Table 4.

Fecal characteristics and metabolite concentrations of untrained dogs before and after exercise

	Control		SCFP1			P-value
Item	Before	After	Before	After	SEM	Treatment	Exercise	Trt*Ex2
Fecal score3	2.92	3.02	3.03	3.08	0.115	0.5083	0.3582	0.8657
pH	6.05	5.81	6.11	5.93	0.080	0.3708	0.0028	0.6148
Dry matter (%)	30.54	30.23	29.95	29.95	0.484	0.4754	0.6398	0.6481
µmol/g DM basis
Ammonia	87.49	72.17	87.00	77.77	4.893	0.6346	0.0087	0.4942
Phenols and indoles
Phenol	0.63	0.61	0.61	0.62	0.058	0.9372	0.9917	0.7232
Indole	1.50	1.00	1.49	1.29	0.135	0.3772	0.0034	0.1931
Total phenols/indoles	2.13	1.62	2.1	1.91	0.160	0.4206	0.0208	0.2082
Short-chain fatty acids
Acetate	479.02	493.87	465.3	520.39	18.513	0.7690	0.0238	0.1822
Propionate	245.15	255.27	241.44	262.32	8.827	0.8730	0.0342	0.4485
Butyrate	75.90	76.88	78.68	81.67	4.980	0.5135	0.6314	0.8080
Total SCFA4	800.07	825.56	785.42	864.38	29.02	0.9148	0.0649	0.3226
Branched-chain fatty acids
Isobutyrate	5.97	4.67	6.33	5.17	0.462	0.4637	0.0002	0.8097
Isovalerate	9.09	7.33	10.07	8.00	0.823	0.4474	0.0002	0.7363
Valerate	3.63	2.37	7.17	4.60	2.085	0.2808	0.1569	0.6231
Total BCFA4	18.69	14.37	23.57	17.77	2.934	0.2745	0.0506	0.6867

¹SCFP, 1 tablet/day, 250 mg Saccharomyces cerevisiae fermentation product.

²Trt, treatment; Ex, exercise.

³Fecal samples were scored according to the following scale: 1, hard, dry pellets, small hard mass; 2, hard, formed, dry stool; remains firm and soft; 3, soft, formed, and moist stool, retains shape; 4, soft, unformed stool, assumes shape of container; and 5, watery, liquid that can be poured.

⁴SCFA, short-chain fatty acids; BCFA, branched-chain fatty acids.