# help, are bones in stool normal



## carole (Sep 17, 2009)

I started feeding raw chicken backs and my dog's stool was very hard and almost all bone, so I fed him chicken breast in a.m. and leg quarter in p.m., stool still same. Yesterday I fed him chicken breast in a.m. and boneless breast in p.m., this morning I fed him chicken breast. His stool had one hard ball, a small piece of undigested mucousy chicken (had slight tinge of blood) and some pieces of 1/4 inch bones. Is this normal? He also is not drinking any water, his urine is clear. Was I wrong to feed the boneless breast? I've only been feeding raw about a week and half and his stools have gotten to be just a few balls a day, and hard as rock so I though I was feeding too much bone therefore added the boneless breast. I'm thinking of going to a premade patty as seeing those bones and blood in his stool scare me.


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## whiteleo (Sep 7, 2008)

This is really a question for RFD, but your dogs poop will be much less and in smaller amounts than before. The amount of water consumption will be significantly less because of the amount of water in the raw meat. I never noticed any bone in my dogs poop, but that doesn't mean it's not possible. I'm not a fan of chicken backs, too boney and my dogs wouldn't touch them, still have a case in the freezer! Your dog should be getting about 1.5 lbs of meat a day, don't feed too much, chicken breast won't hurt him in any way, whatever you do, don't go to premade patties as they are not a balanced diet and either too much or too little bone.


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## RawFedDogs (Jun 16, 2008)

carole said:


> I started feeding raw chicken backs and my dog's stool was very hard and almost all bone,


Stools caused by chicken will look a lot like bone. They are very light in color with kind of a yellowish tint and very very small. My Great Danes poop 2 little logs a day about the size of my thumb. That is the entirety of their poop. Kibble poops are artificially large because of the garbage fillers in kibble. What you are seeing now are more natural stools. As long as they aren't powdery, don't worry about them.

It also won't be unusual to see some bone fragments in the stools at this stage. You will see less and less of them as time passes. Their bodies are still learning to digest this stuff. The acidity level of their stomach juices will increase over time.



> so I fed him chicken breast in a.m. and leg quarter in p.m., stool still same. Yesterday I fed him chicken breast in a.m. and boneless breast in p.m., this morning I fed him chicken breast. His stool had one hard ball, a small piece of undigested mucousy chicken (had slight tinge of blood) and some pieces of 1/4 inch bones. Is this normal?


Yep, absolutely. You can feed as much boneless chicken as you wish just so the stools don't get soft. It also won't be unusual to see mucusy stools.



> He also is not drinking any water, his urine is clear.


Thats also normal. They will never drink as much water as they used to. Their raw food is about 70% water. Remember how dry kibble was? They had to drink more water to make up for that dryness. Again, what they are drinking now is more natural that the heavy kibble drinking. Feeding kibble causes all kinds of unatural things to happen that people accept as natural because its all they ever saw.



> Was I wrong to feed the boneless breast?


Nope ... it makes it a little more likely to have soft stools but since they didn't, its no problem. Remember ... bones cause harder stools so if your dogs have soft stools feed more bone and soft stools call for more bone. None of it is critical.



> I've only been feeding raw about a week and half and his stools have gotten to be just a few balls a day, and hard as rock so I though I was feeding too much bone therefore added the boneless breast.


What you are seeing is normal. Get used to it. It is really great. BTW: Those stooks will dry up even more, turn to a white powder and blow away in the wind or wash away with the rain. Much much less poop clean up in the yeard. Also it doesn't stink. :smile: Don't be worried about the good things. They are called benefits. :smile:



> I'm thinking of going to a premade patty as seeing those bones and blood in his stool scare me.


No, no, no, no, no, a thousand times no. Hang in there ... I know this is a little scary. We were all scared when we first started. We saw things we didn't expect. After you have done this a few months and have your routine all set, you will be very comfortable with this. There is just a little adjustment for everyone. Believe me, both you and your dogs will be glad you stuck with it.

Don't sweat small details. Nothing is critical. No percentages, no amounts, no times, no ingredients, nothing. Your dogs will survive this transition and so will you. :smile:

*ETA:* If you go to premade patties, you will be taking a big step backwards.


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## carole (Sep 17, 2009)

I think I over fed him yesterday, maybe that was the cause of the undigested chicken in his stool. RFD, his stools look pretty much the way you explain, though he has had a few that crumble and fall apart as they come out. I guess I have to find the right amount of bone for him.

I have read horror stories on the internet about raw feeding and bones getting stuck in digestive track causing surgeries and even death so seeing bones in the stool really worried me. Can chicken bones cause do this?


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## RawFedDogs (Jun 16, 2008)

carole said:


> I think I over fed him yesterday, maybe that was the cause of the undigested chicken in his stool. RFD, his stools look pretty much the way you explain, though he has had a few that crumble and fall apart as they come out. I guess I have to find the right amount of bone for him.


Sounds like you are feeding a little too much bone. If you have some boneless breasts, feed him boneless for a couple of days and it will straigten right up. Don't worry, it's not as big a deal as you think it is. Believe me, in a few months you will just feed him and not worry so much about details. I pay absolutely no attention to how much bone I feed. I know what is "about right" and thats what they get fed. I doubt I even look at their poop more than once every few weeks if that often.



> I have read horror stories on the internet about raw feeding and bones getting stuck in digestive track causing surgeries and even death so seeing bones in the stool really worried me. Can chicken bones cause do this?


You've got to get over the horror stories you read on the internet. It's not impossible for one of those things to happen but it is so very unlikely that I never even think about it. I have been on a raw feeding discussion board for 7 years. This board has over 14,000 members and over 100 posts a day. I remember ONE post where a dog actually had a problem with a bone.

There were several times that someone thought they had a problem, rushed the dog to the vet only to find out it was a tennis ball or a rag or a toy that had gotten lodged in the stomach or intestines.

I remember one lady couldn't wait to relate her story. Her dog swallowed a chicken drumstick whole, she panicked and took ihm to the vet. The vet took xrays and saw a whole drumstick in the dog's stomach. He panicked and did emergency surgery to remove it. All he had to do was wait a few hours and it would have digested and they would never have seen it again. My dogs have swallowed chicken drumsticks several times with no problem.

Just because you see x-rays of bones in a dog's stomach or intestine doesn't mean there is a problem. You have to have several x-rays over a few hours to see the progress the bones makes through the body and how it keeps getting smaller and smaller until it disappears before you can draw any conclusions.

I took one of my dearly departed Goldens to the vet one day and he saw bones in her stomach on an x-ray and he got all upset. I told him she had just eaten 2 chicken quarters less than an hour ago and i would be worried if there were no bones in her stomach.

Join the Yahoo rawfeeding list if you want to. You will see more than 100 posts a day and none reporting anything serious. Most of the problem posts are about diarrhea and how to fix it and vomiting and how to fix that plus the posts from newbies asking if what they are seeing is normal. There will be other post asking what to feed a dog that has this or that health problems.

After you see your dog eat and digest raw meat, bones and organs for a few months you will be much calmer. :smile: Mine have been at it for 7 years with not one single problem. I can't remember the last case of diarrhea. It's been years. Maybe even 5 or 6 years. They wll vomit occasionally but thats because they didn't chew their food good and they bring it back up, chew it some more and swallow it down again.

Don't worry, dogs have been eating this way for millions of years. They know how and they are very well equipped to do it. :smile:


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## carole (Sep 17, 2009)

Thank you RFD, I really appreciate your responses. I will feed boneless for a couple of days like you suggest. You have encouraged me to stick it out. Thanks again.


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

Our dogs swallow whole bones on a regular basis...never had a problem. Sometimes we see the whole drumstick bones come out the other end, but I have never been worried about it (especially with the puppy). I do notice that when we give them rib bones, especially lamb ribs, Bailey the Dane will especially wont chew the bones that well and bone chunks will come out the other end.


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