Do You Have Problems With White Dog Poop?

Observing your dog’s stool is most certainly one of the simplest and most economical ways to control its health and thus anticipate any possible impairment. When you go to the vet, the first control question he will most certainly ask you is ” how are his stool ?”, it is true that the observation of a variation in color in the stool of our dog is generally a cause for concern.

In this article we are going to look at why your dog has white stool and enlighten you on the various reasons that could lead to this more or less atypical coloring of your dog’s stool. And also, to encourage you to check daily the consistency and the appearance of your dog’s feces.

Dietary Reasons For White Stool in Dogs

Changing a diet of raw meat and bone can result in hard, white stool that breaks up like chalk in your hands when you try to pick it up. Its stool adopts this color and this rigidity because of the excessive presence of calcium that is found in the bones that your dog eats. Sometimes the amount of bone you give him is excessive and your dog will unfortunately have difficulty defecating.

This constant need to defecate is called “tenesme” and if you have opted for this type of diet, we recommend consulting with the specialist who advised you on this diet so that he can give you advice to facilitate intestinal transit and not cause anal fissures in your dog.

Does That Mean My Dog Has To Stop This Diet ?

Basically, if we have followed the advice of the experts and the dog responds adequately to this new diet, we will just have to deal with this inconvenience. In order to avoid the worrisome presence of these hard white stool in your dog, you can opt for :

Include more fiber in your dog’s diet using products like pumpkin or asparagus.
Reduce the amount of bone, vary the type of bone or opt to give it only specified days of the week.

Try to use pro / prebiotics to promote intestinal fermentation and adaptation to the new diet, based on live bacteria such as Enterococcum faecium, or Lactobacillus and other substrates so that existing good bacteria thrive, such as inulin, a disaccharide.

During the first few days and until your dog is fit, we recommend using an intestinal lubricant similar to the products we (humans) can use in similar cases. You can use products like liquid paraffin (which has a rather unpleasant flavor) or give it tablespoons of olive oil every 12 hours until the situation normalizes. Remember to adjust the dose according to the results.

Although you may think it might work for your dog, using other medications is not appropriate.

The use of other medications that you usually have on hand for these situations is not appropriate although you may think that it will be good for your dog. Because before stimulating bowel movement with laxatives, we need to make sure that these stools have not been compacted to form a cecolith (literally, stool like stones) thus causing intestinal obstruction.

What Does White Dog Poop Means?

The color of your dog’s stool is only the mirror of what your dog ingests and many times the handlers can’t control what their dog eats. Indeed, in the countryside, dogs that have free access to the farm eat things not controlled by the owners, which can cause unpleasant surprises to the owners.

Although you feed it regularly, many country dogs spend their day stealing eggs or eating carrion (including bones and feathers).

In fact, by controlling your dog’s stool you will make a little habit of what it can do when you’re not there. This excess of calcium (from bones and shells) can cause hard and white stool to appear in your dog.

These dogs usually defecate in places you can’t see and if you’re not sure what they’re eating and you find that your dog’s behavior has changed, it’s important to check his stool for color and appearance.

We recommend that you leave your dog at home for three days so that you can easily check his droppings and prevent intestinal obstruction before it is too late.

How Long Will It Take For The Dog’S Stools To Turn White And Hard?

The color of the dog’s stool with homemade diets will depend on the proportion of food he ingests and the day you give it to him. So during the week it is normal for you to notice small variations in color and consistency.

In general, the white dog poop color will be maintained with small variations. As far as the hardness is concerned, it will be regulated according to what results the most suitable for your dog.

In any case, we recommend you to follow the advice of the experts but you should know that your dog will have more compact and clearer stool than those of animals fed with croquettes.

Why Does My Dog Have White Stool? – White Dog Poop For Dietary Reasons

Acidic Stool

Stercobiline is the brown pigment that forms from bilirubin and gives colour to excrement. If, for any reason, the formation or transport of bilirubin is impaired, it is inevitable that the stool will turn into a whitish/greyish colour, they are called acidic stool.

What Can Cause Stercobiline Deficiency ?

There may be liver damage, in which case the liver is unable to perform its functions. Between them, there is the formation of bilirubin from the breakdown product of red blood cells. As a result, this pigment will not accumulate in the gallbladder and will not vanish into the duodenum with the remaining bile substances after each meal.

In fact the formation of stercobiline will be altered and therefore the stool will no longer have its usual color. Some causes of liver problems in dogs are:

Liver neoplasia : primary or secondary tumours (e.g., metastasis of a breast tumor or bone tumor).
Congenital (birth) impairment at a level of hepatic vascularization.
Acute hepatitis: inflammation of the liver, due to ingestion of toxic substances, due to a virus (canine hepatitis) or which may be of bacterial origin (leptospirosis).
Cirrhosis: hepatic degeneration as a result of prolonged disease, such as subacute hepatitis sustained over time. This is the end result of many liver diseases that may have gone unnoticed by the master and veterinarian due to the high compensation capacity of this organ.
Pancreatitis : inflammation of the pancreas.

As we have explained to you, any alteration during bilirubin transport can cause this bilirubin deficiency : gallbladder stones (uncommon in dogs), obstruction of the bile duct due to a mass in the abdomen that compresses it and prevents it from escaping the bile…

In these cases, the lack or absence of evacuation of bile to the duodenum, the stool presents steatorrhea (they are pasty) because bile acids are necessary to absorb fats. And when there are no acids, they are completely eliminated in the stool. White dog poop or soft stool (such as fat), are generally a good indicator of liver or pancreatic disease.

How Do We Detect These Problems ?

The liver takes a long time to alert to its general condition, unless it is an overripe disease. Thanks to its very large reserve capacity, it can guarantee its work even by having a large part affected.

However, if your dog has any or all of the following symptoms, you will most certainly need to go to the veterinarian :

Makes frequent deposits with acidic or pasty stool.
He’s throwing up bile.
He has an itch of unknown origin.
Icterichia.
Anorexia or hyperoxia (he eats, but much less).
He’s drinking more water.
Distension of the abdomen (ascites), it hurts when you touch it, it no longer supports exercise…

In order to detect the exact cause of white stool in our dog, it will be necessary to carry out a series of laboratory tests such as a hemogram (of Biochemistry and proteins). Possibly also a coagulation panel and a detailed medical history (carried out between you and your veterinarian).

However, since liver enzymes are not always altered as might be expected, almost all cases will require diagnostics using digital imaging (ultrasound, etc.)…).

White Dog Poop Caused By Mucus:

Sometimes the stool has a normal colour but it appears wrapped in a kind of gelatinous white cloth that makes us think that this is its normal colour.

But if you try to disassemble them, you will realize that it is a kind of bag that covers them completely.

This mucus tends to appear in cases of irritation of the intestinal mucosa. It is actually a defense against aggression and is usually found during abrupt regime changes. Or when the dog is suffering from a parasitic disease (such as giardiosis or some microscopic parasite).

It is possible that this phenomenon is isolated or intercalated with completely normal stools (in terms of appearance and colour).

In order to avoid this spot irritation of the intestine, you should perform the diet changes gradually. Help your dog to take enough probiotics and deworm it regularly with suitable products and while following the advice of your veterinarian.

White Dog Poop Caused By Parasites:

On some occasions, dogs intestines are so over parasitized, that by starting the deworming process by your veterinarian, you are alarmed by seeing that your dog’s droppings are virtually white in color. This is usually due to the appearance of many dead (and sometimes fragmented) nematodes (worms) in your dog’s stool.

It is not uncommon to find some of them alive and moving because it all depends on how the product that you used to deworm works. Because some products force the parasite to take off from the intestinal wall, others kill them directly when they are absorbed by the blood or through the integument.

If your dog has tapeworm, it will usually be of the Dipylidium caninum type, mass removal of proglottis gravid on the outside which can make us observe stool filled with a species of white rice grain.

They can be so numerous in a relatively small fecal matter that it is possible to confuse this presence with really white droppings. We recommend you to approach well and to collect them in order to verify what is due to this coloration.

You didn’t think it was important to look at your dog’s stool and pick it up without paying attention ? The proverb “We are what we eat” is completely true and it is important that you know that your dog’s stool allows you to know more about your dog’s health.

By the way, in general the appearances are deceptive, all the more reason to check the state of your dog’s stool during your daily walks!

This article is purely informative, we do not have the competence to prescribe veterinary treatments or to carry out any diagnosis. We invite you to bring your pet to the vet if it presents the symptoms of febrile illness or disease.