Please can somebody give me some advice.

I have had my labrador puppy for 3 weeks now. He is 14 weeks old  and very lively when he is awake.  The trouble is his stools are very soft verging on the'runs'.  He is being fed Eukanuba Junior Large dog food (80g 3 times a day) as this is what the breeder was feeding him.  Am I feeding him enough? He is always looking for food. The first day we had him, his stools were firm. Could it be the food?  He had his booster jab and was wormed at 12 weeks but had the soft stools before this.

Any advice would be appreciated.
Thank you
Sarah

Hi Sarah

I can't really help with the soft stools, but Luna, a chocolate labrador, was untill resently fed Eukanuba without any problem, quite the opposite really, she only had stools twice a day! (The wise are saying the fewer stools, the better the food is absorbed in the dogs system.) I only changed because I thought Lunas cracked paws was because of to little oil in the Eukanuba, but she still has cracked paws, and I changed her food 3 weeks ago. Hmm.

What I can tell you is, its a labrador, and a labrador is never filled, he or she will eat anything given the chance!

Now I don't know how much your dog weighs, but I followed the directions on the foodbag. And I was (still am) very strict, because I don't want Luna to be overweight!

You can also search on Google under "Eukanuba" and go to their homepage, where you also can find feeding guides.

But mail me his weight, and I'll check it out for you. I have the danish Eukanuba site under my favourite sites!

Jeanette

My lab pup was the same when I first got him - in the end I took him for a check up and vet said that is was colitus - bacteria in the colon.  I came away with some antibioics - and they have worked a treat! His stools were normal the next day and have been since.:-)
  He has put on weight now because he is absorbing his eukanuba now.   Apparently colitus is quite common in puppies and can be caused by lots of things even stress!! A bit like IBS in humans

I thought I would just mention this.  Sam is now 12 weeks old and I feed him 80g three times a day also.

Jenny

I fed my lab Advance puppy until he was 6 months old.  Maybe you should try yours on a puppy not junior food.  My lab had no stomach upsets or anything whilst on this.  I then changed him to eukanuiba when he hit 6 months.

Hi It could be overfeeding,even though he is always hungry. I have just,in the last 7 to 8 weeks got my 6 1/2 month old lab free of the "runs". Turned out she had a bacterial overgrowth,so it didnt matter what I fed her,the "end" result was the same. After a course of antibiotics lasting 3 weeks,she is fine now,and has gained weight at last,as she was very small and "clapped in" looking. She was always starving too,but her food wasn't being absorbed. The vet recommended Eukanuba Lamb and Rice,even though it was an adult food,and this worked,even before she started on the antibiotics. She was 18 weeks at the time,so a  bit older than yours.When she first went to the vets she weighed only 6 kg's After 3 weeks on the Lamb and rice she went up to 13 kg's and yesterday she was 19.5 kg's. All in the space of 8 weeks. If he has constant runs,and you haven't changed his food,it's either overfeeding,the food not agreeing with him,or maybe a bacteria like Star had
Jean

Hi all,

Sorry for not replying earlier.  Thank you for all your advice, it's nice to know there are people out there who understand and care.  My pup Uthor (First King Of England) more like the first king in my house as he has really taken it over, is very well now, stools are fine, the vet did give me a ticking off though.  The Breeder fed him pigs ears, she said that it would stop him eating my house, so I followed her advice and I started giving him 1 pigs ear every 2 days.  The vet said this should be an occasional treat as it will
'go right through him'  since I have stopped giving him pigs ears, he has been fine.  Still very hungry, dyson has got nothing on my pup.
Anyway thank you all again.
Sarah

Hi Sarah,

I'm glad that his stools have sorted themselves out.  A lot of us on Champdogs (me included) don't feed pigs ears at all because of the amount of preservative in them.  They also have really high amounts of salt in them - if you want something to give you pup to chew, I suggest a kong, or a ragger.  I soaked the ragger in water and popped it in the fridge for a couple of hours when my pup was teething, and it worked fine.  If you want to give Uthor something to really chew on, a nice big carrot is also good, and its will clean those puppy teeth at the same time.  Keep us posted of his progress.
Have fun
Ali (with labs Isla and Kester):)

Hi Ali,
Thanks for your advice.  I have now introduced Uthor to Carrots and must admit he hasn't missed the pigs ears at all.   I will try the kong, I have read a lot of threads where they are mentioned.  I presume I can buy them from a pet shop!

Thanks again.

Hi, make sure you get the black kongs, you will be surprised what a lab can chew up. I bought the rope one for my boy when he was about 5months old and he got the rope off and swallowed all but 6'' of it, luckily I was around to get it back out, could of been a disaster
Debbie.

I can relate to the lab chewing thing , we got one of our big boys a piece of cleaned 4x4 tyre to chew and he still demolished it.
still, at least i still have a house, another of mine decided  to  eat my walls! hmmm, oh deep joy! just as well i love them.

Kongs are fab, we used them at work in the kennel with our breeding dogs and they go daft for them!

Shane xx