Yellow balls in your dog poop can be alarming when All along, you’ve been used to brown and firm dog poop.Shockingly, you wake up one day to yellow balls mixed in with your furry friend’s bowel movement. This can be challenging as it leaves you at crossroads, wondering whether your canine friend is suffering from a catastrophic condition.
Yellow specks in a dog’s poop can be due to a high-fat diet, undigested corn, or tapeworms. As tapeworms mature in your pup’s gut, they shed their final segments, also known as proglottids. These segments are depicted as yellow balls in the dog’s poop.
In the rest of this article, I’ll discuss the causes of yellow balls in dog poop. I’ll also share some preventative measures to keep your furry friend healthy. Keep reading!
Yellow Balls in Dog Poop: The Main Causes
A dog’s poop colour and consistency is an indicator of your pet’s health. As a dog parent, the color, shape, and composition of your dog’s poop are some things to consider when you want to know if the dog is healthy. For instance, while watery stool may indicate an intestinal problem, small pellet-like poop means your four-legged friend is dehydrated.
One thing that remains unclear is the presence of yellow balls in the dog’s poop. When this happens, you want to know the underlying causes before figuring out the solution. The leading causes of yellow balls in a dog’s poop include the following:
1. High-fat Diet
Yellow balls in a dog’s poop can be due to undigested fat in the stool. This can happen when your furry friend consumes too much fatty food from your plate, such as bacon and other greasy leftovers.
What’s more, a high-fat diet can lead to pancreatitis, a painful inflammation of the pancreas. This potentially fatal condition affects dogs of any age and breed.
2. Undigested Corn
Yellow balls in your dog’s poop can also be due to undigested corn kernels. Corn is not easily digestible by dogs and can lead to yellowish-colored balls in the poop.
It’s worth noting that most dog food formulas contain corn since it’s nutritious for dogs. Corn contains vitamins and minerals like B vitamins, iron, and zinc.
However, corn should not be the main ingredient in your dog’s meal. If you want to include it as part of their diet, ensure it’s only a small portion as they will be excreated as yellow balls in dog poop.
3. Tapeworms
Tapeworms are intestinal parasites that can infect dogs by ingesting larvae from fleas or contaminated food and water. These parasites are among the segmented worms, meaning they have multiple segments that function as their heads.
The presence of yellow balls in a dog’s poop means it is infected by tapeworms and the yellow balls’ appearance is due to the shedding of segments. As tapeworms mature in the dog’s intestines, they shed their final segment. Although these segments are initially white, they turn yellow as they stay in the dog’s intestines. Therefore, they appear as yellow balls when excreted together with the dog’s faeces.
Luckily, tapeworms don’t cause severe problems in dogs. However, the sooner you identify their presence and treat your pup, the better.
Apart from the presence of yellow balls in your dog’s poop, other signs that indicate the presence of tapeworms include:
- Lethargy
- Vomiting
- Diarrhea
- Weight loss without loss of appetite
- Bloating
- Prevention
4. Consumption of Other Indigestible Things
The yellow pieces in your dogs’s poop might be a foreign object.
Dogs are curious creatures by nature. As such, they want to explore their surroundings and might even accidentally ingest things they shouldn’t eat, such as plastic, cigarette butts, orbeez, or bones. These can come out as hard yellow chunks in your dog’s poop.
When a dog ingests such objects, they may hinder the operation of digestive enzymes. For instance, the dog’s digestive system may secrete excessive bile to help digest the foreign objects. The consequence of excessive bile secretion in dogs is yellow balls in their poop due to unused bile.
Unfortunately, it’s impossible to control everything your furry friend eats throughout the day. However, you can prevent this by keeping hazardous and indigestible objects out of your dog’s reach.
Remedies for Yellow Balls in a Dog’s Poop
You can take different actions depending on the severity of the yellow balls in your canine’s poop; you can take different actions.
It’s safe to monitor the dog closely at home if you notice a few yellow balls after changing their diet. In this case, the yellow color may be due to undigested fat or corn. You can try feeding them low-fat meals and reducing their portion size.
If the yellow bits persist, accompanied by other symptoms like lethargy and diarrhea, it’s best to schedule a visit with your veterinarian. The vet will conduct further tests and prescribe suitable medication for tapeworms or other intestinal parasites.
How to Prevent the Yellow Balls in a Dog’s Poop
It’s clear that yellow pieces in your canine’s poop are not something to tolerate. It indicates that the dog’s digestive system is not functioning correctly and may even signal the presence of intestinal parasites.
As discussed in the previous section, the appropriate prevention to apply for your dog depends on the cause of the yellow balls.
If you realize that the yellow balls result from undigested corn, it’s best to stop giving the dog corn. If your dog is a known “gulper” that swallows whole food, giving them corn can worsen the situation. The dog will swallow the corn wholly, making it hard for digestive enzymes to digest them fully.
If the yellow balls result from tapeworm eggs, then your dog is overdue for its deworming medications. The best way to address this situation is to deworm the dog regularly. A rule of thumb is to ensure the dog is dewormed every three months.
Keeping the dog’s surroundings clean and clear from fleas and contaminated food sources is also crucial. These are some of the carriers of tapeworm eggs, and the likelihood of your dog getting infected is lowered by reducing their presence.
Lastly, regular vet checkups are recommended to monitor your dog’s health, including any potential intestinal parasites they may have. Taking early action can prevent further problems for your furry friend. It also helps you take early preventive measures like vaccinating the dog to keep them safe.
After treating your dog for worms, you can take the following measures to prevent re-infection:
- Check their stools regularly: Make it a habit to inspect your dog’s stool regularly for issues like tapeworm eggs or indigestion. Doing this will help you identify any issues with the dog’s digestive system and take appropriate measures before the situation worsens.
- Don’t allow the dog to roam carelessly: Restricting your dog from roaming freely can prevent them from accidentally ingesting tapeworm eggs or contaminated food sources.
- Groom the dog regularly: Regular grooming sessions with your canine will reduce the presence of fleas, which may also be carriers of tapeworm eggs. It’s recommended to use anti-flea products recommended by your vet to keep these parasitic pests at bay.
- Keep the surroundings clean: Keeping your dog’s environment clean and free from contaminated food sources can also prevent re-infection with intestinal parasites like tapeworms. Clean their sleeping area regularly and dispose of their stools immediately to prevent contamination in their surroundings.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why Does My Dog’s Poop Have Yellow Bits in It?
Your dog’s poop have yellow bits in it due to poorly digested food particles like corn kernels, the presence of tapeworm eggs, or a high-fat diet. Yello bits in a dog’s poop indicate a problem with the dog’s digestive system or the consumption of harmful food. If you see yellow seeds in your dog poop it is likey these are undigested corn pellets.
What Does Unhealthy Poop Look Like in Dogs?
Unhealthy poop in dogs is usually orange or yellow. While yellow poop in dogs may point to a high-fat diet or tapeworm eggs, orange poop in dogs is a sign of liver or biliary problems.
What Looks like peanuts in dog poop?
The yellow chunks in your dog’s excrement might be from a high-fat diet, tapeworm eggs or poorly digested food particles like maize kernels. Dog excrement with yellow pieces is a sign of a digestive issue or potentially dangerous food ingestion.
Why does dog poop look like corn?
If your dog is being fed an excessive amount of corn in his diet, it is possible that your dog.s poop has hard yellow pellets in it due to the passing of undigested corn.
Final Thoughts
As a dog parent, it’s your responsibility to ensure your furry friend’s health and well-being. One way to do this is by closely monitoring their poop. The presence of yellow balls in the poop indicates underlying issues that need to be addressed immediately.
You should always take preventive measures like reducing their intake of fatty foods, deworming regularly, and keeping their surroundings clean to prevent the yellow balls from appearing. However, you should consult a veterinarian if other signs like lethargy and diarrhea accompany the yellow balls in the poop.
