Why Is My Dog’s Poop Soft? Should I Be Worried? [ANSWERED]

Dog owners should always pay attention to their dog’s poop, which tells a lot about its health condition. There are different types of dog poop, including normal poop, tan specks or white poop, white, chalky poop, red, black, yellow, green, or tarry poop, greasy, gray poop, and soft, loose poop. It is important to know what each poop type indicates about your dog’s health as a dog owner.

It is not unusual for a dog’s poop to be soft; this is caused by various things, including dietary changes, allergies, medications, stress, toxins, pancreatitis, feeding off table scraps, cancers, and infections. Some dangers are dehydration, electrolyte imbalance, malnutrition, and sepsis.

Recently, researchers have shown that the gut microbiome (a mixture of microorganisms and bacteria in the stomach and intestine) tells a lot about a creature’s health.

Why Is My Dog’s Poop Soft?

Many dog owners are pretty familiar with a normal dog poop, which often appears dark chocolate brown, firm, and has a slight odor. Anything otherwise, for instance, like a soft, watery, or very hard poop with a foul odor, is not normal and could indicate that something is wrong with your dog’s body system.

Although, soft poop is usually not something to worry about and could occur because you recently changed your dog’s diet or it ate too much. However, dog owners must observe the rate at which this occurs. When a dog excretes soft poop frequently, or it persists for more than two days, accompanied by other symptoms, you need to call on a vet.

Some of the symptoms you need to watch out for are bloodstain in the poop, vomiting, reduced rate of eating and energy level, fever, and the poop having a different color from dark chocolate brown. We will be explaining more about the common causes that could cause a dog pop to become soft and when to get worried below.

Change Of Diet

If you recently changed your dog’s diet and noticed its poop getting soft, the chances are that the newly introduced diet is the cause of the soft poop. There is no need to get worried in cases like this, as it is normal. You need to understand that the dog’s body system is yet to adjust to the new food.

To help the dog’s system adjust to the new food, you will have to make the food transition gradual rather than sudden. A way of doing this is by adding a little part of the new food to the old food the dog is familiar with. You can do this for a couple of weeks while gradually increasing the mixing ratio by adding more of the new food.

With time, the dog’s body system will get used to the new diet, and its poop will go back to normal. Also, if a dog stops eating healthy meals, it will excrete soft poop. If a dog has developed the habit of eating food from the thrash or the ground, it will experience loose stool.

Allergies

Some dogs are known to be sensitive to certain food ingredients. Coming into contact with these ingredients could upset their tummy and make their poop soft. This is different from a change of diet, as this could even occur even if the dog eats the meal it has always been having.

For instance, adding a new ingredient or a dairy product to your dog’s regular food could result in a soft poop. Some dogs are allergic to certain dairy products like eggs, chicken, pork, and beef. So, if you recently added any of these ingredients to your dog’s meal and noticed a change in their poop, you are best advised to stop.

Detecting food allergies could be difficult for dog owners, as most people do not know the things their dogs are sensitive to. So, it is best to seek some professional advice from a veterinary doctor before introducing new foods to a dog’s meal. Sometimes food is safe, but the extra ingredients that make it appealing are not good for the dog.

Stress

Stress is another reason why a dog’s poop could become soft. The cause of the stress could be due to certain things like relocating the dog to a new home or even loud noise from the environment. So, if you have noticed your dog’s poop is always soft when the dog is subjected to any form of stress, look for a way to help reduce the stress.

Various studies have shown that the gut microbiome balance can also affect the body’s response to stress, and stress can impact the gut negatively. When the body responds to stress, a psychological reaction occurs, activating hormones that prepare the body to combat the stress. Also, the brain sends signals that improve bowel movement.

Feeding On Table scraps

Dog’s digestive systems and that of humans are not designed to work the same way. Feeding dogs certain human foods could cause an imbalance in their digestive system and result in soft poop. Aside from table scraps, dog owners should always ensure their dogs only feed on what is recommended by a vet.

Feeding on anything otherwise, like food from the trash or certain fattening foods, should not be encouraged. It could make a dog begin to vomit, have diarrhea, and experience other health challenges. Also, some of the ingredients used in human meals, like onions, garlic, and salt, are not healthy for dogs.

Dog’s Stool Is Soft

There are various reasons your dog’s stool is soft; we have looked at some of the causes earlier. As a dog owner, you need to understand the importance of monitoring your dog’s poop because you can tell if the dog is healthy or not, and it can also show signs of infections or diseases.

Other reasons your dog’s stool is soft are food intolerance, parasitic infections (hookworms, roundworms, coccidia, whipworms, and giardia), ingestion of poisonous substances, bacterial infections, ingesting foreign objects, viral infections (coronavirus, distemper, and parvovirus), and illnesses.

Dangers of Soft Poop In Dogs

Soft poop caused by diarrhea is mild and is usually gone within a few hours. However, if your dog’s poop is soft all the time, it can indicate a life-threatening and serious problem that you need to resolve as soon as possible. You should look out for any of these and immediately take the dog to a vet.

When a dog has diarrhea, resulting in soft poop, the dog loses more water than it takes, leading to dehydration. One of the reasons why a dog’s poop is soft is water in the poop. This is water that the body needs for other functions, but due to multiple loose stools, the water is drained out.

Another danger of soft stool is malnutrition. Severe diarrhea can cause inflammation of the intestines, causing them not to absorb nutrients appropriately. This has several consequences, including a dull coat, loss of muscle mass, unusual weight loss, and lethargy.

Why Is My Dog’s Poop Always Mushy?

If you notice your dog has mushy poop, it indicates that the dog has been eating what it should not be eating. It could also be a sign of dietary changes, especially if the change is a sudden one. Dogs need time to adjust to dietary changes; you need to change their diet slowly, only after consulting with a veterinary doctor.

Final Thoughts

As a dog owner, you should be familiar with your dog’s normal poop; the color, volume, and odor are very important, and you need to note them. This will help you know when something is wrong with the dog. You will save yourself some cash when you can tell what is wrong with your dog instead of always going to a vet for checkups.