# Still has undigested bone in poop



## Jodysmom (Jan 9, 2010)

I adopted Jody about 3 1/2 months ago. She was on kibble for the first month but transitioned to raw after that. I started out with premade/preground raw and within the last 5 weeks moved to raw meat/bones/and some organ. I still find lots of undigested sharp bone in her stool although sometimes it is better than others. Yesterday there was lots of bone with a drop of blood on the undigested bones. The bones are always in small pieces and she chews her food well. She is on a good quality probiotic and I have been delaying adding digestive enzymes to her food hoping her stomach acids just need time to dissolve the bone. She is gaining
weight nicely. 

Does 5 weeks sound like a long time to find undigested bone? At what time
should I add a good quality digestive enzyme?


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

What kind of bone in meat were you feeding her in the past day or so?

I don't find this unusual by any means. I still find the occasional piece of bone in our dog's stool. Just depends on what they were fed, generally the heavier bones like pork ribs or weight bearing turkey bones will produce fragments...not usually though. It also depends on the actual dog as well, some dogs digest bones like they are nothing from the first day, but others take a long time to adjust. How old is the dog again?


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## Jodysmom (Jan 9, 2010)

We aren't sure on Jody's exact age but we think she may be around 3 yrs. old. I just started introducing pork and she has had about 5 ounces of boneless pork a day for the last week. The bone pieces that we find vary but I do think they are worse when she has a turkey drumstick. So far she has had chicken, turkey drumsticks, turkey necks, and pork without bone. She also has a little bit of beef liver (2 ounces) everyday.


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

Its probably the turkey drumstick, since those bones are a bit on the denser side. But in reality it could by any of those bones. I honestly wouldn't worry too much about it. I think it took Bailey close to 2-3 months for bone piece to be at a minimum in her stool. 

Are her stools solid or soft?


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## Jodysmom (Jan 9, 2010)

They have been solid but since introducing pork they have been softer than usual. She gets about 5 ounces and I have noticed it causes her to have a looser stool.


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## Todd (Jan 13, 2010)

Jodysmom said:


> They have been solid but since introducing pork they have been softer than usual. She gets about 5 ounces and I have noticed it causes her to have a looser stool.


do you slice the pork ribs into smaller pieces or feed them whole? If you cut them into smaller pieces, the bones may not be chewed enough and that could possibly be causing the bone fragments in the stool. Lucky vomited when I cut up her pork ribs. I obviously only feed them whole now and have no problems.


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## Jodysmom (Jan 9, 2010)

I am just giving real thick pork chops.


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## Jodysmom (Jan 9, 2010)

The funny thing is she has never vommitted or had gas. She is gaining weight nicely. I have always been fine with the undigested bone until
I saw a tiny bit of bright red blood on one of the bones.


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## Todd (Jan 13, 2010)

Jodysmom said:


> I am just giving real thick pork chops.


oh, ok. In that case I'm really not too sure. I'm fairly new to this raw feeding thing as well and haven't yet run across a problem like this in Lucky.


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

Todd said:


> do you slice the pork ribs into smaller pieces or feed them whole? If you cut them into smaller pieces, the bones may not be chewed enough and that could possibly be causing the bone fragments in the stool. Lucky vomited when I cut up her pork ribs. I obviously only feed them whole now and have no problems.


She said in a previous post that the pork was boneless.



Jodysmom said:


> The funny thing is she has never vommitted or had gas. She is gaining weight nicely. I have always been fine with the undigested bone until
> I saw a tiny bit of bright red blood on one of the bones.


I still see spots of blood sometimes...its kinda a normal thing if there isn't a whole lot of it every time she goes. It just depends on if something was irritating her colon or rectum, which again is normal. 

At this point I really wouldn't worry too much about seeing bone in her stool, its just a bit too early to expect her body to be 100% efficient at breaking down bones.


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## RawFedDogs (Jun 16, 2008)

Jodysmom said:


> I still find lots of undigested sharp bone in her stool although sometimes it is better than others.


Don't worry about it. It will get less and less as time goes on. I still see bone in stools rarely but it does happen. Abby has been eating bones for almost 8 years and will have a fragment sometimes.



> Yesterday there was lots of bone with a drop of blood on the undigested bones.


Again, normal for this time in her adjustment. Just a little blood is no big deal.



> The bones are always in small pieces and she chews her food well. She is on a good quality probiotic and I have been delaying adding digestive enzymes to her food hoping her stomach acids just need time to dissolve the bone.


Whats the reason for the probiotic? If you have no health related reason for the probioitic or enzymes, forget them. Healthy dogs have no need for them. I have never given those to a dog. Yes, her digestive system needs time to adjust to digesting real food but the less help you give it the faster the adjustment will happen. As long as you are giving her artificial things to do the work of digestion for her, she won't learn how.



> She is gaining weight nicely.


Wonderful  



> Does 5 weeks sound like a long time to find undigested bone? At what time should I add a good quality digestive enzyme?


No and no. Things are progressing normally and helping her will not help her. It's the job of her body to produce the necessary digestive enzymes. Stand back and let it do it's job.


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## JayJayisme (Aug 2, 2009)

How big is Jody? Both of my dogs, one about 18 lbs. and one about 40 lbs., have trouble chewing up turkey leg and thigh bones. I'm sure larger dogs have no problem with them but mine do so I don't feed that to them. Wings, yes. Legs and thighs, no.

Neither has any trouble with pork ribs. Even my little guy. He devours them bone and all.


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## Jodysmom (Jan 9, 2010)

*JayJayisme*-Jody weighs about 70 pounds. She doesn't have a problem consuming turkey leg bones. 
*RawFedDogs*-Jody was on antibiotics when we first started fostering her and I just continued giving her the probiotics out of habit. Also, I thought it would help with
helping her digest the bone. If it won't help I will stop.


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## JayJayisme (Aug 2, 2009)

Okay, yeah at 70 lbs. she should be able to handle turkey legs with no problem. RFD and others here have experience with this in dogs this size so I hope their advice is helpful to you.


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## whiteleo (Sep 7, 2008)

I'm not sure, but possibly the probiotics are keeping your dog from producing the amount of enzymes needed to properly digest and break down the bone. Just a thought!


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