The Value of POO

On the way to school the other morning, my eldest (5 years) and her little friend who has a lift to school in the morning with us, were having a conversation about poo.

My daughter I’m sure started the topic with some comment or other about her poo being particularly difficult to squeeze out into the toilet bowl that morning.  Her friend, full of sympathy and concern for her asked, “why was that then?”

The response that came back made me laugh out loud. she said to her friend in a very serious tone, “because I think my body just needed all the extra energy from my food this morning, I did have a busy night dancing in the kitchen with my sister last night while mummy made our supper so I think It was probably that…”  She went on to say, “you get out what you put in don’t you mummy?”My poor child is really picking up on the things I say it would seem as in our house, it's not just the children obsessed with Poo.  As much as I hate to admit it.

Steve can de poop the back garden, which we have to do on a bi daily basis with the number of dogs we have at home, and he can come in and tell me that “chilli’s off colour” or “junior must have eaten something that’s disagreed with him”We can determine poodle poop from chihuahua poop at 50 paces and for some reason every dirty bugger wants to eat Snowy’s poops (Christ knows why they bloody stink!) so hers have to be picked up first!

We are no more obsessed than when we have a litter though.  Those first few weeks of poo can tell us so much about how a pup is feeding and developing.  The first few days of poo, much like a human baby, can be all sorts of colours from green to black dependant on the birth experience or diet mum is fed on pre birth.  I love to see the “chicken korma bird seed” type poo’s that come through once a pups digestive system changes and they start to digest the fats with the sugars from mums milk.  Mum fed pups tend to have firmer stools, these can be so much fun when you have a breed that needs to be manually toileted such as ours rather than mum doing all the work to clean and toilet her pups.  You can stimulate the bowel to move using a cotton pad soaked in warm water and as the poo starts to evacuate the pups body, you can literally guide it out with the pad.  My challenge to myself with these isn’t dissimilar to that of a child with a play dough spaghetti maker… how long can I get it to come out whole without breaking! If it wasn’t such a taboo subject I would be happy to photograph this poop for public viewing!  Unfortunately it’s my close breeder friends who tend to get those what’s app’d over and the return pings of “yey” and “look at that ! amazing” keep me on a high that my pups are doing well.

If the pups have loose poops or maybe have a spot of blood in their poops we have a freak out moment while we figure out what could be the cause of such a messy outcome.  Sometimes it can be that the pup is formula fed, therefore much more likely to over feed as the milk hits their tummy faster than if they’d had to work it from mum themselves or it could simply be bacteria passing through.

Mum fed pups can have issues if mums diet changes. Again, quite common with a feeding mum that has become food fussy during her pregnancy and now expects changes to her daily diet to entice her.

My eldest was right though, you really do get out what you put in, so its important to research your dog’s food rather than just feeding what’s convenient.  Take the time to test them for any allergens and read into what diet is good for their breed/exercise level.

Particularly if you plan to breed your dog, it’s so important to have them at optimum health and keep the diet of the expecting mum consistent, ensuring the pups keep to the same diet to aid their digestive system throughout the weaning process.

And obviously bare in mind that dancing in the kitchen at night pre supper leaves a risk of morning constipation, you really do get out what you put in…..

NOTE; How ironic that I actually wrote this post a few days ago and in the last 48 hours I have had 7 conversations regarding poo of different forms and had 4 images of poo sent to me.  I even had one lovely person “save” a poo to show me on my visit so I could comment on its consistency!!!!

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