My constipated cocker

[Thomas_Ankcorn]

My 13 month old cocker spaniel (Pictured below) has been having issues with constipation for several months.

She refused to move, was very irritable, lethargic, didn't want to eat ect. We took her to the vets and after a couple of trips, pain relief and x-rays we found out she was not injured but just full of poo. The vet told us to feed her Royal Canin gastrointestinal loaf wet food and give her 5-10 ml of lactulose 3 times a day with the expectation that she should be doing about 2-3 poos a day.

We have been feeding this for about a month now and her energy levels generally are back but she is still quite irritable in the moments leading up to doing her poop. Before she has pooped she doesn't really want to walk, chase her ball, play with her dog friends. After she has pooped she is the complete opposite.

Does anyone have any advice or has experienced this themselves?

We also don't want to feed her the royal canin food indefinitely as nutritionally we have heard it is not that good, we also used to feed her dried food as it was easier and we often used it when training outside. Taking a can of wet food to the park works but is slightly disgusting

If our dog is sometimes constipated is moving back to dried food a bad idea?
Does anyone have any easy on the tum food recommendations?

Finally are there any things we could give her that would making going to the toilet easier for her?

[bizzylizzy]

Hi and welcome,
the first thing that springs to mind is, is she drinking enough? on the whole, dogs need to drink more with dried food than with wet. If she‘s reluctant to drink, you could try putting a bit of meat stock into her  water (If you boil up some meat, chicken or whatever you have, you can freeze the stock cubes for convenience). Vegetables, either cooked or grated finely will also provide some roughage, canned pumpkin is excellent. Joghurt is also good, you can put a spoonful onto the dried food.
Some dried food manufacturers suggest pouring water over the dried food, although I think it rather depends on the make.
I think the choice of food does seem to depend on the individual dog and what suits one  doesn’t necessarily suit the other,  its often trial and error until you get the right one. I‘m a little wary of the expensive brands offered by the vets however, price doesn‘t always represent quality  .  My dog has been raw fed since he was fairly young and we‘ve rarely had any problems either with constipation or diarrhea, although I do understand its not for everyone, it might be worth considering?

[phoenix]

Three suggestions.  When one of mine has been constipated, I microwave or bake  a sweet potato and add a large spoonful to the food. It is soluble fibre, easily digested which helps gut motility. The second thought is too give a little slippery elm powder an hour before feeding.  It is a mucilage like the fibogel that humans are given. It helps the gut make a slimy coating to protect it and to also help the food slide through.
Lastly, a little  coconut oil  helps. Just a half a spoonful.
She’s absolutely beautiful,

[bizzylizzy]

Agree! She‘s a real beauty! 

[MIN]

I assume her anal glands have been looked at and are not blocked or infected. We had pooh problems with our Gemma and it was her glands

[Thomas_Ankcorn]

Thank you both so much!

We have fed raw before but it was definitely taking up too much of our freezer space! We always have bowls of water down and currently add about 200ml of water to her wet food because it has the lactulose in it which works by adding water to the stool.

The royal canin is ridiculously expensive it's working out at about £5 a day

Thank you so much for all your suggestions. We will be working through all of them over the next couple of weeks to see which ones help. Hopefully we find one and I can be posting what worked for us here in a few weeks time!

[Thomas_Ankcorn]

> I assume her anal glands have been looked at and are not blocked or infected. We had pooh problems with our Gemma and it was her glands

Yep not blocked or infected but where full enough that the vet expressed them. They thought it was happening because she was not pooping frequently enough. She does still scoot after going to the toilet though so I wonder if it is still causing some discomfort.

[ejp]

> I assume her anal glands have been looked at and are not blocked or infected. We had pooh problems with our Gemma and it was her glands

Yep not blocked or infected but where full enough that the vet expressed them. They thought it was happening because she was not pooping frequently enough. She does still scoot after going to the toilet though so I wonder if it is still causing some discomfort.

Hello, firstly what a beautiful girl.  Our previous cocker always had a wee slide along after a poo, even when out on walks.  Her glands were fine, we referred to it as her Andrex moment.  :005:You can definitely add to a dry food, even just hot water on it to make a gravy, so she drinks more.  Sweet potato has been mentioned and that's a great trick.  Maybe raw veg like carrot and broccoli to chomp on as a treat would be helpful?  Let us know how you get on.

[ollie nathan's mum]

I always found that liver makes them pooh.

[Thomas_Ankcorn]

Thank you all so much for your help.

I think we have the constipation under control! In the end we decided that the constipation was probably caused by the NSAID drug she was prescribed. Nora was either having issues with her food being too high in fat or a chicken intolerance that was making pooping really uncomfortable for her. Not sure which as we removed chicken and went low fat at the same time and now don't want to change anything up as we have such a happy pup.

We have switched to a low fat food brand called Wagg. It's ingredients are not great but Nora loves it and seems bouncier than ever for now.

The slippery elm recommendation has also really helped. We bought something called Dorwest Tree Barks Powder. It also contains Marshmallow root and White poplar bark.

[ejp]

You may well have hit the nail on the head with the NSAID's. I would stick with your regime for now and see how things settle. If you want to change to a better food at a later date then I personally would do it very gradually. Anyway, a happy dog and human just now is a good result.

[bizzylizzy]

We had real problems with Metacam - started with constipation followed by dreadful diarrhea and stomach bleeding, so it could well be the NSAID‘s contributed to the problem. Pleased you seem to have it sorted now though, its always worrying and such a relief, (in the true sense  ,)  when they finally produce a normal pooh!