Every dog comes down with diarrhea sometime, just like people do, just like you do. It may last a day or two and then clear up. The cause is never determined because it passes before there is time to figure out what caused it. Nonetheless, dog owners are often confused when it comes to dogs and diarrhea and treatment.
Occasional loose stools are nothing to be concerned about. A dog’s gut is a marvelous piece of machinery that occasionally goes wrong. Wipe his bum, clean up the mess and carry on.
Do you need a vet?
There are some warning signs that you must know about, though, and if they show up you need to get your dog to the vet.
- blood in the stool could be Parvo
- if the stool has a glassy appearance like it was wrapped in plastic
- explosive diarrhea – just what it sounds like. Completely liquid and flying out.
Those are the biggest indicators that something serious might be going on.
Watch for dehydration
The biggest immediate danger in dog diarrhea is dehydration. It may be necessary to put the dog on intravenous or inject a bolus of saline under the skin to counteract it. You can tell if a dog is getting dehydrated by checking his gums. If they appear chalky and dry then he isn’t getting enough water at the front to make up for what he’s losing at the back.
Combating diarrhea
Dog guts are very similar to ours, so treating diarrhea in a dog is pretty much the same as for people. Don’t feed him for a day, but be sure he has water. Then feed a bland diet until things firm up. A good mix for this is half-and-half hamburger and cooked rice. Keep him on this diet until his tummy gets back to normal. Keep in mind that some diarrhea can be the result of a dog food allergy and you need to track down the particular food that is causing the problem. One dog we took care of for a while was allergic to chicken, but could tolerate turkey quite well. The owner left several cans of very expensive dog food behind and cautioned not to feed him anything else. The dog came down with diarrhea in spite of the high-priced diet. It eventually came to light that the manufacturer had changed the formulation of the expensive food to use chicken instead of turkey and hadn’t changed the label.
If you have some Pepto-bismal in the medicine cabinet, it works on dogs as well as people. Give about one teaspoon for every ten pounds of body weight. You’ll need a syringe to squirt it down his throat, of course.
There is a surprising natural remedy as well. Cooked pumpkin fixes a lot of dogs digestive problems, and they seem to like it. Pumpkin is equally effective for diarrhea or constipation. Don’t use pumpkin pie filling though, because it has spices and other things added to it. You can usually find canned pumpkin chunks at the supermarket, and its cheaper than the pie filling. Just mash some up and mix it into the dog’s food.
One last thing. Don’t forget that dogs feel embarrassment too, so your poor pooch is probably just as upset as you are by the state of his bowels. Remember, he can’t help whats happening any more than you can when it happens to you. That means you have to be as matter-of-fact as possible in dealing with this. Don’t scold him, but also don’t make a big fuss and show a lot of sympathy either. Any excessive display of emotion on your part will mark it out as a big deal in the dogs mind, and that isn’t what you want.
Related articles
- Giving My Dog Pepto Bismol (brighthub.com)
