It’s indeed tedious to crouch down every day to pick up your dog’s poop. It’s smelly and can even be messy if not carefully handled. And being a mundane process, we are sure that no dog parent cares much about picking up the poop by looking at it.
However, it’s wise to at least glance at your canine’s poop to ensure there’s nothing uncanny in it. Whether it’s the coating, color, contents, or consistency, changes in the poop can indicate that your dog isn’t well.
You are used to the natural firm and brown poop of your doggy. But what are those yellow balls mixed in your buddy’s bowel? Is your dog suffering from a fatal condition?
Yellow balls in the bowel can signify two things – one, your buddy ate corn and couldn’t digest it properly, and second, he has tapeworms. However, consuming yellow crayons can even leave your dog in dietary indiscretion.
This article will discuss every aspect of dog poops that you may have never thought of caring about. You will uncover the causes of yellow balls in dog poops and how to prevent and treat them.
What Should Be A Dog Poop Color?
The dog’s poop color should be brown. However, the exact color will vary according to what your canine eats. For instance, eating any food with dyes will stain their bowel with that color.
Dogs’ natural feces are brown due to ‘bile‘ breakdown – an essential part of digestion! The liver produces the bile substance, which is then stored in the gallbladder and excreted into the intestines.
However, while some bile gets trapped after the food is digested, most are reabsorbed. As a result, the food dissolves further into the feces, turning the naturally green material to yellow and, finally, brown.
So this entire food digestion process is complex.
5 Indicators of Poor Poop Quality
Besides the color, you should also pay attention to other important indicators to determine the overall poop quality. Let’s check them below!
- Coating:– It refers to whether the poop has blood or mucus on its surfaces.
- Consistency:- Is it soft, liquid, or firm? The normal consistency is dough-like and should leave no traces when picked up.
- Content:– The poop should contain nothing. The presence of anything, including pieces of grass or a toy, will indicate something uncanny.
- Shape:– Check to ensure whether the poop shape is log-like. Nuggets and pebbles in the bowel are indicators of dehydration.
- Color:– As already discussed, brown is the normal poop color. It’s quite like chocolate candy color.
Dealing with dog poop on a daily schedule is nasty and challenging. But being a pet parent, you have to take care of every aspect of your furry buddy, including his poop’s quality. So try to glance at their bowel while picking up at times to ensure that it has none of the mentioned indicators.
However, if you find anything unnatural, consult your vet immediately. Take a few pictures of the feces to show the vet.
8 Causes of Yellow Balls In Your Dog’s Poop
As a dog owner, you must be conscious of your pet’s poop shape, color, composition, and contents, as these will indicate their health. For example, small pellet-like feces indicate dehydration, whereas watery stool means intestinal problems.
However, yellow balls in the poop are generally the least concerning color, but it is more like a warming sign. On the other hand, black or red feces is an emergency.
So let’s find out the leading underlying causes of yellow balls in a dog’s poop.
1. Undigested Corn
One of the leading reasons behind yellow poop is undigested corn. Dogs can’t easily digest corn, resulting in yellow balls in their poop.
However, most food formulas for dogs include corn because of its nutritional value. Corn contains vitamins and minerals like vitamin B, zinc, and iron.
But your canine buddy can’t digest it as a whole. So rather than keeping corn as the main ingredient, give your dog a small portion.
2. High-fat Diet
Yellow balls can also be an indication of undigested fat. It can result from consuming too many fatty meals that include bacon and greasy leftovers from your plate.
In the worst scenario, your dog can suffer from pancreatitis because of a high-fat diet. This fatal pancreas inflammation can affect dogs of any breed and age.
3. New Food Material
The color of your dog’s poop often depends on what they eat. The fact is that some dog food formulations contain dyes that alter their poops to a lighter brown shade or more yellowish.
Moreover, some food processing types and shifting between dry kibble and moist or canned food can also stain your dog’s feces. It makes it look yellowish.
4. Yellow Mucus
Do you see yellow mucus on his poop? This greasy yellow coating is most likely because of intestinal inflammation.
Healthy intestines have a mucus layer protecting the intestinal lining and the food material. In intestinal inflammation, this mucus layer usually sheds onto the food and, eventually, your dog’s bowel.
So the yellow hue comes from the substance ‘bile’ produced by the liver, which helps digestion. However, factors that can cause intestinal inflammation include bacterial infection, food intolerance, parasites, or sensitive materials like rocks, bones, and sticks that your pup ate.
If you see the poop is an orange-yellow color or has streaks of red blood, it’s an alarming sign. Please consult your vet immediately, as it can indicate severe intestinal damage.
5. Indigestion
A key cause is an upset stomach! Changing your dog’s diet or consuming something different from the normal can interfere with the digestion process in the intestines and stomach.
However, the body tends to push out the material faster to handle stomach irritation. The time the body takes from consuming food to passing it as the bowel is referred to as reduced transit time by veterinarians.
Now, while the bile doesn’t reach the stage due to decreased transit time, it remains yellow (varying from yellow-green to mustard-yellow). Eventually, the feces is softer and yellowish than usual.
6. Yellow Strings or Specks
It can result from any of these two things –
- Tapeworm eggs
- Partially digested food such as corn.
However, tapeworm eggs usually appear as grains of white rice, but they can even be yellow. The white or yellow stings can be intestinal tapeworms.
7. Tapeworms
These intestinal parasites digest larvae from contaminated water, food, or fleas, eventually infecting dogs. Tapeworms are types of segmented intestinal worms; that is, their multiple segments act as heads.
Interestingly, the tapeworms shed their final segment as they mature in a dog’s intestines. These segments turn white to yellow as they remain inside the intestines and excrete as yellow balls with the poop.
Although the presence of tapeworms isn’t much fatal, it’s better to detect and treat them soon.
However, you can detect the presence of tapeworms in your dog by other signs, including vomiting, bloating, lethargy, diarrhea, and weight loss without appetite loss.
8. Ingestion of Indigestible Things
Your canine buddy sniffles all day long to explore their surroundings. Eventually, they can accidentally consume objects like orbeez, bones, cigarette butts, or plastic.
Ingestion of such things typically hinders the normal functioning of digestive enzymes. So, for example, bile secretion increases excessively for digesting the indigestible foreign objects. And the unused bile excretes as yellow balls in the dog’s poop.
However, you can’t control your curious canine buddy from eating everything throughout the day. What you can do is keep indigestible household items or hazardous things out of their reach.
How Can You Prevent the Yellow Balls In Your Dog’s Poop?
As already mentioned, healthy and normal dog poop is brown and shouldn’t have more than poop. Yellow dots in brown dog poop and yellow poop can indicate something serious.
The digestive system may not function properly, or your pup might suffer from intestinal inflammation due to parasites.
So the correct precautionary measures to be taken will depend on the actual reason behind the yellow balls.
Can you see pieces of undigested corn in the poop? Then, it’s better to stop giving your doggy corn. Swallowing the whole corn can be fatal as it’s hard to digest by dogs.
On the other hand, it’s recommended to deworm your doggy every three months as parasitic intestinal infection can lead to yellow balls’ excretion in poop. The best way to control tapeworm infection is by keeping your dog’s surroundings clean.
Keep contaminated foods and indigestible objects out of your pup’s reach. While these are primary carriers of parasites like tapeworms, decreasing their presence is likely to lower the infection rate.
Lastly, monitor your doggy’s health by taking him for regular vet checkups. In addition, get your doggy vaccinated on time and take other preventive measures to keep them safe and healthy.
How to Prevent Your Dog from Re-infection?
You can consider the following measures to keep your doggy away from re-infection.
1. Check their poop daily
No matter how much mundane it is, try to check your buddy’s poop daily. This will help you detect problems like indigestion or tapeworm eggs early and take immediate measures before the condition worsens.
2. Clean your dog’s surroundings
You can’t control the naturally curious nature of your furry buddy. So what you can do is keep contaminated objects or food sources away from them, thereby preventing re-infection with intestinal parasites.
3. Prevent your dog from roaming freely
You must be attentive to where your dog is going and what he is sniffling. Otherwise, don’t let your buddy roam carelessly to prevent you from accidentally eating contaminated foods or objects.
4. Carry out regular grooming sessions
It would be best if you groom your pup regularly to control the infestation of fleas that are major tapeworm carriers. So consult your vet and use anti-flea products to keep away parasitic pests.
FAQ’s
Can bacteria cause yellow stool?
Yes, your dog can have a yellow stool for many different reasons. A key cause is an infection due to bacteria such as shigellosis or salmonella.
Is yellow dog poop serious?
Yellow poop can be a warning sign. It may indicate your dog is suffering from indigestion, intestinal infections, or reaction to new treats or foods.
Is yellow dog poop an emergency?
Yellow dog poop isn’t usually a medical emergency. However, it doesn’t mean that you will take it lightly.
Can anxiety cause yellow poop?
Yes, anxiety and stress can speed up the digestive process, restricting the amount of nutrients a dog can absorb, resulting in yellow bowel and diarrhea.
How long does yellow poop last in dogs?
Yellow poop can last from 24 to 48 hours and usually resolve independently. However, if this condition persists long and has other symptoms, consult your vet immediately.
Why are there yellow chunks in my dog’s poop?
Yellow dots or chunks are usually a sign of parasitic or bacterial infection in your dog’s digestive tract or partially digested food like corn.
The Takeaway
Dogs are adorable pets, and keeping them as pets are a truly wonderful experience. But taking care of a dog is quite a big responsibility. You are responsible for your pup’s well-being and health. And one of your key responsibilities includes closely observing your dog’s poop.
If you find any uncanny objects or changes in your dog’s poop, address the issue immediately. First, take necessary measures to prevent infection and yellow balls from appearing. Then, you can consult a veterinarian if you see any unhealthy signs, such as diarrhea and lethargy accompanying the yellow balls in the feces.
Heather Abraham is a professional blogger who owns two dogs, a cat, a parrot, and a leopard gecko. She has a connection with animals since she was a child. She shares her love for all pet breeds and provides information on pet food, toys, medications, beds, and everything else.
She is committed to learning about the internal workings of animals. Her work permits her to work closely with knowledgeable vets and obtain practical expertise in animal care. When she is not working, her love of animals continues in her writing. Her goal is to educate and uplift readers who also have a passion for animals through her writing.