Dog Diarrhoea: How to Help Your Pooch

Diarrhoea is a common problem for dogs because they’re not picky eaters. In fact, they’ll eat just about anything – even trash. However, loose stool can also indicate other serious medical conditions. Some of them require urgent medical attention, especially if we’re talking about intense diarrhoea that keeps coming back.

Loose stool is the primary sign of dreaded diarrhoea. It can be combined with vomiting, loss of appetite, stomach pain, tiredness, and other symptoms.

Acute diarrhoea (which appears suddenly) in an otherwise healthy dog is mostly caused by the diet (eating different food or leftovers), stress, sudden change of diet (without the transition period), viral, bacterial or parasitic infection.

Chronic diarrhoea is triggered by allergies, food intolerance, stress, certain types of parasites (e.g. whipworm, tapeworm, ringworm, or giardia), bacterial infection, pancreatitis, inflammatory bowel diseases, some cancer types and health conditions that are not linked to the gastrointestinal tract – as liver failure or heart disease.

Consulting a vet is essential to get an accurate diagnosis and suitable treatment.

All the signs listed above can indicate potentially serious health conditions.

If your dog is otherwise healthy or fully grown, it’s okay to start with some home remedies.

For healthy adult dogs that have a minor case of loose stool without any other symptoms, you can:

• Secure a lot of clean and fresh water to avoid dehydration. Encourage your pooch to drink. If needed, offer an alternative such as watered-down chicken or beef soup.

• Provide smaller portions of cooked chicken (without bones or skin) and white rice. You can replace the rice with sweet potato or pumpkin. (Pro tip: you can increase your pup’s fibre intake by adding sweet potato and pumpkin to their regular diet.) Apply this diet until your dog’s consistency gets back to normal. For dogs that are allergic to the protein, you can exchange the chicken with the hypoallergenic alternative.  

• Supplements are great for soothing a distressed stomach and regulating digestion as well. Make sure they’re safe, natural and recommended by a large number of users. Our natural supplement known as Apipet Gastro has proved itself as a great solution for calming a dog’s gut.

If diarrhoea lasts over 24 hours or the condition of your dog gets progressively worse at any given moment – call a vet right away.

For dogs with diarrhoea that have thrown up once or twice: 

• Refrain from feeding for 8-12 hours

• Avoid dehydration by giving the pooch a small amount of water during the day. If needed, you can also swap the water with watered-down beef or chicken soup.

If your dog didn’t throw up for at least 8-12 hours, offer it a small amount of cooked chicken (no bones, skin or spices) and white rice.

Wait two hours. If your dog still doesn’t throw up, offer it a small portion of cooked chicken and rice.

Continue this regime for 1-3 days. Gradually increase the amount of food with each meal and prolong the time between meals until the stool consistency is back on track. Over time, resume your dog’s regular diet to avoid additional digestive issues.

If the diarrhoea lasts over 24 hours or the condition gets worse, get in touch with a vet as soon as possible.

Also, if your dog throws up often, read this post about the common causes and treatments for vomiting dogs.

If your dog suffers from diarrhoea frequently or the loose stool is paired with throwing up, tiredness, stomach pains or weight loss make sure that you take the pup to a vet clinic.

Discovering the cause of diarrhoea is, for some cases, straightforward – it can be done via a simple exam. At other times, it can be a challenge and requires different procedures such as drawing blood, doing an x-ray of the abdomen, ultrasound, or endoscopy.

Apipet Gastro has proven to be a great solution for dogs with distressed stomachs. A pill a day makes frequent diarrhoea, vomiting and dog gastritis go away. As a bonus, Apipet Gastro is a 100% natural formula of propolis, pollen and ginger that soothes the digestive system and helps with symptoms such as throwing up and diarrhoea.