Diarrhoea in the dog and cat I. Acute diarrhoea

Faeces are not always uniform in consistency. Many owners believe that variations in faecal consistency are abnormal, but consistency may vary during one evacuation, i.e. initially firm but latterly soft, or over the day, e.g. the initial morning faeces are frequently firmer than those passed later in the day. It is normal for a dog to defaecate more than twice daily. The accepted range of normality for the dog and cat is one to four times daily although this depends on the diet. The faecal output of a dog fed on a dry, complete diet may be twice that on a meat-based diet. The addition of dog biscuit to the meat has little effect upon faecal bulk as most biscuit is low in fibre.