Cooked sweet potatoes can substitute for canned pumpkin to help your Weim's loose stools
If you’re like me, you keep a couple cans of pumpkin around to help with the occassional bout of loose stool that your Weimaraner may experience from time to time. Foodie sites were abuzz last fall with the 2009 pumpkin shortage, but I paid no attention since I don’t care for pumpkin, and my cupboards were fully stocked for our dogs.
It’s now February, and we still cannot find canned pumpkin in our local grocery stores in Southern California, and the Los Angeles Times reports that there will be no more canned pumpkin until August of 2010. But don’t despair, there are alternatives that you can use if your Weim has an issue before then, all readily availalbe at your local grocery store.
My favorites are:
- Yams and sweet potatoes. Yams and sweet potatoes can be wrapped in foil and thrown in your toaster oven until soft. Your Weim will love the sweet flavor, and a couple inch piece added to their food will help.
- Oatmeal. Add bananas and some live culture yogurt. If you’re lucky your Weim might consider sharing this healthy meal with you.
Like pumpkin, these are foods that are high in soluble fiber. Soluble fiber helps slow digestion and firms up those loose stools by “holding” water. This thickening characteristic also soothes the gut. (The other kind of fiber is called insoluble fiber, and this type of fiber speeds things through the gut.)
So until this coming fall, or unless you are lucky and can find canned pumpkin in your local stores now, consider cooking some soluable fiber for your Weimaraner to help any soft stool issues. Or, if you still want the convenience of canned, you can substitue canned pumpkin with Farmers Market Organic Sweet Potato Puree
Please note that soft stools that do not resolve in a few days, or diarrhea especially if watery and bloody, need to be taken seriously and will warrant a vet visit.
About justweims
My girls go nuts over pumpkin!
Actually, I will rephrase that… “they go nuts over anything ORANGE colored; pumpkin, sweet potatoes and carrots.
I sure wish I would have known that yams and sweet potatoes were an adequate substitute for pumpkin. I had several dogs with irritable bowels and used up my supply. My clients and I were searching all over Palmdale and Lancaster for pumpkin prior to the Western and wondering when we saw the canned yams whether they might work. We know now.
My dog had pooey poo week a couple of weeks ago. We searched high and low for canned pumpkin, only to find that they were “seasonal” and not expected to be shelved anytime soon. Luckily for us, the problem went away on it’s own, but for future reference, we’ll be sure to pick up sweet potatoes and yams. Good thing oatmeal also has a permanent space in our pantry. Thank you! [K]
Great to know. Pumpkin pie is NOT something the French do, so no canned pumpkin ever. Didn’t realize I could use Sweet potatoes. I can steam up a batch and put portions in the freezer for emergencies. I usually have oatmeal and bananas and probiotics on hand – so this is great. What about rice water? I’ve heard that will also firm up stools.
If doggie has a yucky tummy, you can make them rice with skinless, boneless chicken breast. A couple of days of that should help-if it doesn’t, take them to the vet. The only problem might be that they like the rice and chicken so much, they may not want to go back to dog food again. Also cottage cheese to put the good enzymes back in their tummy also works.