The past couple of weeks have been full of some interesting realizations and revelations.

I think/hope we might have pinpointed the source of Kansas' sometime tummy troubles.

Beginning last summer, she would, on random occasion, wake me up needing to go out in the wee hours of the night. Usually just one night out of the week, less than once a month. I always found a "reason" for what might be troubling her- We'd just moved into a new place, and who knew what yucky stuff she might have consumed, though I raked over the whole yard, removing trash, debris, and other inedible stuff I didn't want either dog chewing on or ingesting. The number of stray cats about and their habit of using our backyard as a giant litter box, though I did my best to supervise the dogs when outside and pick up any cat poop I found. The occasional day spent at my parents' house, chewing on all manner of things, particularly the lantana bush they find so appealing... I conveniently blamed it on typical seasonal changes, even though now that I look back, I can see the problem persisted for the remainder of the year, not to mention well into this one, long after summer ended.

In the dark, her frequent squatting always seemed to indicate diarrhea, and often this was confirmed by the evidence of such piles the next morning.

She has, however, had the same problem three times since moving here.
Here. Where they are indoors all the time, except for the hour every morning that we walk.
The dogs just aren't exposed to the usual outdoor stuff right now.
My "yucky, summertime yard critters/foliage" excuse just wasn't going to fly anymore.

Also perplexing was the frequency of these bouts.
Last summer when this would happen, Kansas would need to go out hourly, through the entire night, and then be fine. It seemed to be less than a 24-hour "bug".

This summer, the initial trouble was every 45 minutes the first time, with the time between visits outside and down three flights of stairs tapering off to every 90 minutes, then every 3 hours, then over and done with and sometimes she was squatting but nothing would come out. During this first bout of same in our new surroundings I also noticed she was squatting to pee as often as she was squatting to poo. The second bout, every 15 minutes , still tapering off, eventually and still as much pee/poo attempts.

These two instances also coincided with sneaky forays by the patient into the cats' litter box, and resulting urinary and bowel movements were the typical bright yellow-green associated with bile and upset tummies.

This last bit was every 10 minutes.
It also took place in the daytime.
Complete with a very anxious, constantly panting dog who could get no relief, nor could she relax. We went out every 10 minutes from 10am that morning to 5pm that evening before she finally actually slept for an hour and a half while I was at work. I'd had to start crating her between trips downstairs, just so she could calm herself and have a chance to remain in the cooler part of the apartment. Otherwise she just kept hovering around either one of us, nudging our hands, etc...

Her pee always looked fine to me, until the one time DH wasn't watching her and she dribbled on the carpet. Up until this point, all signs pointed to her usual problem. The color of this little sprinkle seemed to indicate blood in the urine, which sent me off in a new direction as it was 3pm, I had to be at work in two hours, there wasn't time to go wait forever at a veterinary office for an impromptu visit and even if they did diagnose and treat her for a urinary tract infection, the meds were going to need time to take effect and we would still be doing the up-and-down-the-stairs-every-ten-minutes boogie. I also started to panic because I had to be back at work at 8 o'clock the next morning and couldn't do this dance all night.

Phoned our vet back home, as we'd just been in the previous week, just to see if maybe they were willing to phone in a prescription. They weren't, as they had never treated her for this particular (possible) condition before.

Began contemplating gallstones (vet mentioned this as a possibility), in addition to kidney stones, bladder crystals, etc... possibility that straining so much had just bruised Kansas' bladder and irritated it to the point of blood in the urine...

DH said to wait until the following day and see how she was doing, meanwhile we just kept deliberately walking her around outside during pit stops, so as to encourage her to drink more water when we brought her back in, in an attempt to flush whatever through.

While I was at work, DH took her outside one final time and felt her pee appeared oddly bright yellow-green. I am accustomed to this and he and I usually disagree on the color of practically everything, so didn't take it too seriously, but he did some research, complete with viewing urine samples on the web, and what he found out concerned him.

Bright yellow-green urine is indicative of bile in the urine, which is indicative of excess iron in the blood.

Iron content isn't always listed on the dog food label or the ingredients list, but can usually be deduced by considering the percentage of vitamins A and E (fat soluble vitamins, meaning they are stored within the body and can build up to toxic levels) within the food. Percentages in the lower range for both indicate low iron content, higher percentages indicate the inverse.

Not to mention the usual kidney/liver failure concerns.

As Kansas had showed signs of improvement at this point, he recommended we schedule a full blood panel and complete exam with our preferred vet when next we are in town (as she is now five-and-one-half years old, she's almost six, which means she's almost seven, which means she's practically a "senior" dog now and we should do this just to have a starting point, anyway), and just keep an eye on her in the meantime. Poor dog, she was so exhausted from being unable to rest or relax all day that she passed out cold at 8pm and slept through the night.

As usual, it seems to have been a less than 24-hour thing and she's been fine, other than some excess squatting the following two or three mornings, which we think is either due to holding it all night or overmarking every spot she was allowed to pee in while feeling unwell. Normally she is only allowed to go in certain places, and if you start allowing her to pee freely, then she will begin to squat at every possible place that smells like some other dog she can cover with her scent.

Further research by DH provided some interesting results.
The food we'd both researched and chosen last February when looking for something with more nutritional support for the still-growing, active Leo apparently contains FOUR TIMES the recommended percent daily amount of vitamins and minerals, meaning, specifically, the dogs were ingesting FOUR TIMES the recommended amount of vitamins A and E, and also iron.

Megadoses of vitamins/minerals is a touchy subject.
In most cases and in general, dog foods are already carefully created to be nutritionally complete. The average dog does not need megadoses of vitamins/minerals, and should not require supplementation of such unless diagnosed with a condition and recommended by your veterinarian of choice. High performance dog foods have also been linked to behavioral issues in dogs, where those dogs have been found to be less active than the energy the food is providing. They, basically, are unable to contain themselves! Dogs that are very active, such as your canine athletes, competing in activities such as Frisbee or Flyball, Search and Rescue dogs, tracking, lure coursing, etc... can and do benefit from higher quality, nutritionally dense foods and can often use such megadoses of nutrients, and are often fed high performance foods, to keep up with the nutritional demands on their bodies, which makes complete sense.

Our dogs, at the moment, are active only an hour a day.
They don't even get the typical daily backyard outdoor experience.

The food previously selected for Leo's needs just might be proving to be too much for a five-and-one-half-year-old indoor dog like Kansas.

Or she could be in the beginning stages of kidney/liver failure.

The only reason we switched foods one and one half years ago was for Leo.
The food Kansas was on at the time, Purina One, was fine, but Leo had been consuming Purina One's Large Breed Puppy chow, in excess of 5 cups per day, which was getting expensive and he seemed to be burning right through it, unable to keep any weight on his giant frame. When we looked into a food switch at that time, we did it with his needs in mind, and were more focused on protein content and nutrients than anything else.

Oddly, research over the past week has shown us that the food Leo was on previously was 400 calories per cup, while the food Kansas was on at the time was 450 calories per cup, and we could probably have just switched him to what she was eating, instead of switching brands and content completely. Instead, we assumed that if Purina One Large Breed Puppy wasn't sufficient, plain ol' Purina One wouldn't be, either. Odd conclusion, considering I have been a Purina customer since I was a child. It's all our family pets ever ate, and they always did just fine on it.

Incidentally, the food we switched to last February has the same calorie content as Purina One's Large Breed Puppy formula. We paid no attention to calories per cup, fat content, etc... at that time. We were focused on protein. As it turns out, when looking at fat, carbohydrates and protein content in foods, an increase in the percentage of fat a food contains results in an increase in calorie content. An increase in protein means a decrease in fat content and, thus, a decrease in calories.

It's possible that I've been overdosing my dog on vitamins (particularly the fat-soluble ones) and minerals (certain minerals contribute to the forming of certain types of urinary crystals), for the past eighteen months.

Particularly since that food switch seems to coincide with when the problem started.

We'd already been back on Purina One for a week when we found this out, having realized that ordering more of the other food meant it would have been delivered while we were out-of-town, and having purchased our old favorite to "make do" temporarily, until we could return and place another order and be available upon delivery.

After all of the research, we've concluded that, for now, we'll just stick with our old standby, Purina One, and keep an eye on things.
And make that vet appointment when we're in town next month.

Further consternation at what idiots we humans can sometimes be when we are not looking at the big picture:

Last year, after being pleased with the initial results of the food switch previously discussed, I also switched the cats to the other brand, thinking the ingredients would help with Tess' urinary tract issues, which had miraculously cleared up when switching the cats to Purina One while living in Indianapolis in 2005 (thinking the extra protein content would change the pH of her urine and help clear up her issues, and which is what prompted me to put Kansas on it in the first place). Tess' problems had returned after moving (explained by the vet as a stress-related type of urinary issue) and I thought the ingredients in the new food would help.

Also, all food of such brand was on sale at the time, and, thus, even with shipping rates, was still cheaper than what we had been purchasing- and food with more nutrients for less $ ought to be a good thing, yes?

As it turned out, Tess did horribly on the new food, her condition becoming MUCH worse, and when that food was no longer on sale, and thus, no longer cheaper or more cost-effective, we discontinued use, returning to Purina One at which time, her condition cleared up completely.

I regret that I didn't make the connections back then.
If I had been paying attention, I probably could have avoided a lot of sleepless nights and frustrating nighttime outdoor adventures.

While neither dog ever showed any other symptom of general malaise, giving me no reason to suspect that just perhaps this newer, better food was NOT compatible, I feel like I should have seen more clearly, researched even more thoroughly.

Another odd thing to note:
They say that feeding your dog a pricier, better quality food is supposed to make their bowel movements smaller and less odorous. The idea is that less waste means you are wasting less food, your dog is using it efficiently as fuel.
Leo's poo, on the new food, was double the amount it used to be.
At the time, we chalked this up to him finally getting enough nutrition, rather than being on a food that couldn't sustain him. This makes no sense, now that we know both foods had the same amount of calories per cup, and that he really wasn't getting any more/less. Yes, he consumed less of the food, overall, but, obviously, a switch to the higher calorie version of his original food would have been sufficient.

Three weeks into our return to Purina One and Leo now poops half as often as before, and half as much each time, consuming the same amount. As he is now three years old, less active, settling down, no longer a growing puppy, not to mention confined to an apartment unless being taken for a walk, he really doesn't need anything more. At least not at this time.

For pet owners, a dog's food should be under constant evaluation, and changes in activity level and environment should always be considered against one's pet's needs. High performance foods are great for high performance dogs, but as ours aren't, they don't need megadoses of vitamins and minerals any more than the average human does, and an excess of such nutrients can be harmful.

In conclusion, right now everyone is doing fine, and we're keeping a close eye on them.
Barring any snacking from the litter box, and pending a full exam and workup from the vet at the next possible time, we're hopeful that it was only an excess of nutrients causing Kansas' problem, but well aware that something else could be the cause and that the next round of frequent trips outside could be just around the corner.

In dogs, we rely heavily on the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." adage.
Last February, Leo was "broke".
Kansas has always been so adaptive and resilient that it never even occurred to me that I would "break" her in the process of "fixing" Leo.