Diarrhoea with hard shards

Excuse the awful photo. Our 8 month old goldendoodle puppy has had loose stools over the last couple of days, which we put down to the heat. However today she passed awful watery diarrhoea which had a lot of very hard, pale lumps in it (see picture). She went to the vet who suggested she must have eaten something and to keep an eye on her, but I know that she hasn’t eaten anything other than her food (we are very careful because she has a sensitive tummy). Does anyone have any idea at all what this could be?? Thanks Gemma

Hello!  What a fascinating case.  Logically, to come out of the anus, one of three possibilities has to be true: those lumps must have been eaten by your dog, or they must have formed in the gut, or they could have been put into the other end, which would obviously have ethical issues of its own attached and seems unlikely?   How big are the shards?  I suspect that, if your vet were to package them off to a laboratory for you, then someone there might have a good go at identifying the substance.   I can't think of anything looking like that that would form in the gut (possibly on teeth, but to come out all at once?) and therefore wonder about things that might have been eaten:  stone (pebbles from a driveway?)  One of those hard chewy sticks / bones?  Or something larger and plastic, that may have been chewed?  We look forward to finding out if you have any more insights.

Meanwhile, the concern is rather whether there might be anything else inside your dogs' alimentary tract and whether it might pose a problem.  Your vet might ask to radiograph or scan your dog if they feel that they may need to take action (eg in the event of one of the 'lumps' becoming stuck).  It is definitely work speaking to them about.  (Ps I also wonder about fruit stones of any kind).