Riley's strange behavior

[jer333grace]

I have a male maltese. His name is riley. The past month he has been pooping 5-6 or more times a day. He goes outside then comes in and goes inside and he'll go several different places in a matter of minutes. I have never seen a dog poop so much. Please Help!!!!

[Tollers-n-Dobes]

It might be the brand/quality/amount of food you're giving him. Other that that I don't know what it could be...

[KYS]

Is he free fed/ or are
their any changes in his diet?

That seems like a lot of pooping.
My dogs get fed twice a day, and
they poop 2 times a day.

[MaryJae]

First, I'd take him to the vet to make sure it's not a health problem which is making him do this.

How old is he? If he's still a puppy, then he'll still make some mistakes. I recommend crate training if you want to housebreak your dog because it'll help him hold it and go at a certain time(you have to let him out every 2 hours if he's a puppy and atleast every 4-5 if he's an adult). He'll learn that he's only suppose to go use the bathroom outside and it'll break his habit of going inside.

You have to use an enzyme neutralizer like Nature's Miracle(you can find it at Petsmart) to clean up his mess in the house so he won't keep going in there. If you use a cleaner that you can find at a grocery store, those won't work and he'll still be able to smell where he last went which means he'll keep going there again.

Also, if you feed him a Super Premium dog food brand like CA Natural, Innova, Solid Gold, Canidae, Chicken Soup, etc., you feed less so he'll poop less.

[jer333grace]

Yes it is a lot of pooping. I feed him twice a day. I feed him Iams adult. Riley is 4 yrs old. He gets let out as much as he wants when I'm home. He's in a crate when I'm not.

[Scooby4]

Dogs should be fed only once a day for adults. Dog tend to eat at certain times of the day as well. You will have to figure out what time seems the best. Mine will eat mostly at night. Don't want to leave the food out too long as it can form worms/maggots in it. Watch out for can foods. They are higher in calories. Dry foods are better for teeth health and for less poopy.
Take him to the vet to make sure it isn't worms or other intenstinal distress. Has the weather changed? My dogs refuse to go out in the rain or really cold. I put 'painters plastic" down on my carpeted floors.
Again, check his diet, environment, or other behavioral changes. This should give you clues as where to look to fix the situation.

[Pit Chick]

Twice a day isn't too much food and that's not what would make him poop that many times a day after 4 years. I'm having this same problem with a foster pup. He was crate trained at 4 months old with no problems, then he started pooping at least 8 times a day, in his crate and outside. Everyone said it was behavioral cause he was a pup. After cleaning crap out of his crate several times a day, we figured it doesn't make sense that behavior could be the cause. A dog's behavior does not give him the urge to poop so much. And he wasn't really gaining much weight even though he is at that lanky puppy stage. So we had a poop sample tested and vua la, he has whip worms. These worms have been very difficult to get rid of too. We've treated him twice with one kind of wormer with no luck and we're on a third treatment with another kind. So take your dog and his poop to be checked by the vet.

He could also be having trouble absorbing his food so if they don't find worms, have a blood test done also.

[lovemyshiba]

Definitely check with your vet.
I have a male lab mix named Riley who was having similar problems last spring. Before running a bunch of tests, my vet recommended trying a different food, and what she recommended was Science Diet Oral Care--nothing majorly scientific except that she said it was known to "constipate" dogs sometimes, and that was sort of the effect we were going for.
Sounds strange, I know, but we tried it, and he did very well on that food.

[jer333grace]

Thanks for all the feedback. Riley dosen't have diarrhea. He just poops excessively. He has an appointment with his vet tomorrow. Again thanks for the feedback

[jer333grace]

I just wanted to let everyone know that Riley has been diagnosed with Giardia. He is on medication for 7 days. Has anyone had any experience with this???

[Pit Chick]

No, not yet. The pup I mentioned before was cleared of whip worms, but still pooping excessively. Two different vets checked his poop and gave him meds only to tell us it was still behavioral. I told the Pit Bull rescue chick I'm working for about his problem. She said the bacterial infection him and his brother had when they were a week old can lie dormant (he's now 10 months old) and she gave us some Flagle(sp?). So far the pooping has tremendously improved. He still lets out a little clump in his crate, but we just started him on the stuff Saturday.

Don't ask me why two different vets couldn't have figured it out.

It's not good that Riley has Giardia, but it is good that it's something treatable and not behavioral. Thanks for keeping us updated.