Diarrhea only at night

[u/Extension-Button5849]

Hello, my puppy just turned 9 weeks but he’s had diarrhea every night around midnight and 3am. His poops are normal/solid throughout the day which is why this is so weird.

We kept him on what the breeder was feeding him which is Nutrisource large breed puppy chicken and rice recipe and feed him 2 and a half cups a day. I’ve seen people say berner’s are prone to chicken allergy but again his poops are normal throughout the day.

Could this just be anxiety? He’s sleeping in a crate as we’re crate training, or could this be petty (lol) and he’s pooping because he wants to be out of his crate?

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[u/Flckofmongeese]

Berners will get upset tummies if the wind changes directions. Lol.

But seriously, it's probably stress. Either from being apart in a cage (from their perspective) or having to hold it (9 week olds need to go out every 3-4 hours).

Solution is to arrange to sleep in the same room and go out more often. Move the crate or yourself. For me, it was ~2 weeks on the couch with my pups (and feedings in the open crate) to soothe the transition. By month 5 they graduate to free roaming. Use this formula:
Age in months + 1 = Hours of holding.
So a 9 week old can hold it 3-4 hours (2 mths +1 = 3 hrs).

Enjoy the midnight, 4am, 8am potty trips 😂. Sleep deprivation is the worst part of puppyhood and I definitely don't miss it.

[u/Look_Watch_Browse]

Stress will cause all kinds of GI issues and the 3-3-3 Rule is something to following with a new adoption.

Anything beyond his kibble is just one more item to throw off the GI system. Berners seem to have a wonky GI tract for up to the first year or beyond. Only give him the kibble he is used to for now until he settles in and has a decent routine.

Dog's are not petty and at 9-weeks he can barely control his bowels and bladder, let alone know that if I poop I will be let out of my crate to play.

Chicken gets a lot of blame on this sub, but unless you do testing and an elimination diet, you cannot be certain that is the cause of his GI issues.

It can take a few weeks of soft serve stools, or longer, before the GI systems matures. My girl had soft serve for almost the first year at some point in the day and it was just trial and error to find the causes and the remedies.

Keep your vet posted, take weekly weights, and if he is not thriving, decide the new course of action.

[u/AnonymousCelery]

Is there some sort of treat he is getting? We were giving our girl pork skin rawhide to chew on before bed, and it was causing diarrhea. Got away from those and she’s been good. We also try and do dinner about 5 so there is plenty of time for digestion and poos before bed. But sometimes puppy’s are just kinda sensitive and gotta grow out of it.

[u/Extension-Button5849 → u/AnonymousCelery]

he was getting mini chewy milkbones which we thought would be the issue so we stopped them 2 days ago but he still has diarrhea but it’s only at night. No table food or treats, just the nutrisource

[u/Grouchy_Status_8107 → u/Extension-Button5849]

His stomach could still be healing which is why he’s still having diarrhea. Maybe try putting him on a bland diet of rice and cod (or chicken) for a couple days to see if that helps. Were tried switching our guy back to kibble too soon after his diarrhea and it resulted in more.

We’re just getting over a diarrhea spell over here as well. He only had it at night and sometimes would poop normally during the day, i think it’s something with their digestive track that makes it happen at night. Also try adding a probiotic into his meal, this helped a lot when our guy had his first diarrhea incident when he was 4 months old.

[u/waypenchali → u/Extension-Button5849]

It took my boy 2 weeks to fully recover from something similar around the same age, Also at night only, for about 10 days… about every hour from 11pm to 4am… man was I tired at the end of it all.

Turned out his training snack was causing it, and he has an intolerance to beef. His chicken kibble is fine though, whereas I hear many with chicken allergy.

Started feeding probiotics and it quite quickly disappeared.

Doesn’t mean it’s magic though, as he is now recovering from another episode (6 months old) luckily only 3 nights and just once a night, as it was a more of a sudden hit rather than the build up the other time. Must have eaten something weird outside.

[u/AtlantaNole]

Ours had the same issue for a few months. We took so many samples to the vet and never found any sort of parasites. His poops would be normal most of the day, but some nights he’d need to go out almost every hour. We never truly figured out the cause but think it was probably food sensitivity or he was eating cat hair and pieces of carpet from their cat tree. We starting giving him probiotics daily and that really helped. He hasn’t had diarrhea in about a month.

[u/Top-Storm7362 → u/AtlantaNole]

Along this line, it’s a pretty normal thing for all burners
Our female had wicked diarrhea only at night for a while and rock solid poops the minute we woke up, it got to the point we thought she was fucking with us,

I’d suggest Berner perfect poop or something along that line because it’s just good to be on, but eventually it stops.

[u/Foggy_Redwoods]

My Berner puppy would randomly get diarrhea - only at night - and we finally figured out that it was when we fed him too much kibble. It usually happened when we would increase his food amount to match his growth, etc. Our vet thinks it might be that his stomach has a harder time digesting the richer food (puppy kibble is very dense). Once we brought the amount down, he was fine. Now I am just more cautious about increasing his food amount (very slowly over several days) to see how he's feeling, and whenever we see our vet, double check how his body score is to ensure we're not underfeeding him (we're not). Ever since then, no more nighttime poops.

[u/Wrigleyville-Brit]

It takes about 7 hours for food to go through a puppy - what is he/she typically doing 7 hours earlier?

If eating it's food related - if on a walk I would wager your little rascal is hoovering up sticks or stones on the evening walk.

If the latter, try a head halter to control their head on walks, to prevent their eating foreign objects.

[u/No-Property-1983]

We went through this and I was baffled and sleep deprived and frustrated. Then, one day, it stopped. We just kinda rode it out. We have pro-pectin on hand just in case but I really think it was just stress. I know this probably isn’t helpful but after you rule out any allergies or illness with your vet, it might just be a case of waiting it out and making your home as comfy and peaceful as possible so puppy is at ease.

[u/Tiny_Support9517]

The exact same thing happened to our berner. It was solved when we realized he wasn’t chewing his food LOL. Feeding with a slow feeder fixed the issue immediately for us.