The Perfect Poop
5 cards · about a minute
Chocolate brown
Healthy stool is an even chocolate brown; grey suggests fat is not being digested, and anything approaching black needs a vet the same day.
Firm and segmented
It should hold its shape and leave the grass clean, soft enough to dent under a stick and no softer than that.
Read the coating
A film of mucus on the outside is the colon complaining, usually about something new in the bowl; blood streaked through it is not a wait-and-see.
Twice, at the same hours
Most adult dogs go once or twice a day at roughly the same times, and a schedule that drifts is often the first sign the gut has changed.
When to call
Three days of change, any blood, black stool, or a dog who is off their food alongside it. That is a phone call, not a period of observation.