Why Is My Pet Pooping Green?

Sometimes a pet’s poop turning green could simply be due to eating a lot of green plant material. Other times, it may indicate that your dog is ill. Green-colored poop is not always an emergency, and the occasional discoloration is common as it is easily affected by the day-to-day diet of a dog. If your pet is frequently pooping green or has other troubling symptoms, it may indicate a gastrointestinal disorder.

Common Reasons Your Pet May Have Green Poop

Your pet may have green poop for a variety of reasons. It’s important to know what is causing the condition in order to properly treat it. Consult with your veterinarian to diagnose your pet and recommend a course of treatment.

Medications

Certain medications can have a side effect of causing green poop. If your pet is taking medication to treat another ailment, then that treatment could affect their gut lining and intestines, impacting the color of their stools.

Intestinal Parasite

Parasites can also cause green poop in some pets. Parasites can infect the walls of the intestine and cause uncomfortable pain in the abdomen and an inability to process food. Pets may get an intestinal parasite from eating undercooked meat or eating something such as another animal’s feces. Intestinal parasites typically require medical intervention, so it’s important not to let a possible parasite present in your pet go untreated.

Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)

Inflammatory bowel disease, or IBD, can affect the color of a pet’s bile. IBD is characterized by chronic inflammation of the gut lining with frequent symptoms of stomach pain, nausea, or diarrhea. The longer the tissues of the intestines are inflamed, the less nutrients pets can absorb from their diet. Without treatment, IBD can eventually lead to other ongoing health conditions.

Bile Pigment

When the food in your pet’s intestinal tract doesn’t break down quickly enough, it can cause the color of the poop pigment to stay green from all of the unprocessed food. Bile helps the overall digestion of fat in the system and is stored in a pet’s gallbladder.

Grass

Although eating gass isn’t unusual for pets, too much can alter their stool color to green. Pets eating grass is typically not a severe medical issue because they may simply be trying to eat more mineral-rich food. If you want your pet to stop eating grass, however, you should speak to your vet about your pet’s diet because they may be eating grass to make up for nutrients they’re missing.

Changes in Diet

If you’ve recently changed the food you feed your pet, this could be the culprit of the green stool. A pet consuming too many green-colored vegetables could cause green bile buildup in the digestive tract.

Diarrhea

If your pet has diarrhea, then the stools could end up appearing green. This is because food may move more quickly through your pet’s system and doesn’t break down completely, which can result in a green color.

How Can I Stop My Dog From Having Green Poop?

If you notice your pet having green poop, it can cause some concern. Start by assessing your pet’s nutrition and lifestyle and whether they could have eaten anything recently that could lead to green stools. If you still have questions or your pet is showing signs of illness, reach out to a vet near you for help.

Assess Your Pet’s Diet

If the food you’re feeding your pet is green, try switching out to different kinds of food to see if there are any changes in the color. Also, consider if your pet has spent any time outside eating grass. Remember, green poop is not necessarily always a problem, but it can be fixed if it becomes an issue for the owner.

Consider Changing Prescriptions and Supplements

Pharmacuetical drugs given to pets can sometimes disturb their natural gut microbiome and lead to green stool. It could also be due to a supplement side-effect if the herbal medicine is derived from green plants. Ask your vet about other treatment options before discontinuing any drugs.

Consult With a Vet

If nothing seems to help change green poop even after changing your pet’s diet, you may need further consultation with a vet to confirm the green poop isn’t because of a gastrointestinal disease or parasite. After this, the vet will provide a personalized treatment plan for your pet to rejuvenate their bowel movements and get rid of that excess green.