My dog is constipated with hard, pebble-like poop. What can I do?

It's hard to know if this is constipation or anxiety. I do recommend to transition her diet. Most vets do not recommend grain free diets unless a pets has a known grain allergy due to the potential link with heart disease. Some pets will also need a diet higher in fiber to keep them regular. The diet I recommend is Royal Canin. Most pets on this diet have good stool quality. Here is a link about constipation: https://www.petcoach.co/article/constipation-in-dogs-101-what-you-need-to-know/ I hope this helps and please feel free to post any additional questions.

Poor guy. I am glad that he was able to have a normal bowel movement. Thanks for the update. From here moving forward it is best to add fiber to his diet daily. You can either purchase a Food that has added fiber in it already, such as Royal Canin Gastrointestinal high fiber or the Hill’s Science diet W/D, both prescription brands. Or you can try adding in 1-2 tsp of canned pumpkin (not the pie filling) into his food daily. I hope this helps and best wishes with your pet Maui. Take care.

Thank you for contacting Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach with your question about Brindi. This can be a sign of constipation. Try feeding her canned food and add water to it to see if that helps. Keep all paper products out of her reach as best you can. If giving her canned food with water in it doesn't help, have her seen by a vet again. Best of luck.

Poor pup! If his stool seems too hard, you could try mixing a spoonful of canned pumpkin into his food at every meal to see if this helps. Switching from dry to canned food may also be helpful, since canned food has a higher moisture content and usually results in softer stools.

Thank you for submitting your question regarding Romeo. Constipation is an extreme form of constipation. This occurs when the dog is not able to pass any feces at all. Based on your description, this does not currently seem to be his problem. However, you do not want this to occur. Feeding more moisture such as canned food or warm water over the dry kibble can help to soften stool. You can try a low dose of his lactulose, but beware that it can cause diarrhea. I hope this information helps!

You may want to try a low residue food for your dog. If you put "low residue dog food " into your browser, it should come up with a large variety. Feeding this should reduce the amounts of feces significantly.

The ingredients in the diet you are currently feeding are fine and quinoa would not be more beneficial than potatoes or carrots unless there was a known issue with them. I see Luca's stool in the pictures and they are definitely loose. It also appears that he is straining to defecate. Without knowing more, I'm suspicious that there is a problem in the colon causing him to have diarrhea. This could be an infection, or an inflammatory bowel disease. Infection is a common cause of diarrhea in younger dogs. Either way, it's best to have him evaluated by your vet, because I'm not sure that a diet change will help his current condition. A vet can test his stool ( make sure to take a fresh sample with you) and possibly do other testing to help identify the cause. Once the cause of this is identified, the correct treatment and diet can be advised. You can help him get through this by feeding bland food (boneless chicken and rice is good). Feed small portions (1/2 cup or less) three times a day. You can also add probiotics to the food (can get this at the pet store), which has demonstrated some efficacy for improving diarrhea. Ensure fresh, clean water is always available. I hope this helps and Luca gets better soon.