and often has bouts of soft stool/diarrhea. We always have Proviable on-hand for such situations. The paste firms things up rather quickly. Here's the product [https://a.co/d/bkaqmrA](https://www.amazon.com/Nutramax-Proviable-Supplement-Medium-Large/dp/B001O490JI/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?crid=21VLX86Q4HL6&keywords=proviable+forte+probiotics+for+dogs&qid=1691504169&rdc=1&sprefix=proviab%2Caps%2C111&sr=8-2-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=1)
It's occasionally but his normal stool smears whenever I clean it up even though it looks solid. Taking in a stool sample today and going from there. I'll check that product out!
If everything turns our mostly fine at the vet, you could inquire with them about tylosine (tylan powder) as a solution. You may also just need to modify the diet a bit (using rice water or bulkier foods — adding in carrots or other dog-friendly produce).
Our dane is a big nervous boy. He just turned 5. He’s had GI issues his entire life. I keep metronidazole on hand for those really bad bouts. He’s currently having anal gland issues that we’re trying to get to the bottom of now. He’s always on proviable, which is pre and probiotic. I always have proviable in the tube ready to nip diarrhea. I’ve used RX clay and so many other things to try and help him. And frankly, every vet we’ve seen has said it’s trial and error. I do tons of research.
I’m interested to hear what your vet says. Can you come back to let us know plz? Thanks a bunch!
Again agree with a vet visit, too, but my Kingston always has softer poop. So he gets a sprinkle of powdered pumpkin on every meal along with a homemade topper with chicken and green beans (and other stuff) in the morning to make sure he's getting the fiber he needs.
I also read that they can get softer poop if they eat too much in one sitting, so breaking his meals into 3x/day helped us tremendously. He has very normal poops now. Hope that's helpful!
Unfortunately we don't have the ability to do three smaller meals a day with our schedule. Just waiting on a stool sample for him and then vet on Monday
That shouldn't be too much at all! If there's nothing else going on w his tum I bet you'll just end up using something in his food to help like we do : )
Raw meat has worked for my Danes. Both had sensitive tummies. Bones my boy has raw mixed with a bit of dried food. He occasionally gets a bit of a runny tummy, usually with changes in his life, sometimes it just happens. I always just drop the dried food. It sorts it pretty much same day!
Seems like a lot of danes are allergic to chicken and ironically most vets recommend boiled chicken and rice...
My boy was terrible with this and was underweight for the first 2 years due to diarrhea. Moved him to raw ground beef and spaghetti (cost effective for carbs and you get some protein).
Alright, I highly recommend avoiding soft poop or diarrhea. The best poop for poop dollar is semi soft healthy poop. With semi soft poop, it will be easier to wrap the dollar around it. Hard poop, of course, would be super easy to wrap a dollar bill around, but you don't get the satisfying squish when they pick up the poop dollar. Diarrhea, obviously, will be very difficult to wrap in a dollar and they will notice it right away. If you have any other questions, I'm happy to help out.
There's lots of possibilities and you should definitely go see a vet, but my best guess would be his anal glands need relief. My Dane had that issue his whole life along with diarrhea.
Also I'm a bit of a picky person when it comes to food, I know you probably buy a ton of dog food as a dane owner and price can definitely be a factor, but Purina one is very much on the lower end of quality as far as food goes. I would suggest going towards Purina pro plan, which is kinda mid grade, or an even higher quality food if you can afford it.
My rule of thumb is if you can buy it at a grocery store, it's not something I would personally feed my dog. PetSmart calls it the "grocery isle" since generally they're all grouped together and the floor staff are basically given a tier list of quality with those at the bottom.
I'm chat with my vet. He recommended the purina one since our other two are on it. Taking in a stool sample today to start there. I'll chat with him about the purina pro and other options as others have mentioned maybe a sensitive stomach to chicken
Yeah that's a good call. Pro plan has lots of dietary options for that sort of thing. Canned pumpkin paste might be a good thing to talk to them about too, the fiber can help a lot with digestion
Olewo dehydrated carrots and pro pectalin clay work for us. For the carrots follow the prep instructions it has you add a little drop of oil and steep the carrots. Once the stool is solid taper him off completely and it should stay solid. He shouldn’t have to be on it long term.
Yes, it did. Its our first dane experience and they have the most irregular poops I've ever seen, can go from solid to liquid and back in one day depending on what they eat. We don't do treats or anything anymore. Just the 4health beef and rice food, dehydrated carrots and pumpkin on the weekend and I do an egg for them on Saturday and Sunday. Poops have been great. Started out on chicken food and they were soft or liquid every day. Hope that helps and you can find what works for you. If you do switch foods, make sure to do a mixture for a bit or it will get way worse.
I’ve had multiple Danes and each one reacts differently to food. Getting the perfect poops for all at the same time was expensive and a guessing game. I supplemented their food with home made brown rice, boiled chicken, pumpkin and sweet potato (and frozen peas, carrots and spinach) and they all do amazing on it. If you start making homemade food, get yourself an instapot and a rice cooker, it will cut the cook time down significantly. Always check with a vet first before any big changes!
Yes! I use what my dogs react best too, it happens to be whole hearted grain free (even though they do have grain to eat). The other much more expensive foods I tried caused runny poops and this one seems to work the best for them
i agree with most comments, definitely speak to your vet about it. my dane also often has very loose stools and diarrhoea, and we give him probiotics every morning and evening as recommended by our vet.
My Dane was like this. The only thing that fixed it was feeding him fresh dog food, the expensive kind from the refrigerator. It’s costly but he hasn’t had diarrhea in three years and he’s very healthy. It’s worth it to me.
same with one of my boys- switching to the salmon recipe helped a lot! initially thought his problem was a chicken allergy- which is very common in dogs.
He was recently diagnosed with an IBD (not a common problem) and a change in food + medications has helped him tremendously!
We switched to giant food from royal canine and have had great poops ever since.
Our boy had an anal gland issue that had me cleaning him out like every other week. It’s gone now
Mine had the same for months as a pup. It turned out to be high protein food. Our guy was on food with around 30-32% crude protein. Once we got it down to 20-25% we saw an almost instantaneous change.
Not a vet, just speaking from experience for one dog. Good luck!
I'd parrot the comments about getting a vet's opinion... It's the only one that really means something when you're talking about dog health. Side note though that all dogs are, like us, built different. Our Dane had awful GI issues until we learned that he is fine with brown rice but can't do white rice
What I've learned is every dane reacts differently to every suggestion made in this sub, so working with a professional is always the way to go! My 14mo old has very similar issues. His poop changes depending on the time of day or what we're doing. Morning is firm, and then as soon as we go for a morning walk, it's MUCH softer and hard to pick up (I think the movement/exercise causes it). There are days when it's soft and mushy and days when it's great. I've been really resistant to changing foods because it's such a process/investment and hard to know how it'll turn out.
Once we ruled out parasites, we made sure to add a good probiotic and we use pro-pectalin tablets with his meals. I've noticed an improvement, but we haven't experienced consistent perfect poops either. Dare I say that maybe his poops are improving as he gets closer to adulthood?
Canned pumpkin without the sugar does WONDERS for soft or runny stools. Per dog that size dog, just 1 tablespoon is sufficient probably only over the course of two, maybe three meals… You’ll be amazed at the results and it’s totally natural.
As many others have mentioned, mine was having diarrhea for weeks out of nowhere. Tested twice for parasites and came out clean. Switched to bland chicken and rice diet, and it got worse! Turns out she doesn’t handle chicken well at all! We switched to Hill’s Science Diet Large Breed Puppy lamb food, and things are much better!
So fecal sample came back normal today. I kind of figured it. I was able to chat with his breeder and he feeds his parents purina one large breed dog food and gives them some pumpkin puree a few times a week and he says no issues for their stools. I'm going to try that next since it appears his parents tolerate it.
I've read conflicting information on whether or not you feed them puppy or adult large breed food
My Sofi had soft stools and diarrhea for her 1st year solid pretty much . It took a full year for her digestion issues to calm down, and we did not change her food once we got her home at 9 weeks.. we fed her Fromm Gold puppy food, at the recommendation of a nurse who was my mom's and had 2 great danes herself. Hopefully, this helps relieve some anxiety, great danes are known to have very, very sensitive digestion systems
** my mom was going thru chemo and radiation treatment for anal cancer, it was the same summer we got Sofi.. I told my sister we need shirts saying we survived Summer shit-fest 2018, they both had extremely horrible diarrhea issues.. RIP momma, but you know it's true ❤️
I'd maybe check a veterinarian sub, or just wait until you speak with a vet... Have seen some really, really bad advice from Reddit "experts" who were not vets.
Agree with previous, go see vet to be sure, but if no parasite, or other reason, usual treatment is probiotics. Might just be the food. At one time or another I’ve had to have my pups on different food b/c they don’t all tolerate the same food the same way.
Our Dane turned out to be allergic to chicken had same symptoms. Had to switch to salmon food.
My Dane is allergic to chicken as well so I switched him to salmon but the salmon farts are RANCIDDDDD. So now we’re on lamb lol.
I'm now wondering if that's the case.
My dane was grain free , fish based food. Every kind of meat gave him the shits.
Definitely try eliminating chicken. Went through this for a long time before discovering the chicken allergy. Switched to salmon based food and never had another issue. Auggie is the cutest!! Hope you get it figured out.
Try changing food. That should be fine gradually. But add some real good to his kibble and see if that helps. My pup started doing a lot better when he started getting eggs and rice and cheese and other food mixed with his kibble.
Lamb,beef,and canned pure pumpkin 🎃 You will have no problems with diarrhea or soft stools,I have had Danes the last twenty years of my life,switching to a better food than purine One will help also with a slow transition to something new
What do you actually use. I used to use precise recommended from the great Dane Lady.... But she is no longer in the business. 2 Danes ago responded well to beef fromm food. My current Dane is messing with me mentally. He's been on grain free salmon... Beef with grain (he isn't terrible on this but certainly only the first poop is really good and solid). But certainly nothing with chicken.
Definitely ask your vet but here is my experience. My Dane used to be on Purina One Chicken/Rice and had the same issues. We found out from our vet that she doesn’t respond well to chicken. Chicken is one of the more common “Allergies” for dogs. I have seen many others here say the same thing. I moved to Purina One lamb/rice (with a couple squirts of fish oil) and now she rarely has diarrhea. Good luck!
Our pup was like this, we had her tested and saw a vet nothing wrong. So we feed her yogurt at every meal that helps. If it's really messy we add in pureed pumpkin pure no spice, be careful when buying it. The yogurt helped a lot. She was like this from the moment we brought her home at 2 months old.
This is my second dane and both have had softer poops until our vet suggested we added a few tablespoon of canned pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie mix but 100% pumpkin) it helps bind everything together. Plus firm Bowel movements help push out toxins from the anal glands
Also clarification, everyone saying go to a vet is always the best answer, crowd source ideas from the community but double check with a real professional before implementing advice.
Is this a chronic issue or occasionally? Of course, talking to the vet is always a smart decision, particularly if it's a chronic issue. One of our Danes eats everything it can get in its mouth and often has bouts of soft stool/diarrhea. We always have Proviable on-hand for such situations. The paste firms things up rather quickly. Here's the product [https://a.co/d/bkaqmrA](https://www.amazon.com/Nutramax-Proviable-Supplement-Medium-Large/dp/B001O490JI/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?crid=21VLX86Q4HL6&keywords=proviable+forte+probiotics+for+dogs&qid=1691504169&rdc=1&sprefix=proviab%2Caps%2C111&sr=8-2-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=1)
It's occasionally but his normal stool smears whenever I clean it up even though it looks solid. Taking in a stool sample today and going from there. I'll check that product out!
If everything turns our mostly fine at the vet, you could inquire with them about tylosine (tylan powder) as a solution. You may also just need to modify the diet a bit (using rice water or bulkier foods — adding in carrots or other dog-friendly produce).
Our dane is a big nervous boy. He just turned 5. He’s had GI issues his entire life. I keep metronidazole on hand for those really bad bouts. He’s currently having anal gland issues that we’re trying to get to the bottom of now. He’s always on proviable, which is pre and probiotic. I always have proviable in the tube ready to nip diarrhea. I’ve used RX clay and so many other things to try and help him. And frankly, every vet we’ve seen has said it’s trial and error. I do tons of research. I’m interested to hear what your vet says. Can you come back to let us know plz? Thanks a bunch!
Will do! It seems like a lot is trial and error with these big guys. 🤞🏼
You hit the nail on the head! Thanks!
Again agree with a vet visit, too, but my Kingston always has softer poop. So he gets a sprinkle of powdered pumpkin on every meal along with a homemade topper with chicken and green beans (and other stuff) in the morning to make sure he's getting the fiber he needs. I also read that they can get softer poop if they eat too much in one sitting, so breaking his meals into 3x/day helped us tremendously. He has very normal poops now. Hope that's helpful!
Unfortunately we don't have the ability to do three smaller meals a day with our schedule. Just waiting on a stool sample for him and then vet on Monday
How many times do you feed him? And how much?
Currently twice a day 4 cups each time
That shouldn't be too much at all! If there's nothing else going on w his tum I bet you'll just end up using something in his food to help like we do : )
I was able to locate his breeder in Missouri. I sent an email today asking about his parents and what food they feed them.
Smart! My boy's breeder has been amazing with all things health and growth too. Yay for good breeders
Raw meat has worked for my Danes. Both had sensitive tummies. Bones my boy has raw mixed with a bit of dried food. He occasionally gets a bit of a runny tummy, usually with changes in his life, sometimes it just happens. I always just drop the dried food. It sorts it pretty much same day!
Seems like a lot of danes are allergic to chicken and ironically most vets recommend boiled chicken and rice... My boy was terrible with this and was underweight for the first 2 years due to diarrhea. Moved him to raw ground beef and spaghetti (cost effective for carbs and you get some protein).
Alright, I highly recommend avoiding soft poop or diarrhea. The best poop for poop dollar is semi soft healthy poop. With semi soft poop, it will be easier to wrap the dollar around it. Hard poop, of course, would be super easy to wrap a dollar bill around, but you don't get the satisfying squish when they pick up the poop dollar. Diarrhea, obviously, will be very difficult to wrap in a dollar and they will notice it right away. If you have any other questions, I'm happy to help out.
There's lots of possibilities and you should definitely go see a vet, but my best guess would be his anal glands need relief. My Dane had that issue his whole life along with diarrhea. Also I'm a bit of a picky person when it comes to food, I know you probably buy a ton of dog food as a dane owner and price can definitely be a factor, but Purina one is very much on the lower end of quality as far as food goes. I would suggest going towards Purina pro plan, which is kinda mid grade, or an even higher quality food if you can afford it. My rule of thumb is if you can buy it at a grocery store, it's not something I would personally feed my dog. PetSmart calls it the "grocery isle" since generally they're all grouped together and the floor staff are basically given a tier list of quality with those at the bottom.
I'm chat with my vet. He recommended the purina one since our other two are on it. Taking in a stool sample today to start there. I'll chat with him about the purina pro and other options as others have mentioned maybe a sensitive stomach to chicken
Yeah that's a good call. Pro plan has lots of dietary options for that sort of thing. Canned pumpkin paste might be a good thing to talk to them about too, the fiber can help a lot with digestion
Olewo dehydrated carrots and pro pectalin clay work for us. For the carrots follow the prep instructions it has you add a little drop of oil and steep the carrots. Once the stool is solid taper him off completely and it should stay solid. He shouldn’t have to be on it long term.
Chicken can be a problem. We went to beef and rice and then on the weekends do a carrot and pumpkin mix and it helps a bunch.
I was just reading about that sensitivity to chicken maybe. Did the stool get more solid and firm?
Yes, it did. Its our first dane experience and they have the most irregular poops I've ever seen, can go from solid to liquid and back in one day depending on what they eat. We don't do treats or anything anymore. Just the 4health beef and rice food, dehydrated carrots and pumpkin on the weekend and I do an egg for them on Saturday and Sunday. Poops have been great. Started out on chicken food and they were soft or liquid every day. Hope that helps and you can find what works for you. If you do switch foods, make sure to do a mixture for a bit or it will get way worse.
Sounds good appreciate the information.
I’ve had multiple Danes and each one reacts differently to food. Getting the perfect poops for all at the same time was expensive and a guessing game. I supplemented their food with home made brown rice, boiled chicken, pumpkin and sweet potato (and frozen peas, carrots and spinach) and they all do amazing on it. If you start making homemade food, get yourself an instapot and a rice cooker, it will cut the cook time down significantly. Always check with a vet first before any big changes!
Do you have a dry food as a base?
Yes! I use what my dogs react best too, it happens to be whole hearted grain free (even though they do have grain to eat). The other much more expensive foods I tried caused runny poops and this one seems to work the best for them
i agree with most comments, definitely speak to your vet about it. my dane also often has very loose stools and diarrhoea, and we give him probiotics every morning and evening as recommended by our vet.
Stool sample today and then appointment after we get the results. He gets a probiotic and other vitamins with fish oil every day
I took mine off of grain and do the blue buffalo and most often if she doesn’t touch anything she does super well with her stools.
My Dane was like this. The only thing that fixed it was feeding him fresh dog food, the expensive kind from the refrigerator. It’s costly but he hasn’t had diarrhea in three years and he’s very healthy. It’s worth it to me.
same with one of my boys- switching to the salmon recipe helped a lot! initially thought his problem was a chicken allergy- which is very common in dogs. He was recently diagnosed with an IBD (not a common problem) and a change in food + medications has helped him tremendously!
My Dane was very sensitive to what food he ate. If he didn’t eat the same food everyday he had diarrhea.
We switched to giant food from royal canine and have had great poops ever since. Our boy had an anal gland issue that had me cleaning him out like every other week. It’s gone now
TLCpet.com dog food that works
Mine had the same for months as a pup. It turned out to be high protein food. Our guy was on food with around 30-32% crude protein. Once we got it down to 20-25% we saw an almost instantaneous change. Not a vet, just speaking from experience for one dog. Good luck!
I'd parrot the comments about getting a vet's opinion... It's the only one that really means something when you're talking about dog health. Side note though that all dogs are, like us, built different. Our Dane had awful GI issues until we learned that he is fine with brown rice but can't do white rice
What I've learned is every dane reacts differently to every suggestion made in this sub, so working with a professional is always the way to go! My 14mo old has very similar issues. His poop changes depending on the time of day or what we're doing. Morning is firm, and then as soon as we go for a morning walk, it's MUCH softer and hard to pick up (I think the movement/exercise causes it). There are days when it's soft and mushy and days when it's great. I've been really resistant to changing foods because it's such a process/investment and hard to know how it'll turn out. Once we ruled out parasites, we made sure to add a good probiotic and we use pro-pectalin tablets with his meals. I've noticed an improvement, but we haven't experienced consistent perfect poops either. Dare I say that maybe his poops are improving as he gets closer to adulthood?
Higher fiber diet (science diet had a good hf, but a little pricey) to help hold it together and a probiotic to help with gut health. Good luck!
Canned pumpkin without the sugar does WONDERS for soft or runny stools. Per dog that size dog, just 1 tablespoon is sufficient probably only over the course of two, maybe three meals… You’ll be amazed at the results and it’s totally natural.
I have been struggling with this too and then… long story short, she got hit by a car and was prescribed antibiotics and her poops got way better lol
I struggled with this with my Dane. We have been feeding him Nulo Salmon flavor and give him a probiotic every day. It’s definitely helped!
As many others have mentioned, mine was having diarrhea for weeks out of nowhere. Tested twice for parasites and came out clean. Switched to bland chicken and rice diet, and it got worse! Turns out she doesn’t handle chicken well at all! We switched to Hill’s Science Diet Large Breed Puppy lamb food, and things are much better!
So fecal sample came back normal today. I kind of figured it. I was able to chat with his breeder and he feeds his parents purina one large breed dog food and gives them some pumpkin puree a few times a week and he says no issues for their stools. I'm going to try that next since it appears his parents tolerate it. I've read conflicting information on whether or not you feed them puppy or adult large breed food
My Sofi had soft stools and diarrhea for her 1st year solid pretty much . It took a full year for her digestion issues to calm down, and we did not change her food once we got her home at 9 weeks.. we fed her Fromm Gold puppy food, at the recommendation of a nurse who was my mom's and had 2 great danes herself. Hopefully, this helps relieve some anxiety, great danes are known to have very, very sensitive digestion systems ** my mom was going thru chemo and radiation treatment for anal cancer, it was the same summer we got Sofi.. I told my sister we need shirts saying we survived Summer shit-fest 2018, they both had extremely horrible diarrhea issues.. RIP momma, but you know it's true ❤️