PetHealth

Drop the bag and break out the magnifying glass.

A trained eye can spot signs of poor nutrition, dehydration and more serious issues in pet poo. Follow this comprehensive guide to the perfect and not-so-perfect poos.

We shovel it off the back lawn, fish it out of kitty litter, pick it up at parks and beaches, and carry it around our suburbs. Pet owners spend a lot of time cleaning up poo, but have you ever stopped to take a proper look before bagging and binning? If not, you’re missing out on important information about your pet’s digestive and overall health. You just need to know what tolook for. Often referred to as ‘the second brain’, the gut plays an important role in human and pet health – with research suggesting it helps manage chronic diseases, boosts immunity and improves sleep. As the waste product of the digestive system, pet poo provides many indicators that tell us what’s happening inside our pets’ bodies. “Our pets’ poo is a very important sign of digestion in our pets. Both the frequency and consistency of the poo is important and can highlight underlying issues,” Ivory Coat vet Dr Angus Hayes explains.

THE PICTURE-PERFECT POO While every pet is different, most vets use a scoring system to assess pet poo. It ranks stools from hard and crumbly to completely liquid. The ‘perfect poo’ should be somewhere in the middle – a well-formed shape that’s firm yet supple and doesn’t leave residue on the ground. Smell and colour are important too: a healthy stool should be chocolate brown with a mild odour.

POO SCORE COULD YOU BAG IT?

Firm stools that don’t leave behind a residue when picked up

Hard and dry stools that are hard to pass

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