One of the sad things a dog owner may experience is to see your dog suffers from diarrhea. At one time or another, our canine companions may suffer this dreadful issue.
Because diarrhea is caused by digestive upset, it is therefore beneficial and wise if you know how and what to give your dog with diarrhea.
Knowing how to deal with it may help your dog’s gastrointestinal tract back on track.
As long as the loose stool isn’t accompanied by any other symptoms, you can feed your dog some homemade dog food as a remedy until the stomach settles and the stool firms up.
Why dog suffers from diarrhea?
The causes of this common gastrointestinal problem may vary.
This happens due to a sudden change in diet, infectious diseases, parasites, food allergies, pancreatitis, and even foreign bodies when they get to the stomach can cause loose stool movements among dogs.
But mostly, the dog suffers from diarrhea due to dietary indiscretion.
It is important to know that symptoms of diarrhea can be diverse depending on the causes.
But in this article, we only discuss common diarrhea among dogs with its symptoms and what to give your dog with diarrhea
How dogs react when suffering from diarrhea?
One of the common symptoms of diarrhea in dogs is nausea or vomiting.
When the symptoms appear shortly after a meal, it may be caused by food poisoning or gastritis or inflammation of the stomach lining, an ulcer, or bulimia.
However, in some cases, certain food-borne bacteria such as Salmonella can take longer to produce symptoms.
Symptoms of infections due to food-borne bacteria may appear within 2 days and may include loss of appetite and lethargy.
Nausea and vomiting discourage a dog from eating and drinking and so it is important to keep the dog dehydrated by all means.
In these cases, treatment is advised immediately.
When to worry and not to worry
There are types of diarrhea in dogs that do need a visit to the vet. These are serious cases that need attention immediately.
If the problem remains for over 48 hours and the dog still suffers from a watery discharge and is vomiting infrequent occurrence and lethargic, it is better for him to the vet for proper treatment.
Failure to do so would lead to dehydration.
If you find his abdomen bloated or obviously distended, then probably it is time to seek professional veterinary aid.
Other worse symptoms of diarrhea include abdominal pain, black feces due to digested blood, and stools with large amounts of fresh blood.
If you see the above symptoms, then you should worry.
But if your dog is bright and happy despite diarrhea has been going on for 48 hours and yet none of the above serious symptoms have occurred, you don’t need to worry yet.
It is quite likely that your canine friend has just eaten something that has upset his gastrointestinal tracts, whether it be a food rich in fats or something a bit stinky at the park.
What to give your dog with diarrhea: What to do at home?
Do not give any human medications to your pet without veterinary advice. It only worsens the situation.
Many medications have different side effects on dogs compared to humans, so it is best to be cautious.
For dogs that are not very old nor young, the best thing to do is to fast your dog for 24 hours.
Do not feed your dog anything at all, only plain water. This gives enough time for the stomach to settle.
If your dog is vomiting, is old and debilitated, or is young, perhaps it is better to seek veterinary advice first before doing the fast.
After 24 hours, hopefully, your dog stopped defecating quite so much and things are settling down.
At this point, it is likely the intestines need some recovery time. Then, feeding a bland diet of cooked lean chicken and white rice is easy to digest and gentle.
Feed this for a few days and then gradually introduce your dog’s normal food for over a few days. Do not change his diet.
When the problem settles, stick to your dog’s regular diet.
However, when the problem persists and even worsens, better to take the dog to the vet immediately for veterinary treatment.
This is the best way to ease your dog’s discomfort and save your dog’s dear life.
If you like this article, please read our recent post about treating a dog’s ear infection naturally!
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