Can anyone help out with this problem? For the past 2 weeks, my 7 month old golden retriever has been having several disturbing issues. First, she started eating her own stool. She had done this before, but usually only once in a while. Lately, she wants to eat every bowel movement she has. Then, her stool started getting really soft and she is going 6-7 times a day. It seems like she poops more than I feed her (I feed her twice a day, about 4 cups of dry food total). Then, she started waking us up once or twice in the middle of the night to go out and poop. She has been sleeping through the night in a kennel for over 4 months. It's like she cannot hold it. Then, she started having diarrhea. That lasted for a couple of days. I called the vet and talked to him. He said he wasn't too concerned, and that she had probably picked up some type of stomach bug or something. He asked for a stool sample and prescribed some "stomach friendly" canned food to be fed for a few days. The stool sample came back clean, and the diarrhea and late night poop runs stopped after being on the food for a day or so. That was last week. She was all right for the past week (still wanting to eat poop and pooping a lot though). Now, it's 3 in the morning and I've been woken up twice tonight to take her out to poop. It's really soft again. Her temperament is unchanged... she still wants to play and eat. I even tried to slowly change her food to something more nutritious over the past week. I've been mixing increasing amounts of the new food in with her existing food. She seems to like the new food and hasn't had any bad symptoms. Does anyone have any idea what's going on? Should I take her to the vet for some blood work to see if all her systems are working right? I don't know what to do.

I would go ahead with another vet visit. That just isn't normal. I have had problems with some puppies eating their stools or my other dog's, but they continued to produce the normal, firm stools. You need to stop the stool eating. Just being careful to clean up after them is often enough. Otherwise, try adding something to her food. The home remedies of pineapple juice or canned pumpkin usually work. There are commercial products too, Forbid and Deter.

Switching food might or might not have any effect on the stool eating. The concentrated, meat based chows do produce a smaller, firmer stool. There isn't that much difference in one brand to the next. What might be better for her is switching to a less rich adult chow now. That will slow growth allowing more time to develop the sturdy joints needed for a long active life. It could make the stool eating worse, but there are other ways to control it, and it often goes away eventually. Weak joints only get worse.

She will of course have an increased volume of stool if she is eating some - what will come out will equal the amount of stool she eats PLUS the food she eats.

Perhaps walking her instead of loose in the yard will help keep her from doing this... and that may, in turn, solve to excess popping problem.

-Beth