CAAT Community Corner, lets talk POOP!

For this CAAT Community Corner we were asked what to do if your dog has diarrhea.   Well, first, there can be many causes of diarrhea and the cause will determine how successful you may be at stopping it.   Some causes include:

– a virus or disease

– stress

– parasites (worms)

– eating too much high fat food

– changes in diet

– eating garbage, non food material or spoiled food

and many more

With some of these causes, no matter what you do, you will need the assistance of a veterinarian to resolve the issue (ie: viral, bacterial causes, parasites, pancreatitis, etc.)

WHEN does your dog need a veterinarian ?

• if the diarrhea is accompanied by vomiting, tiredness, or weakness
• if your dog also has a lack of appetite or weight loss
• if it is a very young puppy or very small dog, their tiny body mass makes the issue become serious much more quickly
• if there is blood in the diarrhea for more than a couple of days
• if the diarrhea lasts more than 2-3 days
• if you see white specks in the stool that look like grains of rice (likely a tapeworm segment) or you see worms in stool – your dog will need dewormer to remedy this cause

In some cases, like a sudden change in diet or eating something out of the garbage, and it is JUST diarrhea and no other symptoms like above, you can try to control the issue to help your dog get through it when access to veterinary care is limited to none.

Think of when you have an upset stomach, you usually STOP eating for a bit and then very carefully try something bland and easy to digest.   Dogs don’t necessarily do this so you need to do it for your dog.

• Have them skip a meal so your dog’s tummy gets a rest for 12-24 hours (unless this is a young puppy, then you cannot have them not have food for that long and you need to go straight to the food recommended below).
• STOP feeding the their regular food completely for a few days and instead feed…
• FEED boiled white meat chicken or boiled ground hamburger or cooked eggs and add one of these to boiled rice.   You need to BOIL the meat and rice to get rid of as much of the starch and fat as possible, this makes it easy on the stomach.   The eggs can be boiled or scrambled but NO oils or seasonings in any of this.

• Feed small, frequent meals for a couple of days to help the stomach gradually handle small amounts.  Watch to see if your dog’s diarrhea starts to resolve.   Continue until the stool is almost back to normal.   When it is, then, slowly, slowly over a couple of days start to add the regular food back in.   If at any time the diarrhea starts to return, slow down the change and start again.
• Throughout this time, make sure your pet has lots of fresh water available at all times because diarrhea can dehydrate the body

Hopefully, this will help you resolve milder cases of diarrhea and get your dog back on track quickly.