My Yorkies with pancreatitis have soft poop after new grain-free food. Normal?

I’m glad to hear you got Grace in for care so quick. It sounds like she is on the right track and recovering. The soft bowel movements may or may not be a problem. If they are soft, but formed and she doesn’t have an increased urgency to get outside to go, then it may just be the high fiber that is in some prescription diets we might give for pancreatitis. I’m not clear on which of the Hills diets she was prescribed, but the changes to her stool could simply be food related. That being said - if her stool is not formed and is more like a cow pie, or if she does have to go out frequently then she should be rechecked sooner than later. Sometimes there is a trial and error to find the “right” food for a patient, and we have to try different prescription diets to find what they do best eating. Either way, her stool should be formed, and if it continues, a visit to your veterinarian is warranted.

Hi and thanks for visiting Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. I would stick with a low fat prescription diet such as Hills I/D or Royal Canin Low fat gastrointestinal. Continue this diet until your one pet is over their pancreatitis episode. Then you can slowly transition them back to a senior diet which is typically lower in calories and higher in protein and carbs. My top brands are Royal Canin, Hill’s Science Diet, Evo or Eukanuba. Best of luck with your fur babies and their new diets. Take care!

Thank you for your questions about Koda. I would not say that is normal and I suspect it may be a sign that he does not tolerate the new diet as well. The jury is still out on grain free food, some pets do well on it and other ones develop heart conditions and constipation issues. Most vets generally do not recommend them. I do advise changing the diet again. If you are looking for a nice food, I recommend a brand called Royal Canin. It is generally very easy to digest and most pets who eat this diet have nice coats, good stool quality and low stool quantity (a sign that the diet does not contain many fillers). Change the diet slowly over about a weeks time. If the diarrhea continues, have the stool checked for parasites as this can also cause changes to the stool. I hope you found this helpful. Please feel free to post any additional questions.

Thank you for submitting your question regarding Beuno. Stool problems in young dogs are most commonly caused by parasites or diet. I recommend having his veterinarian perform in depth stool testing to assess for parasites or other causes of gastrointestinal infections. If there is nothing found, then you may need to consider a diet change. I would recommend a prescription gastrointestinal diet that is formulated for use in puppies such as Purina Veterinary Diet EN. This is a highly digestible diet and many times can resolve the symptoms. You need to be careful with grain free diets as some have been associated with heart disease. They also tend to be quite high in carbohydrates which can lead to weight gain over time. I hope this information helps!

Thank you for submitting your question regarding Aiko. I recommend having a blood value known as SDMA tested as it is more sensitive in detecting kidney disease that BUN and Creatinine. This value can be combined with a first morning urine sample to check the kidney's concentrating ability. With this information, it can be decided if he has kidney disease and if so, which stage. If his kidneys are functioning well, then I would suggest a prescription low fat diet to be fed to him exclusively to help prevent recurrence of pancreatitis. Royal Canin Veterinary Diets LF or Purina ProPlan Veterinary Diets EN would be appropriate choices. I hope this information helps!

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! I would NOT switch to grain free as these diets are being linked to heart disease in some dogs. Also, this will not help soften the stool. If you are worried about Deebo’s stool, you can add more water to his diet either to his food or with canned food. Or you can add 1-2 tbsp of canned (plain) pumpkin to his diet 1-2 times daily. Good luck and kisses to Deebo!

I wouldn't expect to see greasy stool with pancreatitis or the low fat diet. If the stool is truly greasy it is usually due to undigested fat, which can be a sign of exocrine pancreatic insufficiency. This disease is usually unrelated to chronic pancreatitis. I would recommend taking a sample to your veterinarian for analysis - if there is truly undigested fat present they may recommend sending out a blood test for exocrine pancreatic insufficiency. If the stool just looks soft they might recommend trying a different low fat therapeutic diet.