Cleaning after a dog is a routine for dog owners. One of the best things one can do is monitor their dog's health.
In these cases, slight changes in pigmentation, coating, contents, smell, or consistency of the dog stool never go unnoticed.
Yellow stools in dogs are usual and can happen for different reasons, from changes or high fat in their diet, eating something they shouldn't, to underlying problems like intestinal infections.
So why exactly is your dog's stool yellow?
Why is my dog's poop yellowish?
Average dog poop should be brown, although the coloration is totally dependent on what the dog eats.
Bile, an essential part of digestion, is made in the liver, stored in the gallbladder, and secreted into the intestines. As food materials are being digested, most of the bile is reabsorbed, but some get confined.
The trapped bile changes as food is further processed into faeces, changing the originally green material to yellow and brown.
Many dogs, at some point in life, will experience changes in stool coloration. Most cases like yellow poops deserve further investigations.
When a dog passes stools that have yellow patches on them, or just a few parts of the poop are yellow, there are chances that it may have eaten yellow crayons or even chalk.
However, if the poop is consistently yellow, the reason may be of concern. It usually is because the never reabsorbed bile passes through the faeces, making it yellow.
Trauma to the gallbladder, gallstone obstruction, or tumours can be a problem obstructing the production of bile, making a dog poop yellow stools.
Yellow and slimy(with mucous)or solid or sloppy poops are primarily a result of food intolerance.
Is yellow poop a cause for concern?
Yellow stools are not typical and are more of a warning sign. Of all the different colorations a dog can poop, yellow usually doesn't pose much concern.
As long as the pet is in high spirits and has more minor symptoms, veterinary assessment shouldn't be an emergency, but it is good to go for a checkup.
When your dog's poop turns red, orange, white, or any colour apart from the usual brown, you should be concerned and seek a veterinarian immediately.
Serious underlying problems like liver disease could be looming, and these could be the signs indicating worsening disorders.
Regular home checkups during playtime, grooming, or petting can help notice painful areas on your pet relating to these problems.
What causes yellow stool in dogs?
The causes of yellow stools in dogs are numerous, some more serious than others.
Below are some common causes that dog owners are to be aware of:
- Eating non-food items: Whatever your dog consumes affects their poop's pigmentation. Yellow chalks, crayons, or markers eaten end up in the dog's system and leave the body through the stool randomly distributed or in patches.
Some dog food ingredients may also result in yellow poops.
- Intestinal infections and parasites: Intestinal worms, bacteria, and fungi cause yellow faeces and maybe more. The dog's stool may be bloody, soft, and almost watery or extremely firm, which is more severe.
- Incomplete digestion: When the time between a dog eating and passing out food is short, it is likely to come out soft and yellow as the bile responsible for brown faeces didn't reach that stage. This primarily results from overfeeding.
- Irritable bowel syndrome: Yellow mucus-coated faeces are signs of IBS. It causes chronic irritation of the intestinal tracts, further leading to inflammatory cells, which interfere with the dog's ability to absorb and digest nutrients.
- Liver disease: Dogs develop this disease from medications, infections, or toxins. Symptoms such as dehydration, seizures, vomiting, confusion, and weight loss are just a few tips to look out for to determine liver disease but diagnosis by a vet is the better option.
- Pancreatitis: Digestive enzymes leaking into the pancreatic tissues result in the inflammation of the pancreas leading to poor digestion. Signs like lack of appetite, vomiting, fever, lethargy, abdominal pain, and depression alongside yellow poops are reasons to contact a vet immediately.
- Gallbladder issues: Decreased or blocked bile flow from the gallbladder to the intestines leads to bitterness mixed with the dog's stools giving it the yellow pigment.
This case is severe as surgery removes gallbladder tumours, stones, and other possible blockages.
- Food intolerance: Changes in diet or food ingredients for your dog may give them trouble during digestion. It may result in stomach pains and yellow poop with mucus.
- Use of medication: Weight loss treatments and some probiotics work by reducing the absorption of fat in the small intestine, fueling digestion, and leading to yellow stools.
- High in fat diets: Fatty foods increase the flow of food through the digestive system making digestion difficult. The dog stools may turn up yellow and watery.
Will yellow stool go away in dogs?
Periodic changes in stool coloration for dogs can cycle in and out, lasting for a day or two.
The dog's health evaluation should be dependent also on stool consistency, content, and coating.
The content should be reasonably uniform and without grass or toys. Consistency confirms if the stool is firm, liquid, or soft, while coating evaluates whether the dog poop contains blood or mucus.
A dog owner's priority is changing a dog's diet and close monitoring. Still, if the yellow stools pass beyond a day or two and are accompanied by symptoms such as dehydration, lack of appetite, and reduced energy, it is time to see a vet.
The vet checks the dog's stool for any parasites, and if there is none, the dog's blood work is appropriate. This is mainly to rule out many possibilities for your dog's yellow stool.
Ultrasounds and x-rays to check for any underlying causes of the yellow stool are taken, and possible treatments commence.
How do you stop yellow stools in dogs?
A bland diet of simple proteins (such as cooked eggs, beef, lean chicken, and white fish) and simple carbohydrates (such as white sweet potatoes and white or brown rice) is efficient.
Small frequent food portions can be given to the dog but do not overfeed. Also, avoid feeding your dog fatty and processed foods.
It is a good idea to monitor your dog and its playing environment at all times and get rid of possible foreign objects it can eat.
Regular checkups, parasite control, and vaccinations help reduce the chances of parasitic infections in the dog's digestive duct.
How to treat yellow stool in dogs using Safe Guard
Usually, digestion takes time, and rushing it doesn't give bile enough time to turn the poop brown.
Soil based Safe Guard Pre+Probiotics helps restore balance to the gut, improve your dog's waste, and improve digestive function by increasing the number of good bacteria in the dog's gut.
Final Thought
Consistency, colour, and coating are critical when evaluating your dog's health. They indicate your dog's health and general working within their body.
Often, yellow poop in dogs is caused by diet change rather than severe underlying health problems.
Different diseases can cause yellow stools for your dog, so evaluating additional symptoms with your vet should help in proper diagnosis and treatment.
Unless you are sure your dog just ate yellow crayons or a marker, you should not ignore yellow stools.
Take your dog to a veterinarian for checkups to ensure nothing serious or dangerous to its life.