NORMAL STOOL in Dogs & Cats

from Las Vegas Pet Scene Magazine, May/June 2023

HOW TO KEEP SMALL PETS HAPPY AND HEALTHY

By Elizabeth Racine, DVM

As a pet parent, it’s important to be monitoring your pet for any changes in health or behavior that may indicate the onset of illness. One essential factor to be mindful of is the quality of your pet’s stool – including its normal color, consistency, and smell. Changes in stool quality should be discussed with your veterinarian, as they may indicate digestive upset or other changes in your pet’s health. To help you keep an eye on your pet’s stool quality, consider the following characteristics of healthy stool.

Consistency

Perhaps the most important factor to consider when evaluating your pet’s stool quality is the consistency of the stool. For a helpful visual aid, look online for canine or feline fecal scoring charts, also sometimes called “poop charts”, which display examples of stool quality ranked on a scale of one to seven. An ideal fecal score is 2 – no pun intended – which describes a bowel movement that is firm, but not hard, segmented in appearance, and leaves behind little to no residue when picked up. A fecal score of 1 indicates that the stool is dry and hard, which can be a sign of constipation. Fecal scores higher than 2 describe bowel movements that are softer in consistency, varying from being slightly moist at the lower end of the scale to watery puddles at a score of 7. These numerical scores can be especially helpful when discussing stool quality with your veterinarian, and provide an excellent means of monitoring your dog or cat’s stool quality over time.

Color

Most normal stool is varying shades of brown due to the presence of bile and bilirubin, which are secreted into the small intestine during normal digestion. Other factors, such as the foods your pet eats, can also affect stool color. Some pet foods and treats contain dyes to make the product more appealing to consumers, which may cause discoloration of the stool. However, if your pet’s stool is suddenly changing color without a change in diet, this warrants a conversation with your veterinarian. While it’s not typically concerning if your pet’s stool changes from dark brown to light brown, certain colors do warrant further investigation. Black stools, particularly those with a tarry consistency, warrant an immediate trip to your veterinarian as this indicates the presence of blood in the upper gastrointestinal tract, meaning your pet may be bleeding internally. Red stools often indicate the presence of fresh blood from the colon or rectum, which also warrants further investigation by your veterinarian. While uncommon, white stool also indicates a trip to the veterinarian is needed, as this may indicate a lack of bile in the small intestine caused by obstruction of the bile ducts or disease in the liver.

Smell

Not surprisingly, stool is often malodorous due to the presence of bacteria from the intestinal tract. However, if your pet’s stool suddenly smells particularly foul or has an unusual odor, this may be something to discuss with your veterinarian. Stool smell can be affected by diet, so it’s possible that something your pet ate triggered the change in odor. Foul-smelling stool can also occur due to digestive upset and is particularly concerning if combined with changes in stool consistency. Stool with significant amounts of blood present may have a distinct metallic smell and veterinary professionals will often recognize this smell immediately as many associate it with the infection canine parvovirus, although other causes of blood in the stool can also lead to this characteristic smell.

MONITORING YOUR PET’S STOOL

Monitoring stool quality is an easy and helpful way to keep track of your pet’s overall health. Changes in consistency, color, or smell should be reported to your veterinarian, and some changes warrant a more immediate trip to the veterinary clinic. If your pet’s stool quality has been less than ideal, keeping a “poop journal” logging important information such as your pet’s fecal score, dietary intake, and frequency of defecation can be a helpful tool for both you and your veterinarian to get to the bottom of the problem.

Although no one likes to talk about bowel movements, discussing this information with your veterinarian can lead to better health and well-being for your pet!